Father Goof blogs a thought for knocking out the Iraqi insurgency. Based on the plagues his children bring home from daycare, he theorizes that a secret network of bio-warfarce facilities is being operated in nursery schools around the country.

Maybe we should open a chain of daycare centers for the children of insurgents. (Then for a double whammy we could distribute serious cold medication.) It is tough to build an IED when you have a stuffy nose, achey head, can't sleep fever.

I recently wrote how the new Canadian government, under Stephen Harper, was showing a refreshing assertiveness on the world stage (I was urging them to take on Hugo Chavez). Now they've struck a major blow in the war on terror - they banned the LTTE.

In the words of Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day (sort of the Tom DeLay of Canada but without the ethics stuff):

The decision to list the LTTE is long overdue and something the previous government did not take seriously enough to act upon. Our government is clearly determined to take decisive steps to ensure the safety of Canadians against terrorism.

This is an important step in the war on terror. The LTTE, better known as the Tamil Tigers are not Islamists (they are fighting the Sri Lankan government for an independent homeland for the Sri Lankan Tamils), but they are deadly. They are among the leading suicide bombers in the world - they have assassinated a President of Sri Lanka and a former Prime Minister of India and carried out numerous deadly attacks. While the Tamils have legitimate complaints against the Sri Lankan government, the Tigers have kept a conflict going when most Sri Lankans (Tamil and Sinhalese) would be happy to see it end. The Tigers also abduct children and indoctrinate them into being suicide bombers. Both within Sri Lanka and around the world, Tamils who stand up to the LTTE are intimidated, physically attacked, and even killed.

Canada's listing the LTTE as a terrorist group is more than just rhetoric - it is a good deed.

An important source of funding for the LTTE terrorism is money extorted from the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. The largest single community, over 200,000 strong, is in Canada (primarily Toronto). Funding the "Final War:" LTTE Intimidation and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora from Human Rights Watch describes LTTE fundraising in detail. Effective Canadian action will hit the Tigers.

This also has implications beyond Sri Lanka. The LTTE is a source of regional instability. The Tigers campaign could fuel separatism among the 50 million Tamil Nadu of southern India. Indian intelligence believes the LTTE provides support to the Maoists in Nepal and in northeastern India. Most recently, a Cambodian arms smuggling ring that was supplying the LTTE was broken up - further highlighting the group's regional operations.

Also, the ability of the Tigers to organize violence against Tamil dissidents around the world shows their global reach. They also have extensive skills and a navy. They have run guns to Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines and provided forged documents to al-Qaeda. They are also linked to leftist terror worldwide. Tigers trained with the PFLP in the Communist heyday and may collaborate with the FARC.

Terrorism is a knowledge-based activity. The LTTE itself might never strike beyond its immediate interests - but it could provide skills to those who might.

Canada has done the people of Sri Lanka and the international community a favor putting the screws to the Tigers.