As the Sri Lankan government closes in on the last strongholds of Tamil Tiger rebels, it has declared itself confident of ending the country's bitter 25-year civil war.
After capturing key strategic west coast areas from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Â? who are demanding an independent state for ethnic Tamils in the north and east of the island Â? the government now says the fall of the rebels' de facto capital Kilinochi is imminent.
Could the decades-long conflict, which has uprooted hundreds of thousands and killed at least 70,000, really be near an end?
"Sri Lanka's bitter, 25-year-old civil war - Asia's longest-running conflict - has never been closer to a military solution," says TIME magazine, adding that bringing lasting peace to the country will be something else all together.
"Whatever the outcome of this campaign, the work of accounting for both sides' misdeeds and of repatching Sri Lanka's tattered society must begin. There, as elsewhere, peace cannot be won by military bravado alone."
The Bangladeshi Daily Star newspaper laments the failure of the Norwegian-brokered cease fire between Colombo and the LTTE and says that there's a long way to go before the war is over.
"At this point, the crisis in Sri Lanka is far from over and both sides will be deceiving themselves if they think they can win an outright victory in what is fast becoming a twilight struggle. To all intents and purposes, the LTTE has been weakened by the ferocity of the government onslaught, but for anyone to write it off would be a mistake."
The Economist, meanwhile, points out that there is an economic imperative underlying the current push to eliminate the last Tiger strongholds.
"Whipping up patriotic fervour in expectation of military victory may indeed distract attention from the worsening economic outlook. But that strategy needs victory to come soon."
With an estimated 200,000 civilians still inside Tiger-controlled areas in the north who are reliant on convoys of food, medicine and other essential items being sent by the government and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the only international humanitarian agency left in the northern Vanni region, the Economist says that the Tamils caught in the cross-fire continue to bear the brunt of the renewed onslaught.
"Despite vast military gains, Kilinochchi, the Tigers' administrative headquarters, remains a difficult target. Soldiers have been skirting its fringes for weeks, held back by strong resistance and, at one time, heavy monsoon rains," the magazine concludes.
But in Sri Lanka, some commentators aren't so convinced that the Tigers have much military resistance left.
The Sri Lanka Guardian emphasises how much has changed for the Tigers over the past few years.
"Earlier, they could argue that they had territory, a de-facto state including an army, navy, police and an air forceÂ?Now they have only a rag-tag ground force which can, at worst, launch deadly sporadic suicide missions which are counter-productive".
If the Tigers embark on acts of terrorism, the paper says, they will alienate the international community, which is primarily concerned about terrorism being used as a weapon to win political objectives.
The more the government drives them into the wilderness the more the Tigers will be driven to terrorism, and the more international support they have to lose, the paper concludes.
Meanwhile, Tamil website Eelamnation, takes the view that there's much more the Tigers can still do.
"Capturing of LTTE-held areas will create further complications for the government, result in greater casualties of its armed men, and lead the country deeper into disastrous economic conditions," the Eelamnation commentator says. "The LTTE cadres are very familiar with the jungles and have a strategic advantage over the "visiting" government forces."
Autonomy for the Tamils is the only way to ensure peace on the island, the commentator says, disputing the view that the international community will be alienated if the Tigers' persist.
"The current situation will only lead the LTTE to gain further support from the Tamils and the international community. Finally, the LTTE would be regarded as freedom fighters and not terrorists, and this would contribute to the paving the way for the creation of an independent Tamil State."
Sri Lankan blogger Cerno, meanwhile, wonders about the practical implications if the fighting does end.
"Many big questions hang in the air. Among the practical ones is what will happen to the young men and women of the armed forces and LTTE fighters who survive intact," Cerno writes.
Not everyone who has fought in the war will find jobs in the military Â? so what will happen to them, Cerno asks.
"Would the rest end up stuffed into Â?jobs' in some government department? Where they can pretend to work while the government pretends to pay them? Will the private sector find roles besides security guards for ex soldiers? Will military and LTTE survivors be vacuumed up by organised crime? How many will face withering away on NGO hand outs in IDP camps?"
For Jehan Perera, writing for the Sri Lankan paper the Daily Mirror, the biggest worry us the immediate needs of the people trapped by fighting in the country's north.
"The plight of between three to four hundred thousand civilians trapped in the war zones is a cost of war that the government cannot ignore," Perera says. "It is incumbent on the government, which has designated its present military operations as humanitarian, to find a solution to the problem of the people trapped in the war zone."
A military solution will not suffice, he says, focusing on the role that representatives from the country's three religious groups could play in bringing lasting peace to Sri Lanka.
"A humanitarian process that is steered by nationally recognized religious leaders has the best chance of gaining national acceptance and catalysing a change of heart that recognises the sanctity of human life as the supreme value."
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