Your mission--using whatever divergences you want, have the 1999 NATO Operation Allied Force bombing and occupation campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/Slobodan Milosevic in support of the UCK and liberation of Kosovo take place, instead, on the island of Ceylon in support of the Tamil Tigers, so that their homeland of Eelam can be actualized.
Bonus points if this actually begins in March 1999 as the real thing did, albeit this isn't essential, albeit more than a couple years off in either direction I think it becomes unrecognizable. The OTL campaign against Serbia can still take place in some form, but the main focus of NATO and USAF's firepower has to be the Colombo regime in this AHC.
Questions to consider:
--How is the Western public convinced to back action in favor of folks that they've until very recently been told are ferocious, bloodthirsty terrorists?
--Is the Sri Lankan Defense Force able to mount any credible defense against the state of the art in military firepower of the combined Western world? In OTL, as I recall they had some fairly good ex-Israeli and Soviet kit, albeit not in great numbers. Will that make a whole lot of difference against the USAF? Or, do they fight back in unexpected/asymmetrical ways?
--How does the world at large, particularly the voting public of the partaking nations, regard this campaign, essentially bombing an impoverished Global South state on the other side of the world back to the stone age, regardless of the humanitarian justification or explanation?
--Assuming the campaign is a victory, how is Eelam actually founded, do many non-NATO states recognize it, and is it a functioning, stable entity in 2019? Is it yet another small South Asian state like Sri Lanka itself or Nepal, or is it a completely failed nation like South Sudan or Somalia?
--What impacts does this OAF have on 9/11 in the US two years later and the "war on terror" in general--future wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Are they butterflied away? Go on as planned? Go on modified?
--What president declares war on Sri Lanka? I'm assuming it's Bill Clinton, but perhaps a President Bob Dole or Al Gore is more likely to do it? (I can't see a Republican getting behind a campaign like this but who knows.)
MalcontentRex
Bonus points if this actually begins in March 1999 as the real thing did, albeit this isn't essential, albeit more than a couple years off in either direction I think it becomes unrecognizable. The OTL campaign against Serbia can still take place in some form, but the main focus of NATO and USAF's firepower has to be the Colombo regime in this AHC.
Questions to consider:
--How is the Western public convinced to back action in favor of folks that they've until very recently been told are ferocious, bloodthirsty terrorists?
--Is the Sri Lankan Defense Force able to mount any credible defense against the state of the art in military firepower of the combined Western world? In OTL, as I recall they had some fairly good ex-Israeli and Soviet kit, albeit not in great numbers. Will that make a whole lot of difference against the USAF? Or, do they fight back in unexpected/asymmetrical ways?
--How does the world at large, particularly the voting public of the partaking nations, regard this campaign, essentially bombing an impoverished Global South state on the other side of the world back to the stone age, regardless of the humanitarian justification or explanation?
--Assuming the campaign is a victory, how is Eelam actually founded, do many non-NATO states recognize it, and is it a functioning, stable entity in 2019? Is it yet another small South Asian state like Sri Lanka itself or Nepal, or is it a completely failed nation like South Sudan or Somalia?
--What impacts does this OAF have on 9/11 in the US two years later and the "war on terror" in general--future wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Are they butterflied away? Go on as planned? Go on modified?
--What president declares war on Sri Lanka? I'm assuming it's Bill Clinton, but perhaps a President Bob Dole or Al Gore is more likely to do it? (I can't see a Republican getting behind a campaign like this but who knows.)
MalcontentRex