A bit of history:
On December 16th, the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS on the Western Front started the Rundstedt Offensive, also called Operation Wacht am Rhein, also called Battle of the Bulge, also called Battle of the Ardennes, depending on who is calling it. Around late December, units of the 101st Airborne Division was in a Belgian town called Bastogne (the offensive's objective is to take Antwerp/Anvers, it would serve the dual purpose of driving a wedge between Patton/Bradley and Montgomery's forces and to take an important port used in supplying Allied armies), outnumbered by way more than several times. The paratroopers dug in. This was partly narrated in episode VI of Band of Brothers. It was also in a PBS documentary, I think it was called "Battle of the Bulge".
And in the documentary, which I saw on TV some years back, there was a narrative by a veteran, that some Germans came into Bastogne and asking the airbornes to surrender. And the unit was commanded by General Anthony McAuliffe (Anglo-Saxon names are never blacklisted in my book) at that time, the general thought the Germans wanted to surrender to the Americans. Then the aide said that the Germans are asking the Americans to surrender to them. So the general said, what? nuts! And the Germans didn't understand. So General McAuliffe took a piece of paper and wrote in large characters: NUTS! and gave it to the German envoys. And the Germans went back to their lines, and the fightings resumed.
The division held till Patton's forces arrived.
This is paraphrased from the documentary, it's about an hour long but that's the part I remember the most.
This is the origin of NUTS and Bastogne.
I have no idea how that freeway sign managed to mix the Battle of the Bulge with casino gambling, unless "nut" is a colloquial term in that world. Anyway, this is a bit of history, so you all remember that American means more than burgers and fries.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Sergeant Zavodsky got up to speak. He talked about the first Thanksgiving....the Pilgrims suffered 54% casualties from cold and diseases, which would have rendered a unit like his totally combat ineffective. But the Pilgrims never sailed back. The country doesn't retreat or give up (referring to US in Iraq).
Quoted/Paraphrased from Page 242, Hog pilots and blue water grunts, by Robert Kaplan
And again, I associate with that as well, except, I am the American, and the vast majority of the country have no idea what it means.
The irony.
Robert Kaplan is also author of "Imperial Grunts" which is an exceedingly good book.
Quoted/Paraphrased from Page 242, Hog pilots and blue water grunts, by Robert Kaplan
And again, I associate with that as well, except, I am the American, and the vast majority of the country have no idea what it means.
The irony.
Robert Kaplan is also author of "Imperial Grunts" which is an exceedingly good book.
For the morons who are surprised that I can sing in Chinese, it's what I can remember from the theme song of a war movie that was on TV again and again in childhood. Movie is called "Railroad guerillas" as far as I can remember, about guerillas doing sabotage and raids on Japanese troop convoys along the railroads. "Railroad" by the way is written as "iron-path", and I can definitely associate with that.
Translation:
(slow)
The Sun in the west will soon set behind the mountain
The end of the devils/demons/ghosts (one word in Chinese) will soon come
Playing my beloved [earthy: extremely difficult to translate, it's the literal word of "earth" but here the connotation is "peasant" and "uncultured"] [an instrument called pi-pa]
Singing the stirring melody
(fast)
Stepping upon the fast-moving train
Like riding the galloping horse
In the railroad stations and upon the rails
Are great battlefields to annihilate the enemies
We jump from trains, and man the machineguns
Colliding with locomotives (difficult to translate that part), blowing up bridges
Like a steel blade into the enemies' chest
Fighting till the devils' spirits flee
(slow)
Since I haven't heard the melody or the song lyrics in over ten years, some parts may or may not be correct. This has nothing to do with the current-day Japanese nor does it even have to do with WWII at all.
I tire of even describing it all over again.
You will face the consequence, in a courtroom, of not daring to arrest me because I didn't do **** yet holding me in pseudo-imprisonment and wreaking all kinds of havoc in my life. For several months now, in one way or another people have repeatedly been trying to frame as a homosexual or any derivative of it. To deal with it several times a week is extremely exhausting. For several months now, in one way or another this-group-of-people-with-official-authority have been framing me as having a large amount of money, and all sorts of evil, ill financial schemes, ill ethnic associations, AGE(!)
It came specifically from me telling a few people about two hundred thousand dollars that I did NOT take from Quia corporation.
I mean, thanks for wishing it into reality.
Because whereas I didn't have, now I will have, from suing you. Finding out who you are actually isn't difficult at all. What's difficult is the initiative of doing it.
And, even though this-group-of-people have spread this thing all over the place, perhaps ridiculously hoping to spreading out the share of responsibility, it doesn't change the fact that there is one specific small group of people that is holding all the strings, and everyone else is merely passing it along as ancillaries. To make a very inappropriate analogy, there is one heart, and about several million capillaries, who are merely passing along what is pumped through. That means, the specific small group of people who set up all the surveillance equipments, made the decision to do the 24/7 broadcasting and delegating the possibility of broadcasting the surveillance. And people who made available footages of me naked. And some (I am rather certain) people who are hired to harrass me, much less now, much more before.
Note that I am not a bit interested in *how* you did it. If some of the methods used are "intelligence gathering devices" (what an oxymoron, intelligence), I am not a bit interested in everyone else knowing how they work and what they are, or even the IEOR process of how you planned all this out. What matters is the fact that you DID it, what brand of tools are irrelevant.
And I am comparing you ("you" referring to the group-of-people-responsible-for-the-planning-execution-and-sustainment
-of-the-current-situation-sustainment-because-you-have-no-other-choice
-and-because-you-hope-to-use-me-as-some-kind-of-toy-the-same-way-people
-harvest-wind-energy-or-volcanic-thermal-energy-you-hope-to-somehow-use
-me-in-some-kind-of-political-usefulness-thereby-redeeming-the-biggest-mistake
-you-ever-made-in-your-career-look-boss-at-least-we-recycled-the-disaster
-and-reused-it-for-something-functional-that-could-please-someone-higher-up
-so-it-isn't-so-bad-after-all, lol, this is why I am not supporting either side in the presidential election) to Japs because they are the classical bad guys from childhood, and because in WWII the Japs didn't really consider anyone else to be worthy human beings. Again, it's not a parallel comparison, because I have all my limbs, I am not starving, in rags and covered with lice and maggots about to be beheaded with a samurai sword (there is a famous picture of an Australian POW seconds before that). However, there are also things that are acceptable in despotic Third World countries that aren't acceptable in a First World free country, especially one that is supposed to be the leader of freedom and justice.
Translation:
(slow)
The Sun in the west will soon set behind the mountain
The end of the devils/demons/ghosts (one word in Chinese) will soon come
Playing my beloved [earthy: extremely difficult to translate, it's the literal word of "earth" but here the connotation is "peasant" and "uncultured"] [an instrument called pi-pa]
Singing the stirring melody
(fast)
Stepping upon the fast-moving train
Like riding the galloping horse
In the railroad stations and upon the rails
Are great battlefields to annihilate the enemies
We jump from trains, and man the machineguns
Colliding with locomotives (difficult to translate that part), blowing up bridges
Like a steel blade into the enemies' chest
Fighting till the devils' spirits flee
(slow)
Since I haven't heard the melody or the song lyrics in over ten years, some parts may or may not be correct. This has nothing to do with the current-day Japanese nor does it even have to do with WWII at all.
I tire of even describing it all over again.
You will face the consequence, in a courtroom, of not daring to arrest me because I didn't do **** yet holding me in pseudo-imprisonment and wreaking all kinds of havoc in my life. For several months now, in one way or another people have repeatedly been trying to frame as a homosexual or any derivative of it. To deal with it several times a week is extremely exhausting. For several months now, in one way or another this-group-of-people-with-official-authority have been framing me as having a large amount of money, and all sorts of evil, ill financial schemes, ill ethnic associations, AGE(!)
It came specifically from me telling a few people about two hundred thousand dollars that I did NOT take from Quia corporation.
I mean, thanks for wishing it into reality.
Because whereas I didn't have, now I will have, from suing you. Finding out who you are actually isn't difficult at all. What's difficult is the initiative of doing it.
And, even though this-group-of-people have spread this thing all over the place, perhaps ridiculously hoping to spreading out the share of responsibility, it doesn't change the fact that there is one specific small group of people that is holding all the strings, and everyone else is merely passing it along as ancillaries. To make a very inappropriate analogy, there is one heart, and about several million capillaries, who are merely passing along what is pumped through. That means, the specific small group of people who set up all the surveillance equipments, made the decision to do the 24/7 broadcasting and delegating the possibility of broadcasting the surveillance. And people who made available footages of me naked. And some (I am rather certain) people who are hired to harrass me, much less now, much more before.
Note that I am not a bit interested in *how* you did it. If some of the methods used are "intelligence gathering devices" (what an oxymoron, intelligence), I am not a bit interested in everyone else knowing how they work and what they are, or even the IEOR process of how you planned all this out. What matters is the fact that you DID it, what brand of tools are irrelevant.
And I am comparing you ("you" referring to the group-of-people-responsible-for-the-planning-execution-and-sustainment
-of-the-current-situation-sustainment-because-you-have-no-other-choice
-and-because-you-hope-to-use-me-as-some-kind-of-toy-the-same-way-people
-harvest-wind-energy-or-volcanic-thermal-energy-you-hope-to-somehow-use
-me-in-some-kind-of-political-usefulness-thereby-redeeming-the-biggest-mistake
-you-ever-made-in-your-career-look-boss-at-least-we-recycled-the-disaster
-and-reused-it-for-something-functional-that-could-please-someone-higher-up
-so-it-isn't-so-bad-after-all, lol, this is why I am not supporting either side in the presidential election) to Japs because they are the classical bad guys from childhood, and because in WWII the Japs didn't really consider anyone else to be worthy human beings. Again, it's not a parallel comparison, because I have all my limbs, I am not starving, in rags and covered with lice and maggots about to be beheaded with a samurai sword (there is a famous picture of an Australian POW seconds before that). However, there are also things that are acceptable in despotic Third World countries that aren't acceptable in a First World free country, especially one that is supposed to be the leader of freedom and justice.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Edelweiss
In real life, I'd like to one day climb the Alps for real and get an actual Edelweiss, at however many thousand feet or meters of altitude.
---------------------------------------------------------
And unrelated, a quote I randomly saw today, that I thought was the funniest thing:
“America is not at war, the Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall.” - Anonymous Marine
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Yesterday (actually in the morning when the sun was shining and then I slept) I saw Bravo Two Zero, about the quite heroic deeds of a British SAS team in Iraq during the Iraq War of 1990-1991, which is called the First Gulf War in the Western hemisphere, and probably called the Second Gulf War in the absolute historical sense, since the First Gulf War of modern times was 1980-1988 between Iran and Iraq, with over a million casualties.
That only got me to admire the SAS even more. There was also an Australian SAS among them, and a South African. There was a breathtaking sequence of the squad assaulting a BMP firing its cannon with supporting infantry firing as well. The SAS did some kind of fire and maneuver, fire and maneuver till one got close enough to throw a thermite grenade into the BMP.
Today saw a most heroic and genuine kind of prayer, as I think have been prayed in the Western Hemisphere from the times of the lions in the arena, till perhaps the nineteen fifties. Then after the fifties it became unfashionable to pray such prayers in this hemisphere, though still remembered and lived by the faith heroes of suffering piety (in God's eyes heroes, in men's eyes paupers and ragged, but once a person dies all that matters is what Jesus thinks, so it might as well matter now) and true soldiers -I think it's not the uniform that makes a soldier, but the kind of being the SAS soldiers are, that makes a soldier and gives dignity to the uniform they wear in peacetime.
The prayer was found on the body of an SAS soldier, who are by the way nearly always multilingual. It's rather mortifying that some people associate languages with the degenerate influences of homosexuality, thereby a ploy of the devil to strangulate the perpetuation of all that is best and brightest in the Western Hemisphere's culture, not preserved in Latin and Greek only.
La prière du para
Mon Dieu, donne-moi la tourmente,
Donne-moi la souffrance,
Donne-moi l’ardeur au combat.
Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, donne-moi la tourmente,
Donne-moi la souffrance,
Et puis la gloire au combat, et puis la gloire au combat.
II
Ce dont les autres ne veulent pas,
Ce que l’on te refuse,
Donne-moi tout cela, oui, tout cela.
Je ne veux ni repos, ni même la santé
Tout ça, mon Dieu, t’est assez demandé.
III
Mais donnes-moi, mais donnes-moi,
Mais donnes-moi la foi
Donne-moi force et courage,
Mais donnes-moi la foi, donnes moi force et courage,
Mais donnes-moi la foi
Pour que je sois sur de moi !
Auteur : Aspirant Zirnheld, SAS. Cette prière fut trouvée sur le corps de l’Aspirant Zirnheld, tué en 1942, en Libye.
The Prayer of the Airborne soldier of France
My God, give me torment
Give me suffering
Give me the ardor of combat
My God, My God, give me torment
Give me suffering
And then the glory of battle, then the glory of battle
What the others don't want
What people refuse from you
Give me all those, yes give me all those
I want no rest, not even health
All these things people asked you enough
But give me, but give me
But give me Faith
Give me Strength and Courage
But give me Faith. Give me Strength and Courage
But give me Faith.
So that I may be above myself.
Author: Aspirant (translated either Officer Cadet or Warrant Officer) Zirnheld, Special Air Service -that also means that the author is a British soldier-. This prayer was found on his body, killed in action in 1942 in Libya.
(Unfortunately the music doesn't quite match the words, but the lyrics are about as heroic as I have seen)
source: http://musique-militaire.fr/La_priere_du_para.html
That only got me to admire the SAS even more. There was also an Australian SAS among them, and a South African. There was a breathtaking sequence of the squad assaulting a BMP firing its cannon with supporting infantry firing as well. The SAS did some kind of fire and maneuver, fire and maneuver till one got close enough to throw a thermite grenade into the BMP.
Today saw a most heroic and genuine kind of prayer, as I think have been prayed in the Western Hemisphere from the times of the lions in the arena, till perhaps the nineteen fifties. Then after the fifties it became unfashionable to pray such prayers in this hemisphere, though still remembered and lived by the faith heroes of suffering piety (in God's eyes heroes, in men's eyes paupers and ragged, but once a person dies all that matters is what Jesus thinks, so it might as well matter now) and true soldiers -I think it's not the uniform that makes a soldier, but the kind of being the SAS soldiers are, that makes a soldier and gives dignity to the uniform they wear in peacetime.
The prayer was found on the body of an SAS soldier, who are by the way nearly always multilingual. It's rather mortifying that some people associate languages with the degenerate influences of homosexuality, thereby a ploy of the devil to strangulate the perpetuation of all that is best and brightest in the Western Hemisphere's culture, not preserved in Latin and Greek only.
La prière du para
Mon Dieu, donne-moi la tourmente,
Donne-moi la souffrance,
Donne-moi l’ardeur au combat.
Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, donne-moi la tourmente,
Donne-moi la souffrance,
Et puis la gloire au combat, et puis la gloire au combat.
II
Ce dont les autres ne veulent pas,
Ce que l’on te refuse,
Donne-moi tout cela, oui, tout cela.
Je ne veux ni repos, ni même la santé
Tout ça, mon Dieu, t’est assez demandé.
III
Mais donnes-moi, mais donnes-moi,
Mais donnes-moi la foi
Donne-moi force et courage,
Mais donnes-moi la foi, donnes moi force et courage,
Mais donnes-moi la foi
Pour que je sois sur de moi !
Auteur : Aspirant Zirnheld, SAS. Cette prière fut trouvée sur le corps de l’Aspirant Zirnheld, tué en 1942, en Libye.
The Prayer of the Airborne soldier of France
My God, give me torment
Give me suffering
Give me the ardor of combat
My God, My God, give me torment
Give me suffering
And then the glory of battle, then the glory of battle
What the others don't want
What people refuse from you
Give me all those, yes give me all those
I want no rest, not even health
All these things people asked you enough
But give me, but give me
But give me Faith
Give me Strength and Courage
But give me Faith. Give me Strength and Courage
But give me Faith.
So that I may be above myself.
Author: Aspirant (translated either Officer Cadet or Warrant Officer) Zirnheld, Special Air Service -that also means that the author is a British soldier-. This prayer was found on his body, killed in action in 1942 in Libya.
(Unfortunately the music doesn't quite match the words, but the lyrics are about as heroic as I have seen)
source: http://musique-militaire.fr/La_priere_du_para.html
Monday, December 17, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Today I saw Pork Chop Hill, made in 1959. There were many battles on Pork Chop Hill, the movie portrayed one of them, involving K/King Company of the 31st Infantry Regiment, actually narrated in T.R. Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War", the last phrase in the chapter being "King Company was King of the Hill" in the chapter "King of the Hill".
Overall the movie doesn't portray the intensity of the combat as happened in the hills of the 38th parallel back then, but it was well made with the cinematography of 1959. The introduction of hand-held camera filming (Band of Brothers and the bangalore torpedo scene in Saving Private Ryan) would have made an altogether different impression, along with actual portrayal of close-quarter fighting, which happened plenty. There also wasn't enough portrayal of artillery.
Quoting/paraphrasing from a Chinese book which I read when I was nine but still remember bits and pieces: "so much artillery was fired at the hill again and again and again that the rocky ground was blown to powder and men assaulting up the hill waded knee and chest deep in rock powder" "trenches and tunnels were blasted into oblivion and cut in many sections by artillery fire, a supply platoon of fifty or so carrying ammunition and supplies up the hill would often wander into areas held by opposing forces and only three or four would come down the hill"
Quoting from T.R. Ferenbach's "This Kind of War": "One platoon was reduced to a sergeant and a private [out of a forty something men]."
Quoting Wikipedia:
Once inside the trench line, troops of both forces were forced to eliminate bunkers individually, using hand grenades, explosive charges, and occasionally flame throwers, resulting in heavy casualties to the attackers. For the UN forces, infiltration of cleared bunkers by bypassed Chinese (read: communist) was a problem throughout the battle and hand-to-hand combat was a frequent occurrence.
Medal of Honor citations
Richard Thomas Shea, VMI grad.
First Lieutenant, Company A (also written as Able Company), 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division
For organizing and leading a counterattack in the face of overwhelming enemy numbers, in bitter close-quarter fighting, killing two communist enemies with trench knife. During 18 hours of heavy fighting, calmly moving among his men, steadying and urging the troops to hold firm in the night fighting, driving back another massive attack at dawn. When Company G (also written as George Company) reached the hill through artillery fire (-most likely only a dozen men left out of a hundred-), the lieutenant gathered 20 men and again charged the enemy. Wounded he refused evacuation and continued to lead the men. Under machinegun fire, he rushed the MG emplacement, firing his carbine and lobbing grenades with deadly accuracy, neutralized the weapon and killed 3 of the enemy. With forceful leadership and heroic example, the lieutenant held together the defenders through 18 hours of heavy fighting. Last seen in close hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
(add: Sparta would have been proud of such a son)
Daniel D. Schoonover
Corporal, Company A (also written as Able Company), 13th Combat Engineer Battalion, 7th Infantry Division
The original citation is well-written already, in fact I couldn't write it any better:
Cpl. Schoonover, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. He was in charge of an engineer demolition squad attached to an infantry company which was committed to dislodge the enemy from a vital hill. Realizing that the heavy fighting and intense enemy fire made it impossible to carry out his mission, he voluntarily employed his unit as a rifle squad and, forging up the steep barren slope, participated in the assault on hostile positions. When an artillery round exploded on the roof of an enemy bunker, he courageously ran forward and leaped into the position, killing 1 hostile infantryman and taking another prisoner. Later in the action, when friendly forces were pinned down by vicious fire from another enemy bunker, he dashed through the hail of fire, hurled grenades in the nearest aperture, then ran to the doorway and emptied his pistol, killing the remainder of the enemy. His brave action neutralized the position and enabled friendly troops to continue their advance to the crest of the hill. When the enemy counterattacked he constantly exposed himself to the heavy bombardment to direct the fire of his men and to call in an effective artillery barrage on hostile forces. Although the company was relieved early the following morning, he voluntarily remained in the area, manned a machine gun for several hours, and subsequently joined another assault on enemy emplacements. When last seen he was operating an automatic rifle with devastating effect until mortally wounded by artillery fire. Cpl. Schoonover's heroic leadership during 2 days of heavy fighting, superb personal bravery, and willing self-sacrifice inspired his comrades and saved many lives, reflecting lasting glory upon himself and upholding the honored traditions of the military service.
Since the movie didn't quite instill such lasting glory, yet it definitely was with the fighting men of the rifle companies, I write out some of it here.
Overall the movie doesn't portray the intensity of the combat as happened in the hills of the 38th parallel back then, but it was well made with the cinematography of 1959. The introduction of hand-held camera filming (Band of Brothers and the bangalore torpedo scene in Saving Private Ryan) would have made an altogether different impression, along with actual portrayal of close-quarter fighting, which happened plenty. There also wasn't enough portrayal of artillery.
Quoting/paraphrasing from a Chinese book which I read when I was nine but still remember bits and pieces: "so much artillery was fired at the hill again and again and again that the rocky ground was blown to powder and men assaulting up the hill waded knee and chest deep in rock powder" "trenches and tunnels were blasted into oblivion and cut in many sections by artillery fire, a supply platoon of fifty or so carrying ammunition and supplies up the hill would often wander into areas held by opposing forces and only three or four would come down the hill"
Quoting from T.R. Ferenbach's "This Kind of War": "One platoon was reduced to a sergeant and a private [out of a forty something men]."
Quoting Wikipedia:
Once inside the trench line, troops of both forces were forced to eliminate bunkers individually, using hand grenades, explosive charges, and occasionally flame throwers, resulting in heavy casualties to the attackers. For the UN forces, infiltration of cleared bunkers by bypassed Chinese (read: communist) was a problem throughout the battle and hand-to-hand combat was a frequent occurrence.
Medal of Honor citations
Richard Thomas Shea, VMI grad.
First Lieutenant, Company A (also written as Able Company), 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division
For organizing and leading a counterattack in the face of overwhelming enemy numbers, in bitter close-quarter fighting, killing two communist enemies with trench knife. During 18 hours of heavy fighting, calmly moving among his men, steadying and urging the troops to hold firm in the night fighting, driving back another massive attack at dawn. When Company G (also written as George Company) reached the hill through artillery fire (-most likely only a dozen men left out of a hundred-), the lieutenant gathered 20 men and again charged the enemy. Wounded he refused evacuation and continued to lead the men. Under machinegun fire, he rushed the MG emplacement, firing his carbine and lobbing grenades with deadly accuracy, neutralized the weapon and killed 3 of the enemy. With forceful leadership and heroic example, the lieutenant held together the defenders through 18 hours of heavy fighting. Last seen in close hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
(add: Sparta would have been proud of such a son)
Daniel D. Schoonover
Corporal, Company A (also written as Able Company), 13th Combat Engineer Battalion, 7th Infantry Division
The original citation is well-written already, in fact I couldn't write it any better:
Cpl. Schoonover, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. He was in charge of an engineer demolition squad attached to an infantry company which was committed to dislodge the enemy from a vital hill. Realizing that the heavy fighting and intense enemy fire made it impossible to carry out his mission, he voluntarily employed his unit as a rifle squad and, forging up the steep barren slope, participated in the assault on hostile positions. When an artillery round exploded on the roof of an enemy bunker, he courageously ran forward and leaped into the position, killing 1 hostile infantryman and taking another prisoner. Later in the action, when friendly forces were pinned down by vicious fire from another enemy bunker, he dashed through the hail of fire, hurled grenades in the nearest aperture, then ran to the doorway and emptied his pistol, killing the remainder of the enemy. His brave action neutralized the position and enabled friendly troops to continue their advance to the crest of the hill. When the enemy counterattacked he constantly exposed himself to the heavy bombardment to direct the fire of his men and to call in an effective artillery barrage on hostile forces. Although the company was relieved early the following morning, he voluntarily remained in the area, manned a machine gun for several hours, and subsequently joined another assault on enemy emplacements. When last seen he was operating an automatic rifle with devastating effect until mortally wounded by artillery fire. Cpl. Schoonover's heroic leadership during 2 days of heavy fighting, superb personal bravery, and willing self-sacrifice inspired his comrades and saved many lives, reflecting lasting glory upon himself and upholding the honored traditions of the military service.
Since the movie didn't quite instill such lasting glory, yet it definitely was with the fighting men of the rifle companies, I write out some of it here.
Dear Editor,
Whereas I greatly appreciate your acknowledging that I am (nearly) broke, I also do not wish to be associated, in open or veiled imagery, with someone who spoke about/intended in wiping Israel off the map.
Great work on the magazine, I regularly read it since high school and hold it in high esteem. I hope to be able to appear on its cover someday between now and eighty years, or to be able to become one of your associate writers.
Nahal
Whereas I greatly appreciate your acknowledging that I am (nearly) broke, I also do not wish to be associated, in open or veiled imagery, with someone who spoke about/intended in wiping Israel off the map.
Great work on the magazine, I regularly read it since high school and hold it in high esteem. I hope to be able to appear on its cover someday between now and eighty years, or to be able to become one of your associate writers.
Nahal
I am going to write something to the President so he is not de-spirited as I read. Before that I'd like to mention something.
Because of the way I grew up, in rather difficult times, I very much admire brave men in battle. The same criteria that brought me to admire Israelis, both in ancient and modern times, also brought me to admire people that not everyone would consider as great characters, but my sensibilities are different. For one thing, I can admire Japanese courage even though they butchered millions of my ethnic people.
In regards to people who survived mass murders back then, I am sorry that among the people I admire are certain frontline military men that you don't deem admirable. My perspective is different (vis-a-vis communism, and "Chinese") so you may or may not understand.
Overall, I have a higher view of Jews than many of them do towards themselves. And, I am seriously writing this, if defining anti-Semitism by the kind of view or esteem held towards the people, then a large portion of the Jewish diaspora is anti-Semitic towards themselves, in the very diminished way they view their own people, and that's also the situation with some Israeli, but not as many, because living in the Land take a lot of gut and they still have plenty of pioneering spirit (comparable to the pioneering of the American West but also different because it's not 19th century). I seriously wish some of you didn't let the Palestinian Arabs or the UN (sometimes) tell you who and what you are.
The 50% (however much it comes to be) is definitely aid package for both military defense and long term development, but it's also an important statement that I want to make: i.e. we are worth that much attention.
Hopefully it will result in a much more solid national identity and national feelings of the founding generation. That is what makes a people grow and endure and prosper. With that, you can make a hundred times a thousand times a million times whatever I can come up with. That's the long term and the essential thing. If national prosperity could be compared with hunted prizes for eating, well the solid and thriving national identity is like superb hunting skills. When you have superb hunting skills, it's something very long-term that is within you, guaranteeing you will never go hungry but will have plenty of extra.
Because of the way I grew up, in rather difficult times, I very much admire brave men in battle. The same criteria that brought me to admire Israelis, both in ancient and modern times, also brought me to admire people that not everyone would consider as great characters, but my sensibilities are different. For one thing, I can admire Japanese courage even though they butchered millions of my ethnic people.
In regards to people who survived mass murders back then, I am sorry that among the people I admire are certain frontline military men that you don't deem admirable. My perspective is different (vis-a-vis communism, and "Chinese") so you may or may not understand.
Overall, I have a higher view of Jews than many of them do towards themselves. And, I am seriously writing this, if defining anti-Semitism by the kind of view or esteem held towards the people, then a large portion of the Jewish diaspora is anti-Semitic towards themselves, in the very diminished way they view their own people, and that's also the situation with some Israeli, but not as many, because living in the Land take a lot of gut and they still have plenty of pioneering spirit (comparable to the pioneering of the American West but also different because it's not 19th century). I seriously wish some of you didn't let the Palestinian Arabs or the UN (sometimes) tell you who and what you are.
The 50% (however much it comes to be) is definitely aid package for both military defense and long term development, but it's also an important statement that I want to make: i.e. we are worth that much attention.
Hopefully it will result in a much more solid national identity and national feelings of the founding generation. That is what makes a people grow and endure and prosper. With that, you can make a hundred times a thousand times a million times whatever I can come up with. That's the long term and the essential thing. If national prosperity could be compared with hunted prizes for eating, well the solid and thriving national identity is like superb hunting skills. When you have superb hunting skills, it's something very long-term that is within you, guaranteeing you will never go hungry but will have plenty of extra.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Dear all of Israel, but especially the government:
This is just something that occurred to me:
-Overall the Haredi have a higher birth rate than the rest of the population because they have more kids
-Overall the Haredi are more fiercely proud of being Jewish than the rest of the population, many of whom (unfortunately) are letting the Palestinian Arabs plus all the anti-Israel messages tell them who they are and what they should be.
Conclusion: please make some effort to increase the Haredi part of the population in civic participation and military service. Looking at the points mentioned above, the Haredi participation will make the difference between a great Israel and a very great Israel (for one thing, so the Arabs don't try the conquest by population, and for another, according to what I can see the Haredi would make excellent soldiers both in fighting fervor and in patriotism).
I personally am still rather puzzled by the phenomenon of Jews not wanting to serve in the IDF. From what I read and heard (since I never actually lived there, I am not sure how worthy are what I think/write/say), many Haredi would rather have a completely religious Israel than a secular Israel.
I have to say that a God-led Israel isn't likely at all until the Messiah comes, and it won't be for many hundred or even thousand years. In the meantime, there is only one Israel, and here are some of the things I thought
-Likely one of the worries that the Haredi have is that as soldiers they might be asked to remove settlers from the Land of Israel, as what happened in Gaza. For the same reason they probably also don't want to have allegiance to a secular state. So, if making a separate oath of military allegiance for Haredi soldiers would get significantly more participation, I'd think it's worth it. Like an oath that is more oriented towards defending the Land of Israel both in emergency defense (i.e. the 1973 situation) or in active defense (i.e. the 1967 situation), but without the obligation of internal security; or, the Haredi soldiers would serve the state of Israel in emergency and active defense but not deployed vis-a-vis Israeli civilians.
-Add significant benefits for Haredi soldiers serving in the army, like free yeshiva education and guaranteed employment after military service.
-An all-Haredi Brigade, with heraldry from the David/Solomon Kingdom era.
Basically the idea is this: Haredi participation in both the military and civilian segments of society would be a great long-term boost for the nation, because they seriously have fire in their veins, it's just unused. I'd love to see the Haredi battalion eventually expanded into a Haredi Brigade.
This is just something that occurred to me:
-Overall the Haredi have a higher birth rate than the rest of the population because they have more kids
-Overall the Haredi are more fiercely proud of being Jewish than the rest of the population, many of whom (unfortunately) are letting the Palestinian Arabs plus all the anti-Israel messages tell them who they are and what they should be.
Conclusion: please make some effort to increase the Haredi part of the population in civic participation and military service. Looking at the points mentioned above, the Haredi participation will make the difference between a great Israel and a very great Israel (for one thing, so the Arabs don't try the conquest by population, and for another, according to what I can see the Haredi would make excellent soldiers both in fighting fervor and in patriotism).
I personally am still rather puzzled by the phenomenon of Jews not wanting to serve in the IDF. From what I read and heard (since I never actually lived there, I am not sure how worthy are what I think/write/say), many Haredi would rather have a completely religious Israel than a secular Israel.
I have to say that a God-led Israel isn't likely at all until the Messiah comes, and it won't be for many hundred or even thousand years. In the meantime, there is only one Israel, and here are some of the things I thought
-Likely one of the worries that the Haredi have is that as soldiers they might be asked to remove settlers from the Land of Israel, as what happened in Gaza. For the same reason they probably also don't want to have allegiance to a secular state. So, if making a separate oath of military allegiance for Haredi soldiers would get significantly more participation, I'd think it's worth it. Like an oath that is more oriented towards defending the Land of Israel both in emergency defense (i.e. the 1973 situation) or in active defense (i.e. the 1967 situation), but without the obligation of internal security; or, the Haredi soldiers would serve the state of Israel in emergency and active defense but not deployed vis-a-vis Israeli civilians.
-Add significant benefits for Haredi soldiers serving in the army, like free yeshiva education and guaranteed employment after military service.
-An all-Haredi Brigade, with heraldry from the David/Solomon Kingdom era.
Basically the idea is this: Haredi participation in both the military and civilian segments of society would be a great long-term boost for the nation, because they seriously have fire in their veins, it's just unused. I'd love to see the Haredi battalion eventually expanded into a Haredi Brigade.
A few notes about some of the minorities in America,
Whereas I appreciate all people as people and am interested in all cultures, I *am* only certain people. I am also very passionate about the causes I believe in, but I also do not champion all causes.
African-Americans: even though at times I may make allusion towards your historical mistreatment, I am neither physically nor culturally even remotely connected with African or African-American in any way, except that every person descends from Adam.
Yes I absolutely love the movie Glory, but I like it because of the glory of the African-American soldiers flying the stars and stripes and especially the 19th-century bayonet charge under artillery fire, not merely because it's African-American related. If Glory was any other people group, I'd like it the same way.
And speaking of that, one thing that I thought for years is that your people as a group isn't nearly exercing your freedom and opportunity to the full extent. I read somewhere that if an African-American were in some way doing some kind of upward social mobility (including doing well in school), the person would be seen as betraying the ghetto in some way. Thus there is a cultural attitude that African-Americans are somehow supposed to be near the bottom and that's the only way to be cool. Then at the same time, the people as a group also want preferential treatment in the college admissions.
I'd only like to remark from my personal experiences: however that happens, East Asian kids make a significant part of prestigious colleges and higher education in general, and they didn't need preferential treatment in order to get in. That's something that is undeniable.
And I don't believe that there is intellectual faculty differences between races, so I really think it's a matter of cultural attitude.
Koreans:
Back in the days when I worked as a bookstore clerk, I loved singing anthems and historical songs to customers, especially when they are from a foreign country. Sometimes they'd ask me what country I am from. A few times I'd ask them to guess. Non-Asian people say Chinese. Asian people - who can see the infinitely little subtleties between different types of Asians - say either Chinese, and a few times Japanese, but rarely. Nobody ever said Korean.
So, even though I am Asian, and even though according to most non-Asian people, all the Asians look the same, that's not so according to me, and I am not Korean.
About all that I know from your country comes from my reading of the Korean War, and it's fascinating to me because it was a war against communism, it just so happened to be fought in Korea. If the "Korean War" happened in Madagascar, I'd still be reading it just the same. I am fascinated by the war because it's a war against communism, not because it's Korean.
Every place name that American soldiers fought and bled I remember well. We left around fifty thousand Americans killed in Korean War from 1950-1953, that's fifty thousand dead in three years. Compare with Vietnam's fifty thousand dead in around ten years. It was much more intense in the Korean War. There were Americans soldiers bound with barbed wire around their body and eyes and tongues ripped out by the North Koreans (a mortar unit, source: This Kind of War, by T.R. Fehrenbach). There were Americans soldiers firing their last rounds and their weapons dry, overwhelmed and killed by hordes of screaming Chinamen (Sergeant Henderson, during the Fifth Offensive, awarded Distinguished Service Cross, source: same book). There were American units attached to South Korean units who were wiped out when those South Korean units fled under fire (overall for much of the war the South Koreans alongside the UN Eight Army had about the same effectiveness as the Italian units alongside the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front, the Germans could only place an Italian division between German formations, else the flank would collapse - that's back then, now the South Korean military is a much better fighting force).
Even now, the entire capital city of Seoul is within range and under the aim of thousands of North Korean artillery pieces (that means an exploding artillery shell spreading shrapnel over a city block and thousands of those falling down at the same time). The very existence of your country as it is now is because fifty thousand Americans died, sometimes horrible death, so you don't get to live the way they are living in North Korea. Else there would only be a North Korea over the entire peninsula. For one thing you wouldn't have all this high-tech nation, Westernized pop and high standard of life, plus all the political liberties and even the ability to visit the U.S.
So, considering all that, I don't like it very much when I read that the kind of views that the majority of your youth hold of the United States of America, and that (!) were there some kind of battle between North Korea and American forces, most of them would back North Korea. I also don't like the kind of attitude of most of your people as if you were way too cool to remember the war.
Latinos of all types:
I am not of "La Raza". When I chose Spanish or German in Canada as a third language, I chose Spanish only by looking at the total land area of countries speaking Spanish, I had no personal knowledge or preference of either people group. I was 12/13 at that time.
I do like your language and culture and the look of the girls of your people group (that's actually a very important factor in determining whether I really like a people or not), but I am not one of your people.
I also do not like all the illegal immigration, and I will write an article about it. One, because my dad came here with an H-1B, meaning he had to be so skilled that he had to prove that he is skilled on a level that Americans aren't, so that by him coming here to work he is not taking a job away from an American. And he got the Green Card of Permanent Residency because he contributed to building the nation. (I got it because I was under 18 when he got it) Also, my aunt waited almost a decade in line in order to get the Green Card of Permanent Residency. I don't like the idea of people cutting lines, when there are plenty of honest people standing in line.
But there is also something else. I don't like this illegal immigration for the same reason that I don't like the Chinese illegal immigration, for that matter. Because you insist on speaking Spanish and refer to yourself as La Raza, and not as Americans. That's the source of the greatest negative image for me. Not that I don't appreciate the language and culture of La Raza. But if you stay here for a long time, you are supposed to refer to yourself as American first and everything else is secondary. It's not even what you call yourself, it's what you think about the country. That's definitely not the preeminent attitude of the people group as a whole.
Other than that, I read that Latinos make great military recruits and generally fight very well in the Army and the Marines. On that level, they are much more desirable as *legal* immigrants than Chinese (the Japanese and Koreans don't serve in the military in great numbers but enough of them do).
*legal* immigrants!
Else it's a huge burden on the social system, a very substantial loss in tax revenue (which is detrimental to the nation considering the expense in social costs), and an underground economy and identity that is at odds with the E. Pluribus Unum. And I definitely don't like this idea of a nation within the American nation.
Japanese:
The Japanese killed more of my ethnic people than Nazis killed Jews in Europe.
In turn, Mao also killed many times more of my ethnic people that the Japanese, and I grew up singing songs about him. I had to, it was taught in school. lol
The Chinese only talk about the Japanese doing the killing, never about Mao, even though Mao did in astronomical figures.
Since I only lived in China nine, almost ten years, I am rather minimally affected by this Chinese vs Japanese thing. Because I admire courage on the battlefield, I have a rather admiring view of the Japanese in this aspect, including the banzai charges and the kamikaze pilots. The Japanese were just about the only ones in WWII to nearly always fight to the last man, and that is extremely admirable. (killing POWs and civilians, which the Japanese soldiers did plenty, is not)
Sometimes, rarely, I even like to say "Tenno Heika Banzai" (Long Live Heavenly Emperor) for fun, because that's what the Japanese soldiers/pilots said before they did a charge.
I also like your food. Don't really like drawings in the anime style, except the mechs and the sci-fi machines, but not the people.
But I am not Japanese.
Whereas I appreciate all people as people and am interested in all cultures, I *am* only certain people. I am also very passionate about the causes I believe in, but I also do not champion all causes.
African-Americans: even though at times I may make allusion towards your historical mistreatment, I am neither physically nor culturally even remotely connected with African or African-American in any way, except that every person descends from Adam.
Yes I absolutely love the movie Glory, but I like it because of the glory of the African-American soldiers flying the stars and stripes and especially the 19th-century bayonet charge under artillery fire, not merely because it's African-American related. If Glory was any other people group, I'd like it the same way.
And speaking of that, one thing that I thought for years is that your people as a group isn't nearly exercing your freedom and opportunity to the full extent. I read somewhere that if an African-American were in some way doing some kind of upward social mobility (including doing well in school), the person would be seen as betraying the ghetto in some way. Thus there is a cultural attitude that African-Americans are somehow supposed to be near the bottom and that's the only way to be cool. Then at the same time, the people as a group also want preferential treatment in the college admissions.
I'd only like to remark from my personal experiences: however that happens, East Asian kids make a significant part of prestigious colleges and higher education in general, and they didn't need preferential treatment in order to get in. That's something that is undeniable.
And I don't believe that there is intellectual faculty differences between races, so I really think it's a matter of cultural attitude.
Koreans:
Back in the days when I worked as a bookstore clerk, I loved singing anthems and historical songs to customers, especially when they are from a foreign country. Sometimes they'd ask me what country I am from. A few times I'd ask them to guess. Non-Asian people say Chinese. Asian people - who can see the infinitely little subtleties between different types of Asians - say either Chinese, and a few times Japanese, but rarely. Nobody ever said Korean.
So, even though I am Asian, and even though according to most non-Asian people, all the Asians look the same, that's not so according to me, and I am not Korean.
About all that I know from your country comes from my reading of the Korean War, and it's fascinating to me because it was a war against communism, it just so happened to be fought in Korea. If the "Korean War" happened in Madagascar, I'd still be reading it just the same. I am fascinated by the war because it's a war against communism, not because it's Korean.
Every place name that American soldiers fought and bled I remember well. We left around fifty thousand Americans killed in Korean War from 1950-1953, that's fifty thousand dead in three years. Compare with Vietnam's fifty thousand dead in around ten years. It was much more intense in the Korean War. There were Americans soldiers bound with barbed wire around their body and eyes and tongues ripped out by the North Koreans (a mortar unit, source: This Kind of War, by T.R. Fehrenbach). There were Americans soldiers firing their last rounds and their weapons dry, overwhelmed and killed by hordes of screaming Chinamen (Sergeant Henderson, during the Fifth Offensive, awarded Distinguished Service Cross, source: same book). There were American units attached to South Korean units who were wiped out when those South Korean units fled under fire (overall for much of the war the South Koreans alongside the UN Eight Army had about the same effectiveness as the Italian units alongside the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front, the Germans could only place an Italian division between German formations, else the flank would collapse - that's back then, now the South Korean military is a much better fighting force).
Even now, the entire capital city of Seoul is within range and under the aim of thousands of North Korean artillery pieces (that means an exploding artillery shell spreading shrapnel over a city block and thousands of those falling down at the same time). The very existence of your country as it is now is because fifty thousand Americans died, sometimes horrible death, so you don't get to live the way they are living in North Korea. Else there would only be a North Korea over the entire peninsula. For one thing you wouldn't have all this high-tech nation, Westernized pop and high standard of life, plus all the political liberties and even the ability to visit the U.S.
So, considering all that, I don't like it very much when I read that the kind of views that the majority of your youth hold of the United States of America, and that (!) were there some kind of battle between North Korea and American forces, most of them would back North Korea. I also don't like the kind of attitude of most of your people as if you were way too cool to remember the war.
Latinos of all types:
I am not of "La Raza". When I chose Spanish or German in Canada as a third language, I chose Spanish only by looking at the total land area of countries speaking Spanish, I had no personal knowledge or preference of either people group. I was 12/13 at that time.
I do like your language and culture and the look of the girls of your people group (that's actually a very important factor in determining whether I really like a people or not), but I am not one of your people.
I also do not like all the illegal immigration, and I will write an article about it. One, because my dad came here with an H-1B, meaning he had to be so skilled that he had to prove that he is skilled on a level that Americans aren't, so that by him coming here to work he is not taking a job away from an American. And he got the Green Card of Permanent Residency because he contributed to building the nation. (I got it because I was under 18 when he got it) Also, my aunt waited almost a decade in line in order to get the Green Card of Permanent Residency. I don't like the idea of people cutting lines, when there are plenty of honest people standing in line.
But there is also something else. I don't like this illegal immigration for the same reason that I don't like the Chinese illegal immigration, for that matter. Because you insist on speaking Spanish and refer to yourself as La Raza, and not as Americans. That's the source of the greatest negative image for me. Not that I don't appreciate the language and culture of La Raza. But if you stay here for a long time, you are supposed to refer to yourself as American first and everything else is secondary. It's not even what you call yourself, it's what you think about the country. That's definitely not the preeminent attitude of the people group as a whole.
Other than that, I read that Latinos make great military recruits and generally fight very well in the Army and the Marines. On that level, they are much more desirable as *legal* immigrants than Chinese (the Japanese and Koreans don't serve in the military in great numbers but enough of them do).
*legal* immigrants!
Else it's a huge burden on the social system, a very substantial loss in tax revenue (which is detrimental to the nation considering the expense in social costs), and an underground economy and identity that is at odds with the E. Pluribus Unum. And I definitely don't like this idea of a nation within the American nation.
Japanese:
The Japanese killed more of my ethnic people than Nazis killed Jews in Europe.
In turn, Mao also killed many times more of my ethnic people that the Japanese, and I grew up singing songs about him. I had to, it was taught in school. lol
The Chinese only talk about the Japanese doing the killing, never about Mao, even though Mao did in astronomical figures.
Since I only lived in China nine, almost ten years, I am rather minimally affected by this Chinese vs Japanese thing. Because I admire courage on the battlefield, I have a rather admiring view of the Japanese in this aspect, including the banzai charges and the kamikaze pilots. The Japanese were just about the only ones in WWII to nearly always fight to the last man, and that is extremely admirable. (killing POWs and civilians, which the Japanese soldiers did plenty, is not)
Sometimes, rarely, I even like to say "Tenno Heika Banzai" (Long Live Heavenly Emperor) for fun, because that's what the Japanese soldiers/pilots said before they did a charge.
I also like your food. Don't really like drawings in the anime style, except the mechs and the sci-fi machines, but not the people.
But I am not Japanese.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders fighting for Hill 282 in September 1950
And Victoria Cross citation of Major Kenneth Muir
Not all the men on the Hill that day were veterans who had been under fire before. Some of the men in the Battalion were only teenagers serving their national service. ... The Argylls were being pounded, over half the party led by Major Muir was already lost, and there were too many casualties for the bearers to take away. The US 24th Infantry Division informed the Jocks that their guns were more urgently needed elsewhere and were being moved to another location. The Americans reassured the Scots that the guns would cover them until relief guns were found. It was a simple untruth as the guns were already moving out.
...
The Argylls, meanwhile, were throwing back waves of North Koreans covered by a heavy barrage of artillery and mortar fire. But they were running low on ammunition, stripping their injured and dead of spare magazines as the officers and NCOs exhorted them to make every shot count.
...
Shortly after midday the Argylls hearts leapt when they heard the engine roar of 3 USAF P-51 Mustangs approaching the hill. The aircraft circled the hill three times before they came screaming in to attack not the North Koreans, but the Argylls! The P-51 Mustangs poured streams of 20mm shells into the Argylls position. As the P-51s pulled out of their dive, they released their eggs. Napalm smashed into the hilltop and ammo started exploding as the fire boiled over the hillside.
Major Muir and his troops tried desperately waving the recognition panels at the American pilots but it was no use. Within a matter of two minutes Hill 282 had become an inferno. The napalm - jellied burning petrol designed to cling to its target - did its job with ruthless efficiency. The Americans had first used napalm during the Pacific Campaign in W.W.II to clear Japanese defences.
...
In just two minutes the so-called friendly fire from the American planes had virtually wiped out B Company. The lucky ones were the 17 soldiers who died instantly in the attack. But 76 others suffered horrifying burns in the inferno. Gerodie Shearer, 19 years old at the time remembers trying to help his friend Davie Simpson who had been badly burned. " He was just lying there covered in burns so I gave him a cigarette. He took a puff and when I tried to take the cigarette from his mouth, his lip came away with it"
...
A number of the Jocks who were still alive were very badly burned. We used intravenous plasma, which was very unusual for us. But the guys who perished were in a real mess. Eighty per cent of their body's were covered in burns. Haldane's medical sergeant Dougie Cooper remembers that terrible day. " We were left to pick up the pieces. Napalm burns the skin. When the US planes used it on the North Koreans, we often heard them screaming to die.
...
The survivors, blackened, with skin bursting from the heat, struggled to bring down their dead, dying and wounded. It was too much. Having realized what had happened, the North Koreans charged and one lone Jock arose from the flames taking shots at the North Koreans. Private Watts kept the attackers at a distance and Major Gillies gathered a handful of soldiers and tried to aid Watts. Major Muir, one of the survivors, decided that the charred and smouldering hilltop must be immediately re-occupied.
...
Only some thirty fighting men remained and ammunition was extremely low....With the assistance of the three remaining officers, he immediately formed a small force of some thirty all ranks and personally led a counter-attack on the crest.
...
From this moment on, Major Muir's actions were beyond all possible praise. He was determined the wounded would had adequate time to be taken out and he was just as determined that the enemy would not take the crest. Grossly outnumbered and under heavy automatic fire, Major Muir moved about his small force, redistributing fast diminishing ammunition, and when the ammunition for his own weapon was spent he took over a 2-inch mortar, which he used with very great effect against the enemy. While firing the mortar he was still shouting encouragement's and advice to his men, and for a further five minutes the enemy were held. Finally, Major Muir was hit with two bursts of automatic fire which mortally wounded him, but even then he retained consciousness and was still determined to fight on. His last words were: "The Gooks will never drive the Argylls off this hill."
The effect of his splendid leadership on the men was nothing short of amazing and it was entirely due to his magnificent courage and example and the spirit which he imbued in those about him that all the wounded were evacuated from the hill, and, as was subsequently discovered, very heavy casualties inflicted on the enemy in defense of the crest. - London Gazette, 5th January, 1951.
quoted from:
http://www.britains-smallwars.com/korea/Muirvc.html
http://www.britains-smallwars.com/korea/hill282.html
Now that's a description of British courage. That inspires. Why can't similar deeds by American soldiers be shown?
And Victoria Cross citation of Major Kenneth Muir
Not all the men on the Hill that day were veterans who had been under fire before. Some of the men in the Battalion were only teenagers serving their national service. ... The Argylls were being pounded, over half the party led by Major Muir was already lost, and there were too many casualties for the bearers to take away. The US 24th Infantry Division informed the Jocks that their guns were more urgently needed elsewhere and were being moved to another location. The Americans reassured the Scots that the guns would cover them until relief guns were found. It was a simple untruth as the guns were already moving out.
...
The Argylls, meanwhile, were throwing back waves of North Koreans covered by a heavy barrage of artillery and mortar fire. But they were running low on ammunition, stripping their injured and dead of spare magazines as the officers and NCOs exhorted them to make every shot count.
...
Shortly after midday the Argylls hearts leapt when they heard the engine roar of 3 USAF P-51 Mustangs approaching the hill. The aircraft circled the hill three times before they came screaming in to attack not the North Koreans, but the Argylls! The P-51 Mustangs poured streams of 20mm shells into the Argylls position. As the P-51s pulled out of their dive, they released their eggs. Napalm smashed into the hilltop and ammo started exploding as the fire boiled over the hillside.
Major Muir and his troops tried desperately waving the recognition panels at the American pilots but it was no use. Within a matter of two minutes Hill 282 had become an inferno. The napalm - jellied burning petrol designed to cling to its target - did its job with ruthless efficiency. The Americans had first used napalm during the Pacific Campaign in W.W.II to clear Japanese defences.
...
In just two minutes the so-called friendly fire from the American planes had virtually wiped out B Company. The lucky ones were the 17 soldiers who died instantly in the attack. But 76 others suffered horrifying burns in the inferno. Gerodie Shearer, 19 years old at the time remembers trying to help his friend Davie Simpson who had been badly burned. " He was just lying there covered in burns so I gave him a cigarette. He took a puff and when I tried to take the cigarette from his mouth, his lip came away with it"
...
A number of the Jocks who were still alive were very badly burned. We used intravenous plasma, which was very unusual for us. But the guys who perished were in a real mess. Eighty per cent of their body's were covered in burns. Haldane's medical sergeant Dougie Cooper remembers that terrible day. " We were left to pick up the pieces. Napalm burns the skin. When the US planes used it on the North Koreans, we often heard them screaming to die.
...
The survivors, blackened, with skin bursting from the heat, struggled to bring down their dead, dying and wounded. It was too much. Having realized what had happened, the North Koreans charged and one lone Jock arose from the flames taking shots at the North Koreans. Private Watts kept the attackers at a distance and Major Gillies gathered a handful of soldiers and tried to aid Watts. Major Muir, one of the survivors, decided that the charred and smouldering hilltop must be immediately re-occupied.
...
Only some thirty fighting men remained and ammunition was extremely low....With the assistance of the three remaining officers, he immediately formed a small force of some thirty all ranks and personally led a counter-attack on the crest.
...
From this moment on, Major Muir's actions were beyond all possible praise. He was determined the wounded would had adequate time to be taken out and he was just as determined that the enemy would not take the crest. Grossly outnumbered and under heavy automatic fire, Major Muir moved about his small force, redistributing fast diminishing ammunition, and when the ammunition for his own weapon was spent he took over a 2-inch mortar, which he used with very great effect against the enemy. While firing the mortar he was still shouting encouragement's and advice to his men, and for a further five minutes the enemy were held. Finally, Major Muir was hit with two bursts of automatic fire which mortally wounded him, but even then he retained consciousness and was still determined to fight on. His last words were: "The Gooks will never drive the Argylls off this hill."
The effect of his splendid leadership on the men was nothing short of amazing and it was entirely due to his magnificent courage and example and the spirit which he imbued in those about him that all the wounded were evacuated from the hill, and, as was subsequently discovered, very heavy casualties inflicted on the enemy in defense of the crest. - London Gazette, 5th January, 1951.
quoted from:
http://www.britains-smallwars.com/korea/Muirvc.html
http://www.britains-smallwars.com/korea/hill282.html
Now that's a description of British courage. That inspires. Why can't similar deeds by American soldiers be shown?
Quote from: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmoral/articles/20071213.aspx
December 13, 2007: A growing source of discontent in the U.S. military is the Department of Defense policy of not releasing to the public the official descriptions ("narratives") of what soldiers did to receive medals. This especially applies to two of the three highest awards; the Silver Star (number 3) and the Distinguished Service Cross (number 2). There are very few Medals of Honor awarded, and the military does not restrict access to the narratives for these.
You don't have to describe the exact location of the action, nor do you have to publish a detail-by-detail cinematic script accurate enough to make a movie out of it. But please at least provide some description of how brave those people were/are.
In some ways, when you put this out there, it'd be worth more than killing thousands of insurgents. Because without knowing that Americans can be brave, they'll just dismiss it as a matter of firepower and machinery, and not American bravery under fire. The common belief among American enemies and antagonists of America (that includes some communist countries) is that it's machinery and not American moral fiber that holds up the American army. So they keep thinking they can attrition it away (same belief drives the enemies of Israel).
Without putting out some description, the vast majority of the world will only know the American armies (and the courage of the American nation) by the portrayal in the medias, and you know what that is like usually. You complain about it, but this is such a great opportunity to do something about it.
Do you have any idea how glorious it was for Britain's national image, when the men from the Argyll and Highlanders did the bayonet charge in the face of insurgent fire and won the Victoria Cross and the awards of Conspicuous Gallantry
http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2007/05/get-at-em.html
The insurgents are very apt at portraying Americans as negatively as possible. When there are obviously very positive traits the Army (meaning, the military) can show, why hide it as if you were ashamed?
December 13, 2007: A growing source of discontent in the U.S. military is the Department of Defense policy of not releasing to the public the official descriptions ("narratives") of what soldiers did to receive medals. This especially applies to two of the three highest awards; the Silver Star (number 3) and the Distinguished Service Cross (number 2). There are very few Medals of Honor awarded, and the military does not restrict access to the narratives for these.
A growing number of military personnel, and civilians, are pressuring the Department of Defense to change their policy. Some members of Congress are threatening to enact laws to force the release of these narratives. There is currently no law restricting public access to these narratives. The military insist they are keeping the narratives secret in order to protect the privacy of troops receiving these awards, and for operational security (not letting the enemy know of secret military techniques). Active duty troops and veterans generally consider this nonsense, and blame the "cover your ass" attitude in the Pentagon for the policy.
Since September 11, 2001, about 400 military personnel have received Silver Stars and Distinguished Service Crosses. All the military releases is their name, where the heroic event took place and the home town of the recipient. Awards like this have been around since antiquity. The Romans had a number of them, and the point of it all was to publicly honor those who did extraordinary things in combat. Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with reviving the practice in modern times, and he was quick to note that publicizing these things was important. But times have changed, or have they?
Dear Department of Defense,
Please do not underestimate the value of describing heroic actions.
There is no secret in light infantry war, it's all been done over and over again since the fields of Austerlitz and Königgrätz and Gettysburg and Flanders and Ardennes. Besides, even if people read about it, without the caliber of men it's rather difficult to imitate on the battlefield.
If you publicize how these men were awarded the Bronze/Silver star and Distinguished Service Cross, and the world knows how brave American soldiers can be, the insurgents (and just about every other enemies) will think twice before attacking an American formation, because these heroic deeds show that "the spirit of the Alamo is not yet dead" (quoted from"This Kind of War" by T.R. Fehrenbach).
In just about every American war since WWII, the enemy portrayed (and believed) the "Yanks" to be a bunch of do-nothings and that the American armies are made of machines and technology only and the men manning the machines are lacking in every kind of courage and fiber. It affects how indigenous tribes perceive Americans and the kind of support they'd give. It also gives impetus and momentum to every kind of anti-American movement and faction.You don't have to describe the exact location of the action, nor do you have to publish a detail-by-detail cinematic script accurate enough to make a movie out of it. But please at least provide some description of how brave those people were/are.
In some ways, when you put this out there, it'd be worth more than killing thousands of insurgents. Because without knowing that Americans can be brave, they'll just dismiss it as a matter of firepower and machinery, and not American bravery under fire. The common belief among American enemies and antagonists of America (that includes some communist countries) is that it's machinery and not American moral fiber that holds up the American army. So they keep thinking they can attrition it away (same belief drives the enemies of Israel).
Without putting out some description, the vast majority of the world will only know the American armies (and the courage of the American nation) by the portrayal in the medias, and you know what that is like usually. You complain about it, but this is such a great opportunity to do something about it.
Do you have any idea how glorious it was for Britain's national image, when the men from the Argyll and Highlanders did the bayonet charge in the face of insurgent fire and won the Victoria Cross and the awards of Conspicuous Gallantry
http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2007/05/get-at-em.html
The insurgents are very apt at portraying Americans as negatively as possible. When there are obviously very positive traits the Army (meaning, the military) can show, why hide it as if you were ashamed?
Aslan
If the woman wearing the Mecca shirt was in her mind referring to me by saying "she", then I've had another encounter with the devil. If not, then not. Regardless, I'd like to show something that most people don't know or forgot. Since most Americans don't know a bit about other countries, all that they can think of when they think of "Finland" is the latest sordid story out of that country, if ever, but otherwise don't know a thing about it.
Here is the shield of Finland, or national coat of arms or national heraldry:
After seeing this emblem on someone's T-shirt a few weeks ago, I remember it because I loved it so much, not because it's specifically Finn but because of the sheer epitome of courage it exudes. However represented, it's a lion wielding a sword treading a scimitar under its feet.
That by the way will happen sometime between now and eternity. Or, since God is timeless, it already happened, it's just a matter of time separating the now and then.
My God is a He. I am a he. My God lives in me. However you want to see it, either way I am a he. By looking at the outside, I am just a rather frail-looking Asian kid. In the spirit, look at the lion wielding a sword treading a scimitar under its feet, that is what my God is in spirit, that is what I am in spirit. I didn't make myself, He made me so.
Here is the shield of Finland, or national coat of arms or national heraldry:
After seeing this emblem on someone's T-shirt a few weeks ago, I remember it because I loved it so much, not because it's specifically Finn but because of the sheer epitome of courage it exudes. However represented, it's a lion wielding a sword treading a scimitar under its feet.
That by the way will happen sometime between now and eternity. Or, since God is timeless, it already happened, it's just a matter of time separating the now and then.
My God is a He. I am a he. My God lives in me. However you want to see it, either way I am a he. By looking at the outside, I am just a rather frail-looking Asian kid. In the spirit, look at the lion wielding a sword treading a scimitar under its feet, that is what my God is in spirit, that is what I am in spirit. I didn't make myself, He made me so.
Here is something I'd like to comment on:
Page A-12 in New York Times, Wednesday December 12th
Germany: Protest at Zimbabwe slur The Foreign Ministry Summoned Zimbabwe's diplomat in Berlin to protest comments by Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu in a state-controlled newspaper referring to Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "fascist" and "Nazi remnant".
Addressing the diplomat and the Information Minister of Zimbabwe,
Since the article did not quote your original comments in entirety, I have no idea what was the context. Nevertheless, it is unbecoming for a former Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education (source: http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/feb8_2007.html). In other words, Mr. Ndlovu you were the Deputy Minister for University-level education; I would have expected you to have a better idea of the meaning of the "fascist". So I would like to add some words here to educate the world about fascism.
Put it shortly, fascism is a way of industrializing, by a specific way of governing. There are some very specific criteria that must happen in order for a country to be considered fascist. Here are some of them:
(before you read this, I'd add that National-Socialism /Nazi is an extremely virulent and brutal occurrence of fascism, and should not be equated with fascism in general. In other words, in the general population's concept, fascist = Nazi, but that's because they don't read much history. Fascism is usually state and not race centered, and not founded on anti-Semitism)
-One Party rule. In fascist countries there is only one political party, and the opposition parties are banned. There are no free elections.
-The Party almost equivalent with the state. In fascist countries whoever dominates the ruling political party is also head of state (usually for life).
-Very strong and strict central authority. that means pretty much no dissent whatsoever and no freedom of speech or publication or protest, and the nation is ruled by the secret police
-Cult of personality Fascist countries are usually centered around the cult worship of the dictator. That means, the dictator is equivalent to both the party and the state, the dictator's face is everywhere, on every money, every street, every banner, every slogan, etc. The dictator is elevated into mythical and god level.
-State armed and Party armed forces. There is the army of the state and then there is the political soldiers of the party, loyal to the party only. In Third Reich it was the Wehrmacht, and SS/Gestapo. In Italy it was the Italian Army and the Squadristi. In Franco's Spain it was Spanish Army and the Falange. In Saddam's Iraq (yes, don't be shocked, just look at most of the criteria) it was Iraqi Army and Iraqi Republican Guard.
(- again, these are very different occurrence of the fascism and I am not equating them by any means -)
-Mass mobilization of the population In fascist countries because of the very centralized system of ruling, the population are massively organized (usually for labor and industry). The huge rallies of the Third Reich as seen in "Triumph of the Will" is an example of mass mobilization
-Irredentism Usually fascism happen in a country after it lost a war and some land, and the people see hope of national revival in the mass organization and cult worship of the leader
-Promise/Worship of future glory Usually fascist ideology in a country is centered on immense glory of the party/nation/people (yep, they all become equivalent)
-Heavy rhetoric of sacrifice in the present in order to salvage the future glory (which usually includes irredentism) That is something that all fascist countries have in common.
-Fascism as an earthly (and ungodly) religion Fascism prescribes the reason to live: for the Fuhrer/Duce/Caudillo/El Commandante etc. Fascism also provides the way to transcend death (which makes it a religion): after you die for the cause, the cause/nation/people/Party/dictator lives on because you died for it. So in a sense "you" live on in the cause/
dictator/nation/people/Party. It's a rather very perverted distortion of the Gospel.
And all of the things mentioned above helps a poor country to organize and industrialize. Industrialization takes a lot of organization and labor. Britain took some two hundred years to industrialize. Germany did it in two decades. How? By mass organization, very strict central control and the appeal of sacrifice in order to redeem the nation from its loss at war and the constant promise of future glory, a lebensraum in the East.
And another thing, take all the word "fascist" and change it to "communist", and every one of it would be true.
Yes, all the communist countries were/are fascist in practice. Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Germany both match all the criteria above, and Stalin was so irredentist as to want all the Slavic lands, lol.
Where did I learn all this? From Professor Alex James Gregor, Political Science Department, University of California, Berkeley. One of my favorite professors and one of the finest minds in the world ever, and, among the best of the world's scholars on history of fascist movements.
Read his "The Faces of Janus" and "Interpretations of Fascism".
I took his class, Polisci 137A, Revolutionary Change (or something like that). And even though it was like probably 3 or 4 years ago by now, since I took it like first semester of junior year or something like that, I still remember how great of lecturer he was. And everything above is what I remember from the notes in class.
In other words, Mr. Ndlovu, in order for someone to be a Deputy Minister of Higher Education, the person also needs to be educated at the Higher Education level. And in order for someone to be Information Minister, the person also needs to be well informed, not only about the personal lives and repression and sufferings of all the dissidents in the country, but also about History and peoples of the world.
The current Bundesrepublik is neither fascist nor does it practice the extreme kind of fascism called National Socialism. Please look at the criteria and compare. There is plenty of freedom of speech in Germany and dissident can freely organize and speak. There are many political parties sharing power. There are no armed militia (i.e. CDU stormtroopers) flying the flag of the Christian Democratic Union marching in the streets and swearing allegiance of life-or-death to the CDU Party. CDU Party is by no means equivalent with German state. The German population cannot be mobilized by the millions, etc. etc. etc. In fact, they are going the other extreme, and somehow think that mere nationalism is distasteful. If loving one's country is eating healthily, fascism is eating till you're obese, and Nazism is eating till you die, the current attitude of many Germans is more like totally refraining from eating, which is also very unhealthy.
In other words, there is nothing that can be compared to fascism either in America, or overall in all of Europe. For one thing, all past examples of fascism happened in the 20th century when a country was going through rapid industrialization, and most European countries are industrialized already with abundance political freedom and in term of popular attitudes they are about as diametrically opposite to anything fascist as possible.
Your country though, even though there is no mass mobilization and massive rallies (perhaps because most of the people are too starved?), the ZANU-PF Party is the only party in power and, as far as Iread, treats the opposition with brutal repression. There is seemingly also a monopoly of one viewpoint on all media outlets.
Complete control: Music and propaganda in Zimbabwe
http://www.freemuse.org/sw7086.asp
ZBC now only for Zanu PF propaganda
http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/opin/040725pw.asp?sector=OPIN
Zimbabwe NGOs inconvenient to totalitarian project
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/mthuli10.12001.html
http://zimpundit.blogspot.com/
The IMF predicted inflation will reach 6,430% by the end of 2008
On June 21, 2007, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, told The Guardian newspaper that inflation could reach 1.5 million per cent (1,500,000%) by the end of the year. The current unofficial inflation rate is above 11,000% and the black-market exchange rate is Z$3,650,000 to the pound.
The country has 80% formal unemployment rate.
!!!
I also read that your country was the breadbasket of South part of Africa and exported grain. Now agriculture is almost nothing and people don't have enough to eat, because of your communist land policies. Haven't you read about The Great Leap Forward (into famine) ? Are you trying to repeat it or what?
http://www.travelindustrydeals.com/news/5141
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/airzim40.17099.html
I don't really know what to say since I don't know much about this. But I seriously recommend looking at how the country was prosperous before and listen to the opposition party. By the way, Mugabe messed up the country, but none of you are openly criticizing him. You turn on the countries of Europe who are like a continent away. It's a bit like the Palestinian Arabs getting screwed by the other Arabs but they blame Israel because it's politically incorrect to blame other Arabs.
I haven't read much on the subject. And your country definitely doesn't match most of the fascism criteria. But overall Mugabe's regime is much much closer to fascism compared to Germany which is like a mile away. So please use the word "fascist" appropriately, and do not use it as a synonym with "annoying", (and same with Nazi/National-Socialism), especially considering your titles.
Up to you to consider whether you'd apologize to the German government.
Page A-12 in New York Times, Wednesday December 12th
Germany: Protest at Zimbabwe slur The Foreign Ministry Summoned Zimbabwe's diplomat in Berlin to protest comments by Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu in a state-controlled newspaper referring to Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "fascist" and "Nazi remnant".
Addressing the diplomat and the Information Minister of Zimbabwe,
Since the article did not quote your original comments in entirety, I have no idea what was the context. Nevertheless, it is unbecoming for a former Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education (source: http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/feb8_2007.html). In other words, Mr. Ndlovu you were the Deputy Minister for University-level education; I would have expected you to have a better idea of the meaning of the "fascist". So I would like to add some words here to educate the world about fascism.
Put it shortly, fascism is a way of industrializing, by a specific way of governing. There are some very specific criteria that must happen in order for a country to be considered fascist. Here are some of them:
(before you read this, I'd add that National-Socialism /Nazi is an extremely virulent and brutal occurrence of fascism, and should not be equated with fascism in general. In other words, in the general population's concept, fascist = Nazi, but that's because they don't read much history. Fascism is usually state and not race centered, and not founded on anti-Semitism)
-One Party rule. In fascist countries there is only one political party, and the opposition parties are banned. There are no free elections.
-The Party almost equivalent with the state. In fascist countries whoever dominates the ruling political party is also head of state (usually for life).
-Very strong and strict central authority. that means pretty much no dissent whatsoever and no freedom of speech or publication or protest, and the nation is ruled by the secret police
-Cult of personality Fascist countries are usually centered around the cult worship of the dictator. That means, the dictator is equivalent to both the party and the state, the dictator's face is everywhere, on every money, every street, every banner, every slogan, etc. The dictator is elevated into mythical and god level.
-State armed and Party armed forces. There is the army of the state and then there is the political soldiers of the party, loyal to the party only. In Third Reich it was the Wehrmacht, and SS/Gestapo. In Italy it was the Italian Army and the Squadristi. In Franco's Spain it was Spanish Army and the Falange. In Saddam's Iraq (yes, don't be shocked, just look at most of the criteria) it was Iraqi Army and Iraqi Republican Guard.
(- again, these are very different occurrence of the fascism and I am not equating them by any means -)
-Mass mobilization of the population In fascist countries because of the very centralized system of ruling, the population are massively organized (usually for labor and industry). The huge rallies of the Third Reich as seen in "Triumph of the Will" is an example of mass mobilization
-Irredentism Usually fascism happen in a country after it lost a war and some land, and the people see hope of national revival in the mass organization and cult worship of the leader
-Promise/Worship of future glory Usually fascist ideology in a country is centered on immense glory of the party/nation/people (yep, they all become equivalent)
-Heavy rhetoric of sacrifice in the present in order to salvage the future glory (which usually includes irredentism) That is something that all fascist countries have in common.
-Fascism as an earthly (and ungodly) religion Fascism prescribes the reason to live: for the Fuhrer/Duce/Caudillo/El Commandante etc. Fascism also provides the way to transcend death (which makes it a religion): after you die for the cause, the cause/nation/people/Party/dictator lives on because you died for it. So in a sense "you" live on in the cause/
dictator/nation/people/Party. It's a rather very perverted distortion of the Gospel.
And all of the things mentioned above helps a poor country to organize and industrialize. Industrialization takes a lot of organization and labor. Britain took some two hundred years to industrialize. Germany did it in two decades. How? By mass organization, very strict central control and the appeal of sacrifice in order to redeem the nation from its loss at war and the constant promise of future glory, a lebensraum in the East.
And another thing, take all the word "fascist" and change it to "communist", and every one of it would be true.
Yes, all the communist countries were/are fascist in practice. Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Germany both match all the criteria above, and Stalin was so irredentist as to want all the Slavic lands, lol.
Where did I learn all this? From Professor Alex James Gregor, Political Science Department, University of California, Berkeley. One of my favorite professors and one of the finest minds in the world ever, and, among the best of the world's scholars on history of fascist movements.
Read his "The Faces of Janus" and "Interpretations of Fascism".
I took his class, Polisci 137A, Revolutionary Change (or something like that). And even though it was like probably 3 or 4 years ago by now, since I took it like first semester of junior year or something like that, I still remember how great of lecturer he was. And everything above is what I remember from the notes in class.
In other words, Mr. Ndlovu, in order for someone to be a Deputy Minister of Higher Education, the person also needs to be educated at the Higher Education level. And in order for someone to be Information Minister, the person also needs to be well informed, not only about the personal lives and repression and sufferings of all the dissidents in the country, but also about History and peoples of the world.
The current Bundesrepublik is neither fascist nor does it practice the extreme kind of fascism called National Socialism. Please look at the criteria and compare. There is plenty of freedom of speech in Germany and dissident can freely organize and speak. There are many political parties sharing power. There are no armed militia (i.e. CDU stormtroopers) flying the flag of the Christian Democratic Union marching in the streets and swearing allegiance of life-or-death to the CDU Party. CDU Party is by no means equivalent with German state. The German population cannot be mobilized by the millions, etc. etc. etc. In fact, they are going the other extreme, and somehow think that mere nationalism is distasteful. If loving one's country is eating healthily, fascism is eating till you're obese, and Nazism is eating till you die, the current attitude of many Germans is more like totally refraining from eating, which is also very unhealthy.
In other words, there is nothing that can be compared to fascism either in America, or overall in all of Europe. For one thing, all past examples of fascism happened in the 20th century when a country was going through rapid industrialization, and most European countries are industrialized already with abundance political freedom and in term of popular attitudes they are about as diametrically opposite to anything fascist as possible.
Your country though, even though there is no mass mobilization and massive rallies (perhaps because most of the people are too starved?), the ZANU-PF Party is the only party in power and, as far as Iread, treats the opposition with brutal repression. There is seemingly also a monopoly of one viewpoint on all media outlets.
Complete control: Music and propaganda in Zimbabwe
http://www.freemuse.org/sw7086.asp
ZBC now only for Zanu PF propaganda
http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/opin/040725pw.asp?sector=OPIN
Zimbabwe NGOs inconvenient to totalitarian project
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/mthuli10.12001.html
http://zimpundit.blogspot.com/
The IMF predicted inflation will reach 6,430% by the end of 2008
On June 21, 2007, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, told The Guardian newspaper that inflation could reach 1.5 million per cent (1,500,000%) by the end of the year. The current unofficial inflation rate is above 11,000% and the black-market exchange rate is Z$3,650,000 to the pound.
The country has 80% formal unemployment rate.
!!!
I also read that your country was the breadbasket of South part of Africa and exported grain. Now agriculture is almost nothing and people don't have enough to eat, because of your communist land policies. Haven't you read about The Great Leap Forward (into famine) ? Are you trying to repeat it or what?
http://www.travelindustrydeals.com/news/5141
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/airzim40.17099.html
I don't really know what to say since I don't know much about this. But I seriously recommend looking at how the country was prosperous before and listen to the opposition party. By the way, Mugabe messed up the country, but none of you are openly criticizing him. You turn on the countries of Europe who are like a continent away. It's a bit like the Palestinian Arabs getting screwed by the other Arabs but they blame Israel because it's politically incorrect to blame other Arabs.
I haven't read much on the subject. And your country definitely doesn't match most of the fascism criteria. But overall Mugabe's regime is much much closer to fascism compared to Germany which is like a mile away. So please use the word "fascist" appropriately, and do not use it as a synonym with "annoying", (and same with Nazi/National-Socialism), especially considering your titles.
Up to you to consider whether you'd apologize to the German government.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Your excellency Honorable President of the United States:
Regarding the current war in Iraq (I am strictly referring to the military conflict in the geographical region of Iraq without making metaphors), it is certainly not pleasant, and there were many unexpected situations and circumstances arising. However, it is the first major military campaigning we have done since the war in Southeast Asia a generation ago.
One way or another, this war must be "won", in whichever way victory is defined. If winning over all the Sunni tribes is victory, then that is victory. If making a loose federal system or making three countries is victory, then that is victory. If making a limited democracy with a strong central leadership in order to hold the country-which-wasn't-meant-to-be-a-country-except-the-British-drew-lines
-on-a-map-after-defeating-the-Ottomans together is victory, then that is victory. Even when all the American troops leave, the Iraqi government and Iraqi army must be something that holds itself together. If you don't think the Iraqis can hold themselves together, if making a loose federal system or complete independent countries out of Iraq would make so that those entities hold themselves and prosper, then that would be something to consider as well. Anything except the Somali scenario -i.e. no state at all, warlords and famine-, the Lebanon scenario -i.e. the bad part of Lebanon - the good part is the prosperity in some area - the bad part is that the government can barely function and is helpless in some areas of the country, the Iran scenario -i.e. a rule by clerics only and "wiping Israel off the map". Any of these outcomes would a gigantic blow upon our armed forces and add shadows of some kind unto the national consciousness of the people that would take a long time to generate again. Iraq going through any of these possibilities would also be a great cataclysm upon the entire region.
Even though you are being pressured to withdraw troops, (and I will blatantly write it here) you can increase the number of armed contractors at the same time (but make sure they do the fighting fairly with no sordid shooting in all directions as I read about, lest they do the opposite of winning over the Iraqis). The media never counts the number of contractors, nor do they register in the public consciousness. Maybe in the next major military campaign, but not this one.
It's just something that occurred to my thoughts today. It's a way you can withdraw some troops without altering the firepower of the armed contingent in Iraq. The point is not to keep the war going, but to fight a holding skirmish till the Iraqi army can stand on its own, say trained to the same level of expertise as it was when it did the combat crossing of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway nearly thirty years ago. From what I read in a magazine, that was quite some level of expertise at that point. When they stand on their own they'll secure all the country (I am not talking about fighting Iran in any way, only in securing the country). That's all.
P.S.
Extending the war into Iran wouldn't be so great, since the majority of Iranians aren't so enthusiastic about Ahmadinejad. Unless Iran is about to make a bomb or do a nuclear strike (then gosh go all in) it would be more efficient, in terms of both human resources, economic resources and political resources, to try to help out and encourage reform groups within Iran first, and consider war options as a second.
And if you can, please ask the Europeans to not sell weapons to China. For one thing it then provides weapons to some of the most distasteful regimes. For another, it is not a great government to arm by any mean, and someday those projectiles will strike American ships and aircrafts, or European ones. I think that's already happening on the Iranian border, though the weapons are Chinese weapons and not European weapons, provided to Iran.
Regarding the current war in Iraq (I am strictly referring to the military conflict in the geographical region of Iraq without making metaphors), it is certainly not pleasant, and there were many unexpected situations and circumstances arising. However, it is the first major military campaigning we have done since the war in Southeast Asia a generation ago.
One way or another, this war must be "won", in whichever way victory is defined. If winning over all the Sunni tribes is victory, then that is victory. If making a loose federal system or making three countries is victory, then that is victory. If making a limited democracy with a strong central leadership in order to hold the country-which-wasn't-meant-to-be-a-country-except-the-British-drew-lines
-on-a-map-after-defeating-the-Ottomans together is victory, then that is victory. Even when all the American troops leave, the Iraqi government and Iraqi army must be something that holds itself together. If you don't think the Iraqis can hold themselves together, if making a loose federal system or complete independent countries out of Iraq would make so that those entities hold themselves and prosper, then that would be something to consider as well. Anything except the Somali scenario -i.e. no state at all, warlords and famine-, the Lebanon scenario -i.e. the bad part of Lebanon - the good part is the prosperity in some area - the bad part is that the government can barely function and is helpless in some areas of the country, the Iran scenario -i.e. a rule by clerics only and "wiping Israel off the map". Any of these outcomes would a gigantic blow upon our armed forces and add shadows of some kind unto the national consciousness of the people that would take a long time to generate again. Iraq going through any of these possibilities would also be a great cataclysm upon the entire region.
Even though you are being pressured to withdraw troops, (and I will blatantly write it here) you can increase the number of armed contractors at the same time (but make sure they do the fighting fairly with no sordid shooting in all directions as I read about, lest they do the opposite of winning over the Iraqis). The media never counts the number of contractors, nor do they register in the public consciousness. Maybe in the next major military campaign, but not this one.
It's just something that occurred to my thoughts today. It's a way you can withdraw some troops without altering the firepower of the armed contingent in Iraq. The point is not to keep the war going, but to fight a holding skirmish till the Iraqi army can stand on its own, say trained to the same level of expertise as it was when it did the combat crossing of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway nearly thirty years ago. From what I read in a magazine, that was quite some level of expertise at that point. When they stand on their own they'll secure all the country (I am not talking about fighting Iran in any way, only in securing the country). That's all.
P.S.
Extending the war into Iran wouldn't be so great, since the majority of Iranians aren't so enthusiastic about Ahmadinejad. Unless Iran is about to make a bomb or do a nuclear strike (then gosh go all in) it would be more efficient, in terms of both human resources, economic resources and political resources, to try to help out and encourage reform groups within Iran first, and consider war options as a second.
And if you can, please ask the Europeans to not sell weapons to China. For one thing it then provides weapons to some of the most distasteful regimes. For another, it is not a great government to arm by any mean, and someday those projectiles will strike American ships and aircrafts, or European ones. I think that's already happening on the Iranian border, though the weapons are Chinese weapons and not European weapons, provided to Iran.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Today saw most of the movie Exodus, which was made several decades ago, but there is something of very high quality about the screenwriting and cinematography of that era; so even though the "graphics" of the movie are not comparable to very recent ones and there was no large scale battles with special effects (i.e. Pearl Harbor, which pretty much only had that to prop it up as a movie), it still conveyed a sense of epic setting. Hollywood of that era was very solid and rich in substance.
It's also the first time I ever see a movie made about Israel at the era of independence. It's excellent reference material that I will keep in mind.
Exodus was made from the novel written by Leon Uris title "Exodus", description of Leon Uris says "known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels". I want to write books like that, and I want to make movies like the ones made from books like that.
Now I just have to read one of his books.
By looks, Miss World should have been one of these
Jóhanna Vala JÓNSDÓTTIR, of Iceland, who is charming and breathtaking in many ways, and from a country whose mere name is romantic and mysterious,
even these runner-ups are prettier than what I am about to mention later, and these are runner-ups from a country of three hundred thousand.
Tadeja TERNAR, Slovenia
And here are some finalists/runner-ups from Slovenia:
Christine Reiler, of Osterreich, whom I remembered by the facial features actually, out of all the people I looked at:
Tatiana Kotova, Rus:
(notice even the runner-ups of the Miss Russia contest, there are the runner-ups)
Caroline Pemberton, Australia:
Aikaterini Evangelinou, Greece
Line Kruuse, Dansk:
Annie Oliv, Svenska:
Melissa Patton, Albion and Erin:
Lisa-Mari Moen Jünge, Norge
Giada Wiltshire, Italia
Rachel Legrain-Trapani, France:
Veronika HUSÁROVÁ, Slovakia
OK, I could add many other girls who weren't in the competition.
But for the sake of comparing, this is kept within all the candidates in the competition.
This is the previous Miss World, Tatiana Kucharova, from Czech Republic:
This is the current Miss World:
!?
And the best PR picture looks like this:
Granted, it looks better than some of the other contestants, but still not compared with the other countries mentioned above (Austria's girl ended up in the semi finalist only, and Sweden's girl who is also pretty but maybe a slight tad less than the girl from Austria, ended up in finalist.....OK, the others didn't even make it into the semifinalist)
However, I also don't know the selection process. Maybe there is talent and a lot of other things involved. However, by facial look, just about all the girls I listed are facially better built and way better built than the, as of now, Miss World. Which isn't to say she isn't pretty, she is, but not the prettiest. And by body, I haven't even seen but I don't think there is need of comparing.
I hope that in future competitions, Miss World will be chosen by scale of beauty, and gosh hopefully not swayed by some kind of political statement ahead of some Olympic Games (it occurred to think of it, but I hope not) when the Chinese communist government is beating the **** out of people both for believing in Jesus and for many other reasons and because some peasants' land are in the way of building buildings for the Olympics and where there is no law and order really except by corruption (think America's faults times a hundred or a thousand times worse)
End of my very direct and unhumble comments.
And here is to the Chinese underground church of some over one hundred million by now: even though I have nothing good to say about the Chinese communists, I remember your suffering and I have not forgotten about you. Hold on unto Jesus, do not fear death nor any kind of persecution because Jesus is worth all that and much more. As soon as God wills me to be able, I will try my best to do something about all the suffering that is happening to you, as is happening elsewhere in the Third World. Even though my life is rather terrible in many ways, it is still rather OK compared to the deep **** that is going on with people getting killed, limbs chopped off, machetes swung at them etc. But they did not deny Christ.
Do not be discouraged, if atheist heathen communists can stand up for their atheist heathen communist faith, how much more can you stand up for the eternal life.
I am overall not a very good Christian. In fact I am a rather very terrible Christian. But I read about your fiery struggles, and I have not forgotten about you. You are some of the bravest people on earth and in heaven, though mostly barely literate or illiterate and having nothing.
even these runner-ups are prettier than what I am about to mention later, and these are runner-ups from a country of three hundred thousand.
Tadeja TERNAR, Slovenia
And here are some finalists/runner-ups from Slovenia:
Christine Reiler, of Osterreich, whom I remembered by the facial features actually, out of all the people I looked at:
Tatiana Kotova, Rus:
(notice even the runner-ups of the Miss Russia contest, there are the runner-ups)
Caroline Pemberton, Australia:
Aikaterini Evangelinou, Greece
Line Kruuse, Dansk:
Annie Oliv, Svenska:
Melissa Patton, Albion and Erin:
Lisa-Mari Moen Jünge, Norge
Giada Wiltshire, Italia
Rachel Legrain-Trapani, France:
Veronika HUSÁROVÁ, Slovakia
OK, I could add many other girls who weren't in the competition.
But for the sake of comparing, this is kept within all the candidates in the competition.
This is the previous Miss World, Tatiana Kucharova, from Czech Republic:
This is the current Miss World:
!?
And the best PR picture looks like this:
Granted, it looks better than some of the other contestants, but still not compared with the other countries mentioned above (Austria's girl ended up in the semi finalist only, and Sweden's girl who is also pretty but maybe a slight tad less than the girl from Austria, ended up in finalist.....OK, the others didn't even make it into the semifinalist)
However, I also don't know the selection process. Maybe there is talent and a lot of other things involved. However, by facial look, just about all the girls I listed are facially better built and way better built than the, as of now, Miss World. Which isn't to say she isn't pretty, she is, but not the prettiest. And by body, I haven't even seen but I don't think there is need of comparing.
I hope that in future competitions, Miss World will be chosen by scale of beauty, and gosh hopefully not swayed by some kind of political statement ahead of some Olympic Games (it occurred to think of it, but I hope not) when the Chinese communist government is beating the **** out of people both for believing in Jesus and for many other reasons and because some peasants' land are in the way of building buildings for the Olympics and where there is no law and order really except by corruption (think America's faults times a hundred or a thousand times worse)
End of my very direct and unhumble comments.
And here is to the Chinese underground church of some over one hundred million by now: even though I have nothing good to say about the Chinese communists, I remember your suffering and I have not forgotten about you. Hold on unto Jesus, do not fear death nor any kind of persecution because Jesus is worth all that and much more. As soon as God wills me to be able, I will try my best to do something about all the suffering that is happening to you, as is happening elsewhere in the Third World. Even though my life is rather terrible in many ways, it is still rather OK compared to the deep **** that is going on with people getting killed, limbs chopped off, machetes swung at them etc. But they did not deny Christ.
Do not be discouraged, if atheist heathen communists can stand up for their atheist heathen communist faith, how much more can you stand up for the eternal life.
I am overall not a very good Christian. In fact I am a rather very terrible Christian. But I read about your fiery struggles, and I have not forgotten about you. You are some of the bravest people on earth and in heaven, though mostly barely literate or illiterate and having nothing.
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