One of the better commentaries I've read about Julian Assange and Wikileaks so far:
http://www.torontosun.com/blogs/al_parker/2010/12/03/16424376.html
If you're too lazy to click on that link / read the whole thing, I particularly like point 1:
1. I've seen a lot of stuff in the WikiLeaks document releases that makes sense, that shows American diplomats seem to have a fairly good real-politik handle on what's going on in their spheres of interest. I have seen nothing that surprised me. The only thing that shocks me is the disconnect between what the U.S. diplomatic despatches are saying and what the American establishment - and I guess the American people - want to pretend the various situations are. Fantasyland is a dangerous place to carry on legitimate discourse and make relevant, realistic decisions.
Indeed, I think Alan Parker hits the spot here (and sets a good stage for the rest of his article to follow). Was there anything really surprising about the statements revealed by Wikileaks? A seasoned political scientist following in the tradition of realism will in fact say that the discourse unearthed is predictable (and maybe even effective - would've scored an A+ in the tradition of state/sovereign self-preservation). What gets everyone, though, is either some feeling of hypocrisy or the refusal to believe that those things are actually being said. Hypocrisy because the US government keeps doing things like claiming that their involvement in the Middle East is driven by justice when quite obviously it's not, and a refusal to accept what has been said/found because people clearly have an inconsistent notion of what the US stands for (or should be doing) versus what the US actually is doing.
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Sunday, 11 December 2005
Anyway, on one occasion when we were mounting duty, my Whiskey crew and I decided to all load the vehicle and head down to the tower. The thing is that not everyone is entitled to taking the vehicle - apparently the old CO never wanted to indent vehicles for us (coz he thinks we should be garang but stupid), but after much fighting for rights and shit the bigwigs of CDS just short of CO relented and got us vehicles, on condition that not everyone gets a free ride.
Which is obviously very stupid, since there's enough remaining space to make you feel like an idiot after only two out of the four crew gets on and you realise you have to walk 2km to Whiskey with your SBO and rifle. So we decided to all hop on, and when we reached Whiskey tower the DSC on duty that day promptly caught us for questioning and later gave us a stern warning.
If you've played Advance Wars on the GBA you'll know about the APV and it's usefulness in transporting infantry troops. Qinhong and I mused that if the CO you chose for the mission was LTC Kuet, if you tried to click on your troops to shift them into the APV, you can't. He just won't let the men load the vehicle. Haha. And if you used his 'CO power' your army will lose mobility and walk in the opposite direction (because of his infamous inability to convey messages properly and his tendency to instil uncertainty in his own men) and murals will sprout from the ground...
Recently, a couple of American warships docked at our wharf so we had an opportunity to interact with some of the American naval personnel who were doing watch at Whiskey (they're known as LOs, L-something officers, and they just do basic watch duties over their ship), and I've had a couple of interesting conversations. There was this dude who stayed in L.A. but he didn't like the glitzy culture there because everyone acted like they were crazy for fame and attention due to it being the home of Hollywood. He claimed his ex-girlfriend even had a part in the movie The Dukes Of Hazzard, where she played one of the sorority girls who held the door open for the main actor or something like that. Everyone there's fighting for a shot at the big time. Then he added stoicly that perhaps one day if she really made it to the big screen at least he could say, "oh you see that actress? I used to date her." lol.
If they weren't asking about the local places of interest, they'd be talking about their experiences out at sea - most of which were seemingly pretty much numbing journeys and tales of homesickness. Especially in the submarines; you had to be special or you'd go insane. Many of them are young sailors who signed on because of the comparatively more lucrative nature of the job and its scholarship opportunities.
Other times, we just patronised and humoured them. One American pointed out that he never understood why alot of the world doesn't like the United States coz he said that the US does more than its fair share and contributes alot to poor countries. To which Qinhong irritatedly pointed out (not in his presence of course) that the bloke didn't realise the proportions of their donations (somewhat like according to their donation to GDP ratio, which is pathetic) are miserable in comparison to that of much smaller countries, so they presume that like, America donating $5m is a much nobler sum than say, Singapore donating $1m. Shrugs.
Which is obviously very stupid, since there's enough remaining space to make you feel like an idiot after only two out of the four crew gets on and you realise you have to walk 2km to Whiskey with your SBO and rifle. So we decided to all hop on, and when we reached Whiskey tower the DSC on duty that day promptly caught us for questioning and later gave us a stern warning.
If you've played Advance Wars on the GBA you'll know about the APV and it's usefulness in transporting infantry troops. Qinhong and I mused that if the CO you chose for the mission was LTC Kuet, if you tried to click on your troops to shift them into the APV, you can't. He just won't let the men load the vehicle. Haha. And if you used his 'CO power' your army will lose mobility and walk in the opposite direction (because of his infamous inability to convey messages properly and his tendency to instil uncertainty in his own men) and murals will sprout from the ground...
Recently, a couple of American warships docked at our wharf so we had an opportunity to interact with some of the American naval personnel who were doing watch at Whiskey (they're known as LOs, L-something officers, and they just do basic watch duties over their ship), and I've had a couple of interesting conversations. There was this dude who stayed in L.A. but he didn't like the glitzy culture there because everyone acted like they were crazy for fame and attention due to it being the home of Hollywood. He claimed his ex-girlfriend even had a part in the movie The Dukes Of Hazzard, where she played one of the sorority girls who held the door open for the main actor or something like that. Everyone there's fighting for a shot at the big time. Then he added stoicly that perhaps one day if she really made it to the big screen at least he could say, "oh you see that actress? I used to date her." lol.
If they weren't asking about the local places of interest, they'd be talking about their experiences out at sea - most of which were seemingly pretty much numbing journeys and tales of homesickness. Especially in the submarines; you had to be special or you'd go insane. Many of them are young sailors who signed on because of the comparatively more lucrative nature of the job and its scholarship opportunities.
Other times, we just patronised and humoured them. One American pointed out that he never understood why alot of the world doesn't like the United States coz he said that the US does more than its fair share and contributes alot to poor countries. To which Qinhong irritatedly pointed out (not in his presence of course) that the bloke didn't realise the proportions of their donations (somewhat like according to their donation to GDP ratio, which is pathetic) are miserable in comparison to that of much smaller countries, so they presume that like, America donating $5m is a much nobler sum than say, Singapore donating $1m. Shrugs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
