Far East Cynic

There is an incredibly tragic photo that is making the rounds of the papers and the blogosphere the last couple of days. Taken by reporter Michael Yon, embedded with a US unit in Iraq. It shows an American soldier holding a girl who has been mortally wounded in a suicide bombing. Its heartbreaking:

This is a totally senseless tragedy. And as many have pointed out, the folks who planned and promoted this attack have to be hunted down and killed without mercy. And hope that there is a special place in hell for criminals who would “drive THROUGH A GROUP OF PLAYING CHILDREN to get to the passing convoy of Stryker’s“.(text from CDR Salamander)

This is disturbing stuff indeed.

I am a little troubled, however, by the spin some conservative pundits and reporters are putting on it though. Some of the usual suspects are dredging up the Pulitzer Prize controversy again and also taking the opportunity to show how this photo somehow “Proves what is so good about our soldiers and why we are so different.” and it also proves that the main stream media are biased against American soldiers because they won’t run the photo or recognize it for a Pulitzer prize.

Perhaps there is a different way to view this:

a) American Soldiers are better and America is great. That does not require proof, the same way one does not require proof that the sun shines. You look up in the sky and you see it. You see American Soldiers, Sailors, airmen, and Marines and you see clearly American compassion, generosity, selflessness, willingness to go the extra mile and do what is right. Its a given. No matter what one’s opinion of the Iraq war is ( and mine has been well stated elsewhere in this blog), the Americans and the British are the good guys. Always will be.

b) As for the media, well I think the photo has appeared everywhere, even in so called liberal outlets.

What the picture highlights to me, how truly senseless, tragic, and wasteful war is. A soldier, far from his home, his family, his real life, is trying to lend comfort to a helpless victim of totally senseless violence. To me this photo is every bit as tragic as this one:

Memorial for Stephen Curtis Kennedy , killed while trying to save a man during an ambush.

It is all tragic and we have to find a saner way to run our planet. Somehow the damn Muslims need to figure that out. Or to paraphrase Herman Wouk:

[These events] stand as a monument to the subhuman stupidity of
warfare in our age of science and industry. War has always been a violent blind man’s bluff played with soldiers lives and nations resources. But the time for it is over. As the race has outgrown human sacrifice, human slavery, and dueling, it has to outgrow war…..The silliness of it all would be slapstick if it were not so
tragic.
Yet granting all that what alternative to was there but to fight and win? Cain was Able’s neighbor. That is the crack we are in, and still are.
I have no answer to this dilemma, and I will not live to see it resolved. I honor the young men of our Armed Forces who must man machinery of hideous potential, in a profession despised and feared by their fellow countrymen (He wrote this in the 70′s…Today it may not be so despised, but it is still woefully misunderstood). I honor them to my very soul and they have my [respect and] sympathy. …
As long as their are belligerent fools or villains on the earth who consider [war and violence] an optional policy, what can free men to do but confront them with what we met Adolf Hitler and the Japanese in World War II with—daunting force and self sacrificing brave spirits ready to yield it?
If the hope is not the coming of the Prince of Peace, it has to be in their hearts most people, even the most fanatical and boneheaded [Muslims], love their children and don’t want them to come to harm…….The future now seems to depend on that grim assumption. Either war is finished or we are.

(Paraphrased from War and Remembrance)

The followers of Islam need to be made to understand this…or if they can’t then its time to do away with them and their stupid ideas. Seeing that photo made me angry and it still makes me angry. Thanks for letting me vent.

Skippy-san

Subscribe in a reader

Skippy and his friend heading for the bar:

After all, he needs a drink after contemplating the lovely Keiko-san

As Expat at Large would say: “And by “date,” I mean “have sex with.” You should check out his post on the subject of Bra Models.

Speaking of Expat Adventures, be sure to check out Spike’s birthday post over at Hongkie Town. Any man that can host his ex wife in town and get the “x” out on the same day, is my hero!

Meanwhile, over in India, a defendent in a rape case tried an novel defense. Offer to marry the victim.. Funny, for some strange reason she said no. In fact, she rather harshly, “want him to get the severest punishment. I want him to be hanged so that it will be a lesson for all rapists,” the 22-year-old woman told a television news channel. ( Must have spent a summer in the USA at feminist camp.). Maybe it had something to with the fact that not only did he rape her, but he gouged her eye out. Interestingly enough, the court adjourned with out pronouncing a sentence. What else is there to discuss?

Back here in Japan, NHK has yet another sex scandal to deal with. The director of the popular program “Eigo de Shabera Naito” ???????????, Can you speak English?) Shima Hiroyuki (39) was arrested on Tuesday for molesting a 16-year old high school girl on a train in Kanagawa Prefecture. He was apprehended by a 17-year old boy from a different high school and handed to police. He has denied the charges. This is the second sex scandal at NHK in about as many months. He better keep his hands off the hostess, Yumiko Shaku (????) , she’s saving herself for me, I’m sure:

(The Lovely Yumiko)

After all? I watch that show.

Meanwhile, down in Nagoya at the Expo, the authorities there are:

Cracking “down hard to stop Aichi 2005 from turning into a world sexpo, according to Shukan Gendai (4/30). Aichi’s World Expo has been beset by a number of problems since opening on March 25, including a ban on home made foods, long lines and fewer than expected paying visitors.

But it has, according to the men’s weekly, also been affected by cross-cultural relations that have proved to be a bit too harmonious.

“It is only an internal matter, but expo organizers are treading extremely carefully to make sure that no troubles arise concerning the sexes,” an Expo insider tells Shukan Gendai.

What could go wrong?

“Couples are forming all over the place. Not just among Japanese, but amongst foreigners as well. Apparently really hitting it off well are a lot of guys from Islamic countries and women from South America,” the employee says. “These South American women are getting around in skimpy little thongs and costumes that barely cover their nipples while grinding their hips and dancing the samba, surprising the hell out of the guys from Islamic countries. Watching the dances apparently gets their pulses racing. It looks as though these women have no qualms about exposing plenty of skin in front of others.”

I’ll have to check this out when I go there next month. Thank goodness we are at the bar, I need a beer:

Hey, if other people can post pictures of their pets every week, then I can post about my two favorite things: women and beer.

Subscribe in a reader

David Hackworth is dead. He died in Mexico while undergoing treatment for cancer. He was 74 years old and his cancer was a form of cancer now appearing with increasing frequency among Vietnam veterans exposed to the defoliants called Agents Orange and Blue.

Throughout his life David Hackworth was a controversial figure. I have a link to his Soldiers for Truth web site on this blog. For the most part, I enjoyed reading about the issues he raised, even if I did not agree with all of his opinions. What I especially liked was his ever increasing criticism of the US military’ s new “CEO manager” generals and admirals, who are more concerned with saying yes to the Secretary of Defense and not with doing what it takes to take care of the average working man in uniform. He called them the “Perfumed Princes”. It was an apt analogy. Entirely descriptive of some of the leadership in the Pentagon who are selling their souls for a mess of porridge, while trading away real capability and benefits for folks who deserve better.

At the same time however, one cannot just dismiss the other issues in “Hack’s” life. His bios tend to gloss over or omit the 18 years he spent in Australia awaiting the statute of limitations to run out on multiple criminal charges brought by the Army. Those charges were not drawn up lightly, however the senior officer handling the charges was reluctant to press the issue because of Hackworth’s superb combat record. The Army leadership at the time allowed Hackworth to retire in lieu of charges. Hackworth retired from the Army and moved to Australia for the next 18 or so years. On his departure from active duty he publicly blasted the country’s Senior leadership from the president on down, and was especially hard on the Army’s military leaders concerning their handling of the war. This got wide spread news and TV coverage at the time. As we have learned in recent years, based on several outstanding books, many of our senior leaders were truly derelict in their duty. Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, and retired General Maxwell Taylor are just a few of the key players in this sordid era of poor American leadership. In 1989, after the statue of limitations on the charges against him had run out, Hackworth returned to the USA and wrote a best selling book and later became widely acclaimed columnist.

As a columnist for Newsweek, he was involved in a controversy that lead to the suicide of then Chief of Naval Operations Mike Boorda. This came during a time of considerable controversy, when the Navy was being beaten up from all sides and, in truth, had made some remarkably stupid concessions to the feminist mafia. He was to have published an article in Newsweek magazine that criticized Admiral Boorda for wearing the combat “V” on medals he was award for his duty in Vietnam, which included combat operations. But copies of the citations released by the Navy did not mention that Boorda qualified for wearing a combat ”V.” It was later discovered that some of Hackworth’s own claimed decorations were incorrect. And during John Kerry’s election campaign there were those who said that the media had a double standard, hounding a decorated Naval officer, while giving Kerry a pass. In the end Newsweek just quietly stopped using his articles.

These items are all on the record. However he still made a contribution in my humble opinion. Hackworth was a flawed man, as are so many. However the issues that he raised were important, and just as importantly there are a whole set of folks who think that he gave a voice to the average working Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine allowing them to highlight issues that are increasingly being ignored at the higher levels. He pointed up in his own unique style the increasing disconnect between what the Admirals and Generals understand vs what the working men and women are hearing. And got the criticism out of the “hidden messages” they are sending. Hidden messages like wanting to cut personnel in time of war, but making zero cuts in the number of admirals and generals. Or like that of saying “we support our troops”, while watching the lackeys in the Department of Defense try to roll back pay raises and increases in hazardous duty pay. He drew attention to the current Operational Tempo of the Army and what it was doing to its future. Things that need to be heard and discussed

So like it or not, I’m glad Hack wrote and stirred up trouble. Here’s hoping his successors at SFTT continue the good work.

Skippy -san

Subscribe in a reader

A little Pope humor that I stumbled onto while staggering around the streets of Bloggerville. The person who posted this is brave but misguided indeed.

“This won’t last long. Wikipedia’s current entry for the newly elected Pope has a rather… interesting picture associated with it. I doubt either Lucas or the Vatican will see the humor. (separate link for when it gets taken down off the papal page) .”

Or worse yet, the wag who put this up:

These are people with WAY TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS.

Skippy-san

Subscribe in a reader

The Phibian over at CDR Salamander decided that I should join the “If I could be” meme. Thanks for the compliment and the vote of confidence, but first you have to answer the $64, 000 dollar question..(I’m a lover not a computer geek..) what the hell is a meme?

Anyway it works like this. I have to answer five different categories of a thing that I could be, and explain why.

Here’s the list: If I could be a scientist…If I could be a farmer…If I could be a musician…If I could be a doctor…If I could be a painter…If I could be a gardener…If I could be a missionary…If I could be a chef…If I could be an architect…If I could be a linguist…If I could be a psychologist…If I could be a librarian…If I could be an athlete…If I could be a lawyer…If I could be an inn-keeper…If I could be a professor…If I could be a writer…If I could be a llama-rider…If I could be a bonnie pirate…If I could be an astronaut…If I could be a world famous blogger…If I could be a justice on any one court in the world…If I could be married to any current famous political figure…

So because I promised, here goes:

If I could be a doctor…….well there is no way I could be a doctor, I cringe at the sight of blood. However if pressed, well you can guess my area of specialization: gynecologist. Makes sense, right.? You get to meet lots of women, view their private parts, and help to deliver new life to the world. Except of course, its not that simple, because for every nice piece of snapper you got to view and touch, there are probably 3 more I would not touch with the Phibian’s hands. Plus Gyno’s have to deal with premature babies and other bad things too……maybe I should rethink this. Oh well.

If I could be a writer……..Two ways to go here. Write the great novel like Hemingway, noting the futility of the human condition, combined with sensual wonders to be witnessed therein. Sell a lot of books and use the royalties to live a profilgate lifestyle and drink a lot and chase women. Except, unlike Hemingway, there is NO WAY a shotgun is ever coming anywhere near my mouth. Heart attack at 98 during sex baby, that’s the only way out for me! The other route would be that of journalist, ala Thomas Freidman, living overseas and posting comments both pro and con against right wing Republican religious Presidents, who happen to be stubborn sons of another President.

If I could be an astronaunt……..Who would not want to be an Astronaut? I think we should be sending more folks into space not less. And by now we should have gone back to the moon, several times. Screw the cost involved, this is about exploration, and staking a claim for America..and the rest of mankind. Besides, the idea of just being able to look down on the Earth from 100, 200, 500, or 240,000 miles. Heck that’s worth the price of admission alone. I think, however, I would have liked to have been one of the earlier astronaut’s. They got to have fun, chase groupies and swagger like real men. Now they have to be all PC and promote stuff like feminism. Screw that!

If I could be a athlete….there is only one answer here: pro golfer. Not that I would like to be like Tiger Woods, no not at all. I would aspire to be like John Daly, who told the 12 step rehab nazi’s to stick it up their ass, I’m doing this my way. Old man Calloway did not like it, but 84 Lumber believed in him. He still hits the ball a ton, and I believe he will soon win another major tournament. Besides, he’s been through 4 wives and countless girlfriends. Big guy or no, chicks still dig him.

If I could be a linguist……well of course I would like Miss Moneypenny to tell me, ” You’ve always been a cunning linguist, Skippy.” Failing that, I would like to be able to read and speak fluently: Chinese, French, Russian, German and of course Japanese. ( English is a given of course, because it is God’s destiny that English become the universal language…..). If given the chance I ‘d like to spend some time in Israel and learn Hebrew. Screw Arabic however, because I don’t like Arabs.

There are a lot of other things I would like to be on the list as well. In no particular order, I would like to be a professor, a world famous blogger ( NOW!), an inn keeper at Lake Tahoe, chef, and/or married to a good looking bimbo who is a rich political figure. ( That’s an oxymoron however, all the good looking bimbo’s stay away from politics…except Ann Coulter. See here for what she needs……..).

I once read an article about what life would be like if people could live 300 years or longer and that with the right amount of progress it would be possible; and still be look relatively young. In that brave new world, people had 5 or 6 occupations , changing as they became bored with them. Same was true for wives. That’s the world I want to see.

Now comes the fun part: I have to tag 3 other bloggers to do the same list. So here goes out there:

I choose Gardner in Korea, Neptunus Lex, and Spike since he just had his birthday and is in a thoughtful mood. If any of you guys have done them already, mea culpa….but I like your blogs.

So there Senor Salamander, I met the challenge.

?????????????????

Skippy-san

Subscribe in a reader

The Japan Times reports that N. Korea fired a short range missile into the Sea of Japan Sunday. The Japanese Defense ministry also says its no big deal:

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda played down on Monday the seriousness of North Korea’s reported launch of a short-range missile, telling reporters there was “nothing special” to say about the incident.

“It is apparently a fact that tests have been conducted from time to time. There is nothing special to speak of,” he said.

According to the Japan Times, a missile was launched from North Korea’s east coast shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday 1 May, 2005, and plunged into the Sea of Japan. There was no indication as to the reason for the missile firing and what type of missile it was.

However, Japanese officials do not appear to be worried. DPRK military folks, shooting off weaponry they have no business having, and are starving their people to get, under the dictatorial rule of a certified wacko named Kim Jong Il, should have no implications for Japanese security:

Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono told reporters Sunday night in Manila that it would not pose a danger to Japan. “We have received information that a short-range missile was test-fired,” Ono told reporters. “As long as it is short-range, it would not cause problems to Japan’s security.”

Yea right……..

Any thing with N. Korea is a problem for Japan’s security. Especially when the country already has long range missiles.

That ought to make me sleep better. After all if Condi Rice says its ok, then it must be ok. There’s always room for one more thing on the national security plate. And after all Kim Jong Il is such a rational guy, such that he would take her words at face value right? ( Start sweating here……). He’d never go off the deep end. After all this is the same man who just called the President of the United States a “Philistine” and a “hooligan.” Hell, does Kim even know what a Philistine is?

Kim Jong Il is not exactly operating on all cylinders if you get my drift. As has been noted elsewhere:

Kim Jong-il’s impatience and extemporaneous behavior contrasts markedly with Kim Il-sung’s magnanimity and charisma. The elder Kim was mindful of advice from others, while Kim Jong-il is arrogant and self-centered in policy decision. In addition, the junior Kim does not take kindly to criticism or opinions
different from his own. Kim Jong-il’s personality can be characterized by suspicion, and is extremely emotional in his expression of his likes and dislikes, which borders on double personality.

However, he can be trusted to be respectful of the words the US tells him…..

Here’s what I don’t understand. If China, really wanted a free hand to take back Taiwan, then why don’t they offer up ol Kim on a silver platter. I mean it, pack him off to the looney bin, and let Korea reunify. For China it would not be anymore of a threat than they have now with him keeping the attention of thousands of troops on N. Korea. If Korea were to unify, the pressure would build to reduce US troop strength. Korea, which can’t make up its mind if it likes or dislikes the US would probably demand less troops. Japan would have a hell of a hard time explaining 20,000 troops in Okinawa for a non existent Korean threat. Since China has already embraced capitalist economic policies, it could more than compete with a unified Korea on the economic front. However, over time, the US would be not so much of a central player in the region, because the main “threat” would have been eliminated. And so over time, China would be able to swallow up Taiwan, maybe with out firing a shot.

However, this type of long range planning is not typical of Communist Governments. So burden or not, they will continue to carry this nut case and his Stalinist regime, even if in the end it costs them more than it benefits them. Makes no real sense, but then when did anything that China does make sense?

Time for another beer….that’s the only way I’m going to sleep well tonight!

Skippy-san

Subscribe in a reader

I’m tired. Maybe it comes from playing golf 2 days in a row, maybe it just comes from too much work having to get done ( I can no longer put it off despite my best efforts to do so) and maybe it is just mental fatigue. However, I don’t have the energy to post anything pithy today. I’ll be back in the groove tomorrow.

Did watch ??????The lunch time show on NHK just so I can get my Vanilla Mood fix. Today’s subject was dodgeball. Only in the Japanese version, they use 3 balls and there is one player located behind the opposing team. Leave it to the Nihonjin to take something that is organized chaos and try to make sense out of it. Having the player behind the opposite team puts some strategy into the game though, and speeds up play.

Not much of a post, but its all I have in me right now.

One tired Skippy-san

Subscribe in a reader