After years of politics, and a long hiatus, I am back. But this time my focus will be on the brighter side of life: reviews of my favorite pass time, like books, series, and movies.
In addition, to the unfortunate political commentary...
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Beirut burning
Dark clouds above Beirut
No, this is not smok from Isreal's bombing...
War zone!
19 comments
:
Anonymous
said...
that is very sad because it is done by us not by the enemy. Another day to make the divisions even deeper. How to put this behind us and move forward,I have no idea...I only hope all the politicians who consider themselves leaders realize today what can happen in a blink of an eye,I hope they lost some sleep over the innocent dead and injured,I hope they feel guilty by looking on how our streets looked today..but again since we are at this point today means our politicians are no humans.
My name is Firass, I am Lebanese who works in Beirut
Beirut, the lady, Beirut the great, home of the intellectuals and the artists.
Beirut, home of culture, art, and music, Beirut Beirut Beirut …
Beirut was invaded yesterday by a bunch of orcs and uruk hai, who understand nothing but violence and the language of violence and death and destruction, they are simply thugs and sheep, who submit their will to the leader, and do as he wills, but perhaps this is the case with all Lebanese, who follow the leader blindly whoever this leader is.
To see what happened yesterday to Beirut left only a bitter taste in me, how can someone who claims to be peaceful and civilize do such thing? The answer is: these people are neither peaceful nor civilized!!!! They have the right to demand, such as any other person in this world, they have the freedom to speak, but sure, they don’t have the right to cause civil unrest and to prevent people from going to work this is such a sick logic indeed … Almost totalitarian behavior.
What happened yesterday assured me that we cannot live with Hizbullah anymore, to be honest, they are good fighters and excel in fighting Israel, even if they use wrong timing as usual and always use bad tactics such as using civilians as human shield, but anyway, they suck in politics, they think they have what they want simply because they want and believe it is right …
This is all meaningless, hizbullah is the greatest threat for Lebanese unity, not the government, and I’m not defending the government, but at least, the government does not block roads and burns cars and cause civil unrest .
Firass, I am against blocking roads but a totalitarian behavior is when a minority elected with an unfair law tries to impose its will on the majority of the population. Being totalitarian is saying that you can not live with other lebanese that don't agree with you. What does it mean to say "We can not live with Hizbullah"? You can not live with the most representative party of the biggest sect in Lebanon? You can not live with Aoun who represents the vast majority of the second biggest sect in Lebanon? Now siniora and jumblatt are saying that the Lebanese army is suspect! Come on man, let's be serious. I can not stand the people behind the Hariri financial corrupt mafia nor geagea who wants to take us back to civil war but it would never ever occur in my mind to say something like "We can not live with this party or that one" never ever. Accepting the other is the basis for everything else. When so many people are angry that means something is wrong and we have to fix it TOGETHER.
Rodolphe and sam, what happened yesterday assured a lot of us that letting a bunch of bullies,"to put it mildly", run our lives will be a grave mistake. You mention only blocking roads so casually as if it is the only thing that happened yesterday, you didn't mention the raging fires, destruction of public and private property not to mention the lives waisted...but you know at least the masks are off,you showed your true colors.
Noura let me tell you that Sam's true colors are the colors of tolerance. "True colors shining thru, true colors, true colors are beautiful like a rainbow", you know the song.
I avoided the news the last day and a half hoping for the best and read about the current strife through an Iranian dissident site.
Aside from some of the positives of an upcoming Thursday meeting on Lebanon of the "Paris-3" including Saudi Arabia's attendance and pledge of $3 billion towards Lebanon, I'm trying to come up with an idea for how to proceed forward from a March 14th perspective in the current ordeal.
What comes to mind is the US vs. USSR during the Vietnam War and the US vs. USSR during the Afghanistan War of the 80's.
The USSR defeated the US in Vietnam because it used proxy forces to fight against US troops inflicting heavy damage and forcing an American withdrawal.
BUT, the US inflicted a far more devastating blow against the USSR(which collapsed shorty after) in Afghanistan by using the exact same tactics against it(proxy fighting through Afghan fighters against Soviet troops).
My point is, use the tactics of HA during the HA-Israeli War against it.
HA's goal in the summer conflict was simply to survive while Israel did the majority of the destruction.
I would say do the same here as much as possible. If they put up a road block, find another way around it. For every offensive move they make, find a non-violent defensive counter move.
The more you can stand back and allow HA to reveal themselves, it's that much more negative attention that will be focused on them by the world.
It's time to treat HA's relationship with Iran as a positive. Right now, banks, businesses, countries, etc. who do business with Iran are getting the cold shoulder by the growing anti-mullah coalition of the US, Europe, UN, and Arab countries.
If you can hold your ground, and allow HA to continue to accumulate international bad press, the UN might move to take a third times a charm Security Council resolution at HA specifically aimed at disarmament much in part because of its direct relationship to Iran.
But this, of course, still won't have any teeth as long as countries refuse to step forward willing to defang them.
The good news about this is, it's one more strike against the mullah regime leading to even stiffer and stiffer sanctions against it furthering it's economic paralysis and withering of terrorist channels from increased sanctions that would continually weaken HA's own supplies of cash and weapons.
As long as HA's supply line of guns and funds remains open, this "bobbing and weaving" strategy would appear to be the best strategy for the time being.
Otherwise, Iran will use wide spread violence in Lebanon as a bargaining chip to ease pressure on Tehran from the world community.
And the world, looking to quickly end the violence, would concede to the mullahs price for peace and let up.
Iran will then use this breathing room to restrenghen itself and its link to HA for the next time it needs to use conflict in Beirut as an excuse to free up Tehran.
For decades, Iran and Syria have been using Lebanon as a dumping ground for their own domestic discontent.
If you can hold fast and keep HA's actions on behest of its foreign masters from sticking on Lebanese soil, the dark clouds that have been brought upon Lebanon will return from whence they came.
Iran has high unemployment, corruption, inflation, wide spread discontent, far more than plagues Lebanon:
http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2007/january-2007/ahmadi_situation_23107.shtml [Talk of impeaching president Ahmed Nijad is in the air]
HA's goal is to bring down the March 14th government at the behest of Iran and Syria to shift the focus of their own discontented populations for far worse problems and abuses than the ones HA is calling for the downfall of March 14th over.
March 14th's goal should be to stand strong and confident so that it is the governments' of Iran and Syria that fall.
Without Lebanon as their eternal whipping boy, those that plot against the "Paris of the Mediterranean" will not and cannot survive.
Karen, oh, my heart is melting already..Those are the colors of thugs and bullies..I wonder if March 14 did the exact same actions done yesterday,would you have seen it as color of tolerance?? rainbow colors??,don't think so.Who are you to have the right to block streets,insult people?? oh now that this was done we trust mr nasrallah and co.so much,you have no idea..
I apologize on behaf of my fool husband and I promiss he 'll stay home next time and take the advice of the divine nassrallah!!!!
But as for Hammoud who died you can apply your logic too. He shouldn't have passed in a sunni zone and provoque them. he should have stayed home it is safer.
I think in the next HIWAR if there is going to be any, the first thing they should discuss and agree on, are the definition of words such as: freedom, respect, democracy, peace, self defense, violence life.......when they do agree on a clear definition they should make it public so we can have a decent and logical discussion.
when you copy a campain such as I love LIFE you have to anderstand what you are copying words do have meaning , you know?? And you have to act by them or else choose your own true words. On the 23 of january we saw your love of life. we saw how you love life in black.
Einstein was indeed right when he said; "there are two infinites, the universe, and human stupidity. And I am not sure about the former". Indeed, we Lebanese sometimes outdo the rest of the world in this regard; we are now in a civil war, and as Einstein also said "I do not know what weapons will be used in the 4th World War, but I know that the survivors will be fighting with clubs"...
Noura and Lily, Again for the nth time I was against blocking roads but you can not equate burning tires and blocking roads to shooting on people. This government is asking HA to give up its weapons that it only uses against occupation, while arming its militias to shoot ON LEBANESE citizens who are on strike. This government is a bunch of thugs that don't have weapons to defend Lebanon from Syria or zionists, but don't hesitate to use them to protect their hold power. Yes by shooting on unarmed civilians the February 14 forces showed us their true militia civil war colors.
Slavic Mike, You said: >>The USSR defeated the US in >>Vietnam because it used proxy >>forces to fight against US >>troops inflicting heavy damage >>and forcing an American withdrawal Wrong! it was mainly CHINA that was supporting Vietnam and china today has a booming economy and is overtaking the US in every domain one by one.
Sam, There was never doubt in mind before that HA will not hesitate a second to use their weapons on other lebanese,and after yesterday it is clear what the intentions are. Nasrallah speech is nothing but hot air,anything for power. Shoving people,smashing their cars while they are sitting in it,and insulting them is a clear message.Is this how you treat your fellow lebanese?? who are u to block roads and dictate who can and can't pass?? oh I forgot, we should have listened to the instructions and stayed home. I hope you are proud today of your city, so clean and peaceful..I wonder if any group of people went to da7ieh,blocked roads peacefully to protest HA weapons,would you take it so lightly?? would you be so forgiven ??
Kamal, Be my guest! Hold whatever strike you want in dahyeh or my hometown trablous or Beirut (including blocking roads): There might be frictions and insults but no one will shoot at you. This is exactly the point, Hezbollah will not use its weapons on you (or any other Lebanese), nor will any other party in the opposition nor independants like me who support the opposition. It is strange that you are blaming the opposition when people are shooting at it. I oppose blocking roads, but shooting on people is a whole new level of violence. It is also strange that you only focus on HA (and suspicious), and even more strange accuse them of "anything for power" when the opposition is only asking for sharing power as a political minority! Burning tires is not civil war, blocking roads is disgraceful but shooting on unarmed civilians is starting a civil war. Just like in Palestine and Irak (where there is no HA) the US is starting civil wars and the dirtiest means to further its hegemonious agenda, I refuse to be its tool and I beg you to do the same: insult me if you see me in the streets, tell me whatever you want as a Lebanese I will accept the fact that you have a different point of view, I will forgive anything you might say but don't shoot at people.
Sam, nobody shot at people,and you know that..but I don't blame you for twisting the truth,how else to save face ?? All this talk and arguments don't matter anymore..I for one, will spend the rest of this day praying that we will wake up tomorrow and find that we still have a country to argue about. The news coming from beirut is very grim to say the least. I urge everybody to do the same.
Kamal, >>nobody shot at people Just go to the tayyar website (no offense) and check the pictures, I didn't make them up! Yalla, I will do like you and pray for our dear country.
> Slavic Mike, You said: >>The USSR defeated the US in >>Vietnam because it used proxy >>forces to fight against US >>troops inflicting heavy damage >>and forcing an American withdrawal Wrong! it was mainly CHINA that was supporting Vietnam and china today has a booming economy and is overtaking the US in every domain one by one.
No, I'M RIGHT!!!
In the Vietnam conflict, China was much like what Syria is today in Lebanon, a subordinant weapons smuggler beholden to Iran (which is today's acquivalent to the USSR during the Vietnam War).
And it was this same relationship during the Korean War during the 1950's.
China, itself, (aside from wanting to reclaim Taiwan, seeing it as still their property) doesn't have much of a history of invading other countries and spreading the Marxist ideology.
This is mostly because it is far too large a country as it is, and the idea of having to look after war land is not something their interested in.
And historically, the Chinese have always been a very self-centered culture. They were often the first in early technologies such as paper making, bows and arrows, gun powder, etc. They were so ahead of the curve in technology, that they could've crossed the Atlantic and colonized what is now the United States, 1,000 years before the Europeans did.
The Vietnam conflict actually started with Marxists infiltrating the anti-French colonization movement basied in the North of Vietnam.
War broke out between the French and Northern Vietnamese Resistance soon after the end of WWII.
The French were kicked out and the capitalist South Koreans pleaded for help from the US and from their the Vietnam War began.
The Vietnamese Marxists were allied with the Russians primarily, in fact, they hated the Chinese more than they did the Americans, but they were happy to accept the Soviet weapons channeled to them from China in the North.
It was Soviet support with weapons and military observers (although some Russians went as far as to pilot a few of the Migs that the North Vietnamese had in their tiny air force).
China, which was in the midst of its own Civil Upheavel of Maoist loyalists with their little red books against those Communists who sought a watering down of the hardline Marxist policies currently in place, was far too consumed with its own fight for survival amongst itself, to even comprehend staging such an operation as large as the Vietnam War.
China's troubles were so huge, rought with violence and a collapsing economy, that its only salvation was reaching out to the then US President, Richard Nixon, for his historic trip to China in the mid-70's.
As for China having a booming economy, that's true, but the US does as well.
Not to mention, the categories China is overtaking the US in have far more to do with the fact that they have four times the population than the US does.
But what the Chinese government is really afraid of is the US overtaking it.
The US's NBA is growing rapidly as a popular sport, the NFL will be playing its first expansion game on Chinese soil next season.
December saw massive amounts of Christmas trees and gift giving during the Western holiday season, not to mention a host of other popular US cultural norms sweeping the world's most populace country.
China real problem is the risk of civil war between the 1.2 billion pro-capitalist Chinese versus the remaining .1 billion dedicated Communists.
War zone!
19 comments :
that is very sad because it is done by us not by the enemy. Another day to make the divisions even deeper. How to put this behind us and move forward,I have no idea...I only hope all the politicians who consider themselves leaders realize today what can happen in a blink of an eye,I hope they lost some sleep over the innocent dead and injured,I hope they feel guilty by looking on how our streets looked today..but again since we are at this point today means our politicians are no humans.
BOB, Glad you're OK..
Noura,family and friends
My name is Firass, I am Lebanese who works in Beirut
Beirut, the lady, Beirut the great, home of the intellectuals and the artists.
Beirut, home of culture, art, and music, Beirut Beirut Beirut …
Beirut was invaded yesterday by a bunch of orcs and uruk hai, who understand nothing but violence and the language of violence and death and destruction, they are simply thugs and sheep, who submit their will to the leader, and do as he wills, but perhaps this is the case with all Lebanese, who follow the leader blindly whoever this leader is.
To see what happened yesterday to Beirut left only a bitter taste in me, how can someone who claims to be peaceful and civilize do such thing? The answer is: these people are neither peaceful nor civilized!!!! They have the right to demand, such as any other person in this world, they have the freedom to speak, but sure, they don’t have the right to cause civil unrest and to prevent people from going to work this is such a sick logic indeed … Almost totalitarian behavior.
What happened yesterday assured me that we cannot live with Hizbullah anymore, to be honest, they are good fighters and excel in fighting Israel, even if they use wrong timing as usual and always use bad tactics such as using civilians as human shield, but anyway, they suck in politics, they think they have what they want simply because they want and believe it is right …
This is all meaningless, hizbullah is the greatest threat for Lebanese unity, not the government, and I’m not defending the government, but at least, the government does not block roads and burns cars and cause civil unrest .
Peace
Firass
Firass,
I am against blocking roads but a totalitarian behavior is when a minority elected with an unfair law tries to impose its will on the majority of the population.
Being totalitarian is saying that you can not live with other lebanese that don't agree with you. What does it mean to say "We can not live with Hizbullah"? You can not live with the most representative party of the biggest sect in Lebanon? You can not live with Aoun who represents the vast majority of the second biggest sect in Lebanon?
Now siniora and jumblatt are saying that the Lebanese army is suspect!
Come on man, let's be serious.
I can not stand the people behind the Hariri financial corrupt mafia nor geagea who wants to take us back to civil war but it would never ever occur in my mind to say something like "We can not live with this party or that one" never ever. Accepting the other is the basis for everything else.
When so many people are angry that means something is wrong and we have to fix it TOGETHER.
What happened yesterday assured me that we cannot live with Siniora and Al Mustakbal power grabbing team anymore.
Guys,
One day we will have an electoral law all Lebanese agree on, have free elections, and we will see who wins!
Rodolphe and sam,
what happened yesterday assured a lot of us that letting a bunch of bullies,"to put it mildly", run our lives will be a grave mistake. You mention only blocking roads so casually as if it is the only thing that happened yesterday, you didn't mention the raging fires, destruction of public and private property not to mention the lives waisted...but you know at least the masks are off,you showed your true colors.
Shame on you.
Noura
Our past was visiting yesterday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OuysGbZdxY&eurl=
Noura let me tell you that Sam's true colors are the colors of tolerance. "True colors shining thru, true colors, true colors are beautiful like a rainbow", you know the song.
I avoided the news the last day and a half hoping for the best and read about the current strife through an Iranian dissident site.
Aside from some of the positives of an upcoming Thursday meeting on Lebanon of the "Paris-3" including Saudi Arabia's attendance and pledge of $3 billion towards Lebanon, I'm trying to come up with an idea for how to proceed forward from a March 14th perspective in the current ordeal.
What comes to mind is the US vs. USSR during the Vietnam War and the US vs. USSR during the Afghanistan War of the 80's.
The USSR defeated the US in Vietnam because it used proxy forces to fight against US troops inflicting heavy damage and forcing an American withdrawal.
BUT, the US inflicted a far more devastating blow against the USSR(which collapsed shorty after) in Afghanistan by using the exact same tactics against it(proxy fighting through Afghan fighters against Soviet troops).
My point is, use the tactics of HA during the HA-Israeli War against it.
HA's goal in the summer conflict was simply to survive while Israel did the majority of the destruction.
I would say do the same here as much as possible. If they put up a road block, find another way around it. For every offensive move they make, find a non-violent defensive counter move.
The more you can stand back and allow HA to reveal themselves, it's that much more negative attention that will be focused on them by the world.
It's time to treat HA's relationship with Iran as a positive. Right now, banks, businesses, countries, etc. who do business with Iran are getting the cold shoulder by the growing anti-mullah coalition of the US, Europe, UN, and Arab countries.
If you can hold your ground, and allow HA to continue to accumulate international bad press, the UN might move to take a third times a charm Security Council resolution at HA specifically aimed at disarmament much in part because of its direct relationship to Iran.
But this, of course, still won't have any teeth as long as countries refuse to step forward willing to defang them.
The good news about this is, it's one more strike against the mullah regime leading to even stiffer and stiffer sanctions against it furthering it's economic paralysis and withering of terrorist channels from increased sanctions that would continually weaken HA's own supplies of cash and weapons.
As long as HA's supply line of guns and funds remains open, this "bobbing and weaving" strategy would appear to be the best strategy for the time being.
Otherwise, Iran will use wide spread violence in Lebanon as a bargaining chip to ease pressure on Tehran from the world community.
And the world, looking to quickly end the violence, would concede to the mullahs price for peace and let up.
Iran will then use this breathing room to restrenghen itself and its link to HA for the next time it needs to use conflict in Beirut as an excuse to free up Tehran.
For decades, Iran and Syria have been using Lebanon as a dumping ground for their own domestic discontent.
If you can hold fast and keep HA's actions on behest of its foreign masters from sticking on Lebanese soil, the dark clouds that have been brought upon Lebanon will return from whence they came.
Iran has high unemployment, corruption, inflation, wide spread discontent, far more than plagues Lebanon:
http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2007/january-2007/ahmadi_situation_23107.shtml
[Talk of impeaching president Ahmed Nijad is in the air]
HA's goal is to bring down the March 14th government at the behest of Iran and Syria to shift the focus of their own discontented populations for far worse problems and abuses than the ones HA is calling for the downfall of March 14th over.
March 14th's goal should be to stand strong and confident so that it is the governments' of Iran and Syria that fall.
Without Lebanon as their eternal whipping boy, those that plot against the "Paris of the Mediterranean" will not and cannot survive.
Karen,
oh, my heart is melting already..Those are the colors of thugs and bullies..I wonder if March 14 did the exact same actions done yesterday,would you have seen it as color of tolerance?? rainbow colors??,don't think so.Who are you to have the right to block streets,insult people?? oh now that this was done we trust mr nasrallah and co.so much,you have no idea..
Noura
Rabie
I apologize on behaf of my fool husband and I promiss he 'll stay home next time and take the advice of the divine nassrallah!!!!
But as for Hammoud who died you can apply your logic too. He shouldn't have passed in a sunni zone and provoque them. he should have stayed home it is safer.
I think in the next HIWAR if there is going to be any, the first thing they should discuss and agree on, are the definition of words such as: freedom, respect, democracy, peace, self defense, violence life.......when they do agree on a clear definition they should make it public so we can have a decent and logical discussion.
when you copy a campain such as I love LIFE you have to anderstand what you are copying words do have meaning , you know?? And you have to act by them or else choose your own true words.
On the 23 of january we saw your love of life. we saw how you love life in black.
Lily
Lily,
Einstein was indeed right when he said; "there are two infinites, the universe, and human stupidity. And I am not sure about the former". Indeed, we Lebanese sometimes outdo the rest of the world in this regard; we are now in a civil war, and as Einstein also said "I do not know what weapons will be used in the 4th World War, but I know that the survivors will be fighting with clubs"...
Hugh, Jeha said words.
Noura and Lily,
Again for the nth time I was against blocking roads but you can not equate burning tires and blocking roads to shooting on people.
This government is asking HA to give up its weapons that it only uses against occupation, while arming its militias to shoot ON LEBANESE citizens who are on strike.
This government is a bunch of thugs that don't have weapons to defend Lebanon from Syria or zionists, but don't hesitate to use them to protect their hold power.
Yes by shooting on unarmed civilians the February 14 forces showed us their true militia civil war colors.
Slavic Mike,
You said:
>>The USSR defeated the US in
>>Vietnam because it used proxy
>>forces to fight against US
>>troops inflicting heavy damage
>>and forcing an American withdrawal
Wrong! it was mainly CHINA that was supporting Vietnam and china today has a booming economy and is overtaking the US in every domain one by one.
Sam,
There was never doubt in mind before that HA will not hesitate a second to use their weapons on other lebanese,and after yesterday it is clear what the intentions are.
Nasrallah speech is nothing but hot air,anything for power.
Shoving people,smashing their cars while they are sitting in it,and insulting them is a clear message.Is this how you treat your fellow lebanese?? who are u to block roads and dictate who can and can't pass?? oh I forgot, we should have listened to the instructions and stayed home.
I hope you are proud today of your city, so clean and peaceful..I wonder if any group of people went to da7ieh,blocked roads peacefully to protest HA weapons,would you take it so lightly?? would you be so forgiven ??
Kamal
Kamal,
Be my guest!
Hold whatever strike you want in dahyeh or my hometown trablous or Beirut (including blocking roads): There might be frictions and insults but no one will shoot at you. This is exactly the point, Hezbollah will not use its weapons on you (or any other Lebanese), nor will any other party in the opposition nor independants like me who support the opposition.
It is strange that you are blaming the opposition when people are shooting at it.
I oppose blocking roads, but shooting on people is a whole new level of violence.
It is also strange that you only focus on HA (and suspicious), and even more strange accuse them of "anything for power" when the opposition is only asking for sharing power as a political minority!
Burning tires is not civil war, blocking roads is disgraceful but shooting on unarmed civilians is starting a civil war. Just like in Palestine and Irak (where there is no HA) the US is starting civil wars and the dirtiest means to further its hegemonious agenda, I refuse to be its tool and I beg you to do the same: insult me if you see me in the streets, tell me whatever you want as a Lebanese I will accept the fact that you have a different point of view, I will forgive anything you might say but don't shoot at people.
Sam,
nobody shot at people,and you know that..but I don't blame you for twisting the truth,how else to save face ??
All this talk and arguments don't matter anymore..I for one, will spend the rest of this day praying that we will wake up tomorrow and find that we still have a country to argue about. The news coming from beirut is very grim to say the least. I urge everybody to do the same.
BOB, hope you are OK ..
kamal
Kamal,
>>nobody shot at people
Just go to the tayyar website (no offense) and check the pictures, I didn't make them up!
Yalla, I will do like you and pray for our dear country.
Sam,
> Slavic Mike,
You said:
>>The USSR defeated the US in
>>Vietnam because it used proxy
>>forces to fight against US
>>troops inflicting heavy damage
>>and forcing an American withdrawal
Wrong! it was mainly CHINA that was supporting Vietnam and china today has a booming economy and is overtaking the US in every domain one by one.
No, I'M RIGHT!!!
In the Vietnam conflict, China was much like what Syria is today in Lebanon, a subordinant weapons smuggler beholden to Iran (which is today's acquivalent to the USSR during the Vietnam War).
And it was this same relationship during the Korean War during the 1950's.
China, itself, (aside from wanting to reclaim Taiwan, seeing it as still their property) doesn't have much of a history of invading other countries and spreading the Marxist ideology.
This is mostly because it is far too large a country as it is, and the idea of having to look after war land is not something their interested in.
And historically, the Chinese have always been a very self-centered culture. They were often the first in early technologies such as paper making, bows and arrows, gun powder, etc. They were so ahead of the curve in technology, that they could've crossed the Atlantic and colonized what is now the United States, 1,000 years before the Europeans did.
The Vietnam conflict actually started with Marxists infiltrating the anti-French colonization movement basied in the North of Vietnam.
War broke out between the French and Northern Vietnamese Resistance soon after the end of WWII.
The French were kicked out and the capitalist South Koreans pleaded for help from the US and from their the Vietnam War began.
The Vietnamese Marxists were allied with the Russians primarily, in fact, they hated the Chinese more than they did the Americans, but they were happy to accept the Soviet weapons channeled to them from China in the North.
It was Soviet support with weapons and military observers (although some Russians went as far as to pilot a few of the Migs that the North Vietnamese had in their tiny air force).
China, which was in the midst of its own Civil Upheavel of Maoist loyalists with their little red books against those Communists who sought a watering down of the hardline Marxist policies currently in place, was far too consumed with its own fight for survival amongst itself, to even comprehend staging such an operation as large as the Vietnam War.
China's troubles were so huge, rought with violence and a collapsing economy, that its only salvation was reaching out to the then US President, Richard Nixon, for his historic trip to China in the mid-70's.
As for China having a booming economy, that's true, but the US does as well.
Not to mention, the categories China is overtaking the US in have far more to do with the fact that they have four times the population than the US does.
But what the Chinese government is really afraid of is the US overtaking it.
The US's NBA is growing rapidly as a popular sport, the NFL will be playing its first expansion game on Chinese soil next season.
December saw massive amounts of Christmas trees and gift giving during the Western holiday season, not to mention a host of other popular US cultural norms sweeping the world's most populace country.
China real problem is the risk of civil war between the 1.2 billion pro-capitalist Chinese versus the remaining .1 billion dedicated Communists.
Post a Comment