| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Biting the hand that feeds you |
| 2005-01-12 |
| Posted by:Leigh |
| #14 smokeysinse: i say just pull out now and help someone more greatful than those son of a bitches Bear in mind that the Indo government is probably worried that outsiders will provide tons of aid to the Acehnese in an unsupervised fashion. Note that the Acehnese independence movement has a local monopoly on guns. Any surplus aid will be sold to buy weapons. And if cash is handed out - that makes it a lot simpler for the rebels to get lots of shiny new weapons. That may also be the rationale for Sri Lanka to deny unsupervised access to its people by aid groups or the US military. They don't want surplus aid going to buy weapons for the Tamilian separatist movement. Now, some might say that there ought to be a truce while the tsunami's after-effects are sorted out. But the reality is that the guerrillas will take every break they can get. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-01-12 10:35:02 PM |
| #13 i say just pull out now and help someone more greatful than those son of a bitches |
| Posted by: smokeysinse 2005-01-12 10:09:37 PM |
| #12 garrote and yes :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-01-12 9:43:33 PM |
| #11 TW, actually it was two masterlocks in the bottom of a tube sock but you were on the right track ;) 18" of shark test line fishing wire makes a helluva gurrate (sp?) to btw. |
| Posted by: Hupereger Clish6229 aka Jarhead 2005-01-12 9:36:53 PM |
| #10 Trailing Wife: They do need guns, because the bad guys they're likely to run into will have guns... or even clubs... and will probably show up in numbers larger than the group of marines they've decided to ambush. Keep in mind that Indonesia is the piracy capitol of the world, with the apparent acquiescence of the Indonesian military. I think, right then and there, if I were running things, I'd have pulled everyone out. Take the Lincoln and the Marine group to Hawaii or California and give everyone some nice paid leave... |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-01-12 9:07:42 PM |
| #9 Hey, it's a US Carrier Group - they project force, remember? - so beaucoup assistance just over the horizon. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-12 8:19:21 PM |
| #8 I recall Jarhead commenting once, WRT airplane hijackers, that a couple of shoelaces knotted together and a sock full of change were perfectly adequate weapons, which made me glad he's on our side. I'm sure his boys'n'girls in Indonesia don't need guns with actual bullets to deal with those who would interfere with their work. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-01-12 8:12:08 PM |
| #7 The two sides reached a compromise in which the Americans agreed not to set up a base camp on Indonesia or carry weapons. If ANY U.S. personnel are attacked, especially military personnel, there will be hell to pay. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-01-12 4:16:37 PM |
| #6 *ahem* there. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-01-12 2:44:16 PM |
| #5 Make all the restrictions you want. We're not their for our needs. No skin off our backs, no sir. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-01-12 2:43:52 PM |
| #4 USN: OK, they want our help, on their terms. hers' the deal: you get the relief supplies, we get the air space. real simple. The people on the island want our help. The Indonesian government doesn't. Seeing our boys in action makes the government look bad - i.e. like the bunch of useless mouths that they are. Still, I think the technical issues they're raising give us the out we need. As far as I'm concerned, a month spent on humanitarian relief is a month not spent training, and therefore a month wasted. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-01-12 2:42:42 PM |
| #3 Amen, USN. This, confirming what I heard this morning on the news, is simply disgusting. Why did we make this concession? In a major compromise, the Marines agreed not to carry guns while on Indonesian soil... |
| Posted by: Jules 187 2005-01-12 2:39:47 PM |
| #2 OK, they want our help, on their terms. hers' the deal: you get the relief supplies, we get the air space. real simple. there are other areas in the area that are in need of help and would welcome what the Lincoln can offer. Indonesia was a sh*&hole before, and it still is. |
| Posted by: USN, retired 2005-01-12 2:33:32 PM |
| #1 Three months is plenty. This is one of those moronic articles where the heading and the contents say two different things. We were never going to be there three months - it would affect our battle-readiness. As it stands, one month is too many. The Indonesian official talked about restrictions on the one hand and then pushed the date out three months. One day is unprecedented, never mind three. Three months is a probably little optimistic, given that I can't see our men being tied down there for months. It's certainly not what we pay them for, which is facing off against potential opponents. The way I look at it, the Indonesians have about a month to get things squared away, after which they're on their own. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-01-12 1:47:46 PM |