Morning assembly is in the can
This morning my mentor class performed for the morning assembly. I think it went okay. We did a play version of a silent movie which was written by members of my class. It seemed to entertain the audience. Prior to the performance I gave a very brief talk about what they were about to see and the history of film. It's over, anyway.
Today Mr. Bush, or Meester Booosh, visits Indonesia. There have been many demonstrations opposing his visit over the last week and there should be many, many more today. Everyone seems to be excited about it, though angrily excited. Some are just bemused. It is not appreciated here that the government was told to build a special helicoptor landing pad for Bush at Indonesian expense--it was a requirement for the president's 10 hour visit. The Indonesian government has promised to offer stern words to the president regarding the Israel/Palestine situation.
My father said that Mr. Bush, when recently in Vietnam, had suggested that the lesson of that war was that America did not stay long enough. That's curious. In an article in the Jakarta Post yesterday the point was made the Vietnamese people are confused as to why Americans continue to talk so much about that war. As one woman put it, "they got out 30 years ago. We were left to pay for it." Others have said that the 2004 campaign was as much about Vietnam as any thing else. The American Right simply cannot accept that American force is limited even when all evidence is to the contrary. The Vietnamese find easy parrallels between the conflict in Iraq and the war which took place on their soil. The most obvious is that superior weaponry and training cannot suppress committed nationalism. The Vietnamese considered America as colonialists and the Iraqis assume America to be imperialist. We say that it's about winning "hearts and minds" and that we lose because we are unable to convince our opponents of our truly good intentions. We never allow it to be considered aloud that maybe we fail to win "hearts and minds" because we have a history that contradicts our rhetoric.
Today Mr. Bush, or Meester Booosh, visits Indonesia. There have been many demonstrations opposing his visit over the last week and there should be many, many more today. Everyone seems to be excited about it, though angrily excited. Some are just bemused. It is not appreciated here that the government was told to build a special helicoptor landing pad for Bush at Indonesian expense--it was a requirement for the president's 10 hour visit. The Indonesian government has promised to offer stern words to the president regarding the Israel/Palestine situation.
My father said that Mr. Bush, when recently in Vietnam, had suggested that the lesson of that war was that America did not stay long enough. That's curious. In an article in the Jakarta Post yesterday the point was made the Vietnamese people are confused as to why Americans continue to talk so much about that war. As one woman put it, "they got out 30 years ago. We were left to pay for it." Others have said that the 2004 campaign was as much about Vietnam as any thing else. The American Right simply cannot accept that American force is limited even when all evidence is to the contrary. The Vietnamese find easy parrallels between the conflict in Iraq and the war which took place on their soil. The most obvious is that superior weaponry and training cannot suppress committed nationalism. The Vietnamese considered America as colonialists and the Iraqis assume America to be imperialist. We say that it's about winning "hearts and minds" and that we lose because we are unable to convince our opponents of our truly good intentions. We never allow it to be considered aloud that maybe we fail to win "hearts and minds" because we have a history that contradicts our rhetoric.
posted by athensinternational at 5:49 PM
2 Comments:
We did hear about Bush saying that, but it was pretty much in passing that it was mentioned. The Kewl Kids that decide the hot topics in our media found this much less interesting or noteworthy than John Kerry botching a bad joke (they went on for weeks and are still talking about it, by the way). The fact that only a very small minority believe this (the same guys that insist we should "nuke the middle east, plus a few ex-generals) or the fact that he said this IN VIETNAM wasn't seen as that important.
I also caught a bit of Rummys press conference the other week. A plant in the audience, after anouncing how proud she was to be able to talk to him, asked him what advice he would give to her children. Rumsfeld replied, sagely and without a hint of irony, how they should study history.
American satirists have never been more irrelevant.
when I saw that comment by Bush I was shocked when there was no outroar, I started to doubt he had really said it. shows my naivity. I guess the vietnamese have learned to keep their thougjts about what we say at least to themselves.
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