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oasis Lieutenant
Joined: 21 Aug 2004 Posts: 201 Location: Florida, want some sun? LoL!
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 5:40 pm Post subject: Where we are now! |
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Hello,
Christmas shopping..
You won't believe how I came to this conclusion.
I was looking for a pair of shoes. I picked up some Rockport's and under the tongue it said made in Vietnam.
I asked myself, I wonder what company is doing business with Vietnam?
I went home and after a good nights sleep I thought it must be Rockport shoe company from Maine that is doing business with Vietnam.
I thought we are doing business with our former enemies.
Then it came to me, we were not in Iraq before the attack on the twin towers but we are now. I came to the conclusion the sooner we get Osama Bin Laden the sooner we will be out of Iraq.
I say to all the Islamic world if you want us out of Iraq give up Osama Bin Laden.
I know terrorism will not end simply after we catch Osama.
I am sure that by catching him that will make other terrorists see that America will never give up until all those responsible are in custody and that they will answer for their crimes. _________________ -Oasis
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Mother Former Member
Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 210
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:07 am Post subject: |
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Interesting that you posted this. I purchased dining room chairs a few days before Thanksgiving and they were made in Vietnam. However, I assumed I should be proud to have them...maybe by sitting at my table, I helped put a little food on a Vietnamese table. Kerry, on the underhand, still just likes to yank the chair out from under them...
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/08/08/vietnam_today/
Vietnam today
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Staff | August 8, 2004
WITH THE presidential race generating so much talk of John Kerry's Vietnam record, one could almost forget that "Vietnam" is not just the name of a war that ended 30 years ago. It is also the name of a country of 82 million human beings -- who live under one of the most repressive dictatorships on Earth. Whatever political value there may be in recalling the Vietnam of years gone by, it is the people of Vietnam today who really need our attention.
"Vietnam is one of the most tightly controlled societies in the world," reports Freedom House, the human rights monitor. "The regime jails or harasses most dissidents, controls all media, sharply restricts religious freedom, and prevents Vietnamese from setting up independent political, labor, or religious groups."
Late last month, for example, the regime sentenced Nguyen Dan Que, a 62-year-old physician, to 30 months in prison for the crime of "abusing democratic freedoms." Translation: He wrote essays condemning government censorship and posted them on the Internet.
This wasn't Que's first encounter with communist justice. He was arrested in 1990 after publicly calling for free elections and multiparty democracy. The government charged him with sedition and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment. In 1998, after being released as part of a general amnesty, he was invited to leave the country. When he refused to go into exile, he was placed under house arrest and barred from resuming his medical work. But Que would not be intimidated, and continued to speak out for freedom. Now he is behind bars again.
Pro-democracy activists are not the only victims of Vietnam's dictatorship. For years it has persecuted the indigenous highland tribes known as Montagnards, singling them out for religious repression -- most of them are devout Christians -- and confiscating their ancestral lands. In April, when some Montagnards staged a peaceful protest to demand religious freedom, the government reacted with a violent crackdown. Hundreds of Montagnards were beaten by police and by ethnic Vietnamese armed with clubs and metal rods.
"They beat the demonstrators, including children," one eyewitness told Human Rights Watch. "People's arms and legs were broken, their skulls cracked. Children were separated from their parents. Near Ea Knir bridge, two people were killed." Other witnesses told of protesters being blinded with tear gas, then handcuffed, taken away, and never seen again. Some Montagnards were tortured. Human Rights Watch mentions two who were tied up and hung over a fire until their limbs were scorched.
Few Americans have made an issue of Vietnam's harsh denial of political and religious liberty. One who has is Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, author of a bill linking growth in US aid to Vietnam to "substantial progress" in Vietnam's human rights record. Smith's bill, the Vietnam Human Rights Act, passed the House by an overwhelming 410-1 vote in 2001. But it never got a hearing or a vote in the Senate, where it was blocked by the then-chairman of the East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee -- John Kerry.
Last month the House again passed Smith's bill, this time by 323 to 45. As in 2001, says Smith, the message of the bill is that "human rights are central -- they are at the core of our relationship with governments and the people they purport to represent."
Predictably, the vote sent Hanoi into high dudgeon, and it denounced Smith's legislation as "a gross interference into Vietnam's internal affairs." In truth, the bill would amount to little more than a slap on the wrist. It would have no effect on the roughly $40 million in foreign aid currently going to Vietnam every year. Only increases in that aid would be blocked, and only if they were earmarked for non-humanitarian purposes.
Opponents of the bill, like Kerry and Senator John McCain of Arizona, insist that the carrot of "engagement" will do more to nurture human rights in Vietnam than the stick of sanctions.
But that claim has been proven false by the experience of the last three years, Smith argues. Vietnam's treatment of dissidents and religious minorities has gotten worse, not better, since relations with the United States were normalized in 2001. The Vietnam Human Rights Act "would be law right now if it hadn't been for Kerry," Smith says, "and some of those dissidents would be out of prison." By blocking the sanctions bill three years ago, Kerry ensured only that Hanoi's repression would continue unabated.
Will he block it again this year? The Kerry campaign didn't reply to an inquiry as of late Friday, and Smith claims no inside knowledge. "But I know this much," he said the other day. "The best and brightest and bravest people in Vietnam are in prison, persecuted by the government for their opinions or their faith. And you don't do people who are suffering immeasurable cruelty any kindness by aiding a dictatorship."
Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is jacoby@globe.com.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. |
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oasis Lieutenant
Joined: 21 Aug 2004 Posts: 201 Location: Florida, want some sun? LoL!
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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Hello,
I posted this same thread on another forum
Here is his reply..
Quote: | The US is actually the largest export market for Vietnam and it's only getting bigger. Last week United Airlines made the first direct US-Vietnam flight by a US airline since the war. Interesting story here:
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U.S.-Vietnam Relations Near Ten-Year Mark
________________________
As far as Osama goes well I have a suggestion..
Quote: | Psychological warfare
U.S. forces should start by dropping leaflets over Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, warning residents, in their native Persian tongue, that we've enlisted Afghani moles to contaminate their water supplies with pig's blood.
The propaganda would also warn that American soldiers have greased their bullets with pork fat. We could tell them, while we're at it, that we've ordered special pigskin-lined fatigues for this mission.
At night, we could bombard bin Laden's camps with recordings of hog-snorting. If he and his fellow terrorists won't come out of their caves, send pen-loads of trotters in to nuzzle them.
Can't find bin Laden? Force-feed Taliban clerics pork rinds until they give up his location. If that doesn't work, air-lift pigs into their homes.
In the meantime, airlines could reupholster plane seats with pigskin, and cover cockpit yokes with the "unclean" hide to repel future Islamic hijackers. For insurance, serve passengers bacon bits instead of peanuts.
If their religion is driving them to hate Americans, and rewarding them to kill our people, then it's hardly indecent to use their faith against them to protect us.
Hit them where it hurts. They hit us where it hurts – and they're already planning to do it again.
They're not afraid of death. However, they are afraid of pigs. Send in the porkers, lock them out of Paradise, and watch them surrender.
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_________________ -Oasis
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Sgt-Keeper Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 96
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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I'm sure that our POWs and MIAs in Viet Nam are pleased that we now have normalized relations in trade and tourism. Thanks JFK. For those who cannot speak for themselves, we will never forget. _________________ Fix the problem, not the blame.
USMC E5 Nam vet 65-66 |
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oasis Lieutenant
Joined: 21 Aug 2004 Posts: 201 Location: Florida, want some sun? LoL!
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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Sgt-Keeper wrote: | I'm sure that our POWs and MIAs in Viet Nam are pleased that we now have normalized relations in trade and tourism. Thanks JFK. For those who cannot speak for themselves, we will never forget. |
Hello,
Like you said, "we will never forget".
Vietnam someday will give a full accounting of all our POWS and MIAs.
I know that all our heroes will come home.
Our future technology will someday find them.
Soon to have..
RDECOM Magazine _________________ -Oasis
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