PeterRS

As you rightly pointed out, hatred of communism resulted in actions by several countries which would no doubt be counted as crimes in normal times. The Cold War split the world into areas of influence with the two main participants, the US and the USSR, desperate to prove to all that its system was the better. Kissinger is greatly admired around the world as one of its greatest statesmen. With the benefit of hindsight, that reputation is unlikely to last much longer than his death, whenever that may occur. In earlier posts, I have mentioned his participation, direct or indirect, the latter through promises of non-intervention, in many wars. He was in Jakarta the day before Indonesia invaded East Timor. He was in Islamabad the day before West Pakistan lauched its murderous war with Bengali East Pakistan. And so on. One of the more recent books about Kissinger is The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary Bass. This specifically focuses on the Pakistan war, but it could equally cover other conflicts as other books have done. The New York Times review included the following - "This is a dark and amazing tale, an essential reminder . . . Devastating . . . Shocking . . . Nixon and Kissinger spent the decades after leaving office burnishing their images as great statesmen. This book goes a long way in showing just how undeserved those reputations are." The Washington Post review was as bad - "A profoundly disturbing account of the hitherto hidden role of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands . . . Bass has defeated the attempted coverup through laborious culling of relevant sections of the Nixon White House tapes, declassified State Department documents and interviews with former officials, American and Indian, who were involved . . . After reading Bass's account of this shameful episode, one has to . . . conclude that where the Bengalis were concerned, Kissinger and Nixon simply did not give a damn." This is just one book in what is becoming a library of books about Kissinger and his participation in the slaughter of many millions around the world. It would be interesting as a counterpoint to read similar exposes of the evils done by Khrushchev, Kosygin, Brezhnev, Mikoyan, Andropov and their henchmen.

I don't regard that statement as defensive! When one poster is repeatedly claimed to have one view that is inaccurate, it becomes incredibly boring. But it does not mean that the other poster has to sit back and accept the criticism. After all, were you dear @vinapu not suggesting the eye for an eye principle on an earlier post?

International relations are rarely simple. The Vietnamese invaded partly to stop incursions and killings on its territory by the Khmer Rouge. Mercifully Vietnam did invade for it finally put a stop to the Pol Pot genocide. But Cambodia pre-Pol Pot was allied to several countries including China and it was to Beijing that Prince Norodom Sihanouk fled after the 1970 coup. Sihanouk backed the Khmer Rouge as did China. And when Sihanouk returned in 1975 it was as the figurehead head of state in the Khmer Rouge government. Although he soon became disillusioned with Pol Pot' regime, China did not. After the Vietnamese invasion, It continued to back the Khmer Rouge, even training its fighters. China and Vietnam were traditional enemies, and partly because of the invasion, the Chinese then invaded Vietnam in February 1979. The China-Vietnam war lasted a mere 4 weeks, ending after it captured a few Vietnamese town on March 6. I remember that so well for I flew from the UK to Hong Kong on March 2. As a result of the war, all flights were denied Vietnam airspace. Those from Bangkok to Hong Kong had to fly down and around, resulting in an additional hour's flying time. Going back to the issue of Thailand welcoming Pol Pot, one reason for this was Kissinger's request to Prime Minister Chatuchai on November 26 1975. Kissinger said that the US would support the Khmer Rouge despite their being "evil". "They are murderous thugs but we won't let that stand in our way. We are prepared to improve relations with them." Sadly, after the humiliation of the war in Vietnam, there was no way the US would wish to be seen encouraging that country. After the Vietnamese invasion, the US slapped even more sanctions on Vietnam and then blocked the IMF from loaning more to the country. To be fair, this US view was echoed by many other countries who also backed the fallen Khmer Cambodia over its Vietnamese invaders throughout the 1980s.

Ariel Sharon who led the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in the Lebanon refugee camps deliberately provoked Palestinians when he became leader of Likud. In 2000 he made a visit to the Muslim Shrine which is one of the key cornerstones of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. He made a lengthy and much publicised visit to the Temple Mount, the site of the Dome of the Rock and the third holiest shrine in Islam, known as the Haram al-Sharif to Muslims. The site is also revered by Jews. It was then situated in Arab East Jerusalem, illegally occupied by Israel since 1967. Had it been a wholly private visit, perhaps it would not have provoked much anger. But he made 100% certain it was publicised days in advance and he was surrounded by a media horde as well as over 100 armed police and even more soldiers protecting him. He knew full well that this would goad Palestinians into a major reaction. And he was right. Following the visit, he stated, "What provocation is there when Jews come to visit this place with a message of peace?" Peace? From an acknowledged warmonger, that was a joke! Re the 1982 massacres, an independent UN commission led by Irish diplomat Sean MacBride concluded that the Israeli Defence Forces bore reponsibility. The commission ruled the killings a form of genocide.

Given that two of the workers did the maintenance on Saturday, I can confirm that both were well into their 50s! In over 20 years I have never seen any young apprentice (unless those over 40ish are considered young) when air conditioning has been serviced.

Oh I understood perfectly well! But sarcasm in relation to the present situation in Israel/Gaza is more than a mere waste of words! Constant repetition of my being anti-American is equally so.

Now THAT I can understand 🤣

What on God's good earth has that to do with the Israeli Palestinian conflict? You do bring up some weird analogies. As for the Marshall Plan you have clearly forgotten or chosen to forget earlier posts I made on that subject in other threads. On April 20, 2020, in response to one of your threads Cambodia, Vietnam Take Different Paths in which once again you allege that I am anti-American, I wrote the following in response to one of your posts - QUOTE Reader, you make very good points. I am not anti American. But America has made more than its fair share of foreign relations mistakes, just as Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, China and other countries have done over the centuries. But you do twist facts. Yes, under the lend lease program America helped the United Kingdom in World War 2 before Germay declared War on it. Yet the same program provided arms and materiel to the USSR. Roosevelt made it very clear it was in America's interest to do so. Similarly with the Marshall Plan, a truly visionary program that rebuilt western Europe in record time. Again, though, this was primarily in the US interests. America was desperate that the advance of the communist Soviet Union stopped at the soon to be East German border. Without the Marshall Plan, so ravaged was western Europe that the Soviet Union would quickly have been at the Atlantic shoreline. UNQUOTE I could have added that General De Gaulle had stated on the record he would permit such an advance if the strongly anti-colonial USA did not permit the French to resume colonisation of Indo-China! If you choose to believe that the Marshall Plan caused Europe not to recover from the ravages of WWII, that is your problem, not mine.

Worthy try, I suppose. But given that she is over 50 and he is probably 60 or so . . .

Keep going, @spoon. You'll get it right eventually, I'm sure.

I guess I respected my parents but by the time I got to university all I wanted was to get away from the nest and live my own life elsewhere. I never regarded them as my responsibility, perhaps because by the time they got into their 70s I had moved 9,000 kms away.

He fled to Thailand after the Vietnamese invasion which liberated the country after Pol Pot's genocide. Thais have traditionally hated the Vietnamese and seen the country as an enemy. Military commanders had seen Pol Pot as a buffer between the two states. That they should indirectly have condoned Pol Pot's actions is utterly shameful.

Why on earth would I wish to do that? I am based in Thailand not another country. Besides, I have a pretty good idea about the principles of western logic. I studied Greek at school and have a reasonable grasp of Aristotle's theory.

The spin doctors on both sides will be working overtime. Getting away with it is a different matter if you massacre tens of thousands and more Palestinians just because you want their elected leaders out. And let's not forget. Who insisted that the Palestinians have elections? Filled with his fanciful and ultimately idiotic, hugely expensive for the US taxpayer and ultimately doomed notion that he could bring democracy to a part of the world that had all but never known it, George Bush Jnr. took his crusade to Palestine. He wanted an alternative to Arafat and thought (never bothered to check, though) that most Palestinians agreed. When Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Arafat on his death, Bush pressed even harder for elections. The Israelis did not agree for their government knew there was more than a good chance that Hamas would win. Bush continued his crusade in a meeting with Abbas in Washington on January 2006. He was certain Fatah would win. Bush even pressured Abbas to shift power away from the Palestinian President's office to the Prime Minister's. I have no idea what idiots were staffing the US State Department's Middle East department at the time, but everyone apart from Israel got it hopelessly wrong. As did Abbas. With egg all over his face and in an attempt to spin the result, Bush worked hard to get the international community to confirm the elections were rigged and called for new ones! It all backfired spectacularly. He even had Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice promise Abbas US$86.4 million in aid specifically to bolster forces under his direct control. Whereas Hamas' traditional source of funds from the USA then started to dry up, it turned to Iran. Congress was unhappy and cut the amount to $59 million. Bush then got on to his assumed allies in Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Jordan and the UAE to make up the difference. Anti Hamas actions by the US continued for years. Yet again cavalier US actions and the seemingly inbuilt belief that it knows better have regrettably returned to bite it and its allies.

She told them! I have never passed through reception with a grumpy face - even though there have been times I rather felt like it. I always smile at the receptionist, and as noted always give money at Songkran and other gifts. When I got my Nespresso machine, she got and was delighted with my old coffee maker. When I had a problem with a new but inexpenisve DVD player, she got it and was thrilled with it. I get flowers for her at least twice a year. Etc. And incidentally, the service by her husband's staff was considerably better than any previous contractors! My Thai partner and his friends seem to have an easier job understanding farang logic than I do understanding theirs! As @floridarob points out, after so long I have to be a masochist!

No, Thailand's air con service companies really want a longer term contract for a number of visits per year. That way their basic income is guaranteed. Often it is difficult to find any company to do a one-off service - as I have discovered.

Great advice indeed, the more so given the terrible and monstrously expensive adventures of the USA after 9/11. A 20-year war in Afghanistan which it lost. A long war against Iraq which not only had nothing to do with 9/11 but which did succeed in encouraging the formation of ISIS, a war that so destablised the region its results are still to be seen today. Re Israel and the situation in which it finds itseIf, without the ultra-right wing Orthodox Israelis and the militant settlers which pull the strings of Netanyahu's governments (although I suspect Netanyahu is himself ultra-right wing) and also pulled those of Ariel Sharon's government, it is unlikely Israel would be facing the mess that it is in. Let's not forget that Netanyahu has preached over and over again the need for security. As the New York Times reported 6 days ago, "Mr. Netanyahu has presented himself as an unflinching supporter of Israeli Security." Yet he has avoided earlier excursions into Gaza despite being fully aware that Iran was propping up Hamas. If his own security people did not tell him, the Americans certainly did. Well, whose government let the country down in such a dreadful way two weeks ago? The odd thing about Netanyahu is that for all his bellicose talk over the years, he has essentially been risk averse. Some suggest this is a result of his older brother Yonatan having been the only Israeli soldier killed during the daring raid on Entebbe airport in 1976. He does not want to be remembered as the Prime Minister who presided over the funerals of masses of young Israelis. Until October 7, the number of israelis killed under Netanyahu's watch has actually been less than under any other Israeli Prime Minister! Despite all his anti-Palestinian rhetoric when in power, he has not made any serious attempt to make peace. Instead, he has spent much time trying to broker diplomatic relations with former foes like Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, hoping that they would do the job for him. Now with war looming, he has even stepped back and put the decsion in the hands of a war cabinet involving the national government he has established. Essentially it would seem he is at heart something of a loud mouthed coward. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/world/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-gaza.html

You make it sound as though there are only two choices. Maybe you are correct, but the one which ends in tragedy for all is the wrong one. It is a war crime involving the massacre of a huge nunber of civilians, plain and simple!

A general respect for the elderly, especially family members, is relatively common throughout the Asian continent. How much of that is due to the Chinese diaspora with the estimated 20 million Chinese emigrating to South East Asia in the 1800s and early 1900s I do not know, but I suspect it must have something to do with it. After all, devotion to family is one of the central Confucian values. Confucian influence would also explain to a certain extent why the more isolated countries of Japan and Korea take the concept of devotion to family elders as importantly. Cetainly by 1910 studies show that there were almost 800,000 Chinese emigrants in Thailand many of whom had married Thais. Even today the country boasts the largest Chinese community outside China. But as the article points out, it extends further in Thailand. I wonder why? Could it have something to do with Thailand never having been colonised and therefore having no real external threat to national identity? I still meet guys who insist it is their duty eventually to return home to look after their ageing parents. But with economic advancement and the desire for more independent lifestyles already prevalent in most Asian societies, surely this is likely to change in Thailand as elsewhere.

Do you recall that part of an expressway ran through the taxiway? So when aircraft were moving to or from the runway, the road had to be closed for a few minutes!

There have been posts over the years about misunderstandings with boys from the bars and other difficulties some have found in communicating with Thais. I have been coming to the country for four decades for work, play and finally living in Bangkok, but still find Thai logic all but impossible to comprehend. The latest incident concerns of all things air conditioning maintenance! For many years I had an annual contract with one company to come to the apartment three times a year to service three units. When they went out of business, I asked our excellent receptionist who speaks pretty good English if she could help find another company. I get on well with her, always give her a Songkran brown envelope and other little gifts from time to time. But after almost a year she could come up with none. A friend who lives in a much more luxurious condo then suggested I try their maintenance company. Although a lot more expensive, they came twice, seemed excellent, but then did not reply to calls. The receptionist tried half a dozen times before finally someone answered. The company had decided to base themselves out of Bangkok, allegedly! In some desperation, last week I did what I should have done almost 2 years ago! I spoke to my neighbours to find out who serviced their units. It is the company run by the husband of our receptionist, they told me! So during all this time when allegedly she and also I have been trying to find an aircon contractor, her husband ran such a company yet she did not tell me! After I approached her about this to see if they could come, I assumed it would be a few weeks later. They turned up the next day, spent much longer than the other companies and as far as i know did an excellent job. So why could she not have told me this before? I'll never understand!

He won't come becuase he knows that he will be arrested. That was one reason given for his not attending the BRICS Summit in South Africa recently. Fear of assassination despite an army of security will no doubt also be a concern.

Inevitable? What is bound to be a massacre that includes tens of thousands - maybe even hundreds of thousands - of non-combatant civilians, including women and children is "understandable"? It's a war crime. I realise that feelings can be and are in many cases quite strong on this subject. Mine certainly are as readers will be aware. I want to put it in more personal terms. In March last year back in the UK, I met some recent friends of my sister, a Palestinian doctor working in the UK and his Taiwanese wife. They had an adorable little baby. He is safe as he has residency in the UK where the National Health service desperately needs his skills. All the others in his family live in Gaza City - his parents, his two brothers and their families and his sister and her family. With Israel's warning about an imminent invasion, they all moved to the south of the Gaza Strip. There they found a vast number of people, no food, no water, no proper sanitation, no tents. They described it as hell. So they chose the hell they knew and returned to their homes. At least there they have their own generator and there is a well for water nearby. They desperately want to live, but they realise there is a good chance some or all will die. They have already said their goodbyes. These good people have nothing to do with Hamas and condemn what happened in israel in the most vehement terms. But Israel is likely to bomb them out of existence. We all feel desperately for the families and loved ones of those innocents who were murdered in Israel. WIll the world feel so desperately for those already being killed in Gaza and those innocents about to die?

Sorry I don't wish to take your word. My partner has not the slighest desire to go with anyone from a gay bar and the mention of money makes him feel unclean. He has a wonderful knack of making friends and keeping friends. I am sure he will settle down with another after I die or we split up for some reason. And his future is definitely in Europe, not Thailand.

Once again it is you who are deflecting and using analogies that bear no resmblance to the actual disucssion. Who brought up Ukraine? Certainly not me! Who brought up the price of eggs? Certainly not me! If you simply responded to legitimate questions based on your own speific statements, there would be no need for such inaccuracies. And your analogy suggesting that the US supporting Israel was like the US helping the UK with Lend Lease in WWII was totally wrong. Yet you continue to throw out attempts to discredit comments from other posters with little bearing on accuracy! Of course there are pros and cons in every discussion. I make my points and give reasons. I rarely find reasons when you make inaccurate statements - with respect!