U.S. Marines To Train In Vietnam, Other Asian Nations?
Stars and Stripes
February 7, 2013
Top US Marine wants to train in Vietnam
By Kevin Baron
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Two new F-18 squadrons already are flying off of Tinian Island, in the Northern Mariana Islands, north from Guam. The Marines…evoking an even earlier American war in the Pacific, once again are taxiing down the same runway used by the Enola Gay, the World War II B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
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WASHINGTON: Within the next few years, U.S. Marines could once again be knee deep in the rice paddies of Vietnam.
Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, said he would like to see Marines training in Vietnam. His remarks came while speaking to local reporters at a conference in San Diego last week.
Amos said he wanted to see additional Marines training on the ground in Vietnam and other locations around the Pacific as part of the U.S. military’s pivot toward Asia.
“I’m optimistic,” Amos said about the possibility of getting back into Vietnam. “We’re not training in Vietnam, but I would hope that someday down the road through relationships that we build over the next year or two that we’ll be able to train in Vietnam.”
Vietnam has drawn keen interest in the Pentagon, which wants agreements for American warships to use Cam Ranh Bay, a strategic harbor in Southeast Asia. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited the bay aboard U.S. naval sealift ship, last summer. In a moment of bluster in the harbor, Panetta recalled a line from the movie “Master and Commander,” saying “The captain of the ship says, ‘We may be a long way from England, but this ship is England.’ Well, this ship is the United States.”
Amos last week said Marines already are fulfilling his goal to expand training in the Pacific. Two new F-18 squadrons already are flying off of Tinian Island, in the Northern Mariana Islands, north from Guam. The Marines, he said proudly, evoking an even earlier American war in the Pacific, once again are taxiing down the same runway used by the Enola Gay, the World War II B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
The squadrons on Tinian are living under “very austere conditions,” Amos said. For now, the Marines in training are “limited,” he said, “but there.”
The usual gross conceit, insensitivity and hubris of the good ole USA. Proud of dropping the only atomic bombs used so far, and of killing 3million Vietnamese people and leaving their land in ruins-for whose benefit?
Will those U.S. Marines clean up immense quantities of UXO (unexploded ordinances) dropped on N. Vietnam and particularly on the peaceful and poor Nation of Laos whose citizens are being blown into pieces as we speak over 40 years after unprovoked barbaric U.S. aggression?!!
Perfect. Thanks.
Of course not! US Marines and other American troops first order of business will be to start patronizing local prostitutes and raping school girls. (See Okinawa and South Korea for examples).
In a moment of bluster in the harbor, Panetta recalled a line from the movie “Master and Commander,” saying “The captain of the ship says, ‘We may be a long way from England, but this ship is England.’ Well, this ship is the United States.”
Panetta’s regurgitation of that line from Master and Commander is buffoonish, even for an American regime official. Apparently, Panettta has fantasies of being a British imperial viceroy or something.
The sun never sets on the American Empire, particularly as it preys on … sorry, “pivots” towards Asia!
That’s the funny thing about the US empire – people keep seeing compelling evidence of its decline, yet it just grows and grows in the spread and depth of its influence. The question is, has it now become a bubble that no one wants to burst because of the horrible impact it might have on us all?
Lets recap: After completely successfully encircling Iran and partially Russia, NATO’s next highest priority is military enclosure of China.
Who is next?
Lets see, Brazil perhaps?!