All Gen. Vang Pao and others were doing, she maintains, is what we asked them to do during the Vietnam War -- overthrow the communist government of Laos.
So, she writes:
Wasn’t overthrowing communist governments once our foreign policy? As California Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher put it: "I don’t think that’s anything that should worry Americans, that some people who believe in democracy are trying to overthrow a dictatorship in their homeland."...As we said in an earlier post, here are a couple of reasons:
After all, the plotters’ cause was ours once, until we moved on to the Islamic fascist terrorism front. Dishonorably, we left the Hmong behind in Laos, where they were slaughtered by the communists for their support of democracy. We brought some of them to America as political refugees. I guess we expect them to drop the cause because we have. We must have sounded really convincing at the time, just like we sounded to Iraqis once. I guess it’s OK to defend democracy only when it’s the Bush administration doing it.
So the real question is why the United States government is indicting a freedom-fighting general, Vang Pao, for trying to overthrow a communist government when the U.S. government once recruited that same freedom-fighting general, Vang Pao, to overthrow a communist government.
The arrest came as Vang and others were allegedly preparing to send hundreds of machine guns, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets, Stinger shoulder-fired missiles, mines and C-4 explosives to be used against the Laotian government...Supposedly, the United States is a country that would not condone such activity. Even most communist-hating, flag-waving conservatives can see there is something wrong with that picture, which may answer McBride's question about where the right-wing outrage is over Vang's arrest.
"We are looking at conspiracy to murder thousands and thousands of people at one time," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Twiss said in court.
The US government normalized trade relations with Laos in 1995. We are hardly at war with the Laotian government.
To condone what Gen. Vang and others were doing is tantamount to harboring terrorists.
Let's try a parallel example and see if that helps. Nguyen Cao Ky, former premier and vice-president of South Vietnam during the US war there, was a swashbuckling anti-communist ally of the US. A refugee at war's end, he wound up running a grocery/liquor store in California. He has since made his peace, it appears, with the communist government of Vietnam. But suppose, instead, he had been raising money to buy weapons to invade Hanoi and overthrow the government. Does McBride think the US should help him, or at least ignore him? (Unfortunately, the answer is probably yes.)
McBride's wingnut brigade blasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi for even talking to the Syrian government. They're ready to invade Iran for allegedly supporting and supplying terrorism in Iraq.
Given that, how could they possibly condone the plot against the Laotian government or turn a blind eye once the US knew of it? Again, that may explain why McBride appears to be in the vanguard, rather than following the party line, on this issue.
McBride misses the days of Oliver North and Iran-Contra, fighting to rid the world of communism no matter what the laws or the constitution say. You can almost hear her humming, "Those were the days, my friend; we thought they'd never end..."
Afterthought: Here's an insightful Boston Globe column on the subject.
And a quote: "We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.) From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." -- President George W. Bush, September 20, 2001
This is a woman who was a walking correction and you are expecting her to understand and comment on the nuances of international relations, or, for that matter, the criminal courts system?
ReplyDeleteWhat in her history of errors, misrepresentation and misjudgment gives you the expectation that she can handle, say, spelling a name correctly? It's like debating a 4-year-old about the Basel Concordate.
In the end, punching holes in her logic, commenting on her shabby morals and lack of ethics and laughing at her intoxication by hubris is just too easy. Which I guess is why it's so much damn fun.
Do you know what it's like to live as a political refugee in America? Or Australia? Did you know about the American CIA's Secret War in Laos?
ReplyDeleteDid you know the Hmong and many other tribes were recruited to intercept the Ho Chi Minh Trail?
The Hmong, believe it or not, has their history embedded within the U.S', whether you want to believe it or not.
THere's this old Hmong song called "Looj Ceeb" which referred to the Hmong refugee camp in LongCheng. "The tears that will never stop flowing." It talks about how Hmong families were ripped apart as waves of Hmong refugees entered the U.S. or other countries that would accept them. Families were torn apart, 400,000 Hmong died during the Secret War, and many of them are still in the jungles (they have their old CIA weapons to prove it and their documents).
In 2002, Vang Pao went to the U.S. Congress and asked them to help those in the Hmong jungles who are undergoing persecution for over 30 years now since the end of the Secret War in 1975 (please refer to factfinding.org that documents the steps reporters/journalists have been trying to exploit this disgusting act.)
Even college students like me see America's ignorance on the Hmong culture, language, traditions, and history. Jason Lewis, a conservative said that the Hmong needed to LEARN ABOUT OUR( meaning the American culture) rather than taking time off to learn about the Hmong culture.
I'm in a doublebind where I'm struggling to learn about my Hmong culture and the American culture, but refuse to assimilate. I'd rather not lose my ethnic identity.
General Vang Pao is NOT A COMMUNIST. He lead the CIA to help infiltrate the HO Chi Minh trail. He promised the Hmong and his soldiers that he'll bring help whenever he has the chance. (Please do some extensive research if you want to learn more)
Tell me, how are you or what do YOu suggest the US do to help the Hmong genocide? We did NOT bring this genocide upon ourselves by helping the US.
To condemn the Hmong or Vang Pao as terrorists is to openly admit that the US are hypocrites, a canniving country that will lure in help from any country and then leave them for dead, force refugees in assimilation, and disregard tension with the Hmong and the other race.
What a pity that we helped out the US during their most vulnerable moment about communism. Now they turn their backs on us and even accuse our leaders, the Hmong actually, on being communists themselves.
Shame on those who think as such... shame on us for having our brothers, uncles, fathers, grandparents, nephews, spill their blood to save their families to only be stabbed back.
There will be a revolution... the Hmong generation who have seen enough of this injustice will stand up soon and you'll know.. how it is to impregnate an unbelievable typhoon.