Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 15^th, 2015 at 12:59pm:
I can't handle reading their misguided rubbish Herbert. The more these people perpetuate this rubbish the more it becomes fact and that bugs me.. It's funny how they don't mention the 20 million Chinese the Japanese murdered and the millions of other Asians murdered.  F ark Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 15^th, 2015 at 12:18pm:


Hang on, I thought Japan did surrender. Maybe I missed something here.

Bushido was not ancient, any more than Mussolini’s fascism or Hitler’s Nazism was ancient. Bushido was invented in the 1920s. Its references to Samurai culture were misleading. Samurais fought for warlords, not an emperor, which was only established in Japan in 1868. The fascist symbolism of Bushido Japan - military/imperial rule, the emperor as god, etc - was totally new. Japan had had more experience with parliamentary rule under the Meiji constitution than it ever had with Bushido militarism during Tojo’s time.

Japan reformed using a Western political Model in the late 19th century. It has the oldest parliamentary government in Asia. It was one of the earliest countries in the world to industrialize.

Japan’s trajectory towards military expansion is part of this modernisation, not some ancient, stubborn form of tribalism. Germany did the same in Europe, and Britain and the US had been doing the same in South Asia and the Americas for more than a century. The Soviets did just that when the war was over.

Militarism is a process of economic development. It has nothing to do with culture, ancient or otherwise. The next land and sea grab will be China’s.

Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 15^th, 2015 at 12:59pm:


If only history was this easy. It’s tempting, I admit, but such black and white viewpoints only get in the way.

The capitalist Yankee pigs defended Australia during the war - at a time when you Imperialists were long gone. After the war, the capitalist pigs kept Australia as a spy arm, and in return, left us largely to our own devices - unlike much of the Pacific and South East Asia.

With a few exceptions, we don’t have a lot to hate Uncle for, unlike Indochine and most of Latin America and the Middle East. In the geopolitical game, Australia has positioned itself smartly. We never flirted with the USSR like Indonesia, and as such we never suffered the inevitable payback (mass killings, CIA-backed torture cells and a one-party state). Uncle has been.nice.

But make no mistake, Uncle’s days are numbered. Australia needs to play the game under the new rules. It just needs to learn what those rules are.

Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 15^th, 2015 at 1:48pm:


But I’m on Maria’s side, Herbie. I love him!

Her!

Sorry for the attempt to rationalize though. You’re right. This is unfair.

Karnal wrote on Aug 15^th, 2015 at 1:50pm:


There's only one person I ever read on internet forums who could write incisively like her --- a guy by the name of 'The Fourth Estate' - lived in Indianapolis, was a freelance print media columnist.

Secret Wars wrote on Aug 15^th, 2015 at 3:30pm:


You're right. It wasn't "all about".

Modern states are conflicted beasts. There are always a host of competing motives. After the war, the US spent millions in a competition over who would take control of the A bomb: the Navy or the Air Force.

The Air Force won for two reasons: scientific and PR. On the scientific front, navy personel were exposed to high levels of radiation. The sea around Bikini Atol was off limits for years.

On the PR front, the air bomb looked more impressive: the distinctive mushroom cloud we've come to know and love. This alone was a compelling reason to hand the bomb over to the air force, before it was later administered by the Atomic Energy Commission. The US navy and air force were engaged in a systematic propaganda war for many years.

Lord Herbert wrote on Aug 15^th, 2015 at 6:18pm:


Anyway, back to Islam...

But, FD, that's one of your evasion threads. You've stopped posting there.