5 Responses to “links for 2006-10-28”

1. mahathir_fan Says:
   October 28th, 2006 at 3:35 pm

   I want to applaud legislator Li Ao for his outspokenness on the arms procurement issue and for debating for about 30 seconds on whether Taiwan is a dog.

   At the Taiwan debate, he said:
   “What is Taiwan? Taiwan is just a dog. America’s guard dog. Why should a guard dog buy its own food? It should be provided free”

   Opposition: “The issue is we are not dogs”
   LiAO: “We are dogs!”
   Opposition:”We are not dogs!”
   LiAo: “We ARE! ”
   …
   LiAo: “Our president and disabled first lady went to America and were body searched like criminals. So I tell you, we are dogs”

   Source from video at 5 minutes 50 seconds at:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfxEPbogfb8

   Very funny!

2. mahathir_fan Says:
   October 28th, 2006 at 3:53 pm

   The source of the anger is probably because the Stephen YOung the unofficial “ambassador” to Taipei stepped up calls for Taiwan to pass the procurement bill. That’s an inteference on Taiwan internal matters, especially for a seller to say that to a buyer. If I am a buyer, I can choose to buy whenever I want. If the seller doesn’t like it, he can choose to sell it to someone else. The US in this case doesn’t have to wait for Taiwan. Sell it to someone else if you can.

   Or…is this arms deal really serves a dual purpose - a modern day tribute payment scheme as well?

   Afterall, we have been told by Dr. M that a lot of US military equipment capabilities are quite limited. Malaysia couldn’t bomb singapore using F18s that it bought but we can display the planes at the LIMA airshow at Langkawi:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWm3Ullfufc

3. Michael Turton Says:
   October 28th, 2006 at 7:57 pm

   Both those commentors above are incorrect. Taiwan must have weapons to guarantee its own security, and only the US is willing to sell them. Taiwan is not “America’s Guard Dog” — people like Li Ao hardly care about Taiwan anyway — and Young’s warning was not to Taiwan, but to the anti-democracy side (Blues) in Taiwan’s politics. Do not mis-read that as a warning to “Taiwan”. Feiren has an excellent analysis on our group blog Taiwan Matters! (http://taiwanmatters.blogspot.com) that discusses what Young is really talking about. The whole conservative wing of policymakers in the US is sick of Blue obstructionism, and the liberals will likely follow them. I will very much enjoy watching the Blues shoot themselves in the foot and blow fifty years of US patronage.

   It is pointless to claim that this is an “interference in Taiwan’s internal matters” as weaponry sold to Taiwan affects the security interests of several different Asian nations. The US very clearly has a security arrangement with Taiwan and weapons purchased by Taiwan are vital to both nations’ security arrangements. The US has every right to announce a sell-by date for this stuff.

   The US doesn’t “sell it to someone else” as the second commentor argued because the weaponry at the moment mostly does not exist, and will be built exclusively and intentionally for Taiwan.

   As for Li Ao, he’s simply another grandstanding idiot, of which Taiwan politics has so many. There’s nothing that will shave 100 points off your EQ so rapidly as becoming a Taiwan politician….

   Michael

4. Falen Says:
   October 29th, 2006 at 3:50 am

   Michael,

   Are you trolling from one website to the next?

   How dare you to call Blues “anti-democratic”! I think you are a troll. Is that part of your “Bush Doctorine”, “Either you are with us or against us”?

   “The whole conservative wing of policymakers in the US is sick of Blue obstructionism, and the liberals will likely follow them. I will very much enjoy watching the Blues shoot themselves in the foot and blow fifty years of US patronage.” Well be sickened more on the way out of the House! Excuse us for having a democracy where we allowed the politic to run its course! Of course that involved inconvenient stuff like free debate and legislations! Whether the conservatives are happy or are not is not a factor in serving Taiwan’s interest thank you very much, as it shouldn’t be!

   I am glad Taiwan politican made a firm stance against the Viceroy. Taiwan will not be blackmailed by his “ultimatum”. It is wholly inappropriate for him to say the stuff he did. If US doesn’t like it, they can take their weapons and go elsewhere. Taiwan should not be dictated by US’ “security arrangement”.

   Michael I think you should stop preaching on how Taiwan should act to advance US interesting. Maybe you should start to advance Taiwan’s own interest if you are so keen on expressing opinions on Taiwan.

5. mahathir_fan Says:
   October 30th, 2006 at 5:04 pm

   Michael, Are you trying to tell me that if Taiwan doesn’t buy those weapons, the US will be pissed and they may not come to rescue Taiwan when Taiwan is attacked? OMG, Taiwanese, please hear this. You better buy now or else big brother might not be there to save your asses when you are attacked!

   p/s sounds to be like a modern day tribute payment scheme. in the old days, when Malaysian states refuses to pay tribute money to the Siam empire, there is no guarantee that when they are attacked, the Siam empire will come to their aid or that they will not be invaded by Siam.

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