NEW SITE:

I made up my mind.  I finally decide to blog from blogspot.  State of Flux is officially at this address.  Please change your favorite.  I just posted a few more posts over there.  Come come come.

ALTERNATIVE SITE

I started another identical blog on here on blogspot.  Until I make up my mind on where I want to be.   I will double post on both sites.

My monologue about the Vietnam War dialogue

I have not blogged about the Vietnam War at all in this blog. Most of the blog is about Iraq and the Middle East, my most recent dramatic experience. But as the anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, April 30th, comes around, I will blog more about it.  I ran across this piece by Viet Pundit on his opinion of anti-war protester and how it has evolved.  He further pointed out to a few blogs by formerly anti-war activists who are now reassessing their position.  Here is an essay by neo-neocon.  It is part of her "A Mind Is A Difficult Thing To Change" series.  I was quite moved.  This is a very good start.

I too went through a similar evolution.  I myself recently participated in another equally controversial war – the Iraq War – and had not completely digested my experience.  The one single thing I have learned from my recent experience is that war is difficult to digest and comprehend.  And often the participant is so close to the scene that it is difficult to see the big picture.

As far as Vietnam, what is done is done.  Nothing can undo the suffering my family, I, and my fellow Vietnamese have endured.  But it is still important to present our perspective of the war, a perspective which was and still is neglected and discounted by academe and society as a whole. And slowly, I hope that the Vietnam War will be look upon with a more objective eyes, and fair and balance version of it will emerge. I also think it is important to approach those of opposite opinion, not with confrontation, but with understanding.  It is easier said than done, and I will no doubt occasionally appear confrontational.  It is after all a deeply emotional issue for me.

BBC News reports on the Madain incident.  Reader who are not following the incident, here is the recap.  Last week, Iraqi official claimed that Sunni insurgents took over Madain, a town south of Baghdad and took many Shiite hostages.  This week the Iraqi Security force entered in force and found no hostages or insurgents.  Interestingly, Al-Zarqawi Group publicly denied that they had not taken any hostages in Madain.  It seem that the whole incident was a hoax. Sunni partisans, claimed that it was created by the Shiite dominated government as a pretext to persecute Sunni. Tariq Al-Hashimi, the general secretary said: "Whatever the reasons - so far mostly they seem fabricated and exaggerated -we completely reject the latest escalation in the from of the seige of the town with a view to raiding it." (Al-Jazeera)  He warned of a "new Fallujah." Sheik Abd Al-Salam Al-Kubaisi of the Association of Muslim Scholar (AMS) weighted in and said the report was completely untrue. 

Later this week, 60 remains were found in the Tigris river, south of Madain, and President Talabani claimed that the incident was no hoax and the victims are the hostages from Madain.  However the identities of the victims are not fully identified and no one know for sure if they are victims of Badain kidnapping.

However I find the accusation of the Association of Muslim Scholar and the Iraqi Islamic Party rather weak.  Iraqi Shiite do not need this incident as an excuse to exact revenge.   There were enough confirmed bombing of Shiite mosques to stir up vengence.  But so far the Shiites have been rather restrained.  The fact that Zarqawi himself bothered to deny the incident is in itself significant.  Zarqawi in the past had no problem admit to the killing of innocent Shiites.  He is afterall considered Shiites to be apostates and deserved killing.  Why bother to explain his action over some heretics.  My take is that the political environment in Iraq has changed and Zarqawi and his ilks came to realize that they are loosing the political battle in Iraq.  It is one thing to behead Westerners.  But it is now unacceptable to murder innocent Iraqi.  Terrorist sympathizers such as the Iraqi Islamic Pary and the Association of Muslim Scholars must have realized it too.

UPDATE: According to a fellow Iraqi blogger, Baghdad Dweller, the atrocity did happen.  She even has pitures to prove.  The pictures are very good, they show the victims family displaying picture of their kidnapped loved ones.  There are even pictures of fire fight.

Realignment of Global Power Part I: China, Japan and Peace in the Pacific

Three recent significant developments in global politic, the anti-Japanese protest in China.  US reaching out to India, and United Nation reform, all seem random and unrelated but they all part of the next great shift in global power politic.  Massive protests in China against a seemingly minor issue is actually a manifestation of something much more sinister - Chinese ultra-nationalism and Chinese desire for hegemony, in the Pacific and beyond.  The visit by Secretary Rice to India and her comment on India as a future "major world power" is an recognition of a realignment and redistribution of power.  The reform of the UN is important if not fundamental to the first two issues.

The protests in China is not merely about text book.  One prefecture in Japan approved a text that downplay (not deny) Japan misdeed during World War II.  Big deal.  Why does this seemingly minor insensitivity offend the Chinese so much.  Japan have publicly apologized for her past misdeeds on numerous occasions - 17 times publicly and in writting.  The protest is not about textbook on Japan past but is about Japan future role in the Pacific.  The Chinese, after the abandonment of socialism did not abandon tyranny.  China embrace Western capitalism but did not embrace Western democracy.  China politically is still the oligarchy of old, but without the legitimacy endowed by the ideal of socialism.

Ruling more than a billion people without their consent is difficult to maintain in the long run - especially when the world is becoming more democratic and the governed are aware of this.  The Politburo need a sustainable ideology and like other dictatorial regimes decide to adopt nationalism.  This nationalism, like all nationalism, look to the past glory and the desire to relive and revive it.  China long to see the reemergence of "The Middle Kingdom," a Chinese hegemony in the Pacific.  Japan is seen as a potential rival for this covet role.  Further, China resent Japan recent activities when Japan aligning herself closely to the US, on the issue of North Korea as well as sending troops to Iraq, who China consider to be an obstacle to China rise in the Pacific.

As long as the US play a dominant role in Pacific politic and as long as Japan continue to play along side the US, the dream of Sino Imperium will not be realized.  The protests were and are not spontaneous display of grass root movement but it was stoked, approved, and encouraged by the Chinese authority.  In China, people do not spontaneously protest on the streets.  The last time they tried, the Chinese government drove tanks over them.  Add this incident to the aggressiveness displayed across the Taiwan strait, the belligerent and bullying attitude concerning territorial water and we have a serious threat to peace in the Pacific.  China should be considered a threat, and not because she is powerful, but because she is powerful and undemocratic.

The Politburo play on nationalism is dangerous and has unintended consequence.  Nationalism is irrational and dangerous, both to others and the users.  Nationalism carry with it the seeds of fascism, xenophobia, and bloodshed.  We have seen in the last few decades the devastation cause by it.  The genocides committed in Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, the sectarian violent in India are all the consequence of nationalism out of control.  Consensus is that the Chinese leadership are pragmatic and merely use nationalism as a tool to improve their domestic standing and to leverage in international arena.  But nationalism is a dangerous tiger, particularly dangerous for the rider.  The politburo may enjoy riding the tiger now, but they will find that they cannot get off it without being eaten.  Pretty soon, it will be the tiger that will dictate the direction of China foreign policy.  The prospect of China invading Taiwan is much higher with nationalism than without.  It would not even take Taiwan outright declaration of independence to spark conflict.  A minor move by Taiwan toward the direction of separation, and the Chinese mass, the same one who protested Japan's textbook, who are indoctrinated to believe in the virtue and righteousness of the "Middle Kingdom," will demand war.

This is why Japan is important if not key in the containment of China's nationalism.  Japan is after all a responsible democracy in Asia and an economic powerhouse.  It is time for us to expunge all her sins committed 60 years prior. She has been a role model member of the world.  And it is time for Japan to step up to the place and share some of the responsibility of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.  That is a permanent seat in the Security Council.  She after all is more trustworthy of the role and position than that of China or Russia.