Originally posted by Quad:
Agree as quoted above.
But one man' meat is another mans' poison. You do not need to agree with me for every statement I've made as we interpret differently. We see what we want to see and hear we want to hear. That's quite true and also why we can see where the fault lies in us. Dons't make anyone feels good at the receiver end.
wah! suddenly u believe in free speech and not just your own version of what's happenning in the world???

don't mind if i share my thoughts on this while waiting for Trip's views...
Ok, you topic.
Let sink a few RMN ship. What will be their reaction? They will not sit back and relax. Start a war. Sure we will win for a start but nobody can assure that all the way.
thats a question i think no one can answer. no plan survives first contact with the enemy.
Sg looks well placed to gain the upper hand, but it can go either way from there. it is precisely due to this uncertainty that armed conflict is not a favoured means to achieve ends in today's world... unless u happen to be talking about Bush Jr...
but thats the thing... the USA has a much larger margin for error. they can fight a war, not win, and get on with business as usual soon after that. Look at Vietnam.
thats why i think Sg will
not go to war easily but thats not what's really important here... what's important i think, is what will it take to trigger a war in light of this current uncertainties. how far will we go to tolerate the incursions and the intransigence of our neighbour?
and u'll never know. Tony Tan puts it very eloquently when he said that M'sia will be responsible for any escalation or unintended incidences that occurs in the area of Pedra Branca if they do not stop their incursions.
this can be seen both as a calm reaction to a dangerous situation or a veiled threat to tell them to stop their wayang. Sg can't just laugh off their feeble attempts to attract attention and gain votes just because we see it as that.
a firm statement has to be made in response to their nonsense. This said, the ball is in M'sia's court... should they decide to be belligerent and escalate, then Sg will have just cause to defend itself.
moreover, according to the UN Charter (whether its relevant or not since some see it as a toothless tiger), it is NOT a war crime to utilise unconventional means if a country believes that its existence is endangered by the belligerent actions of an armed aggressor.
The UN Charter does not prevent member states from defending itself from armed aggression without first consulting the Security Council.
Which means, Bush might like a resolution to be passed so he can attack Iraq with some legitimacy attached, but Sg will not need one if it believes that its sovereignty and existence as a state and nation was in danger from armed aggression.
When there is war tribunal, they first question is always, wo threw the first punch? same in our local law, Mr. Policeman will ask who threw the first punch? Culprit is 75% at fault immediately.
So how to tackle?
thats the interesting part... how often have u seen the Victors hauled up before a War Crimes' Tribunal?
look... if the Axis had won the 2nd world war, Winston Churchhill, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman would've been war criminals. (The nazis actually had extremely sophisticated plans to snatch prominent politicians IF Sealion had worked...)
If the Japanese had won, Nimitz, Macarthur and Mountbatten would've been war criminals.
besides, u assume that Sg would fire the first shot. even if it did, it might not be held responsible if it could be proved that we merely launched a pre-emptive attack to safeguard our sovereignty in light of overwhelming evidence of impending and unavoidable aggression.
War Justice is actually one of the grossest forms of injustice i can think of... not that some of the war criminals tried did not deserve to die, but if they were, then isn't the victors' side guilty of the same crime and ought to be executed as well?
try checking what u can find out about US war crimes during the gulf war... they are rather interesting if u can find info about them... which i'm sure smart old man like u ought to have no problems finding...
