Showing posts with label Burma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Burma. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Rakhine.
This is coolbert:
Thanks to Radio Free Asia we can follow the latest developments in Burma. Ethnic violence between Muslims and Buddhists. Numbers killed and many more made homeless. I am following closely. A volatile situation if there ever was one.
Rape as the cause of the violence it is alleged. The passions of hate are stirred up in a big way by rape, perhaps as in no other way so intense. Obvious and recall that ten year war as fought in Lebanon from decades ago now began as a case of rape and retaliation!!
Rohingya people, stateless and refugees, related to their Islamic brethren in Bangladesh, restive and now in open conflict with the Buddhist majority of Burma, this is bad already and could get worse.
"Emergency Declared in Rakhine"
"Rakhine state was named after its dominant, mostly Buddhist ethnic group. But it is also home to a large Muslim population, including the Rohingya, a stateless people described by the U.N. as one of the world's most persecuted minorities."
It is from the ranks of the Rohingya people that terrorists, insurgents, suicide bombers are found.
"The Burmese government regards the Rohingya as foreigners and not among the nation's ethnic groups. Many Burmese consider them illegal immigrants."
"The emergency action came after riots in two Rakhine areas on Friday left at least seven people dead and 17 wounded, according to state media."
"The violence sparked off a week ago after the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman. An angry mob, mistakenly believing the perpetrators of the rape were on board a bus, beat 10 Muslim passengers to death."
"This weekend, at least 500 houses and other buildings have been razed as the unrest spread with mob and revenge attacks, state media reported. One report said 5,000 people have been made homeless."
Please recall that the British Admiral Parry suggested from his macro world scale intelligence preparation of the battlefield that Bangladesh, that entire Bay of Bengal area the part of the planet where the world order as we understand it is most likely to break up. That might include Burma as I see it. Cyclone Nargis and all the damage it did perhaps could have been a catalyst leading to breakup and total disintegration of an entire society, with all that will mean. Did not occur, but the potentiality was there. With this too perhaps!!
coolbert.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Nay Pyi Taw.
This is coolbert:
Here from the latest edition of the National Geographic a description of the Burmese capital city, Nay Pyi Taw. A city built out of the wilderness [?], the ruling junta in Burma deathly afraid of an amphibious attack up the Irrawaddy River, an emulation of Operation Dracula in World War Two [WW2]. The junta members having consulted the astrologers as to the timing of such an attack [an attack existing only in their only minds] and the recourse [the construction of a new capital city away from the ocean, far inland!].
"junta - - noun - - 1. a small group ruling a country, especially immediatey after a coup d'etat and before a legally constituted government has been instituted." [a junta quite often is a group of military men!]
According to the Geographic, among other things you find at Nay Pyi Taw are:
* "an unsettling void: smooth ten-lane roads with manicured roundabouts but scarcely any vehicles."
* "clusters of color-coded government housing complexes with no children in sight"
* "a copy of Yangon's [Rangoon] Shwedagon Pagoda with not a single Buddhist monk chanting prayers"
Furthermore:
"The new capital may feel soulless, but for rulers distrustful of their own people, it could a masterpiece of defensive urban planning. Worried about an imminent attack in Yangon [that amphibious attack up the Irrawaddy river], Than Shwe [the junta boss of bosses] poured several billion dollars into building the city on scrub land in central Myanmar [Burma], safe from killer storms [cyclone Nargis], foreign invasion [that emulation of Dracula], and domestic protests."
"The military zone is a bubble within a bubble, forbidden to all but top officers - - and reportedly honeycombed with underground bunkers."
That despotic and authoritarian ruling Burmese junta has been in charge now for over fifty years!! With no end in sight! A nation almost reclusive in nature, in the model of North Korea, NOT having the cult of personality but rather a number of senior military officers exploiting the natural resources of their own nation for crass reasons and NOW in cahoots with foreign powers [China most specifically]!
Please let us be clear about this! There was to be no foreign invasion, an amphibious attack up the Irrawaddy river in the manner of Dracula from WW2! It was all in the minds of the junta and the astrologers!
My own perceptions and intuition tell me too, that if such an foreign invasion did occur, that army of Than Shwe would disintegrate and be routed in the proverbial heartbeat. If and when such an invasion did occur, and the likelihood of that happening is next to zero!
Pity the plight of the Burmese people! Fifty years now of suffering without amelioration!
coolbert.
Here from the latest edition of the National Geographic a description of the Burmese capital city, Nay Pyi Taw. A city built out of the wilderness [?], the ruling junta in Burma deathly afraid of an amphibious attack up the Irrawaddy River, an emulation of Operation Dracula in World War Two [WW2]. The junta members having consulted the astrologers as to the timing of such an attack [an attack existing only in their only minds] and the recourse [the construction of a new capital city away from the ocean, far inland!].
"junta - - noun - - 1. a small group ruling a country, especially immediatey after a coup d'etat and before a legally constituted government has been instituted." [a junta quite often is a group of military men!]
According to the Geographic, among other things you find at Nay Pyi Taw are:
* "an unsettling void: smooth ten-lane roads with manicured roundabouts but scarcely any vehicles."
* "clusters of color-coded government housing complexes with no children in sight"
* "a copy of Yangon's [Rangoon] Shwedagon Pagoda with not a single Buddhist monk chanting prayers"
Furthermore:
"The new capital may feel soulless, but for rulers distrustful of their own people, it could a masterpiece of defensive urban planning. Worried about an imminent attack in Yangon [that amphibious attack up the Irrawaddy river], Than Shwe [the junta boss of bosses] poured several billion dollars into building the city on scrub land in central Myanmar [Burma], safe from killer storms [cyclone Nargis], foreign invasion [that emulation of Dracula], and domestic protests."
"The military zone is a bubble within a bubble, forbidden to all but top officers - - and reportedly honeycombed with underground bunkers."
That despotic and authoritarian ruling Burmese junta has been in charge now for over fifty years!! With no end in sight! A nation almost reclusive in nature, in the model of North Korea, NOT having the cult of personality but rather a number of senior military officers exploiting the natural resources of their own nation for crass reasons and NOW in cahoots with foreign powers [China most specifically]!
Please let us be clear about this! There was to be no foreign invasion, an amphibious attack up the Irrawaddy river in the manner of Dracula from WW2! It was all in the minds of the junta and the astrologers!
My own perceptions and intuition tell me too, that if such an foreign invasion did occur, that army of Than Shwe would disintegrate and be routed in the proverbial heartbeat. If and when such an invasion did occur, and the likelihood of that happening is next to zero!
Pity the plight of the Burmese people! Fifty years now of suffering without amelioration!
coolbert.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Fourteenth Army IV.
This is coolbert:
Fourteenth Army - - conclusion.
Dracula.
Please see this previous blog entry first - - then continue.
The fear of the ruling Burmese junta, a paranoia verging upon the insane, that a force of U.S. Marines, sailing up the Irrawaddy River from the ocean will depose the military dictators and their cronies is not without reason. There is Second World War precedent for such a military operation!
This movement of the Burmese seat of government is NOT without rationale or is being done for "mysterious motivations"!
I am thinking of Dracula. Operation Dracula to be exact. A simultaneous amphibious and airborne assault upon Rangoon by elements of the British Fourteenth Army. An eminently successful military operation - - the liberation of this most important Burmese city and port facility being accomplished almost without loss of life, the English forces greeted as liberators!
The perception of the junta - - the perceived threat is almost totally unwarranted?
Or am I wrong here? Please recall during the episode with the recent Cyclone Nargis. American warships with humanitarian supplies were standing off-coast from Rangoon, waiting permission to proceed - - a permission NEVER received.
The military men in charge of Burma are desperately worried of any challenge to their rule, and DO SEE foreign intervention as a distinct possibility, intervention occurring in the same manner as did Dracula, over sixty years ago now!
"It is not so much reality that counts as the perception of reality that counts" - - J. Jackson.
coolbert.
Fourteenth Army - - conclusion.
Dracula.
Please see this previous blog entry first - - then continue.
"The capital city of Burma has been moved [began in 2005?], unexpectedly and without rationale, two hundred miles [320 kilometers] upriver from Rangoon [Yangon]! The ruling junta has done so, with the advice of astrologers, fearing an attack by the U.S. Marines?"
The fear of the ruling Burmese junta, a paranoia verging upon the insane, that a force of U.S. Marines, sailing up the Irrawaddy River from the ocean will depose the military dictators and their cronies is not without reason. There is Second World War precedent for such a military operation!
This movement of the Burmese seat of government is NOT without rationale or is being done for "mysterious motivations"!
I am thinking of Dracula. Operation Dracula to be exact. A simultaneous amphibious and airborne assault upon Rangoon by elements of the British Fourteenth Army. An eminently successful military operation - - the liberation of this most important Burmese city and port facility being accomplished almost without loss of life, the English forces greeted as liberators!
The perception of the junta - - the perceived threat is almost totally unwarranted?
Or am I wrong here? Please recall during the episode with the recent Cyclone Nargis. American warships with humanitarian supplies were standing off-coast from Rangoon, waiting permission to proceed - - a permission NEVER received.
The military men in charge of Burma are desperately worried of any challenge to their rule, and DO SEE foreign intervention as a distinct possibility, intervention occurring in the same manner as did Dracula, over sixty years ago now!
"It is not so much reality that counts as the perception of reality that counts" - - J. Jackson.
coolbert.
Fourteenth Army III.
This is coolbert:
Fourteeth Army - - continued!
The Rani of Jhansi Regiment.
An integral part of the Indian National Army [INA], an all-woman combat unit.
The INA, comprised of persons desiring Indian independence from Great Britain, taking sides with the Japanese during the Second World War [WW2]. Collaborators and wanted persons by the British Raj, hoping to form a military force of some striking power that would aid and abet the Japanese conquest - - eventual - - of the Raj.
"The Indian National Army (INA) . . . was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II."
"The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance"
This particular all-woman combat unit, called a regiment, but in actuality much smaller, about 500 or so females trained in the soldiery arts, prepared for combat!
"The Rani of Jhansi Regiment was the Women's Regiment of the Indian National Army, the armed force formed by Indian nationalists . . . [consisting of] volunteers [females] from the expatriate Indian population in South East Asia."
"These cadets underwent military and combat training with drills, route marches as well as weapons training in rifles, hand grenades, bayonet charge."
[a unit whose strength was greater than a company, but less than a battalion!]
Very similar to the Russian Great War [WW1] "Legion of Death"? The "Legion" a combat arms unit comprised strictly of women!
[in size the Rani Regiment and the "Legion of Death" were comparable?]
The Rani regiment NOT seeing combat, the advance of the British Fourteenth Army into Burma in the latter days of WW2 not allowing for suitable deployment as envisioned?
These women of the Rani Regiment could have had their talents used more appropriately? Signallers, ambulance drivers, maintenance crews, etc. NOT really suitable for combat duty.
The Rani Regiment and "Legion of Death" are exercises primarily cosmetic in nature, not meaninfgul, the time, effort and energy spent in combat arms training could have been better utilized?
coolbert.
Fourteeth Army - - continued!
The Rani of Jhansi Regiment.
An integral part of the Indian National Army [INA], an all-woman combat unit.
The INA, comprised of persons desiring Indian independence from Great Britain, taking sides with the Japanese during the Second World War [WW2]. Collaborators and wanted persons by the British Raj, hoping to form a military force of some striking power that would aid and abet the Japanese conquest - - eventual - - of the Raj.
"The Indian National Army (INA) . . . was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II."
"The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance"
This particular all-woman combat unit, called a regiment, but in actuality much smaller, about 500 or so females trained in the soldiery arts, prepared for combat!
"The Rani of Jhansi Regiment was the Women's Regiment of the Indian National Army, the armed force formed by Indian nationalists . . . [consisting of] volunteers [females] from the expatriate Indian population in South East Asia."
"These cadets underwent military and combat training with drills, route marches as well as weapons training in rifles, hand grenades, bayonet charge."
[a unit whose strength was greater than a company, but less than a battalion!]
Very similar to the Russian Great War [WW1] "Legion of Death"? The "Legion" a combat arms unit comprised strictly of women!
[in size the Rani Regiment and the "Legion of Death" were comparable?]
The Rani regiment NOT seeing combat, the advance of the British Fourteenth Army into Burma in the latter days of WW2 not allowing for suitable deployment as envisioned?
These women of the Rani Regiment could have had their talents used more appropriately? Signallers, ambulance drivers, maintenance crews, etc. NOT really suitable for combat duty.
The Rani Regiment and "Legion of Death" are exercises primarily cosmetic in nature, not meaninfgul, the time, effort and energy spent in combat arms training could have been better utilized?
coolbert.
Fourteenth Army II.
This is coolbert:
Fourteenth Army - - continued.
Ramree Island crocodile massacre!
Here with info, more informative - regarding the Ramree Island crocodile massacre.
An episode from the Burma campaign, 1,000 Japanese entering a mangrove forest - - during the period of only a single night - - ONLY TWENTY LEFT ALIVE - - the survivors found in a stupefied state, the remainder of the Japanese force dead as a result of a massive and overwhelming attack by salt-water crocodiles.
So it is alleged! It has also been suggested that the massacre did not even occur!
Figures, the deaths of so many Japanese soldiers, devoured by rapacious and very-hungry crocodiles - - DISPUTED!!
"The Battle of Ramree Island was fought for six weeks during January and February 1945, as part of the Indian XV Corps 1944/45 offensive on the Southern Front of the Burma Campaign during World War II."
"On Ramree the Japanese garrison put up tenacious resistance . . . the nine hundred defenders [Japanese] within it abandoned the base and marched to join a larger battalion of Japanese soldiers across the island. The route forced the Japanese to cross 16 kilometres of mangrove swamps . . . Trapped in deep mud-filled land, tropical diseases soon started afflicting the soldiers, as well as scorpions, tropical mosquitoes, and saltwater crocodiles."
"In all, about 500 Japanese soldiers escaped from Ramree"
Approximately 1,000 or so Japanese soldiers did enter the mangrove swamp. About half completing the crossing of the island unscathed, the remainder killed, BUT NOT ALL FROM CROCODILE ATTACK! So it would seem.
Half of the Japanese soldiers perishing from various reasons, to include:
* Dehydration.
* Exhaustion.
* Scorpion bites.
* Crocodile attack.
A goodly number of Japanese indeed killed and eaten by crocs, but NOT the entire force of 1,000! This is a reasonable assumption and clarification?
As to: "the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles"
[crocs alone or in a group working cooperatively are able to "disassemble" large prey into "swallow-able" chunks of meat by clamping their jaws tight on a carcass of a large animal and spinning their bodies, dismemberment instantaneously and grotesquely so!!]
Such is the wild kingdom!
coolbert.
Fourteenth Army - - continued.
Ramree Island crocodile massacre!
"That night [of the 19 February 1945] was the most horrible that any member of the M.L. [motor launch] crews ever experienced. The scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctured by the screams of wounded men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles made a cacophony of hell that has rarely been duplicated on earth . . . Of about 1,000 Japanese soldiers that entered the swamps of Ramree, only about 20 were found alive."
Here with info, more informative - regarding the Ramree Island crocodile massacre.
An episode from the Burma campaign, 1,000 Japanese entering a mangrove forest - - during the period of only a single night - - ONLY TWENTY LEFT ALIVE - - the survivors found in a stupefied state, the remainder of the Japanese force dead as a result of a massive and overwhelming attack by salt-water crocodiles.
So it is alleged! It has also been suggested that the massacre did not even occur!
Figures, the deaths of so many Japanese soldiers, devoured by rapacious and very-hungry crocodiles - - DISPUTED!!
"The Battle of Ramree Island was fought for six weeks during January and February 1945, as part of the Indian XV Corps 1944/45 offensive on the Southern Front of the Burma Campaign during World War II."
"On Ramree the Japanese garrison put up tenacious resistance . . . the nine hundred defenders [Japanese] within it abandoned the base and marched to join a larger battalion of Japanese soldiers across the island. The route forced the Japanese to cross 16 kilometres of mangrove swamps . . . Trapped in deep mud-filled land, tropical diseases soon started afflicting the soldiers, as well as scorpions, tropical mosquitoes, and saltwater crocodiles."
"In all, about 500 Japanese soldiers escaped from Ramree"
Approximately 1,000 or so Japanese soldiers did enter the mangrove swamp. About half completing the crossing of the island unscathed, the remainder killed, BUT NOT ALL FROM CROCODILE ATTACK! So it would seem.
Half of the Japanese soldiers perishing from various reasons, to include:
* Dehydration.
* Exhaustion.
* Scorpion bites.
* Crocodile attack.
A goodly number of Japanese indeed killed and eaten by crocs, but NOT the entire force of 1,000! This is a reasonable assumption and clarification?
As to: "the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles"
[crocs alone or in a group working cooperatively are able to "disassemble" large prey into "swallow-able" chunks of meat by clamping their jaws tight on a carcass of a large animal and spinning their bodies, dismemberment instantaneously and grotesquely so!!]
Such is the wild kingdom!
coolbert.
Fourteenth Army I.
This is coolbert:
Fourteenth Army. "Forgotten".
Proxies!
Here begins a series of blog entries on the British Fourteenth Army. That English fighting force from the Second World War [WW2] - - seeing action in the CBI [China-Burma-India] Theatre.
More correctly a combat force of Imperial England, a "commonwealth" army, contingents draw from all areas of the Empire.
A massive force, unprecedented in size:
"In 1945 not only was the Fourteenth Army the largest army in the Commonwealth, it was the largest single army in the world with about half a million men under command . . . the majority of the army was built around the British Indian Army, which was stated to be the largest all-volunteer army in history.
[the wiki entry is not consistent concerning the numbers of troops. See this: "The Fourteenth Army was the Second World War’s largest Commonwealth Army, with nearly a million men by late 1944."]
Soldiers forming the Fourteenth Army from a variety of locales and regions, to include:
* India - - British Indian Army troops.
* Africa - - West and East African troops.
* England - - Englishmen to be sure!
Please recall the rating scheme of the Japanese Colonel Tsuji as to the fighting "ability" of those combatants to be found in the Pacific theatre and CBI. [#1 equals best, ability not fully defined!]
#1 - - Japanese, #2 - - Chinese, #3 - - Russians, #4 - - Ghurkhas, #5 - - Americans, #6 - - Australians, #7 - - British Indian Army, #8 - - English!
The difficulties encountered by those fighting in the jungle environment of Burma are well known! For each battlefield casualty, TWELVE non-combat related injuries, mostly from illness! NOT even counting the difficulties of commencing and continuing military operations during the monsoon season.
Terrain, weather, a fanatical and very tough enemy made the going of Fourteenth Army very difficult. "Forgotten" but not by this blogger.
coolbert.
Fourteenth Army. "Forgotten".
Proxies!
Here begins a series of blog entries on the British Fourteenth Army. That English fighting force from the Second World War [WW2] - - seeing action in the CBI [China-Burma-India] Theatre.
More correctly a combat force of Imperial England, a "commonwealth" army, contingents draw from all areas of the Empire.
A massive force, unprecedented in size:
"In 1945 not only was the Fourteenth Army the largest army in the Commonwealth, it was the largest single army in the world with about half a million men under command . . . the majority of the army was built around the British Indian Army, which was stated to be the largest all-volunteer army in history.
[the wiki entry is not consistent concerning the numbers of troops. See this: "The Fourteenth Army was the Second World War’s largest Commonwealth Army, with nearly a million men by late 1944."]
Soldiers forming the Fourteenth Army from a variety of locales and regions, to include:
* India - - British Indian Army troops.
* Africa - - West and East African troops.
* England - - Englishmen to be sure!
Please recall the rating scheme of the Japanese Colonel Tsuji as to the fighting "ability" of those combatants to be found in the Pacific theatre and CBI. [#1 equals best, ability not fully defined!]
#1 - - Japanese, #2 - - Chinese, #3 - - Russians, #4 - - Ghurkhas, #5 - - Americans, #6 - - Australians, #7 - - British Indian Army, #8 - - English!
The difficulties encountered by those fighting in the jungle environment of Burma are well known! For each battlefield casualty, TWELVE non-combat related injuries, mostly from illness! NOT even counting the difficulties of commencing and continuing military operations during the monsoon season.
Terrain, weather, a fanatical and very tough enemy made the going of Fourteenth Army very difficult. "Forgotten" but not by this blogger.
coolbert.
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