The clean up guy

[grantcart]

During the boat people crises that started in earnest in 1978 there were thousands of odd stories. Some,like the fellow who pretended to be a customs officer in Saigon and hid on a freight boat and walked off in Singapore, were amazing stories of pluck and humor. Many were of tragedy. There are too many to relate here.

There is one story that provides an interesting point.

All of the countries in the area offered some sort of asylum, except Singapore. Except for the plucky fellow mentioned above no refugees arrived directly from Vietnam to Singapore. Singapore felt that being a small city state, predominately Chinese in a neighborhood of Muslims that it would become a magnet for all of the Chinese refugees streaming out of Vietnam if they made any exceptions. (Vietnam was at war with China at the time and was organizing the expulsion of Chinese - for profit - en masse.)

Refugees that were picked up by commercial shipping at sea could be off loaded in Singapore on one condition, that they had a letter of guarantee from the country that the ship was sailing under. There were a lot for Denmark, Sweden and the United States because these countries dominated the shipping lines in the area.

Refugees would be checked for family reunification and if found to not have a suitable anchor would have to be sent to the country that carried the flag for the ship that rescued them.

The routine was broken one time when the US Embassy Refugee Office received word that an American Naval ship had picked up a small boat of about 18 refugees. It was obvious that something was very wrong because all of the boats out of Vietnam were packed with almost no room to sit, and in this boat there was space, a lot of space.

The naval officers separated the refugees and heard one of the most horrific stories of the whole era. Thugs had taken over the boat. They had raped the teenage girls. The boat had been lost for weeks. They had ran low on food and when somebody got sick the thugs threw them overboard. When food got scarce they threw some more over. When food ran out they killed and cannibalized the victim.

The refugee office identified the thugs before they arrived. They were part of a ruthless band that operated as a cell to the VC but had no ideology, they used the conflict steal, extort and create mayhem. The refugee officer documented all of the alleged crimes of this group of thugs in Vietnam and the terrible crimes they committed at sea.

The refugee officer then transmitted the information to every embassy in the world, explaining exactly how terrible these guys were. Then the Naval ship arrived and the refugees were unloaded unto Singapore under a letter of guarantee.

A few days later it became obvious that the refugee officer had just created a great Gordian knot. No one was going to take the murdering/raping/cannibal Viet Cong. And yet the US Government had guaranteed they would take them.

The refugee officer was moved and 'the clean up guy' came in. He had to twist arms. He made deals with countries that couldn't take a lot of refugees to swap 500 guaranteed refugees if they would take one 'cannibal'. It took 6 months, he did what he had to do to get rid of the 8 thugs.

Obama wouldn't have started the Iraq war.

He wouldn't have opened Guantanamo Bay to hold combatants in a legal mumbo jumbo.

He wouldn't have authorized the torture.

Without the torture there wouldn't be any pictures that wouldn't have to be withheld.

Without the torture there wouldn't be any need for military tribunals. The criminals would have been caught and their statements from legal interrogations would have been used.

I understand why people are upset about the photos, the tribunals and all of the other mess. Its an easy shot to take.

But right now Obama has to either prosecute or relocate 200 people that would be as popular as a murdering/rapist/canibal Viet Cong thug. He didn't get them there and he didn't screw up their prosecutions.

Now President Obama has undertaken to make a major speech in Egypt on June 4th to try and undo the damage to American-Muslim relations that Bush/Cheney have done over the last 8 years.

Having had to do a couple of 'clean up jobs' one thing is always clear; When the time for clean up has arrived all of the good options are long gone.

I would have preferred that the pictures be released. I would have preferred the tribunals not needed.

While these preferences were not met my over ridding preference has been, that Obama takes care of the clean up.


He isn't the guy who started the war, authorized the torture or mangled the judicial options.


He is just the clean up guy.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

1. Great story.

Obama has more then his share of catastrophes, not of his making, to deal with. I think that this is an important fact that folks to be reminded of.

[grantcart]

4. tks

[goclark]

25. He was given an evil ball of yarn, all tied up in little knots

He has got to find out what is in each knot and then decide what is the short term way to get the damn knots out.

Then, he has to make decisions, based on current conditions of the yarn in each spot, that will be closer to his desired goals.

Sometimes you just can't get the yarn out smoothly to the satisfaction of all of the bystanders. Each having their own vision of what the ball of yarn should look like at the moment.

If their eyes could see like his eyes have been able to see, they may have an entirely different view.

But there is no way they have the same knowledge base that the President has to the situation.

For sure, I am thrilled that we now have someone that knows what a ball of yarn looks like and does not have to turn it upside down like a certain idiot had to do with "My Pet Goat."

[Cha]

2. So right. The Retro

dude. Go back and redo everything and make it right this time.

Thanks, grant.

[grantcart]

9. yeah too bad we don't have a time machine

[jbauer_torture]

3. i agree

wow

[NYC_SKP]

5. Kicking and adding this cartoon from Frenchie Cat's thread, posted after yours.

But of a like theme.



Recommended.

[grantcart]

6. thanks for the addition

[redqueen]

16. Nice.

Thanks for posting that here.

[rufus dog]

7. I have to say that I am a bit shell shocked.

It seems as if most cons will believe everything fed to them no matter how illogical and the majority of libs want every decision to be perfect without any thought regarding complexity. As if each decision can be made in a vacuum, then on to the next one. I guess it would be easier to understand it if Obama was a couple years into his job.

[grantcart]

10. well we are Democrats

[vaberella]

8. K&R'd and Bookmarked. n/t

[grantcart]

11. tks

[tkmorris]

12. That's a great post

I am not completely certain that I agree with it, but you do make one hell of an argument. Well done.

[grantcart]

14. thanks for responding

[Kdillard]

13. kick and rec. It is never easy being the clean up guy and the President has plenty

of work to do after George Bush.

[midnight]

15. Why are these prisoners being related to the cannibals?

But right now Obama has to either prosecute or relocate 200 people that would be as popular as a murdering/rapist/canibal Viet Cong thug. He didn't get them there and he didn't screw up their prosecutions.
Why do you think the popularity of these prisoners who are innoncent being compared to a gang that was not?

[grantcart]

17. A very good question

1) Why do you think that the canibals are guilty? They were never tried. It turns out that there is no court that had jurisdiction and that the technical problems in prosecuting them were overwhelming. Some of the 200 detainees are proud AQ operatives and leaders who have been involved in crimes much greater than the 'VC' (they weren't real VC BTW). Some of the detainees are still proud of their involvement, including that of 9/11 and want to be executed so that they can achieve martyr status. Certainly you are not arguing that all of the 200 that are left are innocent are you?


2) While some of the detainees are clearly innocent (like the Muslims from China) the stigma in the US is so great that given a poll they would, even in their innocence, in some communities, be seen in exactly the same boat as the VC. The point is that the President isn't the one who created those circumstances but, like the person who had to find homes for the 'VC' had to overcome legal and public relations problems that were not of his own making.

[goclark]

18. grantcart~ thank you for your constant clarity and wisdom

K and R

[TuxedoKat]

19. Great post.

You should email it to Rachel Maddow who was criticizing Obama last night over the war tribunals.

[Bluerthanblue]

20. Excellently said- !!!

very glad to rec.

we need to not lose focus in this challenging time- negativity is contagious.

[Wednesdays]

21. K&R

[goclark]

22. Yea for a thoughtful and positive thread ~

[Scurrilous]

23. K & R

[newview88]

24. K&R

[HopeOverFear]

26. Excellent Post n/m

[grantcart]

27. thanks

[slay]

28. Clean-up or cover-up?

Remains to be seen.

[grantcart]

29. Releasing the torture memos clearly shows that he is not interested in a cover up

But you are certainly free to enjoy your cynicism.

[slay]

30. I hope you are right

but what you call cynicism, I call realism and the reality is - our govenment routinely lies to us. I hope you're right - I voted for Obama - but I am indeed worried he is covering for the Bush people again. I'll give him time (what choice do we have right?) and I sincerely hope I can tell you in four years I was wrong. I also hope people on DU can start treating each other more like we would like to be treated than all the infighting this week - not seeing that happen either though.