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| pic via Naval Today. |
If we like you and feel a kinship then you'll find no better friend. If you have something we want, you'll find no better buyer.
But what happens when you're in that grey area where you're not quite our best friend and you have something to sell that we want but don't necessarily need?
Ask the Filipinos and compare our response to the Brits.
The USMC made a huge show of the MV-22 and its response to the affected area. Meanwhile you have the Brits that quietly and efficiently sent their warships to the area, got on with the mission and now have the Filipino people making signs thanking them for their work (on this note another country that performed admirably but mostly unnoticed is Israel...they setup a hospital with astonishing speed, rebuilt schools etc.).
Lessons learned for this exercise? State, USAID and NGOs need to be the face of our efforts at disaster relief. Never use a crisis to test a concept...its unseemly. Cut back on the propaganda (the MV-22 talking points were beyond bad taste, they were embarrassing). There is time for that when people are no longer suffering. Oh and maybe do it the way the Brits did.
What nice, thankful people they are. More power to them.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH Brittor people for helping us. from Silad Island
Here's a photo of two of the ten pallets airlifted from the LCS USS Freedom from her position 16 nautical miles off the coast of Tacloban.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7TrkdFX9Zvo/UpsxVd0Q_NI/AAAAAAAAAlM/9O9to8vgNsk/s320/LCS1+Pallets.jpg
How can you use a sheet of plywood better than that. Nice people. I know, I already said that.
Deletethe people are good to go, the govt as fucked up as our own. i saw an interview with their defense minister and i was unimpressed. the west is globally fucked when it comes to leadership.
DeleteThe Philippine president sent the defense and interior chiefs out to Tacloban prior to the hit.For commo they had cell phones, which didn't work after the typhoon hit. So no commo. Pitiful.
DeleteI see why the British are proud of their armed forces. They are good at nearly any task given to them and they have some really good people at the helm.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, US action on Philippines remind me some super rock star show. The made a great hype about it, show it in TV, radio, net and from every newspaper and when the concert is on, they sing one song and get the hell out of there. Or even cancel that concert before it's start.
ReplyDeleteBut as Sol write, there are some quiet bands that don't need a mega hype. They just go there and do the good job. I hand no idea that IDF units even go to Philippine. When the US armed forces start to be showman's ?
Well the US may have made a big entrance, but the news coverage we are exposed to may be different then other people in the world.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the big entrance and whatnot well if something they do in a humanitarian effort has training benefits as well its all good with me. They did after all show up fast and help.