Self Defense is the New Colonial Speak

2024-10-10 · Ho Chanh Nghia

Originally published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/self-defense-new-colonial-speak-khanh-pham-cf7gc/

Self Defense is the New Colonial Speak

China had to protect its sovereignty. was iterated at the conference trying to resolve border dispute.

China had to defend itself against neighboring countries from using their land and sea. Which sit inside the borders of neighboring countries.

It is a bit different from Israel dismembering neighboring countries the right to defend itself. The effect of using and securing land that belongs to other people is fairly apparent.

I am not all that knowledgeable about the Paracel and Sprately island. I only learned about the sporadic killing of Vietnamese as a deterrence for using the disputed areas. As a Vietnamese American, I felt like speaking up for Vietnamese dying in Vietnam due to the ineffectiveness of their government, was also the right thing to do.

It was early one morning in 2005 when I had the opportunity to speak to the 2nd in command of the Air Force ISR commander. He shared with us low-ranking troops the work he’s doing. consolidating power, consolidating money, etc. sending secret missions into Afghanistan. and other issues around the world that top brass usually think about.

After asking him to fix the corruption at my HQ, I brought up the Chinese activities in the SE Asian sea- which automatically landed me in hot water at work. My supervisor was ordered to give me a letter of counseling for anything. So he gave me a letter of counseling for having hair thicker than white people. It was degrading as he stuck a ruler to my head and declared my hair was too thick. This is the level of excellence that the world’s greatest Air Force operates at.

It is interesting to note that children already know a lot of things before they learn them things in school. Living with your parents, end up receiving a lot of their fears and concerns. The most common concern for the Vietnamese had always been the Chinese power. Even Vietnamese who escaped Vietnam’s communist persecution, still feel that anger when seeing Vietnam being conquered by Chinese power. So when I started hearing the news of the Vietnamese people being killed by the Chinese people, it started to boil my blood. A slow shimmer initially, but it starts to boil slowly.

I asked about the nuances issue of why the Vietnamese government does not talk about this, and the answer was that they wanted to keep the issue quiet. There are other issue the government of vietnam was working with the government of China that was more important than the killing of Vietnamese.

Somewhat similar to how the killing of Palestinians was not really a subject to be brought up as the PLO and Israel talk about peace.

During the protest of the oil pipeline through native’s waterway, the American police released dogs to bite the protestors. During the detention of Palestinians, the Israeli soldier forced a dog to attack the prisoners. All these make the plausible claim that we humans did not do that. It was an accident. Sadly, this ploy seems to work very well for people who look for the slightest means to believe they are good people amid a genocide.

Is running shale oil from canada to texas using the waters of native waters an act of genocide? Well on the surface it does not look like it. but what happens when oils goes into the water? It is not just the natives alone that will pay for the cost of this act. This is no different from the US and Isreal building oil extractions from the shore of Palestine while bombing and eradicating Palestine from the river to the sea. That is just one way of looking at it.

China is doing its thing. Not to take away from all the great contributions to humanity China has made and will be making, but some truths should not be buried just because we want to focus on the good thing. Like sticking your head deep into the sand, so that you do not see the hurricane coming by. Like the Government of Vietnam not talking about Chinese killing Vietnamese because it is uncouth. Like the US government not talking about Israel’s treatment of Americans and other non-americans inside America and outside America, just because their pockets are lined with gold from god knows where.

Can you imagine, a mother turning a blind eye to the rape of her daughter, because she does not want the good image of her new boyfriend to be tarnished? In the same fashion, the government turns a blind eye to crime against their people for the sake of their comfort.

Geopolitics is not that much different from the children’s play yard. You can get your complete education by watching children play and fight. It is not too different from domestic disputes inside a family. If you dare believe in your own observation and understand. vs believing in education and gaslighting.