While watching Zulu for about the bajillionith time, I was curious about the British military strength back in the 1800s worldwide. I did a quick search of Wikipedia and came across a list of all British military engagements over the centuries. One of them sort of stuck out, primarily due to the random name: The Pig War
San Juan island lays inbetween the US and Canada just up from Seattle. In 1859, an American farmer shot a roaming pig that was owned by an employee of the Hudson Bay Company. The farmer offered $10 in compensation, but the owner demanded $100.
And this led to military action.
US troops (including George Pickett of Pickett’s Charge fame) landed on the island, and British navy sent in ships. The US sent in more canons and the British prepared to deploy some Marines. The orders from the Canadian governor was to a British Rear Admiral was to “engage the American soldiers” but the Admiral refused.
“Two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig” would be foolish he is quoted as saying.
Troops from both sides occupied the islands, exchanging insults and occasionally swapping alcohol and other goods. When word got back to Washington and London the leaders were flabbergasted that something like this was about to go to military action. They agreed on binding arbitration which was eventually decided in favor of the US.
Now, 150 odd years later, we have China and Japan fighting over another silly little island, this time not about pigs but about oil. So as to avoid the braindead QQ puppets and Japanese nationalists who pummel any posting about the islands with moronic jingoistic claims, I’ll forgo delving into the underlying claims of either country. But I will point out that a British Rear Admiral at the time had more sense than any number of politicians to keep things sane and under control rather than risk a battle between two superpowers over something as silly as a tiny island. Sadly I don’t think the players in either country in today’s battles has half as much sense.
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In the next few days, you are going to start seeing signs all over the net for KONY 2012. No, he’s not a politician–far from it, he’s Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda and a total and complete scumbag.
Internet savvy users around the world are pushing for his arrest in a coordinated effort this year to capture him. Last year 100 US military advisors were put on the ground to train the locals to help find him.
So join the Facebook group and post away. Expect your social media feed to fill up with this in the next few days.
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Fascinating little video here on the history of “Keep Calm and Carry On”, the iconic World War II poster that has been reprinted and parodied all over the world.
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The First Day on the Somme which I’m moving through right now, along with a number of free eBooks such as the Story of the Great War by Churchill, Miller and Reynolds, which is available for free download in many places (all eight volumes).
So it’s with this bit of interest I caught an advanced screening of War Horse the other night in Hong Kong. I hadn’t heard much about this film being so far removed from the “upcoming releases” and rarely seeing any trailers, but the pre-release buzz, based on the book and the play, was pretty strong. Steven Spielberg was directing so the film has all the grandiose cinematography that we’ve come to expect from his sweeping epics. A relatively young and unknown cast (unless you watch quite a bit of British TV).
War Horse tells the story of a horse (surprise) during the first World War I. A beautiful thoroughbred is bought by a drunken farmer in a petty spat with his landlord and adopted by the farmer’s son. The boy teaches the horse, which should be racing as ascot, how to pull a plow and behave around the farm. But the drums of war are approaching and when times get tough on the farm, the horse ends up in the service of a British cavalry unit, led by Sherlock Holmes (well, the actor Benedict Cumberbatch) on their way to the front.
[caption id="attachment_3760" align="aligncenter" width="612" caption="This isn't Oxford."][/caption]
Act II takes place with the British forces, and is quite the “pip pip” and all that of massive horse charges (beautifully filmed by the way) and tragic consequences of the ‘Flower of England’ going to war in the trenches. Another act with a refugee family before the horse finds himself in the service of the Germans, pulling large artillery pieces through the trenches past the corpses of many a horse that has pulled before.
The final act sees the unification of the whole story, with the farmer’s son now on trench duty in the First Battle of the Somme (1918) (there was another in 1916 for those who don’t know). Will the horse and master reunite, or is it a chance encounter of two ships simply passing in the night.
The film was enjoyable, but for me I think I suffered from “over expectations”. Some of the reviews have been positively gushing, even reports of Kate Middleton sobbing as she saw it at the London Premier. But for me it wasn’t quite all there. The lead character is a horse, of course, but having an emotional connection with a horse is something that just didn’t come through it for me. That it was able to move through the war from one side to the other and stay out of harms way was great and all, but as a film, the horse never jumped into something more, something I could relate to or have a deeper connection with. When human actors appeared, they came and went before you barely got past your stereotypes.
There are good moments, wonderful moments of the film. But while I’m all for a good cavalry charge, it doesn’t quite make a movie (ask the directors of The Lighthorsemen). In fact, for those who have never seen this nearly unheard of film, let me just show you the most important scene. If you are in a rush, spin to minute 3:27 for the be all, end all of cavalry charges in film. The horse charge in War Horse ranks right up there though. It was visually amazing and stunning in the display of the tragic futility of modern warfare against a more ‘noble idea’ of warfare on horseback.
[caption id="attachment_3768" align="aligncenter" width="599" caption="Not bad as far as calvary charges go"][/caption]
I guess one other thing is that I don’t really “get” horse films. It seems there is a whole genre of films based around horses that attract this subset of film goers who just “must” see every movie with a horse. It’s kind of like “ski” movies. You can take any idiot (and they do), pair them with some girls in bikinis (because skiing is all about bikinis) and then films a few minutes of guys going down a slope and people will pay money, over and over again to watch this. There is a built in audience for horse and ski movies, and I’m not in either crowd.
This film thankfully isn’t as violent as Saving Private Ryan, but neither is it as memorable. The relationship you had with the men under Tom Hanks command is stronger than those you’ll form in this film.
Should you see it? Yes. Should you expect a life-altering two hours? No. Just go with the concept you’re going to spend two hours watching something beautifully films and you’ll come out pleasantly satisfied.
Opens in Hong Kong the first week of February, after Chinese New Year.
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Over the past few years, we’ve seen the US play a more active role in Asia, primarily as a counter to China. On July 4, 2010, the South China Morning Post, in a likely ‘leaked’ story wrote about three US Ohio-class submarines simultaneously appearing at ports throughout Asia. In the last year the US has also decided to play a role in the South China sea / island disputes, and recently signed a new treaty with Australia on the positioning of US Marines down under.
Is this just a coincidence this photo is out and on the net and getting talked about? Possibly, but even if it is the case that this is just random, I don’t think the policy makers mind too much the connection of this photo with the other actions going in Asia today.
Here is the full pic from Flickr:
EuroHawk, a variant of the US Global Hawk drone aircraft, is the newest addition to the Luftwaffe. Looks pretty bad ass to be honest.
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London and much of the UK is in a mess right now but help is on the way in the form of a really ugly but functional armored vehicle.
The Jankel is based on a Ford pickup truck but heavily modified to suit a variety of purposes. They also just look downright mean. They aren’t as functional as “The Scoops” from Soylent Green however, but I suspect they’ll be a number of these types of vehicles throughout London tonight. They were deployed in an area near Croydon last night and there is talk this evening of ‘baton rounds’ being used should circumstances warrant.
You can read more about the Jankel at their website or from other forums.
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For those not versed in US history, “Dewey Defeats Truman” was a famously inaccurate banner headline on the front page of the Chicago Tribune on November 3, 1948, the day after incumbent United States President Harry S. Truman beat Republican challenger and Governor of New York Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential election in an upset victory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Defeats_Truman
Now, why is that relevant to the discussion? If Osama Bin Laden is still alive, he need only take one photo of himself in front of a headline proclaiming his death. Just one single solitary picture, sent out to his supporters or uploaded to the web. With just one picture he could:
a) bring down President Obama, who would have impeachment calls sounding out within hours of the photo going public.
b) discredit the United States in the eyes of the world to levels never before reached.
c) destroy the morale of the United States public in the hunt for terrorists
d) re-energize his supporters throughout the world.
Just by one simple photo.
All other photos are just for the gore seekers. Nothing else will come from viewing them.]]>
Living in DC you see your share of VIP military helicopters. The parade of them from Andrews AFB to the Pentagon each day (or further up to Langley) gets to be quite annoying for those living along the flight path of the Potomac River. Even out in the boonies where we live we occasionally had them flying over our house (we later learned that Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld had a place on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay).
So I was a bit surprised to see the photos today from the Navy’s photo site that showed, based on the paint scheme, to be a VIP transport being used for Tsunami relief operations. But sure enough, one of the two VIP transports for the Navy’s Pacific Fleet was busy slinging cargo to be taken into hard hit areas of Japan.]]>