A recent speech by George W. Bush has started a big controversy, Bush quoted from noted Japan historian John Dower's book "Embracing Defeat" as a rationale for occupying Iraq. Dower has vociferously objected to Bush's misrepresentation of his work.

Commentary and links at Frog In A Well.

Dower wrote an editorial for the New York Timesin 2002 about how an Iraq occupation would not work like the Japanese occupation.

Dower's recent editorial at HNN says that the US is more like Japan occupying Manchuria.

Bush is such an uneducated clod...f*ck his dumbass...I love how he recently compared Iraq to Vietnam, implying that we left Vietnam too early and it resulted in unecessary deaths....stupid ass apparently doesn't realize the US was in Vietnam for 10 years and millions died during that time.

Edit: It's interesting to reflect on history realizing that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was the tipping point that lead to the end of "the evil empire." The unqualified disaster that is Iraq may be a parallel event in American history, obviously the end won't come as quickly but this definitely signifies that American hegemony is an historical chapter now...

"Scholars are only now beginning to fully appreciate how perversely "modern" imperial Japan's mobilization for war and accelerated expansion actually was. Self-styled patriotic renovationists not only seized the initiative in calling for a "new order" abroad and "new structure" at home but also made it clear that these goals were inseparable. Their exhortations were bold and articulate. They did not hesitate to employ subterfuge, intimidation and fait accompli to achieve their ends. They forged potent alliances of corporate, bureaucratic and political interests, while vesting unprecedented power in the military. And they mobilized popular support domestically through masterful manipulation of a newly emergent mass media.

In retrospect, we tend to dwell on the hubris and madness of these men. Their short-lived empire is dismissed as little more than a "dream within a dream," to borrow a Japanese phrase, but this is too simple. In their passing moment of devastating triumph, these right-wing radicals not only changed the face of Asia in unanticipated ways but permanently transformed Japan as well. And their grand concerns, aspirations and accomplishments find eerie echo in much of what we behold in U.S. policy today. Regime change, nation-building, creation of client states, control of strategic resources, defiance of international criticism, mobilization for "total war," clash-of-civilizations rhetoric, winning hearts and minds, combating terror at home as well as abroad -- all these were part and parcel of Japan's vainglorious attempt to create a new order of "co-existence and co-prosperity" in Asia."

Brilliant, Ive always seen Japan as an America in Asia.

It is sad that we haven't learnt these lessons a people actually vote fuckwits like Bush Howard and Abe into power!

Bush wasnt really voted it. He got in throuh trickery and deception.

Needless to say, most evil country in the world is China.
If evil country like China doesnt exist next Japan, originally Japan dont need to change SDF into SDF army.
Before blaming Japan, blame uncivillized fucking China.

Takechanpoo wrote:Needless to say, most evil country in the world is China.
If evil country like China doesnt exist next Japan, originally Japan dont need to change SDF into SDF army.
Before blaming Japan, blame uncivillized fucking China.

Are you po'ed because your pet died from some "Made in China" dog food?

i cant wait to read a history book in 10 or so years and see bush's face under the quotation "worst president ever" XD. What a train wreck both terms have been.

MaboroshiX wrote:i cant wait to read a history book in 10 or so years and see bush's face under the quotation "worst president ever" XD. What a train wreck both terms have been.

Indeed. A majority of American historians surveyed near the end of his first term had already deemed his presidency a failed one.

Some of my opinions;

-The comparison between the middle-east and east-asia doesn't take into account the lack of insurgency in post-war Japan, nor the homogeneity of it's people. I'm sure there are a million other differences that outweigh the few similarities, but these alone are enough to invalidate the argument. I'd hope.

-As someone who would have been absolutely ashamed to vote for a person like Bush, even back in 2000, I still have to admit that we will not be able to determine his success as a president until decades from now. So, what "historians" are determining now is completely moot. This is even more true when you have a president who spurred such dramatic "change", in global politics, as Bush has.

-As to the Japan/America analogy; you can't possibly put forth an analogy as strained as this while criticizing, in the same thread, the strained mid-east/east-asia analogy proposed by Bush. Can you?

[quote="Adhesive"]Some of my opinions]

I can appreciate your argument but I beg to differ on that point...if you are going to focus on some of Bush's global initatives that may be true to a certain extent, but I believe these historians are looking at the totality of his abysmal presidency. He has completely failed the nation on the domestic front for example. He has had totally laughable domestic agenda if you can even call it that...

Social Security Reform - None
Medicare Part D - largely considered a failure
Immigration Reform - None
Education, "No Child left behind" - largely considered a failure
Katrina/FEMA response - a joke
Implementation of 9/11 commission recommendations - virtually nil
Fiscal Responsiblity - need I even mention it.

Even on the axis of foreign policy, Bush in his feeble-minded way, sees himself as a Harry Truman who was reviled at the time but later considered a competent president....Harry Truman had the Marshall Plan and other laudble achievements in international affairs....what does Bush have? I invaded a nation on faulty intelligence and I ruined it further.

Years later looking back at Lyndon B Johnson, trust me, people aren't applauding his escalation of the Vietnam war as acheivement worthy of praise. At least he had the good sense not to seek a second term.

Bush is an imbecile of the highest order...his lame attempt to say only history can judge me is full of crap....

Edit: Just a counter-point to espousing a long term perspective on the Bush presidency.

"Bush Says:" are the only words that made from my occipital lobe to my frontal lobe of my brain. Mental blockade kicked in right after the colon.

Who gives a fuck what he says. He'll be gone in about a year if the Chinese don't crash the dollar first and/or he proclaims martial law or something.

Tsuru wrote:Who gives a fuck what he says. He'll be gone in about a year if the Chinese don't crash the dollar first and/or he proclaims martial law or something.

Maybe Cheney & Bush will go on a hunting trip and old Dick will accidentally shoot him in the face after suffering his 300th heart attack.

If it was up to me I'd bring something a little more substantial than just a hunting rifle to shoot him in the face with.

Tsuru wrote:If it was up to me I'd bring something a little more substantial than just a hunting rifle to shoot him in the face with.

Com'on let's put a little faith in old Dick's hunting skills. After all his chief of staff Scooter Libby once proclaimed that Dick Cheney was to be admired like Winston Churchill. How can one deny that incontravertable fact? LOL.

Adhesive wrote:The comparison between the middle-east and east-asia doesn't take into account the lack of insurgency in post-war Japan, nor the homogeneity of it's people. I'm sure there are a million other differences that outweigh the few similarities, but these alone are enough to invalidate the argument. I'd hope.

[yt]YENbElb5-xY[/yt]

Buraku wrote:[yt]YENbElb5-xY[/yt]

Wow, who's this guy and what in the hell has the VP done with him?

Adhesive wrote:Wow, who's this guy and what in the hell has the VP done with him?

Indeed! Bodysnatchers...there must have been a switch made

Bush is only a puppet of Judea-WASP empire (Rothschild, Rockefeller, Mark Rich, etc).
Why didnt you refer to these things?
If you do, you dudes are erased?

Buraku wrote:[yt]YENbElb5-xY[/yt]

My mouth is just sitting here open at the wisdom pouring forth......

....Who the hell is the current VP???

I mean, everything he predicted here is happening.

WTF?

American Oyaji wrote:My mouth is just sitting here open at the wisdom pouring forth......

....Who the hell is the current VP???

I mean, everything he predicted here is happening.

WTF?

It only proves the hypocrisy of politicians....he suck a donkey's dick if it were the timely thing to do.

"Before blaming Japan, blame uncivillized fucking China."

Pretty Common Theme in the Japanese mind...same as Germans saying Israel is the most evil country in the world. You don't hear that from them tho these days, what a difference an honest education makes.

Takechanpoo wrote:Bush is only a puppet of Judea-WASP empire (Rothschild, Rockefeller, Mark Rich, etc).
Why didnt you refer to these things?
If you do, you dudes are erased?

Sorry, wrong conspiracy. You need to study Bilderberg and Skull & Bones.

Charles wrote:Sorry, wrong conspiracy. You need to study Bilderberg and Skull & Bones.

Also the Bohemian Grove

Adhesive wrote:

[yt]YENbElb5-xY[/yt]

Wow, who's this guy and what in the hell has the VP done with him?

Cloned or bodysnatched, it's the only logical explanation

American Oyaji wrote:Also the Bohemian Grove

Good catch. I was trying to remember that one, but couldn't think of the name.

BTW, Edwards was at the last Bilderberg, so he's our next president.

Charles wrote:Good catch. I was trying to remember that one, but couldn't think of the name.

BTW, Edwards was at the last Bilderberg, so he's our next president.

I was a fruit vendor at the last Bilderberg meet up....good leftovers.

Charles wrote:Good catch. I was trying to remember that one, but couldn't think of the name.

BTW, Edwards was at the last Bilderberg, so he's our next president.

I dont think so. I think it will be Clinton, but we'll see. I'm sure we are gonna see shananigans on an unprecedented scale.

As far as the grove, I could not remember either so I typed in "conspiracy grove" in Google.

Dubya mixes it up on 'OPEC, Austria'

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22383116-2,00.html

Buraku wrote:Dubya mixes it up on 'OPEC, Austria'

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22383116-2,00.html

typical of the great "decider"