January 13, 2005
HE HAS KEPT AMONG US STANDING ARMIES:
U.S. envoy supports Jakarta on restrictions: Threat to Indonesian sense of sovereignty seen by Westerners (Raymond Bonner, January 14, 2005, The New York Times)
The U.S. ambassador here said on Thursday that the United States was not troubled by the demands by the Indonesian government that aid workers in Aceh Province register and that all foreign troops be gone by the end of March. He described the restrictions as "reasonable" and "unremarkable."The government's intention to have foreign troops leave and take over the reconstruction after 90 days "sounds like a perfectly reasonable position to me," the ambassador, Lynn Pascoe, said at a press conference at the U.S. Embassy.
"It's their country," he said at one point, adding that "they have every right to decide" how long American troops are needed.
Sensitive to the impression that it was relying too heavily on outside military forces and wanting to assert control over the relief operation, the Indonesian government Wednesday set a deadline of March 26 - three months after the tsunami struck - but said it hoped to phase out the foreign troops even earlier.
How long would Americans tolerate a foreign troop presence here? Posted by Orrin Judd at January 13, 2005 01:29 PM
Americans can clean ourselves up after a damn hurricane or tidal wave, and we don't need foreigners here to help us or in fact do it for us. The same could be said of any First World country and a fair amount of Third World ones.
The correct move with respect to Indonesia is to quit the place and let the Muslims help themselves. If they don't want our help, let them eat each other.
Posted by: Bart at January 13, 2005 01:45 PMNeeded 'em after 9-11.
Posted by: oj at January 13, 2005 01:48 PMThe US was the recipient of international foreign aid after 9/11? Where? How much?
Posted by: Bart at January 13, 2005 02:52 PMtroops, didn't let them stay long though:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/01/attack/main507787.shtml
Posted by: oj at January 13, 2005 02:58 PMBart, I think the real problem there is one of association of the masses with Americans. Granted, the tourists are there in droves but they normally don't get out of eyesight of the resorts. This suits the robes of the mosques. Now it's different and they can see for themselves what the Foreigners are doing for them. Different deal now.
I work down there a lot and find the populace very nice and outgoing. They are not the ones driving the boat and have little or no choice in any matter of state.
Posted by: Tom Wall at January 13, 2005 03:53 PMMr. Judd;
We didn't need those airplanes, they just added a bit of security. In the end they didn't make a bit of difference and they may well have been brought in purely for political reasons.
Moreover, calling that "foreign aid" is highly misleading. As NATO airplanes, their presence was the result of treaty obligations.
On the other hand, if Indonesia wants the troops out, well fine. We just need to make sure that the folks on the ground know that we're leaving because their government said so.
Didn't call it foreign aid, said a foreign troop presence.
Posted by: oj at January 13, 2005 06:06 PMOJ, Based on past threads I'm somewhat surprised that you're advocating on behalf of the Indonesian military reasserting control in Aceh rather than taking this opportunity to hand over control to the Acehenese separatists.
Posted by: MB at January 13, 2005 07:01 PMMB:
It's like Turkey resisting the Iraq War because of the Kurds--it's a losing play but you have to make it.
Posted by: oj at January 13, 2005 07:31 PMI said they'd hate us even more for having to accept our help, and therefore we should have left themselves to themselves.
I was right, of course.
But it is amusing to see the appeasers trying to explain how it will work out later on..
Posted by: Harry Eagar at January 14, 2005 08:30 PMDon't hate us, just want our troops off their soil, as we would.
Posted by: oj at January 14, 2005 11:42 PM