Death of Sgt. Nguyen Khac Binh

Death of Sgt. Nguyen Khac Binh in the faraway Iraq and other thoughts

Sgt. NKB was a young Vietnamese immigrant. He volunteered into the Army so he could become a citizen in a record time in order to bring his parents and siblings to the U.S. He died in Iraq. At his funeral, there were many American and Vietnamese-American dignitaries. The Department of Defense honored his wish by bringing his family over. You wondered what his family thought of his sacrifice, just as you wondered about the “martyrs’ in Iraq and Afghanistan who blew themselves up for a cause and with the knowledge that their families would receive some monetary compensation from the “resistance movements”. A writer who signed as a woman wrote a nice tribute about him in a context of a story. If the author was indeed a woman, she displayed a tremendous empathy and imagination, with remarkable insights about life of a soldier in combat, facing death on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the author also displayed pathetic ignorance about history of Iraq and irritating bias about Islam. She made so many basic errors when commenting on events and historical facts which she knew very little about. She could have done some research.

You’ve thinking of Death quite frequently lately, of death in general and of your own pending death. You’ve thought of the meaning of life and what you’ve lived for. You thought of these issues before, but only recently do they resonate deeply with you. You suppose with all the ailments you have and all the cumulative humiliations and anger and annoyance you have suffered, you’re finding yourself on the verge of acting on your fantasies. What has held you back is your ability to articulate, to vent your frustrations.

The more you interact with humans, the more you realize that there are some monkeys you couldn’t simply stand because they are so fucking stupid and ignorant and full of inanities. They live in a safe environment whereas in some parts of the world, people are dying for no fault of their own. There are people who live in daily terror, struggling to stay sane and find food to feed themselves. Yet over here, in America, there are monkeys and animals pontificating over nonsense and displaying their ignorance and poor reasoning skills.

Some monkeys pride themselves as being clever and practical by avoiding discussions about religion and politics. You, on the contrary, are fond of these two subjects because they would reveal the level of understanding and true character of the person involved in the discussions. You find innocuous subjects such as weather and sports and even sex so fucking boring and banal. You want to talk about religion, politics, war, death, suicide, homicide, violence, revenge, and yes, peace. You want to go into depth the issues of love and hate, sex and lust, power and humiliation, the kind of issues that once you are through talking, you can’t help but think about them afterwards and find yourself changed and modified and transformed simply you have confronted yourself and others while engaging in the discussions.

Take the issue of China. Some illustrious “thinkers” of this forum have opined that China is in “crisis”, i.e., China is in danger of breaking apart due to the “uprising” in Xinjiang and the “revolt” in Tibet. Before you take apart the “argument” and demolish the “opinion” of these “thinkers”, you want to quote at length something you have read recently about the nature of opinion:

“One of the great lies woven into the fabric of our culture is the notion that everyone is entitled to an opinion. Why would that be? The very word “opinion” should have stature. It should convey that careful thought has been given, that all available evidence has been weighed, and that a conclusion has been reached.

In a court of law, a verdict is really just another word for an opinion. Suppose you’re on trial for murder and you didn’t do it. Most of us will face that situation sooner or later. Further suppose that the jury giggles, reads, and pays no attention to your trial. Four minutes following the final lawyer summaries, they return with a guilty verdict. The press interviews the jury afterwards and they say stuff like “He looked like he did it,” and “He reminds me of my uncle who had a bad temper.”

As you’re dragged to prison, pending your execution, do you think, “Well, I don’t agree, but everyone’s entitled to an opinion,” will be the words you’re most likely to utter?” (M. Caro)

Whether we’re talking about cars, sports, religion, sex, love, lust, power, humiliation, or politics, there should be no opinions until and unless all relevant facts and evidence have been weighed and examined and pondered.
Having said that, you hereby render an “opinion” that China is NOT in crisis. Rather, she is on a steady rise to be the world’s biggest economic power. With the money accumulated she is in a position to finance and invest in military matters and thus she will be a very strong military power and challenge the U.S. in Asia at first and elsewhere later. You also render another opinion that the notion that China is facing fragmentation due to the “uprising” in Xinjiang and the “revolt” in Tibet is nothing but a pipedream and a product of wishful thinking. China is firmly in control of these two regions. So far, there have been no indications that the “resistance movements” in Xinjiang and Tibet get any traction. In addition, the “resistance movements” would have any chance of success if they receive extensive and committed help from the Islamic world (in the case of Xinjiang) and India (in the case of Tibet). So far, there have been no reports of any help.

The oft-repeated notion that China might disintegrate due to the dislocation of the peasants and the disparity of progress between the coast and the hinterland has some merit, but these problems are manageable and China is addressing them.

China WAS in crisis. And that started about one hundred and fifty years ago when she was bullied and threatened by technologically superior Western powers and later by Japan. To survive and buy time, she had to cede land and ports to these countries. The history of China is replete with alternating cycles of unity and disunity. China is in the phase of unity and on a relentless rise for a conceivable future.

Vietnam is in crisis. Vietnam is in danger of being swallowed by China. The danger is getting more acute with each passing day. Some overseas Vietnamese intellectuals who should be in a vanguard to do something to staunch the danger chose to play safe and wag their tongues and spout nonsense. They even dared not put their names in a declaration denouncing the planned take-over of Vietnam by China for fear of appearing on a black list compiled by the Vietnamese and Chinese authorities, and thus would hurt themselves and their loved ones. They hid behind excuses such as the declaration was ineffective and “infertile”. They conveniently forgot that if all our forefathers were full of fear as they were, Vietnam would be now a province of China and we all speak Chinese instead of the beautiful Vietnamese language which has produced wonderful poetry and songs and jokes. Some other bright and talented Vietnamese intellectuals are behaving in a more debasing and demeaning manner. They ingratiate themselves with the Chinese and act as modern day Ton Tho Tuong. In other words, they function as Chinese lackeys and running dogs. They are traitors to their country of birth. You wonder how those Vietnamese can sleep at night. Animals, such as baboons, chimps, lions, and dogs, band together to fight against enemies. Not a single one of them has been observed to desert its troop to join the enemies.

Wissai
October 14, 2009
____________________________________________________________