“JIHADIST’S” Purge “JIHADIST” From Vocabulary

Obama administration has argued for a differentiation between good Jihadi and bad Jihadi and a big difference between terrorists and the tenets of Islam. In an extreme act of capitulation the White House in 2009 publicly urged sheeple on the hill to cease using the term “jihadist” – asserting that terrorists are simply extremists. You have to be stupid to ignore the fact that members of Islam call their terroristic acts “jihad”. Two years later, the White House ordered a cleansing of training materials that Islamic groups in, their jihadist struggle, deemed offensive.

The good “J” word “Justice” has been subdued by the bad “J” word “Jihad”. This is done in order to preempt the bad feelings which would be engendered in a good jihadist because of the use of the word to describe a self described bad jihadist.

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate
Some men you just can’t reach…
So, you get what we had here last week
Which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
Now, I don’t like it any more than you” GNR (Civil War)

(with included rewrite to the tune of GNR Civil War)

Our hands are tied
while our dreams of peace
are sweept aside
by the bloody hands of
Jihadist Islamist genocide.

It’s just a word
when it’s said
that you have died.
Don’t dare use a word that
hurts their pride.

They are not our friend,
not on our side.
If we don’t speak the truth
then it’s we who have lied.

Our dreams of peace
are sweept aside
by the bloody hands of
Jihadist Islamist genocide.

Don’t want war
and terms you will render.
Peace in two words
“We surrender”

Our dreams of peace
are sweept aside
by the bloody hands of
Jihadist Islamist genocide.

A Maginot Line of TSA Screeners and Watch Lists That Are Not Watched

The Bad News: They know we are Stupid.

The Good News: “So much of what they know is wrong”. RWR

A Maginot Line of TSA Screeners and Watch Lists That Are Not Watched: The Need for Either or Both a Select Committee and a Special Commission – Hugh Hewitt.

Droning On – Bill O’Reilly

Droning On – Bill O'Reilly.

Leftards being creatures of habit with a limited scope of resources, I anticipate they will respond to Bill O’Reilly’s recent opinion piece with accusations about the “terror” bombing of Dresden. Well, here is my pre-response:

S.T.F.U. Evil has many tools and a lie is a handle that fits each one. You live in your world, with your tools and handles. You are a tool and you know where the handle goes, now stick it!

A 1953 United States Air Force report defended the operation as the justified bombing of a military and industrial target, which was a major rail transportation and communication center, housing 110 factories and

50,000 workers in support of the German war effort. Dresden was Germany’s seventh-largest city and, according to the RAF at the time, the largest remaining unbombed built-up area. An official 1942 guide to the city described it as “one of the foremost industrial locations of the Reich” and in 1944, the German Army High Command’s Weapons Office listed 127 medium-to-large factories and workshops that were supplying the army with materiel.

Colonel Harold E. Cook, a US POW held in the Friedrichstadt marshaling yard the night before the attacks, later said that “I saw with my own eyes that Dresden was an armed camp: thousands of German troops, tanks and artillery and miles of freight cars loaded with supplies supporting and transporting German logistics towards the east to meet the Russians.”

On 16 February, 1945, the German Propaganda Ministry issued a press release that stated that Dresden had no war industries; it was a city of culture. And now the leftards continue that tradition because they need to get a handle on their tolls of destruction and desolation.

Having been given a paraphrased version of Churchill’s memo by Bottomley, on 29 March, Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris wrote to the Air Ministry: I … assume that the view under consideration is something like this: no doubt in the past we were justified in attacking German cities. But to do so was always repugnant and now that the Germans are beaten anyway we can properly abstain from proceeding with these attacks. This is a doctrine to which I could never subscribe. Attacks on cities like any other act of war are intolerable unless they are strategically justified. But they are strategically justified in so far as they tend to shorten the war and preserve the lives of Allied soldiers. To my mind we have absolutely no right to give them up unless it is certain that they will not have this effect. I do not personally regard the whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier.

The feeling, such as there is, over Dresden, could be easily explained by any psychiatrist. It is connected with German bands and Dresden shepherdesses. Actually Dresden was a mass of munitions works, an intact government center, and a key transportation point to the East. It is now none of these things.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,700 times in 2010. That’s about 16 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 91 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 549 posts. There were 11 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was March 14th with 136 views. The most popular post that day was Afghan, Coalition Forces Kill 19 Militants.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were liveleak.com, youtube.com, search.aol.com, en.search.wordpress.com, and search.conduit.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for shindand afghanistan, fob shindand, shindand, mc-12 aircraft, and camp leatherneck.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Afghan, Coalition Forces Kill 19 Militants May 2009

2

FOB Shindand Afghanistan March 2010
1 comment

3

MC-12 Flies First Combat Sortie June 2009

4

Marines Patrol Camp Leatherneck March 2010

5

YouTube – Marines In Afganistan Firefight With Taliban April 2010

Taliban Blusters While It’s Leadership Dies

If you understand why the Afghan tribal leaders have endorsed President Hamid Karzai’s plan to seek peace with the Taliban, on the final day of national peace talks in Kabul, you understand the principle of , Fight, Negotiate, Fight, Negotiate. Even thought the “peace jirga” ended by backing an amnesty and job incentives to induce militants to give up arms, the political desires of the Taliban are still going to be advanced by threats and intimidation.

Terrorist groups have said in the past that it would negotiate with the government only once foreign troops had left the country. This kind of bluster threatens to extend Taliban influence over the weak minded public, and not one inch in the field of battle. As the following story points out the number of terrorists available to make unreasonable demands is shrinking.

Taliban Leader’s Death Confirmed; Forces Seize Insurgent Sub-Commander

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2010 – A Taliban sub-commander was captured and several other suspected insurgents were killed or captured yesterday by Afghan and international security forces, military officials reported.

Officials also confirmed the death last week of Mullah Zergay, the senior Taliban commander for Afghanistan’s Kandahar City region, during a firefight with Afghan-international forces during an operation in the Zharay district.

During an operation in Logar province yesterday, a combined force captured a Taliban sub-commander who is responsible for improvised explosive device and small-arms attacks against coalition forces. The combined force was searching a compound in the village of Muchkeyl in the Kharwar district after intelligence information confirmed insurgent activity.

When confronted, the Taliban sub-commander, who has ties to the Haqqani network, immediately surrendered and identified himself as the targeted insurgent.

Also yesterday, a separate Afghan-international security force action resulted in the detention of several individuals suspected of insurgent activity in Ghazni province. The combined force detained the suspected insurgents while searching a compound in the village of Bar Nowruzk, Qarah Bagh district, after intelligence information confirmed insurgent activity. No shots were fired and no one was harmed during the above operations.

During another operation yesterday, a coalition helicopter attacked and killed multiple insurgents as they were moving to a fighting position in Farah province. Aircraft were directed to a cave complex in a rural area of Gulistan district, after intelligence information verified insurgent activity. After observing widely separated groups of armed men moving to prepared fighting positions away from the caves, aircraft engaged a group, killing the insurgents. A ground search force found two automatic rifles, ammunition and a grenade.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Mullah Zergay, the Taliban commander of the Kandahar city area, was killed last week by Afghan-international forces during an operation conducted in the Zharay district.

Zergay had directed insurgent activities in the Arghandab and Zharay districts, including Kandahar City. He used explosives in nearly all of his operations and was directly responsible for multiple deaths in Kandahar City, alone. He rose to power through violent intimidation campaigns against civilians and by leading kidnappings and executions of government employees and village elders.

After tracking his location for several weeks, an Afghan-international security force moved to capture Zergay in a Taliban safe haven area south of Kudeza’i in Zharay district. As the assault force approached, several armed insurgents attacked it with machine-gun fire and rocket propelled grenades.

The assault force returned fire and during the ensuing firefight Zergay and several members of his security detachment were killed. Zergay’s death is considered to be a major loss for the Taliban leadership in southern Afghanistan.

China About To Cut Another Chunk Off Of India

Manipur’s lifeline, two key highways linking this north-east Indian state to the rest of the country have been blocked by supporters of Maoist, Thuingaleng Muivah, who heads the NSCN (IM). “I’m trying to buy some rice,” says Sobita Devi Maibam. “But they’re telling us stocks are low because of the blockade. And prices are sky-high now.” From BBC reports.

Muivah stayed in China for a fairly long time, his first trip, between 1967 and 1973. He holds that “this is the way towards a better society. We run our institutions based on revolutionary principles and the people’s desires – although in many ways there are shortcomings and weaknesses”.

Muivah, has been barred from his village located inside Manipur because the government there fears he will stir up ethnic passions, a vital tool to the Maoist insurgency. “Chairman Mao’s words are gospel truth” he has said. Confusing his recruits and the outside world are essential to his gaining personal power.

Muivah has said “we are talking with the government of India. As long as the political problem is approached politically, there is nothing to fear. But when one lacks the will that is required to bring about the solution, it is most unfortunate”. This is no doubt a show of confidence in his ability to achieve capitulation from the Indian government and an extension of the “fight, talk, fight” philosophy. “War will be a continuation of politics by other means.”

“The adversaries would do their best to exploit the situation, to stamp out the revolution. But the people do not easily abandon the cause. Both the masses and the revolutionary cadre cannot afford to perish”, he has said, proving his devotion to Maoist dogma. With the financial backing from Maoist China “power with which rulers unscrupulously suppress the right of the people must be crushed.”

“Nehru insisted on recognizing China’s “rights” in Tibet despite the pleas of the Tibetans, along with many Indians, that he weigh in against this new form of Chinese hegemony. His appeasement of the “New China” came back to haunt him in 1959 when Mao, having disposed of the Dalai Lama and his followers, began building military roads right up to the existing Indian-Tibetan border, and then ordered troops to cross over into India.

Chairman Mao initially supported Maoist-style Communist parties in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Burma, India and Thailand. The Malaysian Communist Party launched an armed rebellion, which the Chairman supported until it became clear that the guerrillas were losing. Mao was encouraging indigenous Communist movements among the “bridge compatriots” of Southeast Asia.” ( http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2073 )

“Over the years, the NSCN-IM has developed extensive linkages both within India and outside, and has also been receiving substantial assistance from neighbouring countries. The form of this assistance ranges from supply of arms and ammunition and other logistical support, to provision of safe havens, camping and training facilities. Till 1971, the US was a major provider of arms, finance and intelligence. The erstwhile East Pakistan had also provided assured supplies of money and arms, Till the late 1980s, China also provided support to the organisation. Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) now provides a large component of finance, arms and logistic support to the NSCN-IM.

The [NSCN-IM] has linkages with the Naga groups operating in Myanmar, and drug trafficking from Myanmar is a major source of income.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSCN#Linkages )

Portions of an interview with Thuingaleng Muivah:

KY: How do you view the present situation vis-à-vis the pre-ceasefire years?

TM: Nothing can be taken as a certainty. Yes, we are talking with the government of India. As long as the political problem is approached politically, there is nothing to fear. But when one lacks the will that is required to bring about the solution, it is most unfortunate. It would be as dangerous as taking comfort in an illusion. War will be a continuation of politics by other means.

The adversaries would do their best to exploit the situation, to stamp out the revolution. But the people do not easily abandon the cause. Both the masses and the revolutionary cadre cannot afford to perish. The only way available to them to survive is to rectify their mistakes and regenerate themselves together as a people. India has left no stone unturned to wipe out the Nagas and the force of their nationalism. The policy they are now resorting to is to wear us out by protracted design. But the Nagas know that their salvation does not lie in India.

Whether in war or peace, every organisation and human being must have ethics, for without ethics human being become worse than animals, which is against the law of creation. It hurts the conscience of society and people. In any war, killing innocent people is totally unjust, the greatest crime against humanity. For example, right from the inception of our resistance movement we have rarely used anti-personnel mines, because innocent people often become victims.

KY: How would you justify choosing to articulate the Nagas’ desire through the language of violence and military action?

TM: The Nagas could understand the danger of being suppressed. To the Nagas, freedom is more important than anything else. Freedom, for the Nagas, means that they themselves would decide their fate. This is the most decisive issue for every nation. When that freedom is given up, the Nagas know that their rights of existence are gone forever.

The BBC reports that Thuingaleng Muivah heads the NSCN (IM), and fails to report on the the NSCN-K led by S S Khaplang. They also fail to point out NSCM (IM) has only existed since they split in April of 1988. The BBC still claims that they were carrying out India’s longest-running insurgency until a ceasefire in 1997.

“The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) was formed on January 31, 1980 by Isak Chisi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and S.S. Khaplang opposing the ‘Shillong Accord’ signed by the then NNC (Naga National Council) with the [Indian government]. Later, differences surfaced within the outfit over the issue of commencing a dialogue process with the Indian Government and on April 30, 1988, the NSCN split into two factions, namely the NSCN-K led by S S Khaplang, and the NSCN-IM, led by Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSCN#Formation )

The BBC can claim “It is not an easy job in a region which is not only racked with separatist violence but is also a frontier to south-east Asia, where India is competing for influence with China”, and ignore the hegemony of Maoist China. The world needs to be reminded of Mao’s map of China and the fact that China’s current government is seeking military expansion and has not repudiated Mao’s dream.

“But with the growing influence of China in Burma and other parts of Asia, India has reason to worry. This is after all critical to its strategic defense”. “If the north-east becomes a separate region, the Indian heartland is completely exposed.” BBC

If, as the BBC reports, “The north-east has often felt politically and culturally cut-off from India, untouched by the country’s economic boom”, and a “massive military presence”, has “furthered”, a “sense of alienation.” The world needs to ensure that the goals of communism will be not furthered by expounding upon the claims and not the roots of “revolutionary” movements.

This view of the current situation is in response to a BBC article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8694107.stm) Road blockade chokes Indian state’s lifeline, which is just, in the majority, an attempt to mitigate the damage done by the recent death of 35 Indians murdered in an attack on a civilian bus.

South Korea In A Corner, No Trustworthy Allie

Hillary Clinton: “The evidence is overwhelming and condemning”, and I am sure that international consequences over the sinking of a Southern warship in March will be swift boated by the Obama machine.

She said on a visit to Tokyo that, despite Pyongyang’s denials, evidence the North had torpedoed the ship was “overwhelming”.

South Korea’s president said the response to the sinking must be “very prudent”. On doubt that the lack of an allie will ensure that it is, and futile too boot.

He also firmly blamed North Korea when he addressed his security council.

It was a “surprise military attack from North Korea [that came] while South Korean people were resting late at night”, President Lee Myung-bak said.

Foreign investigators said in a report that a torpedo had hit the ship, killing 46 people.

Experts from the US, the UK, Australia and Sweden found that parts of the torpedo retrieved from the sea floor had lettering that matched a North Korean design.

Mrs Clinton has called on North Korea to “stop its provocative behavior” and her forceful personality will be instrumental in deterring homicidal maniacs. Mrs Clinton said it could not be business as usual with North Korea, I am confident new sanctions will plunge the North Korean people into extended suffering.

Action at the UN is most likely to be blunted by the Chinese government that holds economic daggers to the heart of the west.

A senior US official told me it is clear that South Korea does not wish to go to war and will not take steps that run that risk.

He added there is also no evidence that North Korea is preparing to go to war despite all the rhetoric.

The BBC has been able to contribute to the forgive and forget tendency by portraying the action as a “a one-off action”, without regard to a long history of North Korean aggression. The BBC has shown it not qualified to comment on world affairs with the assertion that “North Korea’s motivations are still unclear”.

Secretary Clinton has revealed the Obama plan by stating “This will not be and cannot be business as usual. There must be an international, not just a regional, but an international response.” This of course means that the international community will be to blame when no action is taken.

South Korea’s president’s plan of action to include taking the evidence of an attack to the UN Security Council in an attempt to win support for tougher sanctions on North Korea, proves he is aware of the corner he is in.

President Lee told his security council the sinking of the Cheonan on 26 March had violated the UN Charter and the 1953 armistice which effectively ended the Korean War as have many other actions taken by the North. But, let us ignore history. “Since this case is very serious and has a grave importance, we cannot afford to have a slightest mistake and will be very prudent in all response measures we take,” he said.

South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-young told reporters at a separate briefing that the North would be “made to pay”.

Afghanistan Battle Continues Successful Course

Forces Detain Insurgents, Seize Drugs, Weapons

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2010 – Afghan and international forces detained several insurgents and seized illegal drugs and weapons in recent operations in Afghanistan, military officials reported.

An Afghan-international security force pursuing a Taliban commander in Kandahar province detained two militants in the Zharay district last night.

The combined force went to a series of compounds after intelligence information indicated insurgent activity, and two men ran away as the force approached. The two men were captured after a lengthy chase. They told the patrol they were Pakistani fighters, and that they had rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles hidden at another location.

In Helmand province last night, a combined force searched a small compound northeast of Marja after intelligence information indicated insurgent activity and detained several suspects for questioning.

In Helmand’s Now Zad district yesterday, an International Security Assistance Force patrol found and confiscated 39 bags of suspected heroin with an estimated street value of $3 million. The drugs were confiscated.

In Helmand’s Nad-e Ali district yesterday, an Afghan-international patrol found an assault rifle, small-arms ammunition, five magazines and a bundle of electrical wire.

No Afghan civilians were harmed in these operations, officials said.

In other news from Afghanistan, an ISAF helicopter was struck by an insurgent-fired rocket-propelled grenade today as it prepared to land at a checkpoint in Nad-e Ali. No one was seriously injured, officials said. The helicopter is at a secure site and a damage assessment is under way.

Obama Throws South Korea Under The Bus

South Korea Must Determine Attack Response, Gates Says

By Lisa Daniel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 20, 2010 – It is up to South Korea, not the United States, to determine how it will deal with a North Korean attack on one of its ships, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today.

Gates was asked by reporters at a Pentagon news conference whether a recent determination that North Korea sank the South Korean frigate Cheonan, killing 46 sailors on March 26, was an act of war.

“This was an attack on South Korea, and South Korea needs to be in the lead on the way forward,” he said.

Gates said the Defense Department supports the findings of a multilateral investigation into the attack that found a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that sank the ship. “They’ve laid out some paths forward, and we will be consulting closely with them as they move forward.”

The military has not changed its normal readiness status in light of the findings, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the news conference. Mullen said he spoke with his South Korean counterpart yesterday, as well as with Navy Adm. Robert Willard, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, and Army Gen. Walter “Skip” Sharp, commander of U.S. Forces Korea.

“We’re all focused on the stability of that region,” Mullen said. “Certainly, we’re concerned. They are a great friend and a great ally.”

Asked if U.S. forces are stretched too thin to increase operations in the area if needed, Gates said “absolutely not.”

“We’ve known for a long time that if there were problems in Korea, our main arms would be the Navy and the Air Force, and they are not stretched the way the Army and Marines are.”

Gates and Mullen also took questions on several other hot spots around the world.

Asked about the latest NATO military campaign in Afghanistan, Mullen said the Kandahar campaign already is under way, and that leaders are not surprised at the increasing insurgent violence there.

“We expect this to be a tough year,” Mullen said. “The poppy season is over, and they’ve gone back to get their weapons. That violence would rise doesn’t surprise me at all.”

The admiral added that he is optimistic about the Kandahar outcome. “We’ve got the right strategy and the right leadership,” he said.

Turning to Pakistan, Gates and Mullen said Pakistani leaders are fully on board with fighting terrorist groups in the country, and recognize they share that interest with the United States. Pakistan is planning to execute a mission in the volatile North Waziristan region, and has seven divisions and 140,000 troops there, they said.

“We now have a mutual interest in trying to stop this group, to stop them from carrying out attacks outside of Pakistan, especially in the United States,” Gates said.

On Iraq, Gates said the military is on track to complete President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce troop strength there to 50,000 by Sept. 1. Some of the drawdown was postponed due to the delayed national election in March, but, Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of U.S. Forces Iraq, “has total flexibility” with how he wants to manage it, he said.

Asked about the recount of Iraq’s election results, Gates said it was “a positive development, in that it reaffirmed the original count and the legitimacy of the election.”

Finally, on the United Nations resolution for sanctions against Iran, Gates said it is “somewhat stronger” than he expected. The resolution is important, he said, because it is a reminder of Iran’s isolation, and it provides a legal platform for countries and organizations such as the European Union to take more stringent actions of their own against Iran.

There is evidence that the resolution is making an impact inside Iran, Gates said, noting the extent to which Iran is trying to keep it from passing. The resolution, coupled with any action by individual countries, “has the ability to change behavior” in the Iranian government, he said.

U.S. officials say they are considering a variety of options, ranging from useless U.N. Security Council action to additional insignificant U.S. penalties.

“North Korea should know that provocative acts have consequences,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, of course they need not be significant.

But looming over the discussions is concern that a harsh reaction could escalate tensions to the point of clashes. There is also concern an aggressive response could trigger the collapse of what is arguably the world’s most isolated and authoritarian regime, U.S. officials said. It must be pointed out that the Obama administration is planning negotiations over which sides of the streets in Seoul that the North may occupy.

Chairman Mao Murders Thirty People In India

It is evident that the evil Mao has spawned is alive and well after a land mine attack in Chhattisgarh state killed more than 30 people. The civilians killed in were not accidental victims of an errant attack. This is the tactics that Mao learned, used and espoused.

Most of those killed in Monday’s blast, which destroyed a bus, were civilians, and the government is under pressure to take a tougher line against the rebels.

The Indian government is thought to want to include the use of air power to fight the Maoists. Thousands have died in the their decades-long fight against humanity and the Indian state.

In this incident it appears that Maoist supporters saw that armed police were on board the bus, and an attack was organized extremely quickly. It is clearly an attack against a target that violates the law of necessity and proportionality. Anything from the BBC, no. But the Indian government says it also demonstrates their barbarity.

“I took to the cabinet committee the case for a larger mandate. I was given a limited mandate. Now we will go back to the cabinet committee to revisit that mandate,” Mr Chidambaram told the NDTV channel.

He said the chief ministers of some of the worst-affected states had asked for air power to be used against the rebels reports the BBC, a measure that the government has so far refused to sanction.

“Operation Green Hunt” began last October, it involves 50,000 members of the police and militia troops and is taking place across five states in India: West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

Monday’s attack on the bus in Chhattisgarh state’s Dantewada district has prompted widespread anger and the BBC is doing its best to stamp it out. As the BBC points out, the Maoists have warned civilian bus companies not to transport local police or members of the security forces. This, in the eyes of the BBC, and hopefully yours, makes the Maoists less evil.

The Maoists support has been slipping away from the rebels, particularly after last month’s attack.

Manmohan Singh described by Prime Minister the Maoist insurgency as the country’s biggest internal security threat. The communist inspired BBC would be described by me as number two. Delhi have accept that there is a need to tackle the root causes of the rebellion, such as poverty and the absence of effective local government, but not yet the media that throws gas on the fire.

Chairman Mao initially supported Maoist-style Communist parties in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Burma, India and Thailand. The Malaysian Communist Party launched an armed rebellion, which the Chairman supported until it became clear that the guerrillas were losing. At the Bandung Conference, a conciliatory Zhou Enlai declared that those Chinese who adopted another nationality should be good citizens of the countries they joined. But this pious statement did not completely allay suspicions that Mao was encouraging indigenous Communist movements among the “bridge compatriots” of Southeast Asia.

Nehru insisted on recognizing China’s “rights” in Tibet despite the pleas of the Tibetans, along with many Indians, that he weighed in against this new form of Chinese hegemony. His appeasement of the “New China” came back to haunt him in 1959 when Mao, having disposed of the Dalai Lama and his followers, began building military roads right up to the existing Indian-Tibetan border, and then, in early September, ordered troops to cross over into India.

Mao’s aggression took Nehru completely by surprise, which is perhaps less a consequence of his naiveté than of Zhou Enlai’s sophisticated sales pitch about the two countries being fellow victims of the Western imperial powers. The Chinese premier had first visited him in New Delhi in April 1954, stopping over on his way back to China from the signing the Geneva peace accord on Indochina. Zhou played the second international stratagem to the hilt, portraying the PRC as a country with impeccable anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist credentials, a country that was a natural member of the Third World club. Nehru agreed.

An Indian delegation at the U.N. had argued on behalf of Communist China’s admission. On that very day that the Chairman sent Chinese forces pouring across the border into India. As Nehru pondered Mao’s perfidy, PLA troops continued their march southward, seizing two important mountain passes that guard approaches to Sikkim and India.

Professor John K. Fairbank of Harvard, for example, wrote in the Atlantic Monthly in 1957 that the regime’s controls over “prices, person and minds, mobilizing of patriotic youth, collectivizing the rural economy and pushing of industrialization” were “remarkable successes” and great achievements.” Not a word about the Maoist terrors that now held the Chinese people in a grip of fear, nor about Mao’s larger aims.