I spent more than half my life in the Orient. In Thailand, they bow but slightly different from the Japanese. When I was stationed in Okinawa I did my time in the karate dojo and that included a formal class in bowing, because we gaijin didn;t know how to bow properly. A common theme is the person of lower rank bows lower; how low he or she goes depends on the relative rank of the other person.
There is a whole dynamic going on with Obama’s bow- the President of the United States is equal (if not superior) to the Emperor of Japan. If Obama wanted to execute a courtesy bow, a slight bend forward at the waist followed by a slight nod of the head while maintaining eye contact would have been appropriate.
Westerners are not accustomed to bowing, and we are generally ignorant of the nuances of this custom. It’s not that we’re considered rude for not bowing- we’re considered savage hairy barbarians to begin with, the fact that we don’t bow or don’t know how to bow just compounds the issue.
There is a right way and a wrong way to do it. What Obama did has the Japanese (and the rest of East Asia) rolling in fits of laughter, because it is the bow an employee gives to his boss, or a child gives to parents. He went WAY too low; it is only one step above a kow-tow.
Compare Obama’s bow with how he conducted himself in the company of the Queen of England, and then contrast this with the way he leaned forward to bow and scrape before the King of Saudi Arabia; this certainly leaves a lot of room to wonder about which direction this man’s sentiments lie.
I am an American. The only King I bow and pay homage to is Elvis.
If I’ve been quiet for the past couple of days it’s because I’ve been in a state of shock.
An old friend of mine who is also my professional mentor – Deacon of Doom – once told the Sergeant Major: “You can only beat down the dog so many time, Sergeant Major – sooner or later you gotta throw him a bone . . .”
On top of all the madness and insanity of the current occupiers of the Whitehouse, our man Obama goes overseas and does his bowing and scraping bit in front of the Emperor of Japan. As if it wasn’t gut-wrenching enough to see the President of the United States grovel before an Oriental potentate, he follows up by holding an “America is Bad” rally in Shanghai, China.
He's actually mooning his own country . . .
But wait there’s more . . .
Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder chooses this convenient moment to announce his decision to bring the terrorists held in Guantanamo Bay up to New York to stand trial in a civilian court of law.
Khalid Sheik Mohammed, 9-11 Mastermind and murderer of thousands.
This is bad, really bad. Bad on a level of 10,000 megatons of bad. Holder obviously hasn’t looked deep into the consequences of this altruistic notion that we can apply some kind of “fair play” let-everything-be-equal-for-everybody sentiment to dangerous unrepentant criminal terrorist masterminds.
We have military tribunals for a reason; scooping up war criminals on a battlefield denotes extraordinary circumstances. Hold them in prison camps and if they are guilty, hang them or shoot them; the Hague and Geneva Conventions endorse this.
Let us consider for a moment the possible consequences of Holder’s decision:
o What if Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his buddies choose to be their own defense? They will be entitled to demand to see all the evidence against them – to include highly classified sources and collection methods. I guess the Attorney General didn’t think that one out.
o The Guantanamo crew were never read their Miranda rights until years into their interrogation process. What do we do in our judicial system here in the United States if the cops don’t read you your rights?
o The Guantanamo crew will be able to claim they were tortured – by the current administration’s own admission (which I don’t agree to by the way). Does this not negate the charges against them?
So what are we going to do? Let these assholes WALK ? ? ?
I was going to explore this fully, delve into the legal minefield of potential consequences; but before I had the opportunity to examine the historical record in dealing with these kind of extraordinary situations, a couple of issues developed:
Holder read my mind. Right in the middle of my busy day I caught a glimpse of the news and the running script across the bottom of the screen announces: “Attorney General Holder states that if Khalid Sheik Mohammed or any of the 9/11 conspirators are acquitted, they won’t be released in the United States.”
What – is this guy taking double-extra-stoopid pills on a daily basis?
Top Obama donor and Code Pink founder Jodie Evans met with the Taliban in Afghanistan on a recent trip there, according to a report by Jane Fonda of a discussion she had with Evans last month. The meeting with the Taliban took place just weeks before Evans was videotaped directly handing to President Barack Obama a package of information about her trip to Afghanistan at a high dollar fundraiser in San Francisco.
Jodie Evans and fellow American-Traitor-Bitch Jane Fonda
I am not a pundit and I do not enjoy delving into the area of politics; in me it generates Dark Energy. I am a professional soldier and a philosopher, and so I will address this young lady in the manner that I am sure Socrates would have done:
IS THIS DUMB CUNT OUT OF HER MIND ? ? ?
People, we’re talking about the TALIBAN here ! ! ! The way these cretins treat their own people put them in the same category as the Khmer Rouge ! ! !
The Taliban - NOT nice people . . .
A little reminder here: the Taliban – the same people this girl is lobbying on behalf of – engage in the following delightful practices:
o Female circumcision
o Sex-slavery
o Corporal punishment (to include amputations by sword) in the soccer stadium
o Ban all forms of dancing, joyful expression, games, sporting events, etc . . .
o Anything related to the modern Western world – to include modern medicine, technology, education for women, you name it . . .
And then on top of all THAT they gave shelter and state-sponsorship to the organization that flew airplanes into our buildings and killed 3,000 innocent men, women and children.
Oh wait a minute, that was George W. Bush who did that – the same guy they like to portray as dumb and dumber was somehow evil genius enough to be able to pull off the crime of the century and not even leave a fingerprint.
Never mind that Khalid Sheik Mohammed confessed and proudly admitted to that crime and many more . . . oh wait a minute that doesn’t count because he was waterboarded-I-mean-tortured and because we never read him his rights he’s going to walk . . .
. . . . am I the only one around here who feels like he just walked through the looking glass into some kind of sicko version of a Alice-in-Wonderland reverse parallel universe?
Will somebody educate the guy? American leaders do NOT kowtow to Oriental potentates.
This is how it's done . . .
General MacArthur knew the Oriental mind, and he knew exactly what he was doing here: hands on hips, casually kicked back with his hands on hips and no necktie, towering over the short, submissive Hirohito (who had only just renounced his status as a god).
The message was: "I'm the United States of America, and I'm large and in charge!"
The message from the Emperor of Japan to his people was: "This man is the Big Papa-san. Respect him and do everything he says."
Flashback:
My take on it is he's so far in way over his head. Either that, or he's so used to bowing and scraping before his political handlers that it's become second nature.
"THE SALUTE THAT WON'T GO AWAY"
In the course of my career I was trained to read body language. The inner soul speaks out - especially through the eyes, of course. A person's posture will betray that which they seek to conceal.
Obama salute BEFORE training in FM 3-21.5 Drill and Ceremony
Obama salute AFTER training in FM 3-21.5 Drill and Ceremony:
Now here's where his body language betrays him:
Let me guess: you FORGOT to salute or place your hand over your heart, Mr. President?
Flashback:
Call me jaded, but I stopped believing in coincidences a LONG time ago. Let us look at what we know about the man we've got for President of the United States: Barack Hussein Obama was born of a Muslim father who ditched his Marxist, atheist mother, who went on to marry another Muslim and then sent him to an Islamic school in Indonesia. Obama attended a racist, Black African Nationalist church for twenty years, married a woman who openly admitted she "was not proud of being an American", his political mentor is a convicted terrorist and an avowed anti-American; and since being elected, every foreign country he sets foot in he starts apologizing for America's actions.
Sean Linnane is the pseudonym of a retired Special Forces career NCO (1st SFG, 3d SFG, 10th SFG). I served with honor on five continents; I continue to serve in other capacities.