[lbo-talk] On Bush's motives

Michael Perelman michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Thu Jan 4 13:31:11 PST 2007


How does this Tokugawa relate to the Tokugawa restoration? Was this relating to a relative?

On Thu, Jan 04, 2007 at 01:17:30PM -0800, Dwayne Monroe wrote:
> In August of 1591, kampaku (regent) Toyotomi
> Hideyoshi, eager to establish his family's place in
> Japanese history, ordered a full scale invasion of
> Korea. His plan was simple and audacious: to rapidly
> push through the militarily unprepared Koreans and on
> to Ming Dynasty China, the true target. If
> successful, Japan would become the preeminent Asian
> power and Hideyohsi's descendants the inheritors of a
> stupendously vast empire.
>
> At first, all went well: forces under Kato Kiyomasa
> and Konishi Yukinaga -- who together commanded some
> 150,000 men -- swiftly overwhelmed the Korean military
> at southern points in Busan and Tadaejin and then
> pushed north to Sangju.
>
> Unfortunately for Hideyoshi's ambitious scheme, Korean
> admiral Yi Soon Shin's tactical brilliance -- which
> enabled him to engineer stunning victories with his
> profoundly out gunned navy -- cut the Japanese off
> from their sea-based resupply routes. Also, after a
> leisurely delay, the Ming court's decision to join the
> war and contain Hideyoshi's offensive on Korean soil
> added to Japan's woes.
>
> By 1593, although still in possession of powerful
> ground and naval forces capable of destructive
> mischief, Hideyoshi had clearly lost his war. Yi Soon
> Shin and Ming Admiral Li Rusong were routinely
> smashing any Japanese naval vessels foolish enough to
> challenge them and Korean General Gwon Yul's forces
> were relentlessly driving Japanese ground units back
> to the southern coast.
>
> After some to'ing and fro'ing, the Japanese retreated
> to home.
>
>
> A few years passed; Hideyohsi, having learned nothing,
> ordered another invasion in 1597. This one came to
> grief even more quickly than the first. Korean and
> Chinese forces were at full readiness and knew all of
> their enemy's tricks. The costly invasions left
> Hideyoshi broken and his family line deposed. Into
> the breach stepped Tokugawa Ieyasu, ready to remake
> Japan in his image.
>
>
> ....
>
>
> In 2003, to secure the United States' position as
> global hegemon (and perhaps, his place in world
> history) President G.W. Bush, in cooperation with the
> United States Congress, the government of Great
> Britain, and several militarily less significant
> states, launched a full scale invasion of Iraq. His
> plan was simple and audacious: the Iraqi state would
> be smashed; in its place a government friendly to the
> U.S. (and, some have argued, Israel) would be built.
> This Washington engineered government would serve as
> the template for a series of similarly recreated
> states across the Middle East.
>
>
>
> On March 19th of 2003, ground forces -- primarily
> American and British -- numbering approximately
> 120,000 -- moved from their Kuwaiti staging areas into
> Iraq.
>
> Although once considered a potentially formidable
> opponent (and, immediately prior to invasion,
> described to global publics as a planetary threat) the
> Iraqi state was unable to long resist the northward
> push of the U.S. 3rd Infantry, 1st Marine
> Expeditionary and UK 1 Armoured Division.
>
> After little more than 3 weeks, Baghdad fell.
>
>
> With the fall of the Iraqi capital (and the
> northernmost portion of the country ruled by Kurdish
> allies) the invasion appeared to be an astounding
> success.
>
>
> Unfortunately for G.W. Bush's plans, the defeated
> state was one of the most thoroughly militarized on
> the planet, once fielding an army of approximately
> 400,000 men, many of whom were battle tested during
> the Iran-Iraq war and who retained their arms at home.
> American political and tactical blunders -- along
> with a significant amount of anti-Arab racism leading
> to widespread human rights abuses -- inflamed the
> population. By the end of 2004, the occupation faced
> a skilled, determined and chillingly ruthless
> guerrilla movement, one of the most ferocious in
> history.
>
>
> By 2004, although still in possession of powerful
> ground, air and naval forces capable of destructive
> mischief, Bush had clearly lost his war.
>
> By the end of 2006, with a bloody Iraqi civil war
> raging even as the guerrilla conflict continued,
> millions of Americans -- including many of those who
> once approved of the Iraqi operation -- were calling
> for the swift withdrawal of U.S. forces.
>
>
> Despite growing domestic discontent and the
> unattainable nature of the original goals (now obvious
> to all but the most ideologically blinded) President
> Bush, like Hideyoshi before him, ignored the evidence
> in favor of retreat and decided to escalate.
>
>
> By early 2007, plans were being put into motion to
> deploy tens of thousands of additional U.S. forces to
> Iraq. When they arrive, they'll face an opponent who
> has over three years of combat experience fighting
> Americans, a degraded stable of sand and battle
> damaged equipment and a mission fewer and fewer
> believe in.
>
>
>
> .d.
>
>
>
>
> We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas.
>
> Larry Fine
>
> ......................
> http://monroelab.net/blog/
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com



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