CLARK AIR BASE, Philippines — Almost 70 years after fighting what may have been the biggest naval battle in history, U.S. and Japanese forces are back in the same area — this time as allies working together to help the typhoon-ravaged Philippines.
“This area of the Philippines is where the U.S. fought some of the most important battles of World War II,” Rear Adm. Mark C. Montgomery, commander of the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group, said during a visit to the battered city of Tacloban on Friday.
Nearby, a contingent of Japanese soldiers worked alongside U.S. Special Operations troops at Tacloban Airport.
“This is where MacArthur landed,” Montgomery said, referring to Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Oct. 20, 1944, “return” to Palo, just over eight miles from Tacloban on Leyte island.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, off Tacloban, involved more than 200 ships, including 12 aircraft carriers and 200,000 sailors, according to historical accounts.
Many of the airfields that the U.S. military is using to support the relief effort were built by U.S. or Japanese forces during the war.
According to Joint Task Force 505 — the headquarters overseeing the U.S. relief effort — nearly 850 U.S. personnel are on the ground in the Philippines with 6,200 more offshore in the USS George Washington Strike Group. An extra 1,000 Marines and sailors with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit are expected to arrive in about three days.
Almost 1,200 Japanese Self-Defense Forces personnel will soon be working alongside the Americans here, conducting medical activities and helping move supplies in Cebu, Manila and Tacloban, according to a Japanese Joint Staff Office spokesman; 100 are on the ground, with the rest expected to arrive soon.
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships, including the destroyer Ise, transport vessel Osumi and supply vessel Towada, are heading for the Philippines. Japan has also deployed three CH-47s, three UH-1s and 2 SH-60s, two KC-767s, seven C-130s and one U-4 aircraft.
“This is the largest deployment of SDF [Self Defense Force] personnel to an international disaster relief activity,” the spokesman said.
Japan will also provide $52.1 million in disaster assistance, according to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Last week I wrote about the potential for the Obama administration’s Asia-Pivot strategy to inflame anti-colonialist sentiment. I lamented that Washington tries simply to get around this popular opposition to the military surge in East Asia instead of acknowledging that people don’t like to be occupied by foreign militaries.
Cynically, the U.S. has exploited the suffering of the typhoon in the Philippines in order to gain leverage in negotiations with Manila over increased U.S. military presence there. The relief operations performed by U.S. forces are seen as helping to “lubricate” the deal for basing rights, which are one piece of a broader plan to contain a rising China.
According to Robert Farley at The Diplomat, the process of “establishing forward U.S. bases in the Philippines…has moved slowly, largely because of domestic concerns in Manila about a military U.S. presence.”
“Fortunately for U.S. strategic interests (if not the victims of the storm),” Farley writes, “the U.S. Navy’s support in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan may win sufficient goodwill to overcome local opposition to a renewed U.S. military role.”
That is as plain an example of exploitation as you’re going to get. The fact that Filipinos hesitate to welcome the U.S. back onto permanent bases, after kicking us out at the end of the Cold War, should not be belittled. The 1899-1902 U.S. war and occupation of the Philippines was a vicious colonial experiment waged for cynical geopolitical interests. Inclusive estimates that account for excess deaths related to the war say there were as many as 1 million casualties. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos were locked up in concentration camps, where poor conditions and disease killed thousands.
Quote by Mondobubba:
Morning. A gloomy icky day here.At least it isn't cold.
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Quote by Raine:Quote by Mondobubba:
Morning. A gloomy icky day here.At least it isn't cold.
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It's ikky here too.
blergh....
Quote by Raine:
I know that hindsight is 20/20 but I still have to wonder that had Virginia elected Deeds for governor, his son may have hat a chance to get the healthcare he needed.
Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:
I know that hindsight is 20/20 but I still have to wonder that had Virginia elected Deeds for governor, his son may have hat a chance to get the healthcare he needed.
Here in Florida, Deeds the Younger would have been Baker Acted.
Quote by Raine:What's that?Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:
I know that hindsight is 20/20 but I still have to wonder that had Virginia elected Deeds for governor, his son may have hat a chance to get the healthcare he needed.
Here in Florida, Deeds the Younger would have been Baker Acted.
Quote by Raine:
NYC kinda rocks! World’s Largest Landfill Will Soon Be NYC’s Biggest Solar Plant
Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:
NYC kinda rocks! World’s Largest Landfill Will Soon Be NYC’s Biggest Solar Plant
That's kinda awesome!![]()
Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:What's that?Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:
I know that hindsight is 20/20 but I still have to wonder that had Virginia elected Deeds for governor, his son may have hat a chance to get the healthcare he needed.
Here in Florida, Deeds the Younger would have been Baker Acted.
The Baker Act, esplained. Better than I could!
Quote by Raine:Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:What's that?Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:
I know that hindsight is 20/20 but I still have to wonder that had Virginia elected Deeds for governor, his son may have hat a chance to get the healthcare he needed.
Here in Florida, Deeds the Younger would have been Baker Acted.
The Baker Act, esplained. Better than I could!
Thanks for that information. It would be nice to see something like that here.
Gs Deeds was only held for 6 hours -- and that wasn't enough time (or perhaps CSB was negligent) to find a bed for him.![]()
I suspect 72 hours could be abused -- but 6 hours certainly wasn't enough time.
Deeds was kinda milquetoasty about the ACA when he was running, but I believe he would have opted into the medicaid expansion and the state exchanges.
Community health centers are being built and I believe they will provide mental health assistance as well.
It's really sad, I think.
Quote by Raine:Anyone who ever dove from Long ISland to Jersey via Staten Island knows that was pretty much hell to drive thru -- it was a dead spot -- I am always amazed driving there now to see HOW MUCH it has changed.Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:
NYC kinda rocks! World’s Largest Landfill Will Soon Be NYC’s Biggest Solar Plant
That's kinda awesome!![]()
This is a really great story about how things CAN be changed even when it looks impossible.
Quote by TriSec:
Morning, comrades.
All the resources are in place - we commence the attack in 48 hours.
BTW, any vodka aficionados out there? I have purchased a bottle of Ketel One at the recommendation of my RW friend. Whoa.
<-- Yeehaw!
Quote by TriSec:
Morning, comrades.
All the resources are in place - we commence the attack in 48 hours.
BTW, any vodka aficionados out there? I have purchased a bottle of Ketel One at the recommendation of my RW friend. Whoa.
<-- Yeehaw!
Quote by Mondobubba:
It can be abused. When my brother was living with me, he was Baker Acted. His depression was very deep. He didn't need to be held for 72 hours though.
Quote by Scoopster:Quote by TriSec:
Morning, comrades.
All the resources are in place - we commence the attack in 48 hours.
BTW, any vodka aficionados out there? I have purchased a bottle of Ketel One at the recommendation of my RW friend. Whoa.
<-- Yeehaw!
Ketel One is pretty damn good stuff. And I'm not a vodka drinker!
Quote by Raine:Quote by Mondobubba:
It can be abused. When my brother was living with me, he was Baker Acted. His depression was very deep. He didn't need to be held for 72 hours though.
I think we found something good about Florida here!![]()
Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by TriSec:
Morning, comrades.
All the resources are in place - we commence the attack in 48 hours.
BTW, any vodka aficionados out there? I have purchased a bottle of Ketel One at the recommendation of my RW friend. Whoa.
<-- Yeehaw!
I'm a Gray Goose man meself. I'll have to try Ketel One.
Quote by Raine:Ketel One has a bit of a bitter (not in a bad way -- think hoppy beer) profile kicking up that freshness profile. Gray goose is smoother and more earthy tasting, IMO.Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by TriSec:
Morning, comrades.
All the resources are in place - we commence the attack in 48 hours.
BTW, any vodka aficionados out there? I have purchased a bottle of Ketel One at the recommendation of my RW friend. Whoa.
<-- Yeehaw!
I'm a Gray Goose man meself. I'll have to try Ketel One.
Both are very good.
Quote by Mondobubba:
Those wacky Brits!
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I'll hazard a guess and says they've done a better job of labeling the states than the average Murrican would do in labeling shires.
Quote by Raine:I think they did a better job than Americans at labeling our own states!Quote by Mondobubba:
Those wacky Brits!
![]()
I'll hazard a guess and says they've done a better job of labeling the states than the average Murrican would do in labeling shires.
I loved this one: They need to close the border to Nickelback, STAT
(and Jesse Pinkman in the same image)
Quote by Scoopster:
Pope Francis rails against capitalism, calls it 'idolatry of money'
Jeez is this a socialist or WHAT!
Quote by Mondobubba:
Those wacky Brits!
![]()
I'll hazard a guess and says they've done a better job of labeling the states than the average Murrican would do in labeling shires.
Quote by Mondobubba:
This is the total of G. Zizzle's arsenal? He is under-armed by Florida standards.
Quote by Raine:One gun is too many for that G Zimm.Quote by Mondobubba:
This is the total of G. Zizzle's arsenal? He is under-armed by Florida standards.
Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:One gun is too many for that G Zimm.Quote by Mondobubba:
This is the total of G. Zizzle's arsenal? He is under-armed by Florida standards.
Very true. My dry sarcasm failed.![]()
Only a few miles separate the Baltimore neighborhoods of Roland Park and Upton Druid Heights. But residents of the two areas can measure the distance between them in years—twenty years, to be exact. That’s the difference in life expectancy between Roland Park, where people live to be 83 on average, and Upton Druid Heights, where they can expect to die at 63.
Underlying these gaps in life expectancy are vast economic disparities. Roland Park is an affluent neighborhood with an unemployment rate of 3.4 percent, and a median household income above $90,000. More than 17 percent of people in Upton Druid Heights are unemployed, and the median household income is just $13,388.
It’s no secret that this sort of economic inequality is increasing nationwide; the disparity between America’s richest and poorest is the widest it’s been since the Roaring Twenties. Less discussed are the gaps in life expectancy that have widened over the past twenty-five years between America’s counties, cities and neighborhoods. While the country as a whole has gotten richer and healthier, the poor have gotten poorer, the middle class has shrunk and Americans without high school diplomas have seen their life expectancy slide back to what it was in the 1950s. Economic inequalities manifest not in numbers, but in sick and dying bodies.
"New York City could see sustained winds between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts between 30 and 40 mph," said weather.com meteorologist Alan Raymond.
City rules dictate that the giant balloons that characterize the parade can't take flight if sustained winds exceed 23 mph, or gusts exceed 34 mph, according to CBS2 New York.
Quote by Raine:No it didn't.Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:One gun is too many for that G Zimm.Quote by Mondobubba:
This is the total of G. Zizzle's arsenal? He is under-armed by Florida standards.
Very true. My dry sarcasm failed.![]()
To be quite honest that he had THAT many arms at her house after all of this says he REALLY has head issues.
Quote by Raine:
Please Weather channel -- stop this naming storms nonsense.
That said, this kinda sucks.I have a few friends that are handlers. One friend was trained to do so for the first time."New York City could see sustained winds between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts between 30 and 40 mph," said weather.com meteorologist Alan Raymond.
City rules dictate that the giant balloons that characterize the parade can't take flight if sustained winds exceed 23 mph, or gusts exceed 34 mph, according to CBS2 New York.![]()
Quote by Raine:
Ways you know you have awesome neighbors:
You get a text message asking *need extra neck or giblets?*
Quote by Will in Chicago:
The Supreme Court is going to hear the Hobby Lobby case.