US military gets new respect with Japan aid

[cowcommander]

Source: MSNBC

SENDAI, Japan — Just one year after tensions over American military bases forced out a prime minister, a U.S. relief mission after the earthquake and tsunami is remaking Japanese opinions. Roughly 20,000 U.S. troops have been mobilized in "Operation Tomodachi," or "Friend." It is the biggest bilateral humanitarian mission the U.S. has conducted in Japan, its most important ally in Asia.

As logistics gradually improve, U.S. troops have been moving farther into hard-hit zones and providing tons of relief supplies and badly needed manpower to help the hundreds of thousands of Japanese whose lives were shattered in the March 11 disaster. In a part of Japan that hosts few U.S. bases, the Americans in uniform are a high-profile presence.

"To be honest, I didn't think much about the U.S. troops until now," said Arika Ota, 29, who works at an amusement center in the coastal city of Sendai. "But when I see them working at the airport every day, I'm really thankful. They are working really hard. I never imagined they could help us so much."


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42289464/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

[Kurmudgeon]

1. It's nice to hear a good story about our military, well done service people!

[Tx4obama]

2. Oh, but haven't you heard... Huckabee Wants Us Feared, Not Liked

On Fox News’s Red Eye, possible Republican presidential candidate, former Arkansas Governor, and current media star Mike Huckabee doesn’t like that polls show we’re much more liked around the world now that Obama is president. Being liked, he believes, results from an apologetic foreign policy.

Huckabee made it abundantly clear he couldn’t care less what the rest of the world thought: “I’d rather us be feared than liked,” he told Gutfeld, adding that “I don’t want everybody to love us and like us if they’re still going to pick on us and kick sand in our eyes.” The fear versus love dichotomy, of course, is an allusion of The Prince, though he later articulated support for some sort of brinkmanship: “I’d much rather them be so afraid that the U.S., with its power, would ever use it, that we never have to use it.”

Video here: http://www.alan.com/2011/03/26/mike-huckabee-wants-us-feared-not-like

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Speaking as someone who hails from Huckabee's home state

Huckabee is an IDIOT!

(And just about everyone on the Arkansas side of my family agrees :) )

[Kurmudgeon]

4. And there went my last meager itsy bitsy teeny weenie bit of respect I had for Huckabee.

[Chevy]

6. In Job interviews

They say that if you ever get asked the question "Would you rather be feared or be liked" you should answer neither but rather respected. Poor Mikey your only saving grace will be that Bachmann and Palin will say something even stupider real soon.... again.

[thelordofhell]

7. Yeah right, Fuckabee.....Obama is apologetic

Tell that shit to those Somali pirates. Oh wait, you can't, because Obama iced them.

[GoCubsGo]

8. Well, Mr. Huckabee....

You won't need to worry about it, because most of the world has never heard of you, and it will likely stay that way.

[aquart]

5. I think the people most helped might be our soldiers.

We are in three wars and endless tours of duty. As brutal as this mission is, in the destruction and death, it is healing to be sent to help.