Chapter 352 Refusal to Apologize
( ) private military contractor, this is the legal name of mercenaries, and it is also a term that makes heads of state both headaches and can't let go.
They do whatever it takes to treat war as a business. For the task, they don't care about international law, civilian casualties, or all moral issues, and use the lowest cost means to complete the most arduous task. They are notorious, but their employers need not bother with their bad reputation. It has to be said that they are much easier to use than the regular army.
When it comes to mercenaries, the United States has to be mentioned here. I am afraid that there is no country in this world that can understand the meaning of mercenaries better than them, as if only hooligans can understand villains.
From the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan, the black blood flowing in the steel machinery can smoothly flow from the third world to the first world, and half of the credit belongs to these desperadoes.
Not only on the frontal battlefield, but also in some politically turbulent areas, the voices of American mercenaries can be seen. As long as there is a need, private military companies can appear in those places where the Pentagon is unwilling or inconvenient to appear, and replace them in completing the task of exporting US military and diplomatic influence to the world, even if they fail, they can deny it. This is undoubtedly much easier to use than the Marine Corps. Because sending ground troops to land in other countries is an act of war, but sending mercenaries is not.
However, the social problems brought about by this military privatization are also huge. It is undoubtedly an unrealistic luxury to expect private mercenaries to abide by moral discipline in other countries.
In 2006, the incident of the U.S. military shooting and killing civilians in Iraq caused an outrageous wave on the Internet. It was later confirmed that the perpetrators were two contractors of Clover Forest. As for the reason for committing the crime, it was shockingly absurd. A colleague of one of the perpetrators confirmed that he had said that day that he would kill someone because he had never beaten anyone in Iraq.
But in any case, the U.S. military avoided a lawsuit from human rights organizations. Because the murderer was not a registered soldier.
Although for the notorious U.S. military, less infamy is better than nothing.
Now, the international problems that Singapore and the Philippines are facing are the same.
Leaving aside the sinking of the Philippine fishing boat that broke into the military restricted area, regardless of whether Ivan's "one-minute warning" meets the standard of "effective warning", whether the military actions of mercenaries can be counted as acts of war is a matter of fact. A matter that has not yet been settled internationally.
So here comes the problem, Xinguo hires private mercenaries to undertake border protection. However, private mercenaries sank the Filipino fishermen who did not listen to warnings in accordance with the law. Is Singapore at fault in this matter?
Any country that breaks into a military base has the right to kill the intruders, but generally few countries enforce this right, but drive the intruders out of humanitarian considerations, or detain them and then drive them away.
in order to avoid international problems.
Has any country actually implemented this right? Of course there are. For example, on July 11, 2008, a South Korean female tourist visiting Mount Kumgang strayed into the North Korean military restricted area and was shot and killed by North Korean soldiers. Although North Korea is not wrong, it is "regrettable". The South Korean government announced on the 11th that it will temporarily ban nationals from traveling to North Korea from the 12th.
It's just that the problem facing Xin Guo is much lighter now, because it is a private military contractor who sank the fishing boat. Rather than the regular army of the new country.
Having said that, I have to praise the new cabinet formed by President Zhang Yaping. They have handled the crisis public relations really well.
There was only one order Jiang Chen gave, and that was "never compromise on territorial issues, never give in on sovereignty issues, and never apologize for mistakes", but it was those politicians who were busy talking about this.
Although the Minister of National Defense of Singapore is a poor commander, he still made very constructive speeches. For example, by kicking the ball to perfunctory the Philippines. It is the Star Ring Trading Company who insisted that the fishing boat was sunk. Not at the behest of the Ministry of Defense.
On the other hand, the Star Ring Trading Company insisted that it was only performing tasks. Strictly perform the obligation of defending the national border according to the contract, blame the contract and the law if you want to blame, we just take money to do things.
As a result, the Philippine diplomats kicked back and forth like a football.
After practicing Tai Chi for more than half a month, under Jiang Chen's instruction, the work of salvaging the sunken ship finally started.
Although Philippine ships were not allowed to enter the country to assist in salvage. However, Xinguo still invited representatives of some international media to participate in the salvage process to ensure the "fairness" of the salvage results.
However, what surprised everyone was that light weapons such as assault rifles were actually found on the Philippine fishing boat.
Why were light weapons found on the fishing boat? Was it framed or something else was hidden? For a while, the major media also had different opinions. There is no conclusion about the event itself.
At the same time, the harassment of Panu Islands fishermen by Philippine fishermen in the waters near Crescent Island for decades, as well as the malicious ramming and sinking of New Zealand fishing boats several times have been sorted out. A 50-minute documentary was made, including the dictation of the fisherman’s son who was killed, and related literature records, which was published on a certain social platform. Immediately afterwards, the news feed panel of Future People 1.0 reprinted this video, and added a striking title to promote it to the world.
"Pirates or Fishermen? Counting down the misdeeds of Philippine fishermen under the connivance of the government》
This video has only been online for a day, and the number of hits has exceeded 10 million. Other online media also followed suit and reposted it, causing a big wave in international public opinion. Almost all public opinion sympathetic to the Philippines has turned to criticism of the Philippines' crimes.
The Philippine government immediately jumped out and accused Future People International of being false and exaggerated in its report on this matter, which violated the neutral position of the news media and should not favor Singapore because of its engineering cooperation relationship with Singapore.
At the same time, the Philippine spokesperson also asked Future People International to immediately delete the relevant remarks and apologize to the Filipinos.
Will Jiang Chen apologize to a group of monkeys? Obviously not.
Future People International issued a statement that the video does not represent the company's position. Future People 1.0 is just reposting the video, not the publisher of the video, and does not assume any responsibility. At the same time, Future People International refused to delete the video and refused to apologize in the name of freedom of speech.
Although this move aroused strong dissatisfaction in the Philippines, it won the collective applause of the outsiders - the people of Huaguo.
It is precisely because of this that, instead of suffering losses, Future Human Technology has benefited a lot.
…
"You pigs, do you all eat them?" Aquino furiously pointed at the Philippine Minister of Foreign Affairs and cursed, "How many times have I said, be tough! You must put pressure on their government with a tough attitude! We have 12 million troops, 11 times larger than their total population!"
"But Mr. President... We have been strong enough in our diplomatic rhetoric. Some sentences can even be regarded as threats of war, but they don't seem to be afraid of us." The foreign minister smiled wryly.
Aquino froze for a moment.
"It seems necessary to knock them down, these monkeys in the Pacific simply don't know what to do." The Minister of Defense suggested viciously.
"But the U.S. asked us to exercise restraint on this issue. Excessive pressure may cause neutral countries to fall to the camp of China." The foreign minister raised an objection.
"But if we do nothing, our people will not be happy," argued the defense minister.
Listening to the quarrel among cabinet members, Aquino fell into deep thought.
Suddenly, a sternness flashed in his eyes.
"Mercenaries... mercenaries, right, very good."
He already had an idea in his mind. (To be continued.)
ps: (Push this book, "The Last Years of Ming Dynasty", book lovers who are interested in history can go to watch it.)
(l~1`x*>+`