tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post3773052943128267050..comments2024-03-22T10:01:23.989+00:00Comments on Wargaming for Grown-ups: S-21 and Choeung EkTrebianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02221916804339000102noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-13253896467495954412017-03-24T12:58:01.681+00:002017-03-24T12:58:01.681+00:00We went to Vietnam just over a year ago and loved ...We went to Vietnam just over a year ago and loved it. Didn't get up to Dien Bien Phu. As you say, a country that has survived and now prospers. I felt that Cambodia really doesn't know where it is going.<br /><br />Whilst we were in Laos we were taken to COPE (http://www.copelaos.org/) which was a sobering experience too.<br /><br />Thanks for your comments. Very interestingTrebianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02221916804339000102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-22257574718430898752017-03-24T12:04:18.712+00:002017-03-24T12:04:18.712+00:00A good reflection Trebian, and I appreciate your t...A good reflection Trebian, and I appreciate your thoughts on the cold reality of terror and banality of evil. <br />I worked in Cambodia and other parts of the region in the late nineties. There was a big international effort to put back the infrastructure destroyed in the previous decades. Mainly roads and urban services, all very labour intensive with lots of training for youth that had missed out on learning useful technical skills in the chaos of Year Zero. <br />Anti personnel mines were everywhere, fields, paths, abandoned villages, and the number of children with missing limbs was truly awful. A second horror for people trying to return to a normal life. Anyway your piece reminded me of the stories we heard from young trainees who remembered being marched out of their towns and villages as children in the seventies together with their parents (often professionals – teachers, doctors, engineers, administrators) and then returning alone 15 years later after Pol Pot was defeated. They had been able to adapt to the rigours of the agriculture labour camps, but their urban parents had mainly died from starvation or execution for failing to meet production norms. Cambodia experienced a true holocaust, which as you say could happen anywhere. Before the destabilisation of the region following the West’s fear of communist encroachment, Cambodia had been a stable , civilized and peaceful Buddhist kingdom for millennia. <br />Of course it does not have to go that way. Its neighbour Vietnam emerged from the wars with its culture and traditions largely intact. A strong and resilient nation. Again I recall some middle aged Vietnamese road contractors reflecting on their youthful adventures as soldiers marching into Cambodia to “liberate the people from Pol Pot”. Although I concede that some may view that differently.<br />None of the above should put people of visiting. A really interesting part of the world with an amazing history. And, as this is a wargaming blog – go and visit Dien Bien Phu! It has a good museum and the bunker where Castries made his last stand is still intact (or was 20 years ago). <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12790550814108952917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-26205641231220674752017-03-21T09:32:49.784+00:002017-03-21T09:32:49.784+00:00I don't think anyone goes to Cambodia to visit...I don't think anyone goes to Cambodia to visit the Killing Fields. However, if you go to see Angkor Wat and the other wonders then you really can't leave with out visiting.<br /><br />And you should really go to see Angkor Wat.Trebianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02221916804339000102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-13799471693391767652017-03-21T04:02:39.712+00:002017-03-21T04:02:39.712+00:00Provoking yet depressing travelogue. Not sure thi...Provoking yet depressing travelogue. Not sure this place would be on my travel Bucket List. If it was, I may have crossed it off after reading your well crafted pictorial history.Jonathan Freitaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07862373894196924886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-31084544891434849542017-03-20T13:56:55.667+00:002017-03-20T13:56:55.667+00:00Very wise words. As a very clever man once said &q...Very wise words. As a very clever man once said "All we need to do is Keep Talking". <br /><br />Although I am always conscious of the maxim that for evil to succeed a good man only has to do nothing. I'm not sure what the actions of a good man could have done to have stopped this terrible steam roller of events. It is hard to conclude anything other than outside agency was required to save the Cambodians from themselves. Surprisingly the Vietnamese don't seem to get a lot of thanks.Trebianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02221916804339000102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-89241421835653854612017-03-20T13:53:31.673+00:002017-03-20T13:53:31.673+00:00Thanks Trebian... as long as we keep talking we m...Thanks Trebian... as long as we keep talking we may stand a chance of not repeating..Steve-the-Wargamerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07077311120172727690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-8352150267066029732017-03-20T09:18:48.444+00:002017-03-20T09:18:48.444+00:00Not a comfortable visit either. One of the more ja...Not a comfortable visit either. One of the more jarring aspects of both visits is that both places have a peace and tranquillity under the shade of the trees that they have no right to have.Trebianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02221916804339000102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-68366640483209645622017-03-19T23:36:56.968+00:002017-03-19T23:36:56.968+00:00A thoughtful Piece. Not comfortable reading.A thoughtful Piece. Not comfortable reading.Chris Kemphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15784847480097649252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-24019023816485619812017-03-19T16:16:24.391+00:002017-03-19T16:16:24.391+00:00Thanks for your comment. It is a hard subject to t...Thanks for your comment. It is a hard subject to talk or write about without falling into cliche. It is important to reflect and remember, even tho' it is in a foreign land, far, far, away.Trebianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02221916804339000102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7615782020735321095.post-53003527714959299932017-03-19T13:50:05.757+00:002017-03-19T13:50:05.757+00:00So, in a mirror reaction to that felt upon actuall...So, in a mirror reaction to that felt upon actually seeing the subject of this post, what does one say in response to the post itself? Any comment seems both redundant and inadequate.<br /><br />Anyway, a well crafted comment on the levels of organisation and determination required to achieve the horrific and the proximity, in all ways, of that horror to us all.<br />Thank you.<br />Andrew Rumblestriphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15458538310473447360noreply@blogger.com