Hah! Funny.

[randomness]

Roger Simon, in a piece about the pirate rescue in the Politico:

In any case, even as dramatic as it was, Obama’s pirate adventure probably will be quickly forgotten. Oh, yes, it will. Anybody remember the Hainan Island incident? It happened during George W. Bush’s first 100 days in office. On April 1, 2001, a Chinese jet fighter rammed a U.S. military surveillance plane, forcing it to make an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan. The 24 U.S. crew members were held hostage for 10 days and released only after the Bush administration issued a letter of regret for entering China’s airspace.

We got the crew back unharmed and eventually even got the plane back (in pieces), but we had to pay China $34,000 for the food and lodging of the hostages. But then China is a little tougher to deal with than pirates. (Today, the Chinese wouldn’t even bother to ram the plane. They would just start selling U.S. Treasury bills until we promised never to invade their airspace again.)

Okay, that's enough procrastination. Back to work.

Comments

[irielle.livejournal.com]

I remember that for personal reasons. My brother-in-law was a Chinese linguist for the U.S. Airforce at that time.

Hope you have a good day!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I hope you do, too!

(It's always nice to hear from you. I'd love to have that happen more often.)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

[emilymorgan.livejournal.com]

People really don't remember that? It was kind of a big deal.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Well, depending on which "people", yes. :) Some of them never knew it happened in the first place.

More seriously, remarkably few Americans actually follow world events with any seriousness, because--fortunately for Americans--they're protected from the consequences of their ignorance. So far, anyway.

It's a kind of superpower privilege.

[emilymorgan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, fair point, unfortunately.

[holmes-iv.livejournal.com]

In this case, on the other hand, I'd kind of argue the opposite position: on the scale of dramatic events early in the Bush presidency, the Hainan affair is... kind of insignificant, really. Not that it l'affaire Pirates is of great long-term significance of itself either, of course...

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

l'affaire Pirates! Has a ring to it.

But yes, l'affaire Pirates is if anything even less important than the Hainan reconnaissance aircraft incident. It'll be forgotten once Pakistan implodes, or the North Koreans explode, or Iran detonates a nuke, or...

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Do you remember the Mayaguez Incident? It raised Ford's approval ratings by 20 points or something like that. In Obama's case, demonstrating his willingness to beat up annoying foreigners is likely to improve his appeal for 2012.

[belfrynotes.livejournal.com]

The latest issue of Popular Science has an article about Chinese hackers that refers to the Hainan incident. It set off a major DOS attack on whitehouse.gov, the navy's website, and others. So it isn't really forgotten, but the significance has changed, and slipped below most people's radar.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Tellingly, it's slipped below more Americans' radar than Chinese.