In Palau Taking the Uighurs for 200,000,000 Dollars, The Captain’s Journal noted the absurdity of spending this kind of money on a handful of Chinese Muslim terrorists. It amounted to the cost of more than 100,000 sets of body armor for our troops, and the Chinese are going to a tropical paradise on the Island of Palau. At any rate, we called them “terrorists.”
Joshua Foust took issue with this characterization, and sent a link to Obsidian Wings along (noting that it wasn’t my “cup of tea” – and he is certainly right), as well as a few other links. He asked if I had any more data on them to justify calling them terrorists?
I must confess that I know between little and nothing about them (although I do know that there is a budding Chinese Muslim insurgency in Western China). I have better things to do than spend my time studying this particular group. The choice of words was instantaneous (in a post that took five minutes to write) and not meant to convey a wealth of knowledge about the Uighurs. Michael Yon and I were also chatting about this, and Michael wondered if they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Perhaps so. But Michael and I certainly agree on one thing. Give them to me (Michael and I will have to fight over them). LT Nixon also wants them. Catch: we get the $200,000,000 too. So I’ve got to throw down with Michael and LT Nixon over the Uighurs. They are younger than me, but I have wisdom and treachery working on my side.
Keeping the Uighurs would actually be easy I think. I would just hire a few of the bad dudes I work out with (I still hurt from all of those inclined bench presses I did on Friday), and let them hang with me along with the bad dudes. We could chain ourselves together and make field trips to the grocery store and gym). I think $200,000,000 would handle the expenses. Oh, and picking up TVs and heaving them across the room would be off limits – and I would implement that rule by use of force if necessary. Neither would I allow discussions of Muslim separatist movements, and yes, I do consider that to be a bad policy, one that I would have a right to control.
Concerning the money the U.S. government paid to get this done, as LT Nixon said – “Uncle Sucker.”
Postscript: Based on where he is, you should expect interesting things coming from Michael Yon in the near future.