2 Comments

I suppose Astana could have gone anywhere fishing for a defense contract to beef up its military stocks. Because Moscow is bogged down in trying to consume Ukraine, which the fascist dictator and cold-blooded murdered Vladimir Putin -- much to his humiliation -- had boasted would be gobbled up in a matter of weeks or months, lacks the resources to build ordnance even for its Ukraine adventurism (note it has imported North Korean soldiers or rather the North Korean fascist dictator Kim would have sold (and I mean traded, potentially for newer technology to build more nuclear missiles) some of his [reluctant] soldiers to Putin. The longer the war continues, the more Russia's resources are drawn down and the sooner it exhausts itself (unless the other fascist dictator Xi Jinping of China steps in to make a strategic killing, as it were, by being more geopolitically powerful than Russia).

I doubt Singapore Terrex has the material guts compared to what the Australians, Americans and other NATO allies can build. It's just not in that class. Forget Malaysia; it's a basket-case when it comes to its littoral combat sampans and low-quality engineering and design submarines. If Malaysia wasn't so stupidly blinkered by its deep-seated racial hatred for Israel, it would have followed Singapore to buy Israeli military hardware.

But when Singapore is surrounded by Muslim Malaysia and Indonesia, needless to say it is prepared to thumb pusillanimous ASEAN-ness in the face also for geopolitical reasons. When it comes to trust amongst the ASEAN brethren, one will find very little of it but more competition bornd out of historical malignant distrust. The is as much about state-making as it about war-making. Besides, Singapore is also weighting itself against a more and more belligerent and bellicose China, whose whose "economic miracle" has been hemorrhaging blood whilst provoking more and more domestic dissent. About time, too.

As for Singapore selling arms to the murderous junta in Burma, no surprise here either. It's been standard fare for ASEAN rank hypocrisy where ASEAN routinely sells out on decency and justice for expediency and money. Greed is the essence of ASEAN-ness, whichever way it can get it, whilst presenting a long-term vision of a burgeoning Burmese market if and when the junta collapses and its murderous generals flee for their Cambodian and China safe-havens. And you won't hear a whimper from any ASEAN state on calling for war crimes against Burma's junta thugs. Not even from Singapore, for obvious reasons.

Expand full comment

I suppose Astana could have gone anywhere fishing for a defense contract to beef up its military stocks. Because Moscow is bogged down in trying to consume Ukraine, which the fascist dictator and cold-blooded murdered Vladimir Putin -- much to his humiliation -- had boasted would be gobbled up in a matter of weeks or months, lacks the resources to build ordnance even for its Ukraine adventurism (note it has imported North Korean soldiers or rather the North Korean fascist dictator Kim would have sold (and I mean traded, potentially for newer technology to build more nuclear missiles) some of his [reluctant] soldiers to Putin. The longer the war continues, the more Russia's resources are drawn down and the sooner it exhausts itself (unless the other fascist dictator Xi Jinping of China steps in to make a strategic killing, as it were, by being more geopolitically powerful than Russia).

I doubt Singapore Terrex has the material guts compared to what the Australians, Americans and other NATO allies can build. It's just not in that class. Forget Malaysia; it's a basket-case when it comes to its littoral combat sampans and low-quality engineering and design submarines. If Malaysia wasn't so stupidly blinkered by its deep-seated racial hatred for Israel, it would have followed Singapore to buy Israeli military hardware.

But when Singapore is surrounded by Muslim Malaysia and Indonesia, needless to say it is prepared to thumb pusillanimous ASEAN-ness in the face also for geopolitical reasons. When it comes to trust amongst the ASEAN brethren, one will find very little of it but more competition bornd out of historical malignant distrust. The is as much about state-making as it about war-making. Besides, Singapore is also weighting itself against a more and more belligerent and bellicose China, whose whose "economic miracle" has been hemorrhaging blood whilst provoking more and more domestic dissent. About time, too.

As for Singapore selling arms to the murderous junta in Burma, no surprise here either. It's been standard fare for ASEAN rank hypocrisy where ASEAN routinely sells out on decency and justice for expediency and money. Greed is the essence of ASEAN-ness, whichever way it can get it, whilst presenting a long-term vision of a burgeoning Burmese market if and when the junta collapses and its murderous generals flee for their Cambodian and China safe-havens. And you won't hear a whimper from any ASEAN state on calling for war crimes against Burma's junta thugs. Not even from Singapore, for obvious reasons.

Expand full comment