Free Republic

If you try to search for the guy: The Spelling is Carl von Clausewitz, with an "e" after the Claus (not like Santa Claus, who is written without an "e").

Success of communist propagande that makes people believe that if 15 Million People have been killed in China, it must have been the Japanese. Anyway, if you exagerate the number of people killed before 1945, the number killed in the Cultural Revolution looks smaller, comrade Red Jones. Of course, communists don't kill civillians. And of course, there is no numbers available of how many civilians had a weapon in their hand when they were killed.

As for beheading contests, lock up any Martial Arts website for Gun-To (japanese battle sabers) and its usefulness to even cut straw mats, and you will see that it is a red herring.
As far as the level of the average soldier for using the sword is concerned, this is a result for the compulsory training for cutting a bundle of straw at Toyama Military academy (Japans West Point before the End of WWII, so the participants should have been over-average)

1.15 men were able to cut successfully.
2.6 men made mistakes in their distance or cut-angle and bent their swords.
3.12 men cut only 1/3 to 1/2 of the target before coming to a stop.
4.10 men cut only 1/4 of the target before coming to a stop.
5.8 men cut only 1/5 of the target before coming to a stop.
6.One man misjudged his engagement distance; his sword tip barely touched the target and flew through the air. Moreover, because his grip was poor the sword's inertia caused the handle to break away from his hand, cut his left knee, and fly about 35 feet away. This officer cadet held a 3rd degree (3rd dan) rank at his university kendo club.
Nakamura Taizaburo, sword instructor of Toyama Military academi, in: Nihon To Tameshigiri no Shinzui (The Essence of Japanese Sword Testcutting), (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1980) p.188 Translated by Guy H. Power, edited by Takako Funaya. :

I think it is reasonable to assume that most of the civillian casualties under the chines population ("collateral damage" is not a Japanese word) was caused by the same humanitarian-civilized approach used by US troops, namely by dropping bombs and grenades in large numbers withouth really caring where they drop. Japanese troops were in arms against the communists before 1945, and maybe they had a better grasp of the situation than the US gouvernment, which withdrew all its troops from Korea until June 29, 1949, in best agreement with Roosevelt's Stalin-croonism.

> I'm old enough to remember that cover of The National Lampoon in which jumpsuited Japanese workers are replacing a few letters in the "Chrysler" sign to read "Clysler" (in anticpation of taking over the weak US auto-maker).

Instead it became Daimler-Chrysler. So much for the dominant corporations of the US. Walmart is in the red in Germany, lets see how they will fare in Japan.

Ha, isn't there now a guy called Zetsche working at Chrysler? Must be one of these unemployed German blue-collar workers looking for work abroad.

and 8000 Christians were killed when an atomic bomb was dropped near the Christian quarter of Nagasaki (which was for a long time Japan's town with the largest christian quarter .... up to 1945, that is).

> Gosh, I wonder why the strong support from Japan isn't a headline? Maybe because it would shed positive light on our conservative Republican President?????????????? Hmmmmmmmmmmm???
Its not a headline because there is no strong support. I saw Koizumi in several japanese News stations yesterday, an it was pure rhetorics, and not even strong rhetorics, let alone strong support. Notice that he talked about the anti-terror campaign, not about axis of evil? That means Afghanistan, not Iraq, Iran or Korea. (watch the original Japanese news) Koizumi stressed the need for negotiations in the North Korea questions, that was the most decisive part, which was just short of saying: Don't make trouble near our borders.

Both Palestinians and Israeli are Semits, so helping Israel against the Palestinians would also be "Antisemitism" ...

Sounds a bit like the Zaurus (200 MHz Intel, 64 MB Memory, Linux- and Java-support) Sharp will sell in Japan from March or so .....

> which could be ready for market in few years
I guess when this time comes Sharp will also be able to sell it with a 800 MHz Processor and 125 MB ..... By the way, Sharp started as a company making "sharp pencils" after World War II.

Grrrrrrrrr, you beat me for 5 seconds ....

I still remember when he was spelled Reagan ....

> It has some letters on it (BCE, ECB, EZB, EKT, EKP) and the date, 2002. Is this a secret code to be unscrambled, or the initials of the uninspired people who created this numismatic nothingness?

There are more languages than one in Europe, so there are more abbreviations for the European Central Bank ... e.g.

BCE=Banque Centrale Europeenne (French)
ECB=European Central Bank (English)
EZB= Europaeische Zentralbank (German)
By the way, some abbreviations work also for different languages, and in case anybody complains that e.g. the Austrian abbreviation was forgotten, it is the same as for German.

> On one side is a "map" of Western Europe with some stars and vertical lines. On the other is the Celtic harp. How did the Irish get permission to stamp that musical instrument and symbol of national pride on this coin?

The consensus was: No national symbols on bills, but on coins. All European coins have one european side, the other is with national symbols .....

> It has some letters on it (BCE, ECB, EZB, EKT, EKP) and the date, 2002. Is this a secret code to be unscrambled, or the initials of the uninspired people who created this numismatic nothingness?

There are more languages than one in Europe, so there are more abbreviations for the European Central Bank ...
e.g.
BCE=Banque Centrale Europeenne (French)
ECB=European Central Bank (English)
EZB= Europaeische Zentralbank (German)
By the way, some abbreviations work also for different languages, and in case anybody complains that e.g. the Austrian abbreviation was forgotten, it is the same as for German.

> On one side is a "map" of Western Europe with some stars and vertical lines. On the other is the Celtic harp. How did the Irish get permission to stamp that musical instrument and symbol of national pride on this coin?

The consensus was: No national symbols on bills, but on coins. All European coins have one european side, the other is with national symbols .....

Taliban troops are numbered in the news at about 45000. NA-Troops at 15.000. If Taliban think they will have problems holding the territory over winter, will it be easier for the NA?
Now the NA is in Kabul, against the wishes of George Bush. Now the international observers can report about the destruction of civilian infrastructure by US-Bombings and nobody can say its Taliban-Propaganda. Now Pakistan has an incentive to get fed up with its US ally who does not favour a Pashtun-dominated gouvernment in Kabul as Pakistan does. Now Russia will demand its share in the spoils of the war. Wait two months till everybody in the international political alliance is fed up with everybody else, and then the Taliban will be back from the mountains.

> Thompson had threatened to ask Congress for a patent waiver to allow production of a generic copycat of Cipro if Bayer did not lower its price.

A beginning recession is a good time to show foreign firms and investors how the US legislation is honoring its own laws. The Cipro Case will be useful information for firms who contemplate investing money and building up manifacturing bases in US.

Now we are taught by the new gouvernment that Macedonians are ruthless supressors, which violate the rights of the poor ethnic Albanians. What has changed? The gouvernment. What did not change? The policy.

Yes, and Bush's foreign policy is currently picking the wrong side in Macedonia (ethnic Albanians, as they are called in the Media, instead of islamic extremists). Nobody in this forum seems to mind, as it is Bush doing it.

Where does one sue a country? It's not written in the article. At a court of the country or at the WTO? Isn't WTO also about conforming to patents etc?

According to the beloved current foreign minister, they are again becoming strategic partners. By the way, it was not necessary for China to get unexploded Missiles from Afghanistan, Yugoslavia should also have a lot ...... Some Missiles, you will remember, were deliverd directly into Chines Embassy in Belgrade and killed four people. One of the dangers of having a war against the worst man since Hitler every two years (allways the leader of the current enemy, Saddam , Karacic, Milosevic, now BinLaden) is, that a lot of stuff is littered around.

Disconnected from Reality? What about the US-Firm BioPort, which is supposed to manifacture the Anthrax-Vaccine AVA and has not been able to produce anything at all, though they have a 50-Million-Dollar Exclusive Contract with the Pentagon ...

Nissan, Nissan, isn't that the Japanese Company in which French Peugot has a 30%-stake? .........