On July 3, 1988, Iranian Airlines Flight IR655 with 290 people on board was blown out of the sky over the Persian Gulf by two missiles from the USS Vincennes. This was in a war zone — the Iran-Iraq war was raging and the US navy was engaged in military actions in support of Saddam Hussein against Iranian vessels.
Margaret Thatcher called the downing “understandable”. President Ronald Reagan, apologising for the killing of innocent people, said his apologies were “sufficient”, and that he considered the matter “closed”. When the Vincennes returned to home port, the crew were given a hero’s welcome and awarded combat ribbons. Something for presidents Obama and Putin to ponder.
John Ward
Voters should share in blame
The National Anti-Corruption Commission’s recommended that ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra be indicted for dereliction of duty for failing to deal with corruption and losses in the rice-pledging scheme. If guilty, she would have violated the Criminal Code and National Anti-Corruption Act.
But, if significant corruption occurred, and if she didn’t do all she could to prevent/correct it, did she fail to act: (a) because she didn’t have the ability to know what to do, which would be misfeasance, or (b) because she deliberately let that corruption occur, perhaps to boost her party’s popularity, which would be malfeasance?
The difference between (a) and (b) is huge. If (a), then voters are to blame for choosing an incompetent leader, and must share accountability. If (b), then she was part and parcel of the crime, and should be held accordingly accountable.
As the case unfolds, the media and voters should focus not only on Ms Yingluck’s guilt or innocence, but which case she falls into if guilty. In either case, we voters must learn from this and be more politically aware.
Burin Kantabutra
Israel painted the villain
I’ve been extremely disappointed by the Bangkok Post’s coverage of the Israel/Hamas conflict. There has been constant focus on Israel’s actions in Gaza without providing any context as to why this is happening or the fact that Hamas is a terrorist organisation.
Since 2005, Hamas has fired tens of thousands of rockets at Israel with the aim of killing innocent civilians. It does this while launching the rockets from schools, hospitals and mosques so the world will criticise Israel’s defensive reaction. There is no moral equivalency of terrorists trying to kill civilians and an army trying to prevent it. One cannot look at the number of people dead to determine proportionality.
The reason why more Israelis haven’t been killed is not from a lack of trying by Hamas. Every day attacks from the sea, tunnels and rockets are thwarted by the Israeli army. A recent news quote summarises the situation: “Israel uses weapons to protect its citizens while Hamas uses its citizens to protect its weapons.”
As for the protesters expressing their outrage over the killing of civilians outside of the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok, where was this outrage when thousands of protesters were killed and injured in Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq and Nigeria over the past few years?
Peter Adelman
End of the line for srt
I read today that “additional one-metre-wide railways will be laid parallel to existing lines on crowded routes. Thailand’s rail system is one metre wide, supporting speeds of up to 90kph.”
Further into the report, I read: “New technology will be used with a standard gauge of 1.435 metres wide to support train speeds of 160-180kph.” Will this new technology also enable a train that travels on one-metre-wide rails at 90kph to transform itself to be able to speed along on 1.435-metre-wide rails at 160-180kph?
I have often taken the train from Bangkok to Nong Khai, a distance of about 600km. If the train is on schedule, the trip usually takes about 12 hours, which means the train travelled an average 50kph. Theoretically, if planned improvements were made to this line and if the old choo choo could produce the maximum speed of 180kph, the trip could be made in just 3.3 hours. Amazing! Incredible! Absolutely unbelievable!
In any event, I shall travel that route never again. Because of the horrendous rape and murder of a young girl by an employee of the railroad, I can no longer enjoy a cold beer in that filthy old Beer Car some think of as a dining car. Because of the conduct of a railroad employee, I and people like me can no longer be trusted to enjoy a cold beer. I like my beer when travelling or when going nowhere, but especially enjoyed the ambience of the Beer Car on the night train to Nong Khai when I could sit back, relax and observe other passengers enjoying the same. It will never be the same.
Donald Tetley
Cha-am
Train guards are a cop out
Re: “SRT must get back on track” (Opinion, Suly 19).
There was mention in this editorial that the SRT has 500 trained railway police. It should, however, be noted that the police who patrol moving trains act passively and do nothing to intervene unless there is a problem.
The police walk past smokers under no-smoking signs. They do absolutely nothing about those smoking at coach doors, the stench drifting back into the carriages being a nuisance to all riders. They do absolutely nothing to curb people openly drinking beer, sleeping across seats on crowded trains; do absolutely nothing except follow the ticket collectors, and then go to sleep in the back rows of the last carriage.
Most railway police are probably retired Royal Thai Police officers, most of whom are overweight, with protruding bellies, and look more like clowns than police or security guards of any sort.
Yes, the SRT should indeed get back on track, and recruit and train real railway police, not what they have now. I have travelled on a commuter line for three hours each way between my province and Bangkok twice a month for years. The SRT has absolutely no idea what goes on on its trains.
Well-Travelled Mango
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