A mix of Bushido and um Non-Bushido

You got another example of anti-Americanism. That’s the bad news. The good news is you also get an example to be inspired by, and maybe learn something at the same time.

Sepukku What is hara kiri, ritual suicide, aka seppuku? [Oops forgot link]

German army in new racism row

A video showing a German army instructor telling one of his soldiers to envision African-Americans in the Bronx while firing his machine gun was broadcast Saturday on national television.

The video, coming after scandals involving photos of German soldiers posing with skulls in Afghanistan and the abuse of recruits by instructors, seemed likely to raise more questions about training practices in Germany’s conscript army. (…)

“We can no longer talk about an isolated case,” said Lt. Juergen Rose of the Darmstaedter Signal, a group of current and former army officers and sergeants who independently review military procedures.

“Things like this don’t happen in the army on an everyday basis, but unfortunately in recent years there have been a number of comparable incidents.”

The Defense Ministry said the video was shot in July 2006 at barracks in the northern town of Rendsburg and that the army has been aware of it since January.

“We are currently investigating the incident,” said Florian Naggies, a spokesman for the army and Defense Ministry. (…)

The instructor tells the soldier, “You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways … Act.”

The soldier fires his machine gun several times and yells an obscenity several times in English. The instructor then tells the soldier to curse even louder.

The video is the latest embarrassment for the German army. Eighteen army instructors are currently on trial for allegedly abusing and humiliating 163 recruits in 2004. Last year, newspapers published photos of German soldiers in Afghanistan posing with a skulls — including one who exposed himself while holding a skull.

The Life and Times of Miyamoto Musashi

In Japan, Musashi is also named ‘Kinsei’ (Sword Saint).

Musashi’s appearance and personality since now remain legendary. It is said he was always unkempt and sudden and restrained on his emotions. Truth is that he possible had a skin complaint which was the reason that he could not have the traditional samurai topknot. Also, Musashi many times was forced to sleep in caves affraid of being killed by his enemies, spending long time away from people.

We have keep in mind that Musashi used to cho?se to fight in the duels using wooden swords while his opponents get used to fight against him with real weapons.

Despite the fact that he was the greater fencer, Musashi was one of the greatest painters and calligraphers of his time in Japan. It is said that his masterpieces of ink painting, probably more highly valued by the Japanese than the ink paintings of any other. His works include cormorants, herons, grass, dragons, Hotei (the Shinto god), Roganzu (birds with flowers) , Koubaihatozu (bird in a dead tree), Daruma (Bodhidharma, patriarch of Zen), a.?. ?n a private collection there is a small wood sculpture of the Buddhist diety Fudo Myoo. A sculpture of Kwannon has lost (?) recently. He has also written, except his 3 writtens: ’19 Articles of Self-Discipline’, ’35 Articles on the Art of Swordmanship’ and ‘The Book Of Five Rings’, some poems and songs, but none of these survive. It is also said that he was commissioned by the Shogun Iemitsu to paint the sunrise over Edo castle.

Is is said, that his works of art, are very spiritual and first give off a feeling of warmth, which express deeply his soul and spirit.

There’s also this alternate site on Bushido.

The Bushido stuff was originally discussed here at the blackfive thread.

Where Synova and Bthun provided the basic starting material.

[EDIT: There was a great comment on Davids blog.

I tend to agree with jwtkac here. I think the story is overblown and indeed rather a non-story. It's that "hey, how dare you insulting my mother?!?" thing you get to watch in bad gangster-rapper movies or whatever. Of course there is a sort of racism behind it if you picture Afro-Americans like that, but it is so overblown that it's rather meant as satire than real things.

What this video shows in my opinion is not a racism problem in the Bundeswehr (there are not that many black people in Germany, and much less in the Bundeswehr anyway), but rather a sick Army making clowns out of themselves. What this instructor did was nothing else than what I witnessed when I served in the Bundeswehr several times: A misfired wanna-be, make-believe "Gung-Ho" approach. The Bundeswehr, with few exeptions like fighter-pilots, SF, or submariners, are a totally unprofessional and amateur bunch of guys. Be aware that most people "serving" in our Armed Forces do so for many reasons, like having SOME job or getting SOME education for later civilian life, and the very last reason is the prospect to actually end up in a war, fighting. I remember our instructors back then how they always had that stupid grin on their face, or downright laugh out, when describing a combat scenario on an excercise, as in "Hey, wtf, we are not going to do this for real anytime soon anyway, so let's just make stupid jokes about it." I'm sad to say it like that, but the Bundeswehr is a fucking joke. I believe any Armed Forces in the world who kinda *know* that they will never really see combat, or don't have a combat history - which would offer people to look up to, or heroes, yes - would lose all self respect and make a joke out of themselves like that instructor talking "tough shit" with his baby voice, pretending to be someone. What indeed makes matters worse in the specific case of the Bundeswehr is that really the last people we could "look up to", who conducted themselves in a professional military manner, were unfortunately serving for one of the darkest evils this world has ever seen. So it becomes difficult to have them as "look up to" people, albeit I believe that the soldiers are the last to blame for the consequences when the "innocent" civilians *elect* a dictatorship to govern them.

The best time for the Bundeswehr was probably the 50s and 60s. At this time, the Armed Forces had some professional personel with war experiences taken over from the Wehrmacht (as long as they were not downright Nazis), but also had the new Officer corps of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland who were only children when Hitler was around, and who were fully united with the West against the Communist threat. Good old Cold War times, so to say. I know a man who flew the F-104 Starfighter in the Bundeswehr during the 60s, and the CO of his Squadron (JG71) was Erich Hartmann, the top-scoring Ace of all time with some 352 air victories achieved during WWII, mostly on the Eastern Front. There is no comparison between this F-104 pilot I know and the Bundeswehr in general of today. Special personel might still be the exception, as I said above, but in general even the officer corps seems to be a joke. Spineless baby-faces who just want to get some education or their degree and then get the hell out of there asap (you know, there *might* actually be some war coming, or some sitting around in Kabul). Or disaffected old men waiting for their retirement. The point is, these Armed Forces don't take themselves serious at all, and aren't taken serious by the public either. The Bundeswehr is nothing but a running gag in Germany, and all who serve are seen as "Zivilversager", i.e. people who failed in civilian jobs.

This is what this video shows in fact. And one of the reasons why I didn't consider staying in the Armed Forces, although I would have done so in a heartbeat had the choice been the US Armed Forces.

Posted by: Alex N. | April 16, 2007 at 07:33 PM

The fun thing is, one of the very first moments where I witnessed outright Anti-Americanism was indeed in the Bundeswehr. I joined the Heer (Army) on 2nd or 3rd September 2001, for my conscript time of 9 months. Then came 9/11, and oh do I remember all the fuzz and almost panic going on around with the guys as in "Oh damn? Is that WWIII? Will we have to go to war now?!?". When I decided whether or not to join the Bundeswehr, I was already deep into history and also considering the prospect of killing other people in a war, since I was playing with the idea of maybe making a living (or dieing) out of a military career. I was flabbergasted when I witnessed all the panic going around at this point, not just with the conscripts.

Then, during the next days, we held "minutes of silence" during Appell in the morning, or out in the contryside, in remembrence of the victims of our NATO allies. At one such Appell, the guy next to me whispered "They had it coming, stupid Americans". I whispered back "Oh, halt's Maul" (Oh shut the fuck up). He whispered "Why? Are you stupid?" and albeit I was not supposed to move my head, I just looked at him. It was at this point when I wondered how many more holding this "minute of silence in remembrance" did in fact rather feel like not to (meanwhile I know it must have been a lot more). And later on, after seeing more of the same, not just in the Bundeswehr, I was wondering that even if we would indeed ever go to war, if it would be on the side I would care to be part of.

Posted by: Alex N. | April 16, 2007 at 08:10 PM

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