Simple isnt it ?
1) Thai army are thai themself, do you like killing your kind ?
2) Some might have been affected, thus not supporting the Pm
3) When facing half of your country in riot, even the army is in low morale....
the police and army should be in high morale instead.........
you're being given the go-ahead to wallop people man.............wish i were a Thai cop..........
More competent than ours?
Theirs is fully recruited. Its a full time occupation. I believe they are fitter physically. Ours is more towards better weapons, lesser on fitness.
many thai army are also drafted. much like our NS amid a shorter stint.
i would pity the thai army instead of criticing them as they show restraint dispite the provoke from using violence.
it does not take much effort to really crackdown the civilians mob with guns and armour vehicles. look at tiananmen incident, look at xinjiang violence. you dont need your warship, fighterplanes, mortars, tanks to do the crackdown.
the thai army are thai themselves. they wish their current govt can strike a deal with the red shirts. not all army personnels are pro thaksin nor yellow shirts. some are just commoners that want peace in their home country.
Good thing that spore is not like thailand.
If not, spore bye bye liao.
Originally posted by reyes:many thai army are also drafted. much like our NS amid a shorter stint.
i would pity the thai army instead of criticing them as they show restraint dispite the provoke from using violence.
it does not take much effort to really crackdown the civilians mob with guns and armour vehicles. look at tiananmen incident, look at xinjiang violence. you dont need your warship, fighterplanes, mortars, tanks to do the crackdown.
the thai army are thai themselves. they wish their current govt can strike a deal with the red shirts. not all army personnels are pro thaksin nor yellow shirts. some are just commoners that want peace in their home country.
Their conscription is to become Buddhist monk for 2 years for Buddhists if I am not wrong. Not as military personnel.
Imagine in singapore, give you a choice between 2 years as conscript or 2 years in grassroots, ok I take the conscript please.
Originally posted by ditzy:Imagine in singapore, give you a choice between 2 years as conscript or 2 years in grassroots, ok I take the conscript please.
Why? Grassroots not better meh?
Originally posted by Junyang700:Their conscription is to become Buddhist monk for 2 years for Buddhists if I am not wrong. Not as military personnel.
I though they have a choice of either as monks or military?
Their conscription is to become Buddhist monk for 2 years for Buddhists if I am not wrong. Not as military personnel.
According to the Constitution of the Kingdom, serving in the Armed Forces is a duty of all Thai citizens. However only males over the age of 21 who have not gone through reserve training are subjected to a random draft. Those chosen randomly are subjected to twenty-four months fulltime service, while volunteers are subjected to eighteen months service, depending on their education.
i had work in thailand for couple of years. if u are rich kids family, you can buy your exemption. the drating system is not clear, even some thai could not explain it themselves clearly. however i would say, most dreaded it.
Good thing that spore is not like thailand.
If not, spore bye bye liao.
well, most thai are peaceful ppl. the split is mainly because over the years, the majority poor thai have no say in the thai politics often rule by the thai elite class until the arrival of thaksin. i would not dwell into the characters of thaksin and his political agenda but he is very famous among the farmer class and north of thailand( his homeground).
thus is ousted from politics by the elite bangkok class causes upset in the north of thailand and the general poor thai class.
i would say, you fight for what you want. whether the majority poor farmers with no say forever or standup and be counted or support someone who had fought for their rights.
militarily wise, i think soldiers all around the world dread the same thing--> the need to open fire on the very people you have sworn to protect. that probably best explains the impasse in Thailand now. No matter how tough you are, firing on your own civilians is a tough thing for any man to do. however, militarily speaking, dun think the thai military is bad or wad, they have conscripts like us too, but i think they can really take hardship much better than we did. remembered a thai guide for us during an exercise telling me his war stories ( i speak thai), its incredible how much skirmishes they fight that is not reported. from insurgents to cambodian solders, this guide fought them all and probably that sums up their military capability. not stronger or weaker, but probably more experienced, and that in a military sense, works.
aknoo you are right. no one would ever fancy firing at your own ppl. however i think the situation would be change as i read the top miliary command are due for a change. any aspiring general who dare to do what others dreaded could have the post.
during the xinjiang crackdown, one of my drivers who has a brother serving the PLA told me, how they are order to shoot from holicopters at any mass gathering of crowds. the actual dead is much higher than official report coming from china. some soldiers hesitated but with their career at stake, most follow orders.
Instances where the government has killed its own people in large-scale crackdowns:
Kwangju Uprising, South Korea, 1980
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/752055.stm
Hama Massacre, Syria, 1982
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hama_massacre
Lets just hope the Thai government won't resort to violence. Its one thing to be unelected, but its worse when its unelected and resorting to violence.