Some hurt feelings and posturing later, the U.S. and Thai militaries will go ahead with their epic Man Date that is Cobra Gold in February.
The large, multinational exercise held on Thai soil with the United States military has long been a feather in the cap of the military, and after some post-coup tit-for-tat, Team America and Thailand are looking forward once again to drinking snake blood and jumping out of things together.
Active-duty soldiers from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea will join those from Thailand and the United States next year, with other nations invited to send observers. Chinese troops will have limited involvement in humanitarian exercises.
It’s good to see these guys make up, as a lot of big egos were on the line over maintaining the 32-year-old tradition.
American officials had publicly stated there might be no Cobra Gold in Thailand after the military seized power in May, all of which was dismissed strangely in the English-language paper of record Tuesday as attempted sabotage by “US- and Thailand-based rumour mongers.”
They must be referring to the U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, who after the coup said in June it was “under review” after Thai observers were uninvited from RIMPAC, the largest international maritime exercise held in Hawaii.
“We take very seriously the whole human-rights aspect to this coup in Thailand,” Ambassador Kristie Kenney said in Time. “One of the things our government has done is look at our military engagements.”
Aww, please don’t go, came the reply from RTA headquarters.
However when the U.S. military came back in July to say sorry, let’s pretend nothing happened, Thai brass sounded a noi jai response through public channels, saying it was prepared to go ahead without the Americans.
“We are ready to conduct military exercises with member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [Asean], including Myanmar, along with China and India, which have already said they are ready to take part,” an unnamed official said in The Nation.
The official said at the time they wouldn’t respond to the request until the Americans sent another letter explaining why they really, really want them back.
But come on, China and India? They may have 40 percent of the world’s population, but they can hardly rub two aircraft carriers together. (though they can sink all of them.)
More importantly, we also don’t have generations of shared esprit de corps with those guys and seriously doubt their ability to keep their Mekhong whisky down, so we’re delighted to see the Bro-brah fest continue undiminished.
Related:
Soldiers drill, drink snake blood in multinational ‘Cobra Gold’ drill (PHOTOS)
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