Table of Content
My Opinion on Thai-Cambodian War
Table of Content
(I use around 1.5 hours to write this down.)
The war (I would like to name it “war” even though neither government has declared it yet) between Thailand and Cambodia has been going on for 4 days without any possible ceasefire. A lot of disinformation continues to spread on the internet like wildfire. On the Thai side, it was clear that the militants of Cambodia opened fire first. However, on the Cambodian side, they are saying the opposite things and still saying that continuously.
I want to say that it is indeed hard to identify who started this war, and I feel forgiving if they are still sticking to “Thailand shot us first!” Until they used the BM-21 to randomly attack Thai territory, which directly affected Thai civilians, and hit our hospitals 2 times, first on 24th July and again on 27th, and 70000 Thai people needed to flee from their homes, that my forgiveness I can give is down low to some negative value. I believe that this is the biggest scale of war Thailand civilians have ever faced since the Second World War. (If I use the number of people who need to flee from their home as the “scale”.)
Actually, I try to understand why the Cambodian militant decided to use BM-21 to randomly attack us (and pretty much the civilians), since it’s not so understandable when Cambodia is always the one to want to push this matter to the international court, that attacking Thai civilians would defame Cambodia on that international stage. Even if they say they act like that as a defensive measure, attacking our hospitals should definitely not be on the list.
At first, I have two assumptions:
- They haven’t used their weapons for a long time, so they don’t know the scale of destruction. If they knew it, they would not use it to this extent.
- They just don’t care.
Initially, the first assumption prevailed in my head until they bombed a second hospital. Even people who didn’t know about Bayesian inference would choose the second assumption instead.
Okay, I will not talk about war crimes now, since you can look at it on any non-biased news. (You can define “non-biased” by yourself; I won’t judge your information literacy.) I would like to change the topic to the spreading of misinformation, which is also hard to fight. On the Cambodian side, they can say what they want. Even if their projectiles fell onto Lao territory, and they already proved that they were from Cambodia, the Cambodian still says they were from Thailand. This is just one example.
I think it is very hard to read the comment section on any social platform right now, since both Thais and Cambodians will copy and paste their facts into the comment section. Some discussion (with anger) will be made and end up with nothing but hatred.
Okay, so I will pretend to be a random Cambodian internet guy for the next paragraph. Please hold on with me.
Let’s go. Yes, Thailand was the one that shot first. It’s always Thailand that provokes Cambodia up to this point. The 1:50000 map from France is the right one. Thailand also steals all our cultural heritage, even your Muay Thai is originally from Cambodia since we were the former powerful Khmer Empire, 1000 years ago, when Thailand had not even been established then. So, I will take this matter to the UN to tell them that Thailand is a bad guy and that you should give all your stone temples on the border, the sea, and some islands in the Gulf of Thailand. (Hell, I will also call it the Gulf of Cambodia) I will add Kun Khmer to the SEA Game on the sports list instead of Muay Thai, and we will be so happy!
Then, fine, I switch back to the Thai person now. I would like to ask, “And what are you going to do next?”
I don’t want to sound too pathetic, but with the nominal GDP per capita of about one-third of Thailand, do you really think things you could receive (if God is really kind to you) are going to help you in any way? You are so proud of your Angkor Wat that you even put it on your flag. I want to tell you that when King Rama V had to give some territory to France during the colonial era, he kept the sea and the shore instead of Angkor Wat, because he knew that it was no use. I even saw some Cambodian netizens saying that we want your land; if you really believe it, then, also, what are you going to do?
If you think Thailand could attack you in the future, then you think you should take some preemptive measures against us, as you did with Vietnam at the end of the Khmer Rouge era. That’s why you had been “colonized” by the Vietnamese for almost 10 years after you had had enough with the Khmer Rouge. Surely Thailand would not occupy you after this war, but it will definitely leave damage to you. You detach from your recent history too much, but you focus too much on the history that is from a long time ago.
I understand that it would be hard for you to let go, that you had once been a very grand empire of Khmer 1000 years ago, on the scale compared to the Genghis Khan on the Eurasia, you are the Genghis Khan on the Indochina peninsula. Then, somehow by mistake, you became the colony of Thailand and Vietnam in the last 500 years until the advent of the colonial era. Actually, Cambodians have to thank France; you wouldn’t have been independent if the colonial era had not existed. You went through the Khmer Rouge and the occupation by Vietnam. Peace was only about 30 years ago in your territory. I need to tell you that the last thing you want is war.
Up to this point, I use the pronouns “you” to indicate both Cambodian and especially for Hun Sen. I don’t, for fuck’s sake, know what you are thinking about right now. Do you really think that you can get away with it like Putin or Netanyahu? I bet that from today, you will suffer a lot politically. I bet that after you die, your son will be overthrown because of your incompetent thoughts and your legacy toward all of the Cambodians and the world.
For the last paragraph, I would like to give it to the Cambodians. I’m sorry that you were born in a dictatorial country like that and that your opportunities, both economic and political, are limited. For those who still blindly support your action toward the war, I would like to say, even if you get all the lands and seas as you want, do you really think that your life will be better? Especially during this Hun Sen’s dictatorship, I bet they don’t even care whether you live or die. For those who still think Thailand wants your land, even if that’s true, will you do something like you did with Vietnam?
If so, then so be it.
P.S. For those Cambodians who say, “We want peace,” please tell your militants not to attack Thailand. If you also say that it is Thailand that keeps attacking you, then please align your belief with reality, so your life could be better.