The Manchu Court settled the naval history of China by usurping funds for ships to build a Marble Barge for the Emperor’s Summer Palace. That was over a hundred years ago and the Chinese Navy has yet to recover. The Thai Navy repeated this error with the purchase of an aircraft carrier. The Chakri Naruebet was delivered in 1997. No Thia pilot has flown off the flight deck in years and the ship has largely remained in the port of Satthahip as a monument of national prestige. The USA is not above making such idiotic purchases as demonstrated by the Bush regime’s reliance on Hummers in the Iraq invasion. These GM cars lived up to their low quality expectations and became death traps for US soldiers patrolling the combat zones.
The Thai military plans to repeat history by ordering five high-definition, infrared cameras from Axsys Technologies Inc. which will be mounted on helicopters to patrol the northern border against Burmese incursions, regardless of data showing that no one in Thailand can operate the simple CCTV security cameras dotting Pattaya, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai.
Also no one seems concerned that Axsys is looking to sell its company.
Like Eisenhower said, “Beware of the military industrial complex.”
They never saw a toy that they didn’t want.
For a related article click on the following URL
https://www.mangozeen.com/2009/04/09/fiction/blows-against-the-empire-by-peter-nolan-smith.htm