"Let Them Eat Pickles" Chinese Soldiers In Yemen Starve As Refugees "Eat Like Kings"

An attempt by Beijing to celebrate the stoicism and bravery of their troops has backfired dramatically. In what was supposed to be a story of heroism, state-controlled Chinese press are facing a wave of scorn on Chinese social media after a showing a group of starving Chinese soldiers while the citizens (Yemen refugees) they were protecting ate like kings. "While on the navy ship, the soldiers ate pickles, but we had an eight course meal, and beer as well," one man is reported to have said, "I am moved, I feel the warmth of the motherland." As The BBC reports, rather than being impressed, however, many Chinese people online seemed to be furious about the story, as it was a reflection of incompetence among senior army officials.

This week two giant warships rescued 571 Chinese nationals stranded in Yemen, where a crisis appears to be escalating fast. The ships were manned by Chinese soldiers, who sailed their countrymen home to safety... It was supposed to be a story about heroism, but as The BBC reports, it is creating a major backlash...

On Wednesday Beijing News interviewed one of the evacuees as they returned home. "While on the navy ship, the soldiers ate pickles, but we had an eight course meal, and beer as well," one man is reported to have said. "I am moved, I feel the warmth of the motherland," he went on.

China's state controlled media seized on the story, seeing it as a chance to celebrate the stoicism and bravery of their troops. The government's Xinhua News Agency and other commercial outlets reworked the article and gave it a punchy new headline: "An Evacuee's experience: we eat eight courses, soldiers have pickles." Images of the passengers' feast were published as well.

Rather than being impressed, however, many Chinese people online seemed to be furious about the story. The scenes were either a misjudged publicity stunt, or simply a reflection of incompetence among senior army officials, they said. "Where is military expenditure going?" read one comment on Sina Weibo, the Chinese social network.

If an eight course meal was on offer, the passengers and soldiers could've had four courses each, many pointed out, and "pickles aren't nutritious" one added. The story attracted tens of thousands of comments on Sina Weibo and on Tencent QQ, another Chinese social network.

This follows a similar story published last summer, in which soldiers arriving in Yunnan province in the wake of an earthquake were pictured eating dirty instant noodles because of a lack of clean water, and many online were furious at what the soldiers had to put up with.

Both episodes appear to suggest a growing rift between what traditional state-controlled news media are portraying about soldiers sacrifices - and the genuine demands of its citizens to see their soldiers better provided for, at a time when spending on the Chinese military, especially on hi-tech equipment, is rising.

*  *  *

Comments

[Publicus]

That's not eight course, that's just a lunch box with eight items, one of which is rice, and the other "course" sprite.

[1000yrdstare]

yes, but were they Clausen pickles? bread and butter? Dill?

but seriously, If China ever decides to invade another country they may want to remember, an army marches on its belly...

[chumbawamba]

First of all, how/why is this a story on ZH?  This is plumbing the depths.

Second, pickles are delicious.  Fuck those ingrates.

Stupid all around--everyone get some!

I am Chumbawamba.

[TahoeBilly2012]

Calm/slow news day before the storm?

[NidStyles]

bread and butter. Hmmmm, BRB going to the store...

[champan250]

this is just exaggeration by the evacuee and old-school communist propanganda that promote self-suffering which obviously doesn't work in the 21st century

[max2205]

Salt petter kepping the boners down while the civilians are on board

[Fish Gone Bad]

Sprite is a Coke product.  Thumbs up for the KO.

[Four chan]

who cares what slaves think should be what keeps the chinese people up at night contemplating their existence.

[PrecipiceWatching]

Yeah after all it doesn't pursue the usual fashionable course of slamming Americans, or the U.S. military, and shit...

[TheReplacement]

To be fair, most slamming is against Americans who are either dual citizens or beholded to dual citizens.  As to military, the Generals are often targeted as the peons are the ones left to die.

But still, if the shoe fits... why are you bitching?

[PrecipiceWatching]

Obviously, if I felt the "shoe fit" I wouldn't be "bitching".

You are mischaracterizing the often puerile, vastly ignorant, broad-brush anti-American commentary rife among the smug, cynical punks resident here.

[Paveway IV]

"...Yeah after all it doesn't pursue the usual fashionable course of slamming Americans, or the U.S. military, and shit..."

Let me help you out here, PrecipiceWatching. The U.S. military is just as incompetent as the Chinese. The U.S. just outsources to KBR/Halliburton. Example: Balad Base, Iraq in 2007 - KBR was raking in five billion (with a 'b') per year contracting services under the LOGCAP programs in Iraq.

From an ArmyTimes article:

Eller also accused KBR of serving spoiled, expired and rotten food to the troops, as well as dishes that may have been contaminated with shrapnel

"Defendants knowingly and intentionally supplied and served food that was well past its expiration date, in some cases over a year past its expiration date," the lawsuit states. "Even when it was called to the attention of the KBR food service managers that the food was expired, KBR still served the food to U.S. forces."

The food included chicken, beef, fish, eggs and dairy products, which caused cases of salmonella poisoning, according to the lawsuit.

"KBR prevented their employees from speaking with government auditors and hid employees from auditors by moving them from bases when an audit was scheduled," the lawsuit states. "Any employees that spoke with auditors were sent to more dangerous locations in Iraq as punishment."

The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that "still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces."

KBR's comments from the lawsuit:

KBR management would brag that they could get away with doing anything they wanted because the Army could not function without them. KBR figured that even if they did get caught, they had already made more than enough money to pay any fines and still make a profit.” 

I would rather have clean pickles than KBR's Coke cooled down with ice contaminated with body fluids and putrified remains. Not that the soldiers at Balad had much of an appetite:

"Wild dogs in the area raided the burn pit and carried off human remains," the lawsuit states. "The wild dogs could be seen roaming the base with body parts in their mouths, to the great distress of the U.S. forces."

The non-potable water (showers, pool, dishwashing machines) was pretty much heavily-filtered, unsterilized and unchloronated sewage. Chlorine was banned in Iraq in 2007 because the commanders were worried it would be used for ineffective chlorine-filled IEDs. Problem was that there wasn't really a good, reasonably-priced alternative available in Iraq at the time. Typhoid and cholera killed thousands of Iraqi civilians before the U.S. commanders reversed their policy.

THAT'S how the U.S. treats it's soldiers.

[Kirk2NCC1701]

Are the pickles Kosher?

Or Made in China?

[Four chan]

kosher with extra lead from the mother land.

[laomei]

It's not pickles, it's pickled veggies... cukes rarely end up pickled over here.  It's "xian cai", not pickles anyways.

And this is just typical and par for course really.  It's an 8-item "meal", in other words, there were 8 things to get.

http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/2015-04-01/0716826430.html?sina-fr=bd.ala.xw

And here's the list of it:  6 foods and 1 soup

Braised Beef, 

Sautéed Pickled Cabbage and Vermicelli

Mooshoo pork

Fried Potatos with Green Pepper

shish kabob (meat on a stick, very small portion)

fried squid rings

Seaweed and Egg Soup 

Then there was Dumplings, steamed rolls, steamed bun and rice.

And take careful note of the real situation: The kitchen wasn't fucking big enough to make enough food for everyone at the same time.  So the refugees ae first while the crew ate "pickles"... and then they ate their regular meal afterwards.

This really is a great example of why the internet and other things get censored in China.  Imagine playing telephone with 1.5 billion people, and each one of them will be twisting the story to their own benefit in some way or another.  Rumors get out of hand rapidly and morons believe nonsense.  The #1 rule for news out of China is that there is never anything good... someone ALWAYS has to be corrupt and there always has to be a bad guy.

[Laowei Gweilo]

like most Zero Hedge Chinese articles, the translation is horrible...

for one, basically EVERY meal EVER in China is at least a 5 course meal.... Chinese don't order 1 plate per person, typically the table or group order 4-10 things and everyone takes a little every few mintues while eating...

secondly, it wasn't pickles.. it was pickled... and it was just a snack... until they ate later... cuz, you know.... they just RISKED THEIR LIVES to save and care for these people... I'm pretty sure they're OK with eating second, too

such a non-story

ZH you're pure finance shit is awesome, especially daily wrap-ups... your HFT stuff... etc

but fuck is your Chinese game baaaaad

[Paveway IV]

China was right to get their citizens the hell out of Yemen at any cost: a Yemen chemical weapons attack (=false flag) is about to take place.

Sure signs of this: Yemeni troops loyal to the corrupt U.S. puppet Hadi have teamed up with al Qaeda, most notably in Aden (before they scurried away to the mountains). That isn't the reason for a chemical weapons attack, but that alliance IS being widely censored in the Western press. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied it supports al Qaeda, but it has been supplying intelligence and dropping arms and supplies to both the Hadi-loyalists and the local al Qaeda. Here's the chemical weapons false flag tells:

The Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists attacked and took control of Al-Mokala [or Al-Mukalla] port two days ago as reported in FarsNews. That's an odd place to attack, until you consider the following reason they suddenly needed a port:

"...Saudi Arabia has sent around 5,000 Takfiri mercenaries to fight against the Yemeni army and revolutionary committees," Yemeni Army Commander Colonel Abdel Sattar al-Boushali told FNA on March 29..."  

Five thouand is a lot. Where would they dig up that many mercs willing to fight in Yemen so quickly?

"...The Jeish al-Islam terrorists landed in the port city of Al-Mokala, provincial capital of Hazar al-Mout province, and joined the Al-Qaeda terrorists in that province," Arabic-language Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday..."

Oh, so al Qaeda needed to seize a port so their head-chopping Jeish al-Islam pals could disembark and help them kill Yemenis. Hey, Jeish al-Islam... they're the takfiris that staged the suspicious Sarin attack in East Ghouta and published almost all the 'Sarin victim' videos. These were suppose to be the 'moderate rebels' in Syria, but were in reality more like al Nusra/ISIS head-choppers with Sarin. I thought the U.S. was paying them to kill Assad? Maybe they're just moonlighting for SA in Yemen for extra spending cash.

3,000 of these head-choppers just arrived in Al Mokala to fight the Houthis - I guess alongside the Hadi-loyalists and al Qaeda thugs. Now it would take a decent-sized ship to get 3,000 headchoppers there. Saudi navy, maybe? U.S. Navy?  But Egypt and Saudi Arabia have closed the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb Straits. I guess that doesn't apply to head-chopper troop ships. "What's in those funny bottles?" "Oh, just antifreeze... we like to carry extra."

OK, so we have Jeish al-Islam helping frenemies al Qaeda kill Yemenis. Probably trained by Israelis according to some reports. Why think chemical weapons will be involved? Well, because of a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) request to monitor the situation with Saudi Ground forces. First of all, the only ground forces are Sarin-packing head-choppers imported from East Ghouta. Second of all, HRW always has an agenda. If they're eager to get on the ground in Yemen to look for Houthi human rights violations, then some human rights are about to be violated. Yeah, I know... just coincidence. Funny how it works like that.

The Houthis would probably love a few HRW/CIA agents to report the results of the refugee camp and dairy factory bombings by Saudi Arabia, but HRW simply tweets out a few meek protests. Nobody has any real uncensored internet access (thanks to the repressive Hadi), so I don't  expect we'll be seeing Houthi YouTube evidence of the Saudis using white phosphorous or cluster bombs. In the mean time, the upcomming false flag to demonize the Houthis will get page one coverage on NYT and WaPo and have 24x7 CNN coverage.

HRW was nowhere to be seen when Hadi ran his illegal immigrant torture camps in Yemen for years, but HRW is now suddenly interested in potential Houthi human rights violations? No - I smell a rat already. We are probably only weeks away from some kind of contrived Houthi-Iran-Sarin false flag. For the U.S., it's all about securing Socotra for a planned military base and preventing the Russians from opening one there. I guess a little Sarin is OK if it helps bring liberty and democracy to the dead.

[cro_maat]

Great research, thanks.

[Fish Gone Bad]

I gotta give it to you, this line: head-choppers with Sarin was just too descriptive in a glad-its-not-happening-to-me kind of way.

[Cynicles]

false flag?

Why does that bring Jade Helm 15 to mind?

[booboo]

Mmm, ok China, that shit would make good reading and a hardy cheer in the Brain Washed DPRK.

[snodgrass]

What are Chinese soldiers doing in Yemen?

[Four chan]

good question.

[Kirk2NCC1701]

Zappa fans. Hooked on the Sheik Yerbouti album*.

from "Jewish Princess": "I don't want no troll, I just want a Yemenite hole"

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDarQW7UZc

[chilli sauce]

I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... http://goo.gl/9YqZBb

[q99x2]

Yemenini with food in tummy happy. No fight want any more. Chinese need more fight.

[Seek_Truth]

--> Live on a steady diet of pickles.

--> Build railroads.

[LawsofPhysics]

While they still are a single-party, communist state-run country, in today's global fuck-job by the central planners and financiers, I really don't worry about the Chinese.  Long term thinking versus short term greed/gain and the demographics being what they are...

[KnuckleDragger-X]

They need to read Sun-Tzu and the US Army logistics manual if they are gonna play superpower.....

[JRev]

You, Heinz Kissinger, and all-around cretin Charlie Rose agree on that point wholeheartedly: http://charlierose.com/watch/50120189 

There's a lot more going on here than "Wicked Witch of the West" versus the "Good Witch of the East." This is the narrative of the simpleton, of the Prole, of the populist, that the "alternative" media has, in certain circles, been very active in promoting. I'm not saying you should be worried about the Chinese per-se. You should be worried about the same multilateral, multinational Globalist forces you've always worried about; forces that have been very active in the past 30 years in setting up the East as their new "Home Base." 

http://redefininggod.com/2014/12/meet-robert-lawrence-kuhn-illuminati-ha...

Just remember, the Anglo-American Establishment, for all its despicable violations of everything that is good in the world, are NOT stupid or impatient. If you honestly believe this, you haven't read enough history. Only in the last few decades has the West begun to play the role of international Court Jester. Would you hold that, after nearly 200 years of geopolitical brilliance, they suddenly forgot how to play the "Great Game," or that this is all part of the plan? 

https://www.corbettreport.com/the-great-decoupling-how-the-west-is-engin...

[nuubee]

Holy cow, now we have major world militaries trying to play the victim to the press?? lol... fem-centric culture is *everywhere*.

[pods]

Another story of a government fucking those signing up to protect it?

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

pods

[Ignatius]

Does demonstrate remarkable, nay, enviable level of discipline.

Beware the Chinese when the pickle's on your plate, America.

[Fish Gone Bad]

Pickles were the appetizer.  Then they had dog, dog curry, dog with ginger, and dog ice cream.  Yemen is known for going to the dogs.

[franciscopendergrass]

The refugees get to act like our politicians and eat like kings while the grunts get shot at and die.

[Fukushima Fricassee]

Mooch Obama has true 10 course meals and you are forced to eat shit while you pay for her prefered style.

[Tsar Pointless]

There is something mentally wrong with you people who denegrate Michelle Obama. Seriously - you can hate her husband (I do on several fronts), but c'mon. All she wants is to see American's kids not attain 400 pounds in weight before they become a teenager. What is so bad about that?

My god. Get a fucking grip.

[Tsar Pointless]

Your down-votes sustain me.

[cheech_wizard]

So would a vinegar colonic.

[grunk]

Better than pickles?

[Sages wife]

Likely more sustenance than a Wookie-meal.

[Tall Tom]

Michelle is a He-She and Barack is a fag.

These freaks do not personify America.

They are freaks of nature. We used to have these types in the Circus Industry which developed into the Hollyweird Entertainment Industry with the development and advent of the Motion Picture Technology.

Now these freaks have moved into the Political Arena for the true Bread and Circus phase of the decline of Western Civilization due to the perverse decadence.

And then you tell me to get a grip?

You are trippin on this?

Well have a nice trip. Enjoy your fall.

[Tsar Pointless]

Considering your childishness behaviour, you are a mental-deficient who is likely well-suited to be in the Circus Industry.

Yes - get a grip. Fall is a few months away, too, though I'm sure I'll enjoy it, as autumn is my favorite time of the year.

Who should personify America? You? No thanks. I'll take the Obamas.

[Tall Tom]

I will enjoy Autumn as well.

Yes the absolute carnage of the Financial Markets will be rather entertaining,

And as I have no Political aspirations then you can choose to idolize the Obamas. I really do not care.

You will get what you deserve.

Have a nice trip. Enjoy your fall...in more ways then one.

[G.O.O.D]

How about  get a grip around their chicken hawk necks with some fvkin piano wire?

[Vergeltung]

Lt. Worf is uncommonly repulsive. All free thinking people understand that.

[Tsar Pointless]

Who is Lt. Worf? (I'm sure I'll regret asking.)

[Caleb Abell]

Actually, they say these things because they are racist: They Hate Wookies

[chrsn]

"I am moved, I feel the warmth of the motherland"

Wow, really sounds heartfelt and not contrived at all.

[Omega_Man]

yum yum pickles

[Freddie]

.....and the genuine demands of its citizens to see their soldiers better provided for, at a time when spending on the Chinese military, especially on hi-tech equipment, is rising.

If we really want to destroy the Chinese military on the battlefield - we should give them the plans for the F-35.

[Tsar Pointless]

And hold the pickles.

[1000yrdstare]

we should give them the plans for the F-35

I thought Israel sold them the plans?

[chrsn]

Didn't they already "procure" quite a few terrabytes of data on the F-35 already?

[TheReplacement]

They have the plans.  They built a fighter based on those plans.  Their plane is improved in that they didn't waste time, money, and weight on vertical takeoff so their plan is faster, more nimble, and reliable.

[buzzsaw99]

chinese pickle, mmm, mmm!

[Freddie]

Oddly enough, DPR (Donetsk) commanders Givi and Motorola joke about the poor Ukiainian conscripts being given pickles to eat.

The Chinese leadership and military leadership are as slimy and corrupt as the Ukrainians.  They steal everything they can and F over the conscripted troops aka serfs.

[Sages wife]

AND AMERICA DOESN'T!

[adr]

Unless Sprite magically morphed into ZIMA, that ain't beer.

[juggalo1]

Brewed rice spirits are clear, and technically closer to beer than wine.

[GreaterFool1965]

The real winner in all of this is Coca Cola, whose Sprite product is prominently featured in the 'feast' offered to the evacuees.  Their new jingle is already in the works, 'Sprite - when you want to feel the warmth of the Motherland', will soon be unleashed all over Chinese 'state-controlled' media, lol

[suteibu]

I don't doubt the facts of the story but the pictures they use to sell it are suspect.  Those soldiers look sleepy but, with full cheeks, not starving.  Those camos look right tropical, don't they?

[Frank N. Beans]

yeah, their cammo looks like Hawaiian shirts, and they force them to sleep sitting up on what appears to be a bathroom floor. 

[Freddie]

The old Soviet navy ships had no A/C.  The sailors would often sleep on the deck.   The US Navy would fly helos overhead in the middle of the night to wake them up. 

[chrsn]

Oh, I don't think they meant they're "starving to death."  The ChiComs just thought having their soldiers eat shit while the refugees ate well would make their boys look stoic and tough to the public.  It's heartening to know that incompetence and bumbling misjudgment are not the exclusive domain of the U.S. government.

[suteibu]

The point is the pictures were meant to show listless soldiers, presumably because they were underfed.  They showed the picture of the refugees meal, why not show a picture of the soldiers eating pickles.

Subtle propaganda.  You have to learn to recognize it.

[vyeung]

Where is the Weibo comments, where is the Baidu comments? BBC can report whatever shit they like.

For news in China I DO NOT REPLY ON THE BBC!

[PoasterToaster]

And if that army didn't exist, the Chinese people would be free.

[suteibu]

As free as they democracy-spreading, soft power hegemons in the US would allow them to be.

Would Americans be free(r) if the US did not have such a large military, much of which is spread in what, 100, 150, nations throughout the world?  Perhaps Americans would be better served by their military actually defending the nation against a rather large invasion of foreigners on the southern border instead of spreading democracy to other nations, most of which are far worse off now than before the benevolent Americans started bombing the shit out of them.

You're spreading some pretty weak shit with that comment.

[vyeung]

Last year.....man we must be getting pretty desperate on news items for this to appear. PLA troops are treated very well and I personally can attest to that as I have a few hundred protecting my house!

Plus, unlike the national guard, NATO troops etc, PLA troops are ordered to protect people as a priority, not to take advantage of them or to put them as secondary priority. Most of the PLA troops deployed abroad are cream of their class, thus standards are high. The PLA is anything but a perfect or utopian army, its got its issues. But in general they are well treated and command respect from its people.

[tony wilson and...]

poor workers building the great wall of china lived on pickles.

pliny the elder

nikola tesla

hippocrates father of medicine

mighty genghis khan carried a pickling crock pot

the queen of sheba

ivan the terrible

alexander the great

not to forget the german krauts

captain cook had barrels full on ships

all adored lacto fermented pickles

lacto fermentation is the key to health and a cancer free life

fuck monsanto chips and coke numbskulls

[1000yrdstare]

Tony Wilson you sure is Cwazy funny!

[Paveway IV]

But he's right. Look up the difference between vinegar pickling and lacto-fermentation. 

[thecrud]

As a former soldier this story took me back to Christmas dinners at the mess hall, I really liked that away from home.

When I was recovering in a hospital I was given a art project to keep me busy in bet we did not have smart phones back then.

I used color string wrapped around pins other had puzzles and such.

That really helped the time go by for me.

Thanks for those things America.

A clean bed safety equipment ammo all these thing do your taxes buy and that is why I dont begrudge paying mine.

I know there are young soldiers out their that I want to come home in as good a condition as they left.

[PoasterToaster]

How do you know if they are paid by taxes, or by the printed money?

Governments can print as much as they want.  Why do we have taxes?

It's nice that you enjoy paying taxes.  What if others don't?  Shouldn't taxes be voluntary, if the government is to be seen as just?

[G.O.O.D]

Why cant we just pay for everything with a picture of said money as well? Wouldn't that make it way easier as all we have to carry is one pic of a trillion dollar note? What difference does it make?

[SmedleyButlersGhost]

I'm sorry - I cannot figure out what the hell you are trying to say.

[G.O.O.D]

FFS smed, I am saying our money is an illusion. As in all fiat currency. We are waltzing through the land of lies with invisible trillions crusing at the speed of light all around us.

[Cardinal Fang]

Funny thing about guns and ammo when I was in.

We could carry, as long as it was ours and we paid for it. Ah the good old days of American Imperialism. We would get sent in to some third world sh*thole issued with nothing, but there was always room in the gunbox for our own sh*t. I used to sleep on the plane using the gunbox as my pillow and eat C-rats for breakfast, lunch and dinner...and use the aircraft latrine. You haven't lived until you have spent a week in some god-forsaken, edge of darkness, 'do you have all your shots" bullshit deal courtesy of Uncle Sam in a C-130 as a hotel.

I was so grateful to my fellow American citizens for that lifestyle, i told my commander to "go fvck yourself" when he gave me 'the talk' about re-enlisting...

Good thing for him, the economy was deteriorating and The Rand Corporation had recently published a study that said for every smart ass New Yorker telling their commander to go fvck themsleves, there were 5 guys from Alabama and Georgia willing to enlist.

[I Write Code]

Can't they download some coupons or something?

[reader2010]

Free brothel visits for the sailors are demanded by the people. 

[yellowsub]

Looking at what they ate by US standards is half a happy meal...

[besnook]

according to the old white pedos at the bbc who can't wait to feed a pickle to a chinese boy.

[Spungo]

It's nice they were able to save Chinese citizens trapped in Yemen, but why is there such a shortage of food? They couldn't even bring rice? Rice is practically free, and you can feed millions of people with it.

[Sages wife]

But if there's a leak in the ship, it explodes.

[PTR]

There's a silver lining to that story:

Rather than being impressed, however, many Chinese people online seemed to be furious about the story.

The lumpenprolotariat makin' noise...

[world_debt_slave]

sadly, around the world the grunt is a grunt

[Flybyknight]

The BBC are a joke spreading propaganda for dimwits to be outraged over. There will be a half truth in there somewhere to give it some validity but this story is bullshit

[mastersnark]

What an important news story. I'm just disappointed we were left hanging on whether they were eating whole pickles or "spears."

[ShrNfr]

Dill chips actually. Or perhaps gerkins in honor of Kim's dick size.

[Pancho de Villa]

My Army del Norte has donated hunderds of tacos but they were eaten before they made it to these poor bastards.

[ShrNfr]

Yeah, that left people feeling kinda flat.

[teslaberry]

whhat the fuck is happening to zh?

how does this story get on here?

fire the person who put it up. if it's tyler, fire yourself.

[benb]

No... let him eat pickles...

[Elliptico]

Logistics!

[Monetas]

This is the old .... cops and teachers .... are underpaid scam .... that is still used TODAY ! It must be budget time .... in old Beijing .... CACHING !

[rsnoble]

Sounds just like the assholes running the US.  Treat everyone else like kings, and their own like shit.

[Bazza McKenzie]

The real story here is not the meals.  It is that China had 571 citizens in Yemen, of all places (how many elsewhere), and when things got tough they sent their military to retrieve them, which they did.

That's what the UK and US once would do.  Apparently no more.  A simple demonstration of change in the world order.

[TrueWho]

Oh man, salt peter! I haven't heard that since I was in boot camp back in '93!