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That Tiananmen against the tank thang

Jamie K.

That\’s a shame in a way, because you just don\’t get the sheer titanium-testicled enormity of what he did until you see the uncropped version.

Oyo.

11 thoughts on “That Tiananmen against the tank thang”

  1. So Much For Subtlety

    It is the strangest thing, but I have always had a lot of respect for that first tank commander.

    OK, nothing should detract from the balls on the guy with the shopping bag, but in what country would you want to stand in front of a tank? In what country would you expect it to stop? Certainly not anywhere else in the Third World – can you imagine trying in Turkey or Indonesia or Nigeria?

    But probably not a lot of First World countries either.

    I wonder if the soldiers here were just very civilised, not very martial, or just not very enthusiastic about thier work that day?

  2. @SMFS: actually, I’d expect the tank to stop in Nigeria for any one of the following reasons:

    1. Incompetent driver.
    2. Not enough fuel put in.
    3. Fuel stolen.
    4. Failure of essential part due to poor maintenance.
    5. Driver bored, gives up, goes and does something more interesting.
    6. Driver goes on strike having done quite enough work for one day.
    7. Commanding officer orders driver to stop, leave tank, perform manual labour on the building of his new mansion.
    8. Driver falls alseep.
    9. Person in front of tank “looks like the devil”, driver gets scared.
    10. Driver stops to steal or sell something.

  3. The most amazing thing about the un-cropped photo is not the relative ball-hardening of that guy, but the extent the government were willing to go to stop the protest as evidenced by the length of the armoured column, I mean, isn’t that a bit overkill?

  4. Tim seeing as your quote function doesn’t seem to work, you might consider putting quote marks around quotes you use.

  5. @ Tim Newman

    Jesus, you might have well just have written “ooga booga jungle man can’t handle white mans machines” and be done with it.

    Regarding the Tiananman unpleasantness, I’ve always wondered who the other guys were who dragged Tank Man away. They didn’t seem to be security goons.

  6. Tim, ‘enormity’ means great EVIL not great size.

    The people who sent the tanks might have been evil, but not the poor bastard standing in front of them.

  7. Dan, if you’d been to Nigeria – or spent 3 years there like I have – you’d understand the capabilities of the Nigerian army (or any Nigerian government body).

  8. So Much For Subtlety

    Dan – “Jesus, you might have well just have written [ooga booga jungle man can-t handle white mans machines] and be done with it.”

    I am curious Dan, why do you think this is a winning argument? Suppose he had. Can Nigerians handle machines that are a product of an advanced technological society? Fly Nigeria Air very often do you?

    So you do not like his language? Meh. Do you have any evidence he is wrong?

  9. Dan, only (1) and (2) of what Newman wrote could be construed as involving the Nigerians difficulties with technology. And even they might be construed as stemming from the culture and incentives he has, rather than any inherent lack of ability.

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