Ask any Thai and they will express love and devotion to their King with an unwavering response. Because of that devotion and love, they gladly will take up arms to defend the monarchy, even if it means defending him from Thais who have been tricked or blinded by people who put themselves above all including the King.
There is no doubt Thais will step up to the plate and go to bat for their King. At this moment there seems to be a call to do just that as action against the Red Shirts seems to be non existent. Both the government and the military seem unwilling or unable to deal with the Red Shirts, but they have their reasons for not acting. It is not for the size of the Red Shirt mob, as the numbers are actually not much bigger than the 2009 riots. According to the US embassy during the past month of protest the number of Red Shirts never exceeded 50,000. The reason we cite the US embassy as a source is we can trust their numbers. Gross exaggerations have been given by both sides in the media.
There clearly are underlying issues at work here and digging back into some of our older posts we called them Thaksin sleepers. Simply they are pro Thaksin people who are in positions to make problems for the government and military. The Red shirts have called them Watermelon soldiers being green on the outside and red on the inside. Connecting the Dots sees significant mass sabotage as one of the reasons for the delay in action. The other being it most certainly would touch off a civil war. So at the moment there is a case of Osteoporosis going on that must be dealt with.
At this point in time the Red Shirts have quite literally worked themselves into a brazen frenzy. Stopping cars, buses and whatever looking to stop police and military reinforcements from heading to Bangkok is just over the top. We have also heard at least one report from a few Isaan based Red Shirts who attend the Bangkok rally site, and they have indicated that Cambodians have been hired and have been given fake Thai ID cards to bolster the rally numbers. Considering the coziness Thaksin has with Cambodia, the statement is worth saying with a disclaimer. Seeing that the average Isaan Thai farmer is a bit on the senior side and does not have the stomach to go to war, it tends to support the Cambodian attendees comments from Red Shirts.
However none of this stops Thais who look to take matters into their own hands. They see the day to day fallout of the Red Shirts, and thousands of Thais out of work on forced furlough with the need to put food on the table. There have even been some reports that Red Shirts that have been negatively effected are at least for the moment looking to bring an end to the madness so they can feed their families and pay their bills.
The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) A.K.A. Yellow Shirts looks to lead the way into battle with the Red Shirts and become the 4th major player joining the government, the military and the Red Shirts in the game making it 3 against 1. Connecting the Dots does not see the Black Shirts as being separate from the Red Shirts, but we do see that they are not necessarily under the control of the Red Shirt leaders. We see the Black Shirts more directly reporting to Thaksin adding to his multi prong strategy being Red Shirts, Black Shirts, watermelons and sleepers. The approach the PAD will take seems to be to undermine the Red Shirts, but this is just in the early stages of planing and setting up infrastructure.
On that note there are plenty of Thais both old and young saying give me a gun to go and hunt down Thaksin. It is clear they see Thaksin as the spinning blades in the bottom of the blender Thailand is in. When the Thais ask for a gun to go and shoot Thaksin there is a blend of jest and being dead serious in their statements. Given the chance they would gladly without hesitation empty a gun into Thaksin, then reload and do it again.
There is little doubt Thais that have the means are actively hunting Thaksin with the intent to kill him. They can do what the government can not, and they clearly look to save the monarchy by bringing an end to Thaksin. With the devotion to save the monarchy as their fuel, it does not take much to see that this is a genuine statement of truth and not hype with the hopes to motivate.
So it becomes a race of time then? Hunt down Thaksin before the succession?
-Jeff
The red shirts have never made any reference to challenging the monarchy but quite the opposite in affirming their strong allegiance to it. The only camp that has implied this about the red shirts is the Government itself in a desperate attempt to sway public opinion in their favor.