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Thursday, May 15, 2008

I might even support a humanitarian military mission for this
Posted by Jill | 6:18 AM
Of course we all know that the invasion of Iraq was NOT to "liberate the Iraqi people from a tyrant", but let's just go with that for a minute. If it's a "noble cause" to liberate people of an oil-rich nation to "spread freedom", why isn't it OK to liberate people in a country devastated by the Pacific equivalent of a Katrina-level hurricane and flood from a tyrannical regime that won't even let aid get to its people?

Myanmar's junta announced Thursday that a pro-military constitution has won overwhelming support in a referendum, which was held despite widespread criticism and in the midst of a national tragedy — a devastating cyclone that the Red Cross says may have killed more than 125,000 people.

Myanmar's government issued a revised casualty toll Wednesday night, saying 38,491 were known dead and 27,838 were missing.

But the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said its estimate put the number of dead between 68,833 and 127,990.

Even though the figures seemed precise, spokesman Matthew Cochrane said they were not based on body counts, but were only estimate designed to provide Red Cross donors and partner organizations with an idea of the numbers being discussed within the aid community.

U.N. officials have said there could be more than 100,000 dead in the May 2-3 cyclone.

With up to 2.5 million people in urgent need of food, water and shelter, aid agencies were preparing or moving in a wide-range of relief supplies including material for temporary shelters, rice, drinking water, kitchen utensils and medicines, including 2,000 anti-snake bite kits.

The World Health Organization said an increase in snake bites was feared in coming days. U.N. agencies and other voluntary groups have been able to reach only 270,000 of the affected people.

But instead of accepting foreign help freely, the government continued to issue only a few visas to foreign aid experts, and all but shut them out of the hardest-hit areas.

The regime insists it can handle the disaster on its own — a stance that appears to stem not from its abilities but its deep suspicion of most foreigners, who have frequently criticized its human rights abuses and crackdown on democracy activists.


If George W. Bush really cared about spreading freedom and democracy throughout the world, he would send troops in a noncombat role to get this aid through. But then, Myanmar/Burma doesn't have oil.

Except that it does.

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Monday, October 01, 2007

The disappeared
Posted by Jill | 7:19 PM
We all now know that the ever-changing rationale for the Iraq war has now settled on a loose hybrid of the "establishing democracy" rationale and the "liberating the
Iraq people from a tyrant" rationale.

Now we're hearing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being elevated in status to that of "the new Hitler", and the Administration is gearing up for "regime change" in Iran.

Funny how the only tyrants the Bush Administration cares about are in countries awash with petroleum.

In Darfur, the genocide and violence has been going on for years, with over 200,000 dead and over a million homeless at the hands of the Janjaweed and their backers in the Sudanese government. And the U.S. sits by, giving lip service to sanctions and disapproval. Last Saturday ten African Union peacekeepers were massacred at their camp. And a State Department spokesman calls for sanctions.

Today we found out that the rebellion in Burma has been squelched through mass killing of those who opposed the ruling regime, with thousands dead, including hundred of Buddhist monks executed. And again what we hear from the U.S. is a call for sanctions.

I'm not saying the U.S. should get involved militarily in every country's conflict. But with the Iraq occupation now being painted by the Administration as, depending on the day, a humanitarian mission to implement democracy and rebuild the country we shattered, or a fight to the death against terrorists; and George Bush's stubborn clinging to the notion that it was necessary to depose the tyrant ruling Iraq, the fact that we leave people in countries not awash in oil to fend for themselves makes the American president's view of himself as the architect of freedom everywhere in the world seem to be just a wee bit disingenuous.

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