Posted on 05/12/2008 8:38:20 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
YANGON, Myanmar - The United States delivered its first relief supplies to Myanmar on Monday, as the U.N. urged the reclusive nation to open its doors to foreign experts who can help up to 2 million cyclone victims facing disease and starvation.
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Britain's opposition leader called for air-dropping aid if Myanmar's military government remains adamant.
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The U.S. military C-130 cargo plane, packed with 14 tons of supplies, flew out of the Thai air force base of Utapao and landed in Yangon, capping prolonged negotiations to persuade Myanmar's military government to accept U.S. help.
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Though international assistance has started trickling in, the authoritarian government has barred most foreign experts who are experienced in managing humanitarian crises.
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Still, the reclusive junta insists it will handle the aid distribution itself, through its feared military, which has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1962. Many people have complained that they are getting rotting rice and that soldiers are keeping the best food for themselves.
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"The government is very controlling," said U Patanyale, the abbot of a monastery in Kyi Bui Khaw village.
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"Those who want to give directly to the victims get into trouble. They have to give to the government or do it secretly. They follow international aid trucks everywhere. They don't want others to take credit. That's the Myanmar government," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at home.peoplepc.com ...
F ‘em. Why are we helping people who hate us?
Further, why are we spending our hard-earned taxpayer dollars helping people who hate us? Let’s spend that money at home.
That would be akin to suspending the Berlin Airdrop because the Russians hated the Americans.
Have to say. this makes sense. Don't send a single bag of rice to strengthen the obscene Myanmar junta. But do send rice (and hell, maybe guns) to the starving.
But we weren’t feeding the Russian Army!
That’s true.
But why I commented was because many were confusing Burma for Indonesia, in another post here- Burma is not even Muslim!
I’m for a Burma Airlift to the citizens who need help, including dropping personnel who are capable of handling parachute drops. Considering how underprepared and impoverished the dictatorship is and the remoteness of the areas that need supplies, I would guess that it might be years before the bad guys actually got anywhere near the aid workers.
But I would NOT give anything at all at gunpoint as is being done now. And personally I’m not giving any money to this effort. And could we stop calling it Mallomar? It’s Burma.
This seems a lot like the states advertising to drum up business for Food Stamps, Welfare, WIC...
Burma is 99% Buddhist, correct?
Do Buddhists hate Christians? Just wondering. I thought they didn’t.
I’m sure the junta hates the United States though. . .
I must respectfully disagree - your comparison is apples and oranges. The Myanmar disaster is natural, not man-made like the Berlin situation; unlike Berlin, the US has no strategic interest in Myanmar; and this is within a nation's own borders, again unlike Berlin.
If they don't want our help, we're under no obligation to force ourselves on them. If their own government doesn't care how many die, it's not our problem.
The Burmese are getting the government they chose.
I agree with your opinion. However, three things stand out:
First of all, the Burmese didn’t get the government they chose- Aung San Syu Kii was whom they voted to run the country, but her government and herself are under arrest, courtesy the China-backed Junta.
Secondly, Burma is China’s backdoor. Burma is China’s outlet to the Indian Ocean. It’s strategic importance will only rise, with the rise of China
Thirdly, yes, it’s a natural disaster, but the current suffering is completely artificial, brought on the Burmese people by the Junta.
I’d rather see the billions poured into Egypt go to the Burmese people instead.
That said, yea, it’s nobody’s business to do anything with someone else’s money.
No, the Buddhists don’t.
The Junta is China-run. Guess whom they’ll hate, as a consequence?
That's been my thought ever since word got out that they were resisting outside assistance. Help the needy and undercut the puppet government.
SCREW THEM.....lets divert that aid to the tornado victims in the SouthEast U.S. that now have no homes, jobs, schools, food, etc. Forget about these frickin 3rd world dictatorships.
F ‘em. Why are we helping people who hate us?
Further, why are we spending our hard-earned taxpayer dollars helping people who hate us? Let’s spend that money at home.
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I agree.
You know very little about history...if anything.
Is that so?
Go ahead, Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer), enlighten me.
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