[expatguy]

I find it very strange that you would be celebrating Thaksin's ouster by the mob, the implications of which you will be seeing very soon.

The word out just today is that Thailand's military will now be moderating any future political protests. Something they have not done since 1992.

The rest of Southeast Asia are quite concerned with these dangerous developments in Thailand.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[GOP_1900AD]

Mob rule has ruined Thailand and made it vulnerable to geopolitical domination by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. And that superhighway from Kunming to BKK is nearly completed .... total disaster.

[starbase]

Maybe I've been in Asia too long and am starting to think autocratically. Democracy is very young and fragile in Thailand, and the protesters have gotten what they want, they should stop all protests now.

The military's warning seems to me (and again, maybe I've "gone native") to be a rather responsible thing to do. After all the people can't just run the whole country from the streets everyday, they have achieved their goal, and they still want to protest (or "make trouble" in the eyes of many people).

Thailand is not America. (How ironic that WE have millions of marching criminals, but we will condescend to other's practice of democracy! We can't even demonstrate healthy democracy ourselves!). But even so, America is more stable than Thailand, so Thailand should not play games like this anymore.

I was willing to minimize the importance of the demonstrations because of Thai culture and recent history, but I think anymore will pose the danger that GOP_1900AD sees, and I think the military's warning actually counter acts the danger of continued instability, not adds to it.

And regarding the "highway to KunMing", let's never forget that the Thais are out for the Thais, they will not be controlled by the Chinese or anyone else. They'll do whatever benefits themselves, while keeping a firm grip on their piece of real estate.

[killjoy]

The word out just today is that Thailand's military will now be moderating any future political protests. Something they have not done since 1992.

No offense, but what in the world are you talking about? I am pretty close with some of the Generals who were involved in the strategy sessions that went on during the protests. Both the military and police went completely out of their way to maintain a hands off policy both during the protests and after.

Yes, there was a pretty strong statement given by General Boonyaratglin, who is very well respected, after Sondhi mouthed off that the King should resign. Why is that surprising?