I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Unocal wants to do business there, so I don't think Smirky is gonna care about this.
You know, Unocal, those wonderful folks who gave an all paid expenses tour of the US for representatives of the Taliban.
Maybe someone like Gregg Palast mentioned Myanmar. I seem to recall a rescources type topic somewhere.Potential invasion mentioned if the locals didn't knucle under.
Used to be called Burma.
yes, just think Burma.
"Myanmar" is a bogus coinage of the military thug junta. The country's name was and is Burma, and Aung San Suu Kyi (pron. Sue Chee) is its sole legitimately elected leader. Her story as the daughter of Burma's George Washington, and subsequent heir to his political legacy, is recounted in her book Freedom From Fear, published after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
There are few clearer cases of a beautiful land and people utterly raped by military madness. Suu Kyi has the stature of Nelson Mandela and ML King combined, which means she is essentially an annoyance and impediment to the Bush junta and its worldview. Dick Cheney has expressed the view that doing biz with the Burmese junta is, well, just good biz.
For the Wash Post and Sullivan to urge Bushco to do the right thing toward Burma is to willfully ignore every aspect of Bushco's demonstrated attitudes toward democracy, human rights, and economic self-determination.
(I was struck by an image on Bartcop's E page a couple days ago - a poster depicting Suu Kyi behind bars, and saying "all the military has is guns." The cynical and shallow view - well yeah, that's all they need, right? ha ha - remains prevalent the world over, and certainly the bedrock of Bushco philosophy. But for those like Suu Kyi who try to see further and deeper into human possiblity, that phrase is haunting in its vast and hopeful truth.)
No, actually more Ghandi than ML King.
Anyway, "Myanmar" is Thugspeak.
via cursor May 30
The Washington Post reports that the Bush administration wants to limit the ability of foreign nationals to obtain judgments in U.S. courts, arguing that the suits have become a threat to U.S. foreign policy and could undermine the war on terrorism. The Post cites a brief filed by the Justice Department in the case involving a Unocal Corp. gas pipeline in Burma.
Matt Taibbi writes that "The Lackawana Six case was held in Buffalo, despite the fact that the root crime occurred outside the United States, in Afghanistan. No one, least of all Attorney General Ashcroft, disputed the idea that the U.S. had jurisdiction over this crime. When an American citizen violates American laws overseas, the thinking goes, American justice cannot be too zealous. Hard to argue with that." Except that in the Unocal case, "John Ashcroft himself argued exactly that."
David needs to read my blog more often. I posted about the Ashcroft assault on the Alien Torts Claim Act here and both Jeanne D'Arc and I have been all over this.
Sorry, closed that tag improperly.
As it happens, "Myanma" is simply the Burmese word for "Burma" (the extra "r" on the end was added, perhaps by SLORC, simply to ensure that British English speakers pronounced the word correctly).
But for those like Suu Kyi who try to see further and deeper into human possiblity, that phrase is haunting in its vast and hopeful truth.)
Sharkbabe | 06.07.03 - 12:37 pm |
Great post. Just to add, while she was imprisoned, her husband (a Brit?) was in England, seriously ill, and died while there. I don't think she was able to be with him during most of this time, because she was imprisoned. Do you know, s'babe?
Who's to blame? In the words of
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF February 18, 2003
The big problem with liberals in international affairs is that ever since Woodrow Wilson, they've been too idealistic.
Liberals hamstrung the C.I.A. (thus impairing intelligence collection), scorned the military (undermining a humanitarian force in places like Bosnia and Afghanistan), campaigned against sweatshops in Bangladesh and Cambodia (forcing teenage girls out of manufacturing jobs and into the sex industry), and imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar (destroying the middle class and propping up military dictators).
Clinton's military sure did one hell of a great job in Iraq, though.
If Suu Kyi is dead it will break my heart. She is such a gallant, courageous woman and fighter for freedom. This is very sad news.
My name is Nicholas Kristof, and I'm an utter fuckhead.
Liberals hamstrung the CIA? Hmmm, wasn't it under Reagan and Bush I rule that Aldrich Ames operated as a double-agent within the CIA, for NINE LONG YEARS, selling information to the Soviets that resulted in the deaths of quite a few informants, and all the while buying homes and cars that he could not have afforded on a CIA salary? That's the CIA that was "hamstrung" by Clinton? The one that couldn't find their own ass with both their hands?
Interesting that Ames didn't get caught until 1993, the first year of the administration of the man who allegedly "hamstrung" them so severely that they couldn't do jack shit.
A bit much to expect Cheney to wring his hands about Suu Kyi when he was a leading US opponent of the release of Nelson Mandela.
This is the quality of people running your country. Will there be memorials to Cheney, noble statues with pigeon shit all over them, ringed by small children being told by the teacher about his services to mankind, his generosity and wisdom, his inspiring legacy? How many such people has the polity of the world's leading democracy produced in the last say 30 years?
I don't know about you, but I have plenty of fingers left.
A bit much to expect Cheney to wring his hands about Suu Kyi when he was a leading US opponent of the release of Nelson Mandela.
This is the quality of people running your country. Will there be memorials to Cheney, noble statues with pigeon shit all over them, ringed by small children being told by the teacher about his services to mankind, his generosity and wisdom, his inspiring legacy? How many such people has the polity of the world's leading democracy produced in the last say 30 years?
I don't know about you, but I have plenty of fingers left.
Nobody will ever do anything about Burma. The Slorc's (SPDC, they wish!) particular brand of running a country into the ground is highly insular, so much so that even Michael Ledeen would be hard-pressed call it a threat to the US.
Burma's surrounded on four sides by countries with relatively ineffectual militaries - Thailand, Laos and Bangladesh - so there's no threat to it there, though the junta and the Thais often have border skirmishes over which ethnic minorities to prop up or slaughter for their drugs. On the fifth side is India, but it's that forgotten, ass-end of India that hangs like a dingleberry off of Bengali state, where the border with Burma is a mountain range separating head-hunter bands.
But on the fifth border is China. And China is the largest foreign investor in Burma. Unocal and Totalfina would like to change that, but Burma is to China to some extent what North Korea is to China. Or Democratic Kampuchea was to China. In other words, even the US would have to tread carefull on Burma, because China sees it as firmly within its sphere of influence.
So I just don't see anything happening with Burma vis-a-vis the international community - let alone the US - any time soon. And the generals know this, and they know they have free rein to be total cunts, up to and including imprisoning Aung San Suu Kyi again. Cunts.
Anyway, here's some stuff I've written about Burma, this is on a splinter group of the Karen rebel faction - http://www.thespleen.com/interna...x.php?
artID=161
... and this is on smuggling gems out of Burma - http://www.thespleen.com/interna...ex.php?
artID=79
It's a bothersome, troublesome place.
estate home loan real estate home loan real estate home loan real. advance cash dakota north payday advance cash dakota north payday advance cash dakota north payday.
Characters Remaining:
Commenting by HaloScan
