The World Leaders simply don't care.
 

There's always a lot of pontificating about cruel and corrupt leaders in countries like Zimbabwe, N. Korea, Rwanda, Sudan and other places. Too many other places in fact. And always the World leaders often sit back and do little to nothing except pontificate in front of cameras. Always you can use the excuse that the powers doing the persecuting could resist intervention.

The truth is different, the World leaders don't see a profit to be had. If there's oil they will spend billions and waste lives, if it's close to Europe they will get involved. Otherwise it's not worth it.

Now we have the proof in Burma.

I just saw on the news the bridge from Thailand to Burma at Mai Sai. The bridge is a main road into Burma and should be full of lorries. There's nothing on it. There were a few planes with aid allowed in to Rangoon today that were met by the military rulers. So no one needs to guess where that stuff will go.

Then look at the three countries that border Burma. Thailand, China and India. All have powerful armies and could truck food in over night if they had the will. They could fly food in and drop it, not ideal but better than nothing and that's what's happening.

They could drop leaflets telling the Burmese of the real situation and say the trucks are coming whether their leaders like it or not. Any resistance will be met with force. Backed up by the US, UN and EU the Burmese army would not last a few days. Not ideal but if the military rulers knew they had no options they would roll over. Or not, but I doubt their army would fight. They would think long and hard if the US fleet was anchored off shore, it's in the region.

All everyone does is turn up at embassies and ske if they can come in please, the Burmese leaders must love being Paper Tigers.

But what has Burma to offer?

Not enough for the World leaders to care enough to take strong action with pip squeak dictators. Sad world we live in.

About 20 years ago I went into Burma with a Thai girlfriend, I was illegal and we never went on the normal route. The people had nothing, living in huts made out of wood and bamboo. Yet they sat us down fed and watered us and shared what little they had. And the welcome was a humbling experience.

Do we care?

Apparently the US did seriously consider doing unathorised food drops. Not sure why they decided against it, would of been interesting/good if they did do it though.

It's going to be wasteful to drop it, but better than nothing. Drop leaflets as well.

Are the Burmese leaders and army asking for money and supplies for themselves before they let in aid? Nothing would surprise me.

No idea. But seems to me whatever aid they do allow in they are distributing themselves in a very managed display of their benevolence. Saw pictures of some of the military junta on BBC handing out foreign aid, greeting and taking photos with survivors. Fucked up and ironic.

The world cares but we lack leadership. The US can't seam to do it on its own anymore. And like you pointed out China hasn't shown it can become the great nation we think it to be.

another thing to consider is that asians think differently than the west... i can speak at least for SEA, but they tend to have a 'mind your own business' attitude... if some couple were having a big-ass fight, shit flyin everywhere in their apartment, there's a slim chance around here, anybody would call the police... be it hi-so or lo-so housing.
just the way it is...

I saw that as well, it seems what ever aid they are letting through they are also remarking it so it looks like it comes from the generals.

Also saw a worker for Christian Aid and when asked if the UN should ignore the generals and start dropping food he was against is saying it has to go via the local people on the ground, the local people being Christian Aid people. He was very anti upsetting the generals. Are they more worried about their long term future than the peoples short term survival?

The generals show little compassion, after 10 days a handful of flights have got through. So the generals could make it look like it was their doing. The need is now. Over fly the area with cargo planes and fighters, cargo planes to drop food and anyone who wants to stop them gets the full wrath of the fighters.

The time for pussy footing was last week.

Would be totally different if there were a few US students there. The President would declare war and send an invasion force. Burmese peasants aren't worth it.

And so you've decided you're gonna shove a machine gun in their face, and theorize how they'd think hard about your stupid fleet the canadians built and the japanese paid for ? And all this for their own good, of course ?

Get a life.

The only faces that will get guns stuck in their faces are the faces of the oppressors who are causing this catastrophe.

But if you think it would be better to let people die then fine.

What's stopping the West dropping aid from the air?

Yes I want to get a life, hundreds of thousands of them and save them from perishing.

Not quite right, Burma lacks anything the world values. If it had something the world would soon find leaders.

No none of that shit is true.

Fact is other world leaders are to used to America jumping in and making everything OK.

Sorry we don't do that anymore. Good luck handling other dictators, no more can the fucken world snivel about America trying to help the people of the world. Why should we do anything after all the bullshit games other countries of the world have played.

All the posturing, bickering and blame on America for our efforts while your leaders would do nothing about any of it other than point the finger and call America Facists and exploiters of the world.

God bless America and fuck everyone else.

When the new American President comes in you can expect America to get real quiet on the world stage, we will be helping ourselves for once instead of the fucking world.

So what else is new??

Some of us care. However the powers that be get better conversion pretending to be too busy fighting:

A) Infidels
B) Drug dealers
C) Poor people (those bastards)
D) Enemies of peace
E) Enemies of War

The point:

WHEN WE FEAR THE GOVERNMENT THEY WILL NEVER FEAR US!

Thanks for the post Paul...

I think you have finally gone over the edge.

Good theory. I like the idea of this:

AID Government: Either you let us in to help you, or we will kill you.
Burma: What? Get lost, we can handle it on our own.
AID Government: That's it, we're going to blow you fuckers to hell, so we can help you!
Burma: ... are you serious?

I am so at a loss as to how that's a great idea. :/

Paul Markham is insane. Move to a retirement home, looney-tard.

Who said America needs to save the world ?? Let's let the UN first help, these people are dying by the minute and things are going to get worse if help is not allowed in.

those guys ( military junta ) are McCain's friends .......

The UN? :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

The United States IS the United Nations. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/24236.htm

You live in a fantasy, and the bit above is the most concetrated proof you've posted yet.

This isn't cowboys and indians, or whatever the fantasy feeds off.

The real world does not work like that.

nobody cares anymore

Go take your pills you fucking nutcase.

You're prolly the last guy doesn't have alien on their ignore list.

If you want to think so :)
That info you gave is from 2002 and you can see that today

Quoting: "In December 2000, the Fifth Committee voted to lower the ceiling rate from 25% to 22% for the Regular Budget. The US had promised to pay its longstanding debt to the UN in exchange for lower assessments. Half a decade later, the US still owes around US$500 million to the UN Regular Budget."

here you can see who is paying and who is not

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/contributors/

I am not saying that the US does not contribute but it is definitely not the UN :)

Quoting: "he United States funded 22 percent of the UN regular budget, as well as more than 27 percent of the peacekeeping budget. "

I don't have anyone on my ignore list. I guess I just dont believe in censorship :1orglaugh

Wow, for a supposed writer you certainly are original...:1orglaugh

Sounds kind of like Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It's a very sad situation... talk about a forgotten part of the world. Most people don't have a clue what's going on, how many people are being affected, not to mention the misery and poverty they've been living in for decades. It's truly sad that us individuals (not bumbling governments) can sit idly by while fellow human beings are being treated in this fashion.

CNN just had a special on about North Korea, and they had people saying that "Americans are our enemies" and "America attacked us". Didn't North Korea invade South Korea?

Meanwhile, doesn't the US send aid to North Korea?

Whatever. We bitch about our leaders in the Western world yet by when you think about it, we aren't that bad off....

Try not to believe every word of "Reporting" on CNN or Fox News. You think you're getting fair and balanced reports from either of those sources? Most of the news is to keep you scared and confused about the rest of the world.


And it's working.

Not positive, but pretty sure it was all just Korea back then.

Oh how you could not be more wrong.

That would fit pretty much your agenda and justify the imposition of military power from the USA ... but history is written :

---------------------------------------------
In 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed on the surrender and disarming of Japanese troops in Korea; the Soviet Union accepting the surrender of Japan north of the 38th parallel and the United States taking the surrender south of it. This led to division of Korea by the two great powers, exacerbated by their inability to agree on the terms of Korean independence. The two Cold War rivals then established governments sympathetic to their own ideologies, leading to Korea's current division into two political entities: North Korea and South Korea.

---------------------------------------------

want to discuss the no-fly zone now ??? you know, where iraq was unlawfully shooting on your planes .... :upsidedow

It's sad to see people die because of other indifference. We get enraged when people in a city near to us kill a single person, like in London or Cleveland. But when people murder hundreds or thousands we do nothing but prattle about it. Burma is just the last piece of proof and no doubt next year there will be another instance.

As for the Burmese resisting, I would not like to see Western lives lost and it's a consideration. I just doubt if the military would fight people bringing in aid. Would the Junta be prevaricating if they knew the options would be their over throw?

They could not do much if aid were being dropped.

Time will tell if the UN needed to of applied more force to the Junta.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/7397617.stm

Sorry for caring about people.

Well...

Lets See...
Forces of Nature in the past 2 weeks kill over

12,000 in China thus far estimated and rising daily.
Mayanmar U.N. estimates death toll from Cyclone Nargis is 63,000 to 100,000 and rising daily.

While Iraqi deaths comes to an estimated 91,000 to 151,000 Iraqi's
according to Al Jazeera over the course of 3 years with 4076 American KIA's.

Keep in mind also that the vast majority of those Iraqi deaths are resulting from internal strife, not battling American combat forces.

However all this storm and earth quake shit will blow over in a matter of days and people will resume insulting and disparaging America's efforts in the Middle East.

So the real question is...

Why arent your countries doing a fucking thing about Iraq? Humm>?

What I am getting at is even when it does matter most of the world does nothing anyways...
Cept sideline and write a good story about it all while bickering at those that actually do shit and get things done.

leaders care about oil, power, and money

Keep taking the stronger tablets, the weak ones are not doing it anymore.

Iraq was about oil and money.
A better question is why did the World allow Bush and Blair to go in?

WMD were a lie and they needed to go in before Hans Blix made it obvious there were none.
Getting Al Queda out was a lie, it got Al Queda into Iraq.
Freeing the people from a despot was also a lie. They don't care about despots persecuting people.
Stabilising the Middle East is the biggest lie yet. Iran has more power now than it ever had and that's dangerous.

So what else is left? Oil and money. :thumbsup

All those who think it's terrible to go in with force as the last resort in Burma will obviously support me on this. :winkwink:

It is really something to hear the same voices that demonize America for overthrowing a dictator in Iraq (who had murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people) see absolutely nothing wrong with demonizing the US for not using military force in Darfur, Burma etc. The stupidity and mind numbing hypocrisy of the "blame America first" crowd never ceases to amaze me. :error

Aside from the fact that you are wrong on Iraq ( as most here, since it was a contained situation ), you are right in the fact that it is not to the USA to go and " fix " Darfur or Burma or Tibet ... If the USA were not so full of it, the UN could very well do that role, as it was supposed to be.

Can't blame countries to be afraid of letting US military carriers and personnel in their little dictatorship .... since most of the time they take roots for ever ....

I don't support the whole bullshit propaganda mill of some of the neo-cons here, but what's your point with this? If it wasn't for the US Japan would still occupy the whole of Korea, along with much more of Asia and Oceania (including Australia I might add). Some have criticized the US for not launching a war on the Soviet Union in Europe immediately after WWII as well, but I don't think you can really chastise them for it. WWII cost them a lot in blood, and it was apparent that the will didn't exist to fight the Soviets. They still did a hell of a job at the time though.

Oil, money and a foreign policy in the region dominated by Israel's interests not the US.

The point ????

Simple: correct people on false beliefs that they have, and repeat to the point that it seems to be the truth ...

Or you prefer to " adapt " history to fit your agenda ????

If he wants to talk about June 25, 1950 , that is another story....

And we elected GWB, what a shame :(

Fair enough, but isn't he correct there anyway? From what I've read before North Korea crossed into the Souths territory first. So his statement isn't factually incorrect.

Thing I don't get about all of this banter is why anyone thinks Burma is any different than let's say Africa or Tibet? There are battles that you fight and there are ones you ignore because it's a loosing battle. China isn't going to extend itself further than they have to with the Olympics months away and the tibet thing still in the back of everyones mind...they have enough to worry about already. As for India, Thailand, etc, why would any country want to go in and screw with a region that is relatively unstable? What benefit would it have for them?

Fact is no one is going to go into a region as unstable as this unless there is a direct benefit to them. In this case there is not and therefor they are left to make their own decisions. this is the kind of thing war lords fight over and everyone looses unfortunately. Any reading into 3rd world politics proves this.