The Tragedy of Burma
Gateway Pundit has been my main source of info and links on this ongoing example of the cruelty that man is capable of in the pursuit of power over his fellow man.
His latest post quotes Vaclav Havel:
In the coming days - perhaps even hours - the destiny of Burma (also known as Myanmar), and the fates of over 50 million Burmese, will be decided. Today’s crisis has been brewing for many years. But nobody knew with any precision just when open revolt against Burma’s military dictatorship would erupt.
I fear that, with only a few exceptions, most countries have been surprised and caught off guard - once again - by the rapid course that events have taken in Burma. So they seem to be completely unprepared for the crisis and thus at a loss as to what to do.
How many times and in how many places has this now happened? Worse, however, is the number of countries that find it convenient to avert their eyes and ears from the deathly silence with which this Asian country chooses to present itself to the outside world.
In Burma, the power of educated Buddhist monks - people who are unarmed and peace loving by their very nature - has risen up against the military regime. That monks are leading the protests is no great surprise to those who have taken a long-term interest in the situation in Burma.
An overwhelming number of Burma’s Buddhist monks have found it difficult to bear the central and regional governments’ efforts to corrupt their monastic orders, and to misuse the example of the monks’ self-restraint to increase the pressure on other believers. Of course, without universal and coordinated international political, economic, and media support for these brave monks, all development in Burma may quickly be put back nearly 20 years.
My disgust with the lack of action from the world community is without depth. As I commented;
Havel gives voice to my own disgust with the world’s power structures.
Again, we see the slaughter and oppression of the people, while the world’s leaders and the United Nations wring their hands, and call for someone to “do something”. But these very same leaders fail to support anyone who actually DOES try to stop the oppression, and instead attack them for “imposing their values” on another sovereign nation.
The major excuse this time seems to be that Burma is in the Chinese sphere of influence, so it is up to the Chinese to “do something”. Of course, when one recalls the horror of Tienanmen Square, the likelyhood of that happening pales to insignifigance.
So sorry for the people of Burma. You are Buddhists, not Muslims, so the world doesn’t care. Your dictators do not have Nuclear Weapons or WMDs, so the world will not help you. Your nation is a small backwater in Asia, so your fate is left to the tender mercies of the Butchers in Beijing. Your oppressors are your own countrymen, not evil colonial Eurpoeans, so no one will come to your aid.
And the worst of all is the complete lack of shame our leaders feel, in failing to help our brothers and sisters in their hour of need.
The silence from the Left in this nation on this subject is truly deafening.
On September 29, 2007 at 12:56 pm, Playin' Possum wrote:
Whatever… How about the silence from the right over China, Saudi Arabia, and Israel? It’s too easy to denounce people we are unconnected to. The real task - and the place where the "job," if undertaken, must begin is those places where "we" - American fat cat globalist business, that is - have something to lose by pissing them off…
Like China, Saudi Arabia, or Israel… Nobody will take us seriously otherwise - nor should they.
It was interesting watching neocons and those they cow heap crap on Iran’s banty rooster in chief… Yup, he’s an easy target, but look in his eyes: That is one of the students who put bite in Ayatollah Khomeni’s bark. Why did they bark? They were ruled by a bastard. How did we get involved? He was our bastard… And when they won, and another one of our bastards invaded their Nation and broke every rule in the book for 8 years we did nothing… When the same bastard ousted the fatass Emir of Kuwait we were all over him.
How do "we" look to the Iranians who fought Saddam to a standstill while we waited? The same way "we" looked to the Russians who won WWII in Europe while we let Hitler bleed them to death…
Only a fool would trust the US…
"cruelty that man is capable of in the pursuit of power over his fellow man." We can emote all over this and many other examples - this is ugly, but not uglier than that part of the world is accustomed to. And the questions a conservative must ask are first is it our business and then what can we do and lastly what will it accomplish? I expect the rulers of Burma can do without the rest of the world easier than they can do without power. So the alternative is another war…
So who fights? We’re tapped out due to the shrub’s current failed experiment in Nation buillding. So I guess the chicoms will have to build this Nation… Will you like their handiwork? Of course if we weren’t beholden to them - and in fact utterly dependent upon them for fiscal survival, thanks to the filthy globalists - we might be able to do something, at great risk, great cost, and for very little return. Do something for??? Who??? Who do we leave in power? And how long until the next coup?
Democracy doesn’t work, as we see at home today: The more democratic "we" become the further we erode. And intervention has never succeeded in the long run.
It may be ugly, but accept it: There are some things "we"can’t fix. We should stop trying.
On October 1, 2007 at 8:26 am, Aurelius wrote:
Nice.
And once again I ask, what is the point of being free men, if we don not take it upon ourselves to make others free?
I think we should intervene in Burma - preferably with the UN, or ASEAN, or ANZUS. I also think we should intervene in Darfur. And any other place where some warlord of oligarch thinks he can slaughter and abuse his fellows simply becuase he is in charge.
Or we can just sit back, and watch on CNN, as the blood flows, and we tsk-tsk, and ask "why doesn’t someone DO something?"
You want troops to do this? Pull them out of Korea, or Germany, or Japan.
Lots of Marines in Okinawa…
On October 2, 2007 at 9:06 pm, SVC Alumnus wrote:
Aurelius - you’re bang on.
On October 3, 2007 at 8:06 pm, Playin' Possum wrote:
"And any other place where some warlord of oligarch thinks he can slaughter and abuse his fellows simply becuase he is in charge."
Far out… When do the boats land at Haifa? And how many brigades from Iraq can we send into Saudi Arabia?
Never mind… You wouldn’t criticize them if they were eating babies… Well, you might, but SVC surely wouldn’t… And neither would the shrub…
I can think in your box and from a certain standpoint support it. I want to know if you really think we have the balls and the power to make your vision real. And I want to see you write that you think America is so morally superior that we have the right to do it. Better yet, I want to hear you admit the truth: We aren’t in the least superior but you don’t care. You just want your values enforced.
Not in the least superior… We hold it self-evident all men are created equal. Or do we? If not, say so.
Maybe you consider yourself "superior" and maybe you are. I’m damned certain the aggregate isn’t, not that it necessarily matters. And I’m damned certain our mis-leaders aren’t…
More than anything I just want some honesty. If the shrub would have said I’m gonna kill Saddam because he’s ugly I’d have begged to run the camera. Instead he invented lies so Joe Average could keep his delusions… If we’re going to do evil - even if it is to stop evil, then say so and do it.
But stop calling it good. War is never good.
You see, that’s an advantage of being an atheist. If so motivated I have no problem doing "evil" because I don’t have a good and evil of my own. I just watch the rest of you do what is obviously evil by your code and call it good… And that I have a problem with…
You’re an unusual case, I think. Maybe you really are motivated by altruism. I don’t believe that exists but if you do it does for you. But be mindful the rest aren’t so motivated. That’s why the Saudis get away with Sharia and the Israelis can starve Gaza, which is slowly becomming today’s Warsaw ghetto - I know that’s extreme, but it’s the trend… And that’s why we still kiss up to the chinamen… Chris Hitchens at Slate insists angrily this Burmese mess is entirely the chicom’s fault… Where is the pressure on the chicoms? FWIW, I do believe they are the greatest threat we face…
A country full of people who can act selflessly from a principle of morality has a storybook charm… But it isn’t a country peopled by the monkey man. You know that is the truth. It would be grand to live in such a high-minded place but that isn’t the US and such a place wouldn’t look like the US either. If you want to insist the US is the best imitation of a "moral" Nation on this sorry rock go ahead but it’s still a poor imitation. Especially when "we" can’t even agree what moral is…
We’ll go into Burma and Darfur when some capitalist finds something there worth plundering… Sorry, friends, but that’s America’s real "morality"… If we had a morality of principle worthy of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence we wouldn’t be in bed with the Saudis or the chicoms, and we’d be a lot more critical of the Israelis - 72% of which, recently polled, think it’s OK for them to use the bomb on their enemies to prevent the chance their victims might make their own bomb.
Now there’s an old-fashioned biblical morality for you… Praise god, pass the ammo…
On October 4, 2007 at 10:17 am, Aurelius wrote:
For background, I am in a minority of one, in that I can best be described as a Militant Libertarian. I subscribe to no particular religious belief, though if some higher being(s) exist, they have better things to do than to be twiddling around with us, on a whim.
I don’t know that I am motivated by Altruism, but I leave that to others to judge.
What I DO believe is:
-Free Men have a duty and respsonbility to help others attain that status. If we ignore the plight of the oppressed and enslaved, we are no better than their oppressors.
-That the use of force *is* justified, in the pursuit of freedom, both for ones self, and ones fellows. Some people cna’t seem to make the distinction between a Terrorist and a Freedom Fighter. I think it’s pretty simple - A Freedom Fighter uses force to free himself, or others. A Terrorist uses force to gain the power to oppress his fellows.
-That WAR *can* be just, and noble, and yes, GOOD, when it is committed to the cause of freedom.
-That -as a rule- Democracies, and Free Peoples, do not go to war with each other. If you want an end to War, we must free all of our fellows, and give all men the right off self determination.
Does America have the intestinal fortitude to fight for Freedom for others, when it is not directly in our economic interests to do so? Obviously not. Most Americans today have no grasp of the freedoms they enjoy, and just how tenuous a hold they have on them.
I have observed in the past that Freedom is, in the history of Man, the exception, rather than the rule. That the natural state of Man is to be oppressed and enslaved by those that have the force of will, and lack of compassion/empathy, to lord over other men. That the Sociopaths are, when you look at history, the predominant mass of the upper classes.
We have a rare opportunity NOW. FOr perhaps the ONLY time in history, free men have the power to change the pattern, and set a new course.
If we do not take this chance, the pendulum will begin to swing back, and the flourish of Liberty that spread around the world will subside back into oligarchy, dictatorship, slavery and oppression. It is happening now in South America, and Africa. The first signs are there in Europe. Asia has never truly been free, and the y are now slipping back.
And we shall find ouselved alone, and, in time, slaves once again, ourselves.
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