Associating with Burma’s junta can make you dirty by association. If a country wants to take sides with Burma, it can only hurt that countries appearance in the remainder of the civilized world. The same is true with a person or a company. One could argue that this is just politics, but when countless people die from either action or lack of action by Burma’s junta it becomes a simple no brainer of right from wrong.
China has expressed that they don’t want to get involved with Burma’s decisions. Thailand’s newly elected government is developing a cozy relationship with their neighbor to the west. Both China’s and Thailand’s governments have made questionable decisions when it comes to Burma. Each other country must also be looked at. Looking at each countries position on human rights, you can see a very clear parallel as to would be buddies with Burma’s junta. Both China and Thailand have questionable human rights issues at the moment.
The political landscape of Burma can only be accurately described with negatives. Burma’s junta is pushing a self serving vote in the north, while in the delta area ravaged by a Cyclone, survivors are starting to die because no help is getting to them.
Burma’s junta appears to be very insecure from a psychological point of view. The fear they have to let aid and disaster workers in from other countries, in particular the USA clearly suggest Xenophobia and a bully mentality. Their long isolation from the rest of the world has clearly had a negative effect on how they react to genuine humanitarian help.
The photos of dead bodies floating in water that are being circulated on the internet display the true horror of what is going on in the delta region of Burma. Entire villages wiped off the map, crops destroyed, fresh water tainted with salt water and the early signs of cholera all point to inaction by Burma’s junta.
Outside of the disaster area Burma’s junta is pushing a vote on a referendum on a new charter that will root the junta more securely in Burma. Already many countries see this as a complete sham and plan to reject the outcome as fixed. Calls from the outside to put off the vote and deal with the disaster have fallen on deaf ears. This is clearly more indications of the mental state and emotional insecurity of the junta. In the past nine months Burma has been featured in global headlines as they attacked and killed unarmed protesters including monks. This certainly has made the junta uncomfortable as they would much rather want to hide behind closed doors to do their dirty work of terrorizing and bullying the Burmese people.
It is almost to the point that a power like the USA may simply suggest that they plan to invade Burma and return the country to the people, the junta may completely panic and run and hide. However realistically the USA military at the moment is not up to it’s top condition. The prolonged war in Iraq has taken at toll on the Military, and a good period of a year or more of down time is long overdue. This is not to say the USA could not muster the muscle to do the job, it is simply saying they have too much on their plate. I am sure the USA could rout out Burma’s junta in under a month if they had too.
This however becomes a political decision if an invasion is planned, and for the moment there are enough other hot spots around the globe that the USA is active in. The others including mentally unstable people with nukes, and others that are building them. Decisions of the USA must be first made to protect their own people, and then others. At the moment, happenings in Burma have little or now effect of things in the USA. Because of that Burma becomes a low priority. However the people of the world do have some power by boycotting companies that do business with Burma’s junta. At the very least the will have the effect of a mosquito.
