Whenever there is a Coup no matter what country, the United States has a standard response and a standard set of protocols. Those protocols do not have the ability to distinguish a Coup for the benefit of military Generals, or a Coup for the benefit of the people by removing a hugely corrupt Government that has been hurting the country.
The United States has had a long standing relationship with Thailand. Like all relationships there is the occasional disagreement on what should happen and what is the order of priorities. The facade of a friendly smiling relationship between the United States Government and other Governments has forever been shattered by Wikileaks. There can be some down right snarling and arm twisting going on behind the scenes.
Some of the things the United States desperately wants from Thailand were unlikely to happen under a hugely corrupt Government aligned with Thaksin Shinawatra. Piracy of software and movies, along with human trafficking are at the top of the US wish list. But with a Coup and the Junta’s desire to install serious reforms, those wishes have a better chance of happening with the junta. That is unless the military has their hand in that in some way or another. That looks to come to light in a trial against some mainstream journalists who made that claim, so time will tell.
Putting that pending trial aside until it’s time, there are other benefits for not dumping on the Thai Junta. There is little doubt that Thailand is one of the destinations of pedophiles and other scum of a non sexual nature. Organized crime has set up shop in some of the more popular tourist destinations like Phuket and Pattaya. With the Junta looking to remove police and other officials who are aligned with Thaksin, the chances of letting organized crime flourish unchecked are diminished.
Companies in Thailand owned or partnered with Americans face the corrupt Government daily, and it is getting worse. Looking at the huge 2013 slide Thailand had on its corruption rating under the Thaksin aligned Government at “Transparency International” at Transparency.org, The United States clearly needs to look deeper than the face value of the word ‘Coup’. It could amount to a bottle of mislabeled medicine for the US if it does not look deeper.
To say the US can’t make adjustments and not be so hard on the military of other countries, all a person needs to do is look at Egypt’s coup that they did not call a coup. The US felt it was best to support the military because the Muslim Brotherhood was just bad news for the US all the way around. There is also the support of the rebels in Syria and the encouragement by the CIA to start Coups in other countries that were causing problems for the US. No doubt US politics is a lot nastier than they want the world to believe.
So for the US, it seems things in any given country must reach critical mass before they take sides with a Junta or anti-Government groups, and that can just make your head spin. If that is the case, Thailand just did not reach that critical mass for the US Government to openly support the Junta. But who knows what is going on behind the scenes. For all we know it could just be a show for the public while handshakes between the US Government and the Thai Junta are going on behind closed doors.
