Comments on: The Tale of Two Governments

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:21:22 +0000

China will veto any major UN push, and I don’t see what peace keeping mission can realistically accomplish in the current situation. The junta needs to splinter to provide an opening, and that isn’t likely to happen.

Logic doesn’t seem to work. The junta is sealed inside the bubble of their new capital and don’t really understand what has happened. They don’t seem to be listening to the Thais, or any of their neighbors.

It took a Vietnamese invasion to bring a little stability to Cambodia and wake the world up to the problems. Something similar may have to happen in Burma, but it is essential that the US have no part it, or the whole thing falls apart. A purely regional effort is probably the best plan, because the surrounding nations are the ones most affected by the instability.

There is no doubt that the junta has no intention of assisting the non-Burmese areas that were affected, the ethnic animosity runs too deep. That is definitely a problem for Thailand, as they border those areas.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sat, 17 May 2008 02:11:19 +0000

The rhetoric against the Junta is getting stronger over here also. Rudd is pretty much spearheading the Oceanic regions displeasure towards the Burmese Gov, even calling them ‘the illegitimate government’ at one point. I have even heard officials beginning to compare Burma with Cambodia and asking the question of the UN. If you justified a peace keeping mission into Cambodia, twice, why not Burma? They are asking what the difference is between a Gov that actively commits genocide and a Gov that simply allows genocide.

I see a bumpy road ahead!

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:44:16 +0000

The EU is seriously upset with the situation in Burma, and everyone is frustrated because there is no good way of doing anything about it. You can’t invade. The monsoon has arrived, so air drops will be limited. You need boats, and they aren’t available. Sanctions are out of the question. People are dying, and the world is helpless.

China is the only nation with any leverage, and they have their own problems to deal with, even if “internal matters are not the concern of the outside” weren’t engraved in stone in Chinese foreign policy.

By: Jack K., the Grumpy Forester

Jack K., the Grumpy Forester — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:49:34 +0000

…one can only begin to surmise that the Burmese junta leaders are deaf as well as dumb and blind if they can’t figure out that they are getting pretty close to the edge when the French Foreign Minister starts calling for forceful intervention under the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine. That probably won’t happen under UN auspices, since it requires Security Council approval and China would undoubtedly cast a veto, and a wider debate has been started over whether this of the Burmese government to responsibly provide aid to its people even falls within the purview of the “R2P” doctrine as recognized in UNSC Resolution 1674…