my rant. re: Myanmar
05-09-2008, 07:17 AM
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Originally Posted by SIIK2NR,May 9 2008, 09:16 AM
Don't be so closed minded.... There is a lot more to it than you appear to obviously know.
I know... because I'm here off the coast onboard USS MUSTIN providing that relief for Myanmar (Burma).
Yes it sucks, yes there is history there... and yes our hands were essentially tied by the dictatorship which wouldn't allow us in.
My point is, we're in now and doing what we can. We are focusing on the immediate solution. All the other issues can and will be delt with later.
Tim
LT Freeman
Supply Officer
USS MUSTIN DDG 89
I know... because I'm here off the coast onboard USS MUSTIN providing that relief for Myanmar (Burma).
Yes it sucks, yes there is history there... and yes our hands were essentially tied by the dictatorship which wouldn't allow us in.
My point is, we're in now and doing what we can. We are focusing on the immediate solution. All the other issues can and will be delt with later.
Tim
LT Freeman
Supply Officer
USS MUSTIN DDG 89
05-09-2008, 07:30 AM
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Originally Posted by CTMechE,May 9 2008, 09:36 AM
They care as much as any other administration has. You can only care so much, especially when people don't want you there. Or maybe you'd prefer another Battle of Mogadishu like in Somalia? Clinton and his "humanitarian aid" ended up getting Americans killed, too. Maybe take a lesson and don't force the issue.
when we scream till we are blue in the face "they have nucular weapons and are supporting terrorists?"
05-09-2008, 07:34 AM
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No telling how long we will be out here..... the initial order said 30 days on station. "Station" hasn't been defined... The weather is still bad out here and the seas are rough. Not a good time for a DDG (Destroyer). But the Force protection we provide for transiting ships is crucial through the straits of Malaka.
Tim
Myanmar says no need for foreign aid distribution
By Aung Hla Tun1 hour, 23 minutes ago
Myanmar will accept foreign aid but distribute relief itself, an official newspaper said on Friday, after a disaster rescue team from Qatar that arrived in Yangon on an aid flight was turned back.
"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment," the government-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said in a report on the aid operation slowly building up for survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
"But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm-hit regions with its own resources," the newspaper said.
The Qatar plane was one of 12 international relief flights that landed in the former capital on Thursday, it said.
Outside frustration is mounting at delays by the generals in giving visas to aid workers and landing rights for flights, including those from the U.S. military, which has supply planes on standby in neighboring Thailand.
Survivors of last Saturday's cyclone have largely been fending for themselves in the swampy delta.
"They are gone. They are gone," U Thein, who lost her 8-year-old son and 3-month-old daughter in the cyclone, whispered in her village near hard-hit Labutta town in the delta.
Around her, in hushed tones, villagers say more than 100 of their friends and relatives were killed in Saturday's carnage. The sea surge and 120 mph (190 kmh) winds ripped the tiny village apart, tearing down coconut groves and ripping the roofs off buildings, including the local primary school.
Scores of trees block pathways or balance precariously on top of the few buildings left standing.
Besides the cawing of crows and gentle weeping of the destitute, the only sound is the hammering of nails as villagers desperately try to rebuild their homes in the malaria-infested swamplands.
No soldiers or government agencies have turned up to help.
"We have to get shelter. We have to get shelter," said San Myint. She and her brother have been sawing and hammering since dawn to repair their shattered home. "The mosquitoes are eating us at night," she says. "But we were lucky. We survived."
The official death toll still stands at nearly 23,000, although experts fear it could be as high as 100,000.
PATRIOTIC REFERENDUM
Myanmar's junta urged citizens on Friday to do their patriotic duty and vote for an army-drafted constitution in a televised message that made mo mention of the estimated 1.5 million people clinging to survival a week after the cyclone.
The junta is holding a referendum on the constitution on Saturday in all but the worst-affected parts of the country. Its opponents have suggested the delays in allowing in aid workers are because it does not want an influx of foreigners before the vote.
Thailand's prime minister Samak Sundaravej announced on Friday he would fly to Myanmar this weekend after British and American envoys urged him to ask the ruling generals to open the door to Western aid.
"I have already contacted them. I will see them on Sunday," Samak told reporters after meeting British Ambassador Quinton Quayle in Bangkok.
The U.S. Navy said four ships, including the destroyer USS Mustin and the three-vessel Essex Expeditionary Strike Force, were heading for Myanmar from the Gulf of Thailand after the Essex deployed helicopters to Thailand for aid operations.
The United States, however, was waiting for approval to start shipping in aid on military planes.
"We're outraged by the slowness of the response of the government of Burma to welcome and accept assistance," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was seeking direct talks with the junta's senior general, Than Shwe, to persuade him to remove obstacles. A U.N. spokeswoman said Ban believed it might be "prudent" for the government to postpone the referendum.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Friday he wanted Southeast Asian nations and China to apply more pressure on Myanmar. "The Burmese regime is behaving appallingly," he said.
But U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes questioned the value of voicing outrage with the junta over the aid delays.
"It's not clear to me at this stage anyway that bludgeoning them over the head is going to make any difference or make it any better. We have to work with them," he told U.S. National Public Radio.
While Holmes said the United Nations estimated at least 1.5 million people were "severely affected," Britain's U.N. ambassador, John Sawers, said it may be in the millions.
China, the closest thing Myanmar has to an ally, urged patience in dealing with the junta.
"(The international community) should take Myanmar's willingness and ability to receive (the aid) into full account, and have patient and close communication with Myanmar," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Claudia Parsons at the United Nations; Kerstin Gehmlich in Berlin, Matthew Bigg in Atlanta; Nopporn Wong-Anan, Grant McCool and Darren Schuettler in Bangkok; Writing by Bill Tarrant; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Tim
Myanmar says no need for foreign aid distribution
By Aung Hla Tun1 hour, 23 minutes ago
Myanmar will accept foreign aid but distribute relief itself, an official newspaper said on Friday, after a disaster rescue team from Qatar that arrived in Yangon on an aid flight was turned back.
"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment," the government-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said in a report on the aid operation slowly building up for survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
"But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm-hit regions with its own resources," the newspaper said.
The Qatar plane was one of 12 international relief flights that landed in the former capital on Thursday, it said.
Outside frustration is mounting at delays by the generals in giving visas to aid workers and landing rights for flights, including those from the U.S. military, which has supply planes on standby in neighboring Thailand.
Survivors of last Saturday's cyclone have largely been fending for themselves in the swampy delta.
"They are gone. They are gone," U Thein, who lost her 8-year-old son and 3-month-old daughter in the cyclone, whispered in her village near hard-hit Labutta town in the delta.
Around her, in hushed tones, villagers say more than 100 of their friends and relatives were killed in Saturday's carnage. The sea surge and 120 mph (190 kmh) winds ripped the tiny village apart, tearing down coconut groves and ripping the roofs off buildings, including the local primary school.
Scores of trees block pathways or balance precariously on top of the few buildings left standing.
Besides the cawing of crows and gentle weeping of the destitute, the only sound is the hammering of nails as villagers desperately try to rebuild their homes in the malaria-infested swamplands.
No soldiers or government agencies have turned up to help.
"We have to get shelter. We have to get shelter," said San Myint. She and her brother have been sawing and hammering since dawn to repair their shattered home. "The mosquitoes are eating us at night," she says. "But we were lucky. We survived."
The official death toll still stands at nearly 23,000, although experts fear it could be as high as 100,000.
PATRIOTIC REFERENDUM
Myanmar's junta urged citizens on Friday to do their patriotic duty and vote for an army-drafted constitution in a televised message that made mo mention of the estimated 1.5 million people clinging to survival a week after the cyclone.
The junta is holding a referendum on the constitution on Saturday in all but the worst-affected parts of the country. Its opponents have suggested the delays in allowing in aid workers are because it does not want an influx of foreigners before the vote.
Thailand's prime minister Samak Sundaravej announced on Friday he would fly to Myanmar this weekend after British and American envoys urged him to ask the ruling generals to open the door to Western aid.
"I have already contacted them. I will see them on Sunday," Samak told reporters after meeting British Ambassador Quinton Quayle in Bangkok.
The U.S. Navy said four ships, including the destroyer USS Mustin and the three-vessel Essex Expeditionary Strike Force, were heading for Myanmar from the Gulf of Thailand after the Essex deployed helicopters to Thailand for aid operations.
The United States, however, was waiting for approval to start shipping in aid on military planes.
"We're outraged by the slowness of the response of the government of Burma to welcome and accept assistance," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was seeking direct talks with the junta's senior general, Than Shwe, to persuade him to remove obstacles. A U.N. spokeswoman said Ban believed it might be "prudent" for the government to postpone the referendum.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Friday he wanted Southeast Asian nations and China to apply more pressure on Myanmar. "The Burmese regime is behaving appallingly," he said.
But U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes questioned the value of voicing outrage with the junta over the aid delays.
"It's not clear to me at this stage anyway that bludgeoning them over the head is going to make any difference or make it any better. We have to work with them," he told U.S. National Public Radio.
While Holmes said the United Nations estimated at least 1.5 million people were "severely affected," Britain's U.N. ambassador, John Sawers, said it may be in the millions.
China, the closest thing Myanmar has to an ally, urged patience in dealing with the junta.
"(The international community) should take Myanmar's willingness and ability to receive (the aid) into full account, and have patient and close communication with Myanmar," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Claudia Parsons at the United Nations; Kerstin Gehmlich in Berlin, Matthew Bigg in Atlanta; Nopporn Wong-Anan, Grant McCool and Darren Schuettler in Bangkok; Writing by Bill Tarrant; Editing by Alex Richardson)
05-09-2008, 08:00 AM
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Now I know you guys are completely full of 
Iraq was plagued with human rights violations and you guys havent stopped bitching about that war.
Now you guy *want* to overthrow somewhere else? WTF. You guys seriously need help.
I am all for overthrowing anyone who needs it. But you guys can't choose who needs it based on whether the president you don't like has the idea first or you do.
Iraq was plagued with human rights violations and you guys havent stopped bitching about that war.
Now you guy *want* to overthrow somewhere else? WTF. You guys seriously need help.
I am all for overthrowing anyone who needs it. But you guys can't choose who needs it based on whether the president you don't like has the idea first or you do.
05-09-2008, 08:03 AM
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Originally Posted by sireousrex,May 9 2008, 11:00 AM
Now I know you guys are completely full of
Iraq was plagued with human rights violations and you guys havent stopped bitching about that war.
Now you guy *want* to overthrow somewhere else? WTF. You guys seriously need help.
I am all for overthrowing anyone who needs it. But you guys can't choose who needs it based on whether the president you don't like has the idea first or you do.
Iraq was plagued with human rights violations and you guys havent stopped bitching about that war.
Now you guy *want* to overthrow somewhere else? WTF. You guys seriously need help.
I am all for overthrowing anyone who needs it. But you guys can't choose who needs it based on whether the president you don't like has the idea first or you do.
05-09-2008, 08:05 AM
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Originally Posted by jtpassat,May 9 2008, 11:30 AM
so what conditions does it make it right for the US to come in the topple over a dictatorship?
when we scream till we are blue in the face "they have nucular weapons and are supporting terrorists?"
when we scream till we are blue in the face "they have nucular weapons and are supporting terrorists?"
05-09-2008, 08:08 AM
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Originally Posted by sireousrex,May 9 2008, 11:07 AM
didn't you liberals make the argument that we are not the world police?
05-09-2008, 08:10 AM
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Originally Posted by CTMechE,May 9 2008, 11:05 AM
When they threaten the US or our interests, that's when you take action. Myannmar does not, so we we offer help, and if they refuse, we just tell them they're wrong, but otherwise just wait.
05-09-2008, 08:11 AM
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Originally Posted by jtpassat,May 9 2008, 12:08 PM
come on.. i'm actually looking to start a war with another country... you should be supporting this one.
