Dear Mr. President:
We all know that the military junta in Burma has been nightmarish for the population. We know that they’ve probably killed untold numbers of people in their crackdown on Buddhist Monks. We know that lives in that country are miserable. We know Burma is effectively under a dictatorship with little to no freedom for its people.
We also know that tens of thousands of Burmese have been killed in the past few days and they need our help. I’m very happy to see that you want to provide that help. Three million dollars won’t help much, but I know that’s probably all we can afford these days.
Still, if you really want to help, you should know that the best way to NOT be allowed to enter the country is to use phrases like “military junta”, “dictatorship”, etc when asking the government there to allow us permission to enter. Now, you’re right, the rulers of Burma are all that, but you’re not doing the suffering people of Burma any favors using this rhetoric during their time of need. By dong so, you’re ruining any chance you might have to get the aid to the people that you want to give.
For now, please keep your mouth shut. Just get the food, water, shelter, and other assistance to these people first, then go right back to putting the pressure on, just as you should.
Thank you,
Michael D.
Zifnab
“Dear Leaders of Burma,
We don’t have much money to offer you. Fuck you, you smell funny, and your governmental system isn’t worth the Constitutional manuscript its written on. Do you still want that money now?
Hugs and Kisses
Bush”
Gee, I wonder if – perhaps – throwing insults after greenbacks is Bush’s little way of making sure they don’t ask for aid from the US a second time. Budget is kinda tight and all.
r€nato
“Dear President Bush: don’t you think things are bad enough here without your ‘help’?”
jake
Shorter Presidunce Bush: Heckuva job, Burma!
Who
But, but, he’s decidering. Did you see Laura outBush him on “Burma” the other day? Please, someone, take them back to the faux ranch in Texas and keep the press away from them. Bush can spend his quite time writing his “memwars” about brush cuttin’ and mountin’ bikin’ and deciderin’. Take Hillary and Bill too. They can all yak it up together. It will be an asylum for ex presidents, for our protection, of course.
cleek
he’s just keeping up his image as a small, petty, passive-aggressive little fuckbag.
r€nato
Mission Accomplished!
jon
$3million? Obama could raise that in a few hours, send it to a relief agency, and have it delivered with a note that will ensure it gets to the people who need it.
Bush really is a tremendously shitty man.
RC635
You say petty, asinine things like that because you know that will piss them off and they won’t take the aid. He doesn’t give two shits about the 85% of Americans, do you think he really gives a shit about them? Once they refuse the aid, he’ll peacock around and say he offered them help and they refused. Then he’ll go back to building sand castles and coloring.
w vincentz
I hope McSame shows up for the photo-op.
Is it true that his campaign slogan is “McCain for President…and if you don’t like it, FUCK OFF!”?
Li
Read ‘Confessions of an Economic Hitman’; the US and her banks profit so much from failed states, that it is basically our policy to send countries straight into the shitter. I’m sure that this paltry sum, backed up with threats, is designed not to be accepted, so that Burma can spiral into the sort of concentrated desperation that makes them easy prey for the predators at the World Bank.
section9
Dear Clueless Liberals,
There are times, and this is one of them, when things are not George Bush’s fault. The Burmese Junta has decided to keep us, and others, out, precisely because it understands that a massive foreign presence would loosen its hold on power.
What part of this equation don’t you people understand? The Burmese Junta doesn’t give a rat’s ass about its own people, and neither do their Chinese patrons.
Someday you people will get this. By that time, Bush will be back in Texas, and you’ll have to blame Obama. Oh wait, he’s a Democrat. You won’t be able to blame him. You’ll have to find a way to blame Bush.
One of the reasons this blog stopped being interesting at all is its constant, risible partisanship. When John Cole’s blog starts finding a way to be partisan over actions of the Burmese Junta, it’s time to close up shop, pack it in, and go home. You people are just Free Republic with better writing.
Li
I would blame Obama just as much if he connected a paltry sum of aid to threats and bullying. You don’t kick people while they are down in these situations; you give em a hand back up, and then never fail to remind them of that hand-up -later- after the crisis.
It’s called diplomacy, of the old fashioned kind. But as I explained, failed states, particularly ones with large natural resources (Burma is full of jewels, rice and wood) are very profitable to zombify with world bank loans, and given our past record it may be hard for our leaders to see what is right for what is profitable.