I thought the agreement was that "murderous thug" per se was not sufficient to launch a war.
Posted by dj moonbat at May 9, 2008 07:02 PMMaybe a president Obama can invade Myanmar next year. These cretins are a sorry group of people, hoarding whats being sent for themselves. The world(UN) should step up here if they had a spine at all. You wouldn't want President Bush to do something like that would ya?
Posted by peter at May 9, 2008 10:18 PMBAGHDAD — Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad's Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.
In return, Sadr's Mahdi Army supporters won the Iraqi government's agreement not to arrest Mahdi Army members without warrants, unless they were in possession of "medium and heavy weaponry."
The agreement would end six weeks of fighting in the vast Shiite Muslim area that's home to more than 2 million residents and would mark the first time that the area would be under government control since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. On Friday, 15 people were killed and 112 were injured in fighting, officials at the neighborhoods two major hospitals said.
It also would be a startling turnaround in fortunes for Maliki, who'd been widely criticized for picking a fight with Sadr's forces, first in the southern port city of Basra and then in Sadr City.
From McClatchy Newspapers
First Basra is freed and now Baghdad from this criminal's influence. Getting there folks.
I think the US gov't responded to the cyclone faster than they did to Katrina.
Posted by CG at May 10, 2008 05:57 AMWell, who's the main armaments supporter/supplier of the Rangoon Gen'rals? You can't have a third world military dictatorship run by an authoritarian military unless some first-worlders are selling 'm the equipment and supplies.
The world is full of brutal regimes that have almost no concern for their people---that's life. They aren't affirmatively chopping some sect down with machetes. They're just (another) shit government that has its reasons for intentionally bungling a natural catastrophe, just like ours did with Katrina.
A non-interventionist foreign policy means there aren't military "options" for removing regimes that haven't the slightest effect on our national security. That's Myanmar.
The regional powers are the ones who have an interest, it's up to them. We should (at most) be leading military equipment saanctions at the UN and encouraging the regional powers to make the gen'rals life impossible---we'll do what we can to support that diplomatically. Most likely, we (Bushco) support the gen'rals because they're an authoritarian regime and we like those if they aren't refusing to do our bidding in the region.
That's it.
Posted by euzoius at May 10, 2008 06:44 AMThe junta turned around and is handing out some food relief with their names on them as the provider. They just want the credit for taking care of their people.
Sound familiar Euz????
Posted by peter at May 10, 2008 07:52 AMNo one has been "freed" in Iraq, peter, you dillweed. The Iranians conspired with the US and Maliki, diplomatically, to stop the outbreak of fighting in Basra and later in Sadr City, when fellow Shia in Maliki's army units tore off their government uniforms and ran. Both Iranian and US interests lie with getting a handle on Muqtada al Sadr. On the US side, al Sadr is a problem because he's a nationalist and wants US troops to get the fuck out of his country. On the Iranian side, al Sadr is a problem because he might challenge the government Shia coalition of Maliki and Hakim, who are more closely allied to Iran. Get it?
No one has been freed. No one. The war goes on.
Posted by Copeland at May 10, 2008 08:33 AMI thought Mondo Stupido's criticisms of Myamar were right on. The idea that they would forsake aid from other countries, just like the US did with Katrina refusing aid from Cuba.
Perhaps the US should hire the Rangoon Gens for their FEMA program as they seem much more organized than Brownie.
Posted by IntelVet at May 10, 2008 08:55 AM"This is proof, yet again, that neither the Bush Administration, Europe, China, Russia, or the United Nations takes seriously the basic concept of basic human rights. Allow murderers to run a nation, and people will suffer and die."
Was more proof needed?
Posted by at May 10, 2008 10:10 AMwell, they have been "freed" in the sense that they are "free" of the burdens of living.
Maybe that's what they meant by "liberation"
You know, like the Manson butchers killed the Tate-LaBianca victims because they "loved them"
We "liberated" over a million Iraquis because we "love them"
Posted by at May 10, 2008 10:17 AMToo bad Burma, just like Afghanistan, doesn't have vast oil reserves like Iraq (and Iran)...the Bush administration would stop at nothing to oust the leaders sitting on top of so much oil, especially if the leaders were intent upon shutting out western oil companies, like Saddam Hussein was prior to Bush and Cheney ordering the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Why do right-wing military leaders always seem to act the same way, driven apparently by the same right-wing insanity, a war-mongering totalitarian insanity that hurts so many people unfortunate enough to come into contact with these insane right-wingers?
Posted by The Oracle at May 10, 2008 08:42 PMWell, why do so many citizens of a supposed peace lovin' "democracy" keep voting for such right wing leaders, oracle?
Do they really not know that these aggressive actions are all about oil? The general stupidity would have to be pretty massive to think they are oblivious.
Posted by euzoius at May 10, 2008 10:01 PM