Burma

[Larkinn]

Exciting times in Burma. There is a revolution stirring there...the first day only a few hundred people came out, the second day more came out, the third, even more...now we are up to around 20,000 protestors. Protests on this scale (or at all really) have not been seen since 1988...when the government brutally massacred around 3,000 protestors. I will be posting news articles I get here or any inside information I have and pictures...keep them in your hearts folks.

 

[Larkinn]

Dear All,


Very soon, peaceful protest of Buddhist Monks will transform to the general strike with the participation of general population. They all will start today (Sep 24, 2007) at 1:00 PM in Rangoon. Buddhist Monks, students, some movie stars and people from entertainment industry and literature industry will join together at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda and march in the streets with holding posters, calling for the SPDC to release of all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to engage in a meaningful political dialogue with the NLD and ethnic political parties, etc.


Since 10:00 AM this morning, two famous actors, Kyaw Thu and Zaganar will lead a mass donation to the Monks who vow not to accept the donation and offerings from the SPDC and USDA at Shwe Dagon Pagoda's East Moat. A group of medical doctors formed a health care committee and began to provide medical assistance to the monks who are now sick due to the protest under heavy rain in the last few days. And members of the UNA, United Nationalities Alliance, a coalition of ethnic political parties, promised to join in peaceful march today.


Things are moving in a right direction and courageous people of Burma are now bad struggling to be free from the bad dream.

But the world is still watching, as usual.

NB...the above are not my words. They are the words of an activist working in Burma...I will not post his/her name here.

 

[Larkinn]

Some amazing photos:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0709/S00591.htm

 

[Diuretic]

I heard radio reports of 100,000 marching in Rangoon. They need to get the ordinary soldiers onside though the dictators have no chance if the enlisted military refuse to follow any murderous orders.

 

[DiogenesDog]

The spirit of freedom and liberty that has been expunged in the nation formerly known as the "Home of the Brave" has arrived in Burma.

I expect to hear any moment that the Bush Regime and its Cavalier brigades of the CIA Restorationists have endorsed Regime Preservation on behalf of the Soldier Monarchists that are coming under withering attack from Monks and unarmed demonstrators.

It is reported from the White House that shipments of high tech rice flails are being smuggled across the border from rice flail armed Bangladeshi for the benefit of rice fail armed resistors.

My heart is with the people of Burma. The soldier monarchists of Myanmar can take a hike.

I AM

 

[Diuretic]

To be far DD I did hear on radio that the State Department is ramping up its visa restrictions on the dictators of Burma.

 

[Larkinn]

I heard radio reports of 100,000 marching in Rangoon. They need to get the ordinary soldiers onside though the dictators have no chance if the enlisted military refuse to follow any murderous orders.

No chance...the ordinary soldiers basically get to do whatever they want in the society. They won't give that up just to protest against the government.

I've heard 100,000 as well...I'm not sure whether to believe that or not. The number seems inflated to me. No word on the inside as of yet though...also the military junta has now officially "warned" the monks leading the protests...my prediction is that either tomorrow or the day after we will see some conflict...

 

[Doug]

Although it is probably a forelorn hope to wish that there would be some imagination and intelligence in the Bush government, surely they will, contrary to Diogenese Dog's view, come out forcefully on the side of the democratic forces, as our government has in many other countries.

 

[jasendorf]

Don't worry... we'll ignore helping the protesters until it is too late like we did in China in 1989 and the regime will squash them and we'll say, "oh well."

We only use military force when the population of a country doesn't want us to help them establish democracy... whenever a country's people actually rise up to fight for democracy, we usually look the other way.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Don't worry... we'll ignore helping the protesters until it is too late like we did in China in 1989 and the regime will squash them and we'll say, "oh well."

We only use military force when the population of a country doesn't want us to help them establish democracy... whenever a country's people actually rise up to fight for democracy, we usually look the other way.

So, let me get this right... We should have invaded China in 1989 and we should invade Myanmar today?

 

[Shogun]

If installing Democracy is the sales pitch, RGS, you tell me...

 

[Cynic-American]

We only use military force when the population of a country doesn't want us to help them establish democracy... whenever a country's people actually rise up to fight for democracy, we usually look the other way.

maybe the solution is to not get involved in any country's battles.
Lets be like Switzerland. We already have cuckoos such as Shogun.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

We did not invaded Iraq to just install democracy. But more importantly the refrain from the left is no war is a good war. Yet here we have examples of "invasion" mentality at work. Burma is small BUT China is HUGE and has nuclear weapons, exactly what do you think would have happened in 1989 ( before the Soviets collapsed) if we invaded that country?

Talk about ignorant. Also neither China or Burma have threatened to destroy us, attacked us for years , etc etc.

 

[Shogun]

We did not invaded Iraq to just install democracy. But more importantly the refrain from the left is no war is a good war. Yet here we have examples of "invasion" mentality at work. Burma is small BUT China is HUGE and has nuclear weapons, exactly what do you think would have happened in 1989 ( before the Soviets collapsed) if we invaded that country?

Talk about ignorant. Also neither China or Burma have threatened to destroy us, attacked us for years , etc etc.

phantom WMDs or to install democracy.

which is it? vietnam, iraq.. where did all the good ole red blooded fear of communism go? WE are the greatest nation in the world, RGS, so why stutter at the population and weapons of china? at least there we KNOW they have em, right? Beacon of deomcracy.. or something?


by the way, why the hell are we still fucking with CUBA if we can stomach China?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

So with one exception the liberals on this board are not against invading other countries? Just against invading ones they did not pick, I got it.

 

[Shogun]

I was semi serious, dude.

why can we stomach CHINA while shitting on CUBA?

 

[jasendorf]

So, let me get this right... We should have invaded China in 1989 and we should invade Myanmar today?

Only if we're interested in spreading democracy around the world... strike when the iron's hot I say. And, right now, the iron's hot. Unlike it was in Iraq in 2003.

 

[jasendorf]

We did not invaded Iraq to just install democracy. But more importantly the refrain from the left is no war is a good war. Yet here we have examples of "invasion" mentality at work. Burma is small BUT China is HUGE and has nuclear weapons, exactly what do you think would have happened in 1989 ( before the Soviets collapsed) if we invaded that country?

Talk about ignorant. Also neither China or Burma have threatened to destroy us, attacked us for years , etc etc.

BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!!

Now he's going to tell us about how Iraq attacked the U.S. "for years"

1) Iraq never attacked us. Sure, Hussein murdered his own people... invaded Kuwait... was a First Class Jackass of the highest type... but, really, they never attacked us.

2) I'd like to think that we're in favor of democracy for any country regardless of the size of the country... or maybe you're saying we only care about democracy in countries we can easily beat up on?

 

[jasendorf]

So with one exception the liberals on this board are not against invading other countries? Just against invading ones they did not pick, I got it.

I'm not against invading countries where the people are rising up against oppression to fight for democracy. I'm all for that.

Since when does anyone get to pick the moment in time when a country is ready for democracy? Do you think the French chose when the American Revolution would be? No. We did... and they had a choice to sit on the pot or watch from afar... and, after waiting a reallllllly long time to see which side looked good for winning... they struck with help.

We should be doing the same...

 

[Larkinn]

We did not invaded Iraq to just install democracy. But more importantly the refrain from the left is no war is a good war. Yet here we have examples of "invasion" mentality at work. Burma is small BUT China is HUGE and has nuclear weapons, exactly what do you think would have happened in 1989 ( before the Soviets collapsed) if we invaded that country?

Err...Burma isn't exactly small. Compared to China it is, but its not small.

So with one exception the liberals on this board are not against invading other countries? Just against invading ones they did not pick, I got it.

Try not to generalize so much. Liberals have many different ideas on the matter. I have never ruled out invasions of countries for humanitarian grounds. I've always been a supporter of that.