Hitting Back Against The Junta
A heavy price must be exacted by the US and its allies that goes far beyond simple sanctions in the face of the junta’s decision to murder its own citizens.
-Sanction the foreign collaborators.
Key backers of the regime, including China, Russia and India, must pay a cost for the blood they will have on their hands. Specific businesses and their heads should be targeted with sanctions as well as government figures who have played a role in furthering the interests of the junta. Name these people and companies before the world and empower the legislatures in the US, Canada and EU to devise sanctions against them.
-Unleash Speaker Pelosi.
The Speaker of the House is a known China skeptic with a rather strong human rights record. Her withering criticism of the Chinese and others should be used, because unlike Secretary of State Condi Rice or even Pres. Bush himself, who lack the credibility and the nerve to take on the regime and its backers in the world’s eyes, she can find enough votes and attract enough attention to do credible damage to the reputations of China and Chinese companies that do business in both Burma and America. Legislation that uses targeted sanctions on individuals and firms, goes after some of the drug money the junta makes a fortune laundering and applies a focused eye on the activities of petrol, natural gas and natural resource firms in the future (Through a Congressionally-mandated investigation & reporting process every year) would be enormously helpful compared to the weak set of sanctions currently in place against Burma in general.
-Threaten and plan to train and equip the justly rebellious groups operating within Burma and along its border areas.
While these groups are far from clean-cut good guys (given their penchant for drug dealing and trafficking), some of them represent ethnic groups that have faced murderous behavior from the junta that amounts to ethnic cleansing. They have every reason to rebel and should no longer be left out in the cold if the junta is going to prove once again that it cares nothing for its citizens, whatever their ethnic group or geographic location be. If China wants to support the junta, then it will have to accept the security concerns for its citizens that will come with that, as well as for the stability of its near abroad, which it claims to put a premium on but nevertheless supports destablizing governments in North Korea, Cambodia and Burma.
-Collect all evidence of the junta’s crimes (beatings, rapes and killings) and publicize it with the media and relevant groups.
The world should know without doubt of the blood on the hands of the junta, and those implicated should be charged with crimes against humanity, especially the current head of the junta. If Hu Jintao and others want to meet with the generals, let them shake the hands of implicated war criminals.
-Engage in spiritual warfare.
Emphasize the violation of sacred Buddhist principles by the junta and implore the condemnation of the junta by Buddhist groups within and outside of Burma. They utterly depend on their fabricated image as good Buddhists, and the free pass on this must be revoked. Work together with leading Buddhist figures in the region to assault this lie with blunt truth.
-Tempt the next generation of military officers.
Utilize backchannels and plain ol word of mouth to remind the young generation of military officers that a brighter future for them, and for their nation, could be possible if they were to overthrow the dinosaurs in charge. A Burma that is less free, but nevertheless more prosperous with an economy that includes the majority of the population and offers steps towards greater freedom and political openness, is far more preferable than the closed, xenophobic junta in control today.
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YOu know Eddie, I’m not sure what you’re driving for here. So I’ll ask for a bit more of an elaboration.
I have a few questions to ask about the specific points though.
1) Unleash Pelosi? She SOH. She can craft whatever legislation she wants, as can anyone else who is a Legislator. I’m not sure I get this one.
2) Spiritual warfare/targeted sanctions. Double edged sword. Sounds like you want to turn the CIA loose, with the possibility that people will be pissed off at us for messing around in their affairs(sounds a lot like S. Americans and the Iranians on that point, not to mention one of the planks ObL claims gives him the justification for attacking the US).
Playing with fire here, IMO. You’re heart, as usual, is in the right place but not sure all of it, sans elaboration, is such a good idea. Not saying it’s all crap, but the devil is in the details and an outline you put together between 20min and 2h is not revealing all you want to convey.
Hi Ry,
When Rep. Pelosi became Speaker Pelosi, there was a lot of fear among Chinese gov’t types as well as lobbyists with strong China ties because she came into the office with a noted skepticism for all things China, especially when it came to human rights and business. For now, she’s largely been quite responsible in that department, often to a fault, on things like the Sudan-China connection, she’s been downright peaceful and far too forgiving, though others stepped into the breach and made the powers that be in China doubt their current path in Sudan enough to change it, hence we now have Chinese approval of and participation in a potentially positive UN peacekeeping mission.
Her calm silence should end if the UN envoy’s mission fails to broker any successful forward momentum that could be sustained by pressure from China, ASEAN & India on the junta. She is the perfect bad cop to Bush’s good cop on this, and they both have the same goal on Burma, so I see no reason why they can’t work together on this. Even if Bush wouldn’t work with her, she should raise hell over the issue anyway. The generals have no friends in the Congress, China only a few more. I am not advocating China-bashing, but we have failed to utilize any form of pressure from the USG on their ghastly support for incompetent, sadistic regimes like those in Burma and North Korea. We’re not going to get any progress on any of these issues unless the Congress does its job. Again, Nancy Pelosi needs to start nailing China and India over this issue. Her silence and lack of action is appalling giving her prior track record.
Re: Spiritual warfare. Much as some people in the USG (like Major General Stone in his recent chat transcript with bloggers in the Washington Post- link below) and beyond have advocated we rethink the way we describe and respond to Islamic terrorist propoganda by emphasizing terms that are far more receptive to audiences abroad that highlight the broken religious norms and rules, we should do the same with our RFA broadcasts and other forms of official government and NGO related descriptions of the junta.
IO campaigns against the junta that highlight their corruption and violent oppression while empowering Buddhist activists who share the same goal would be a worthy activity for us. The slaughter of monks by the junta was the equivalent of crossing a point of no return, and we should remember that in how we treat them in the info/media/diplo sphere.
Again, these are ideas and possibilities, and I would expand upon the last one about tempting the younger generation of officers by saying that we should consider (if the evidence substantially supports our perception) building ties with the junta in the long view if it remains in power. We can certainly pursue multiple objectives and tracks at once, from expanded, calibrated sanctions to pressure on foreign supporters to backroom ties.
Thank you for your comment!
Major General Stone:
http://mountainrunner.us/2007/09/battle_of_the_minds_an_intervi.html
Is this the re-hash of the ‘style manual’ that came out a few years ago? Something about not calling them jihadis and the like, since there’s already a word in the Islamic tradition that serves our PR purpose much better(while Jihadi serves the other sides so well)? If so I think I’ve seen it before.
Still, I’m not sure I’m getting what you mean by ‘Unleash Pelosi” I’m not contesting that she is all that you say she is. I just don’t understand the use of ‘unleash’. I don’t see her being gagged on this. If she feels the need she can go off and do it. She’s done that before(the Syria trip). I’m a pragmatist at heart. If it;ll work, go for it.
I’m still a bit leary of the spiritual warfare angle/soft power. We’ve been accused of(and sometimes actually did) help start rebellions and coups. Using things like RFA. There’s a lot of bad blood out there because we did. Not saying we shouldn’t ever do it, but that we need to be cautious in how we do it. Which is where the elaboration comes in since I know you don’t want to be Eisenhower with the Thaw that then got rolled over by Sov tanks divisions. I’m thinking you’ve got a very specific angle beyond just ‘push the cultural button of violating the sanctity of the moks’.
Anyways, take care of yourself.
Hi Ry,
I would consider it essentially inspired by the style manual. Words and information have a serious role to play and there is much more to elaborate, especially in such a case as this where literally every major and minor NGO is in agreement with the US & EU on the terrible nature of the Burmese junta, which is something we should be emboldened by and exploit.
I am seriously disapointed by Pelosi. I don’t get her. I expected her to be a useful foil on a number of issues, but she’s been silent, almost scared, to live up to her liberal background. Granted, I don’t share half her views, but on issues like China, she’s absolutely right. Yet, again, the silence. “Unleash” is perhaps a poor choice of words. Just seeing her step out of the shadows and say something of substance and vigor would be a pleasant surprise.
We have to start looking at the world in more religious tones. Religion is a key part, hell, the foundation, of many people’s lives around the world. We are a richly gifted country in that regard, we have impeccable citizens of many religious faiths and sects. Yet we rarely use or ask for their input on issues of great importance, whether that be the rise of the Shia in the Middle East, the role of Hindu extremism in India’s complex society or the possibilities and implications of Buddhist politics (whether it be their effect in Sri Lanka or Cambodia, let alone Burma).
I agree about the dangers inherent, where perhaps again my use of the term spirtual warfare is mistaken. We should not be afraid to exploit our enemies’ religious hypocrisy if its their #1 claim to fame, whether it be jihadists or Burmese generals and their “daily pronouncements of Buddhist piety”. We should never cede that ground to them.
The bad blood (i.e. from our coups in Latin America, Iran, etc.) occurred because we took actions based on Cold War interests and considerations. While not saying we’d be successful in overthrowing the junta by any means short of invasion, I would say in this case we are doing the best we can in weakening the regime with the express wishes of the population behind us based on popular resistance and the heinous nature of the junta.