Liberals are forever bemoaning that the US has lost the respect of "the world", leaving an uninformed listener to think that this "world" must have some mighty high standards that the US can't match. Myanmar is typical of much of that "world" and, despite liberals' illusions, standards of any kind are certainly something that are in far shortly supply overseas than they are here.
This story relates the ugly situation:
More people will perish in Myanmar's cyclone disaster zone unless the regime lifts restrictions on foreign aid, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned Sunday, accusing it of "criminal neglect."The situation is reminiscent of Ethipia in 1990, when famine relief sent by the US was either sent away or left to rot on the docks when a civil war made starving millions pawns in the hands fighting factions.
Nearly a month after the storm tore through swathes of Myanmar, around 60 percent of the 2.4 million survivors remain without foreign aid, despite some opening-up by the military rulers after an intense UN-led diplomatic push.
The junta blocked entry to overseas aid workers in the critical days after Cyclone Nargis pummelled the impoverished nation on May 2-3, leaving 133,000 people dead or missing.
"Unless the regime changes its approach, its policy, more people will die," Gates said en route to Bangkok after a regional security forum in Singapore.
"I would describe it as criminal neglect."
The next time that liberal friend of yours shakes his (her) head in despair about the US' falling respect in the "world", remind him (or her) what that "world" is really like.
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