More on Myanmar - The Immaturity of Nations
Following up on my post of a few days ago, news reports today indicate that the junta in Myanmar has resorted to even more extreme violence in suppressing the ongoing demonstrations. “YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Security forces in Myanmar opened fire on demonstrators Wednesday, and witnesses said police beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks. The government said at least one person was killed, while dissident groups and media reported up to eight dead.”
Even knowing that the consequences of its actions can have no positive outcome, the junta escalates the confrontation and resorts to violent suppression that can only fan the flames and bring more attention from the rest of the world. Not to repeat what I’ve already said, but this is an immature strategy, even from a junta.
A similar conclusion can be drawn from seeing the headlines of the New York City tabloids this week, vilifying the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When we spend so much energy making Ahmadinejad, and by inference Iran, an evil enemy, aren’t we encouraging and supporting the efforts of the current administration to pursue a policy of escalation with the possible consequence of another disastrous war? Although we now know that the administration’s goal in Iraq was not to disarm it of weapons of mass destruction, we still do not know what was the true goal. To avoid a similar sequence of events with mass fatalities, it would be helpful to understand this as rationally and fully as we can.
Tags: burma, immaturity, iran, Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad, myanmar, nyc, philosophy