We offered 3 million dollars in aid. At the same time, our president's wife gave a press conference during which she made very negative statements about the Myanmar government.
Our president gave our country's highest civilian honor to an anti-government dissident who has been held under house arrest for decades. And also at the same time, we moved 3 warships into close proximity to their border.
You have to meet people where they are We sabotaged our own efforts to provide aid. How could we expect the Myanmar government to trust us, to allow us to come into their country when they are most vulnerable.
If we truly wanted to help their people, this was not the time to be aggressive. I do not claim that their government is OK, only that our approach to helping their people was fundamentally flawed and doomed to fail.
And why would they trust us to be so competent after our handling of hurricane Katrina. And how can they trust UN sponsored help when they see the UN as the puppet of our government. I don't say that all of this is true. But I do think that that is how they see it.
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