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At Large
Burmese Briefing
The president doesn’t know what he’s getting into.
It has been well publicized that President Barack Obama often does not attend the regular White House morning intelligence briefings. Instead, we’re told, he prefers to read written summaries, presumably later in the day or while dashing off somewhere on Air Force One. Whatever the president’s actual study and briefing schedule, it is apparent that he is not an avid student of foreign political/economic affairs.
The explanation has been given that Mr. Obama is a “people person” who prefers to have his impressions created by direct contact rather than detailed analysis prepared by faceless intelligence analysts. With the foregoing in mind, one wonders exactly what Barack Obama knew about Burma before he arrived there to lecture his hosts on what their country needs to do in order to make a success of their struggle for democracy.
Reference to the ethnic diversity of Burma was included in President Obama’s speech to his favorite audience — students. But did he really understand the complications of a nation in which more than 60% of the citizens are of one ethnicity (Burman) and the rest made up of 135 distinct ethnic groups (many living on a subsistence level) divided for governmental classification into 8 major ethnic races? One of the major ambitions for most all these groups is a desire for ethnic autonomy. To emphasize and protect their individual objectives, many of these groupings have their own militias. Knowledge of this background is essential to begin to comprehend the complexity of the region’s politics.
To begin with, one would hope that President Obama had been briefed on the relationship that the United States military and intelligence service had with the Kachin tribal fighters going back to their work with the American OSS Detachment 101 during World War II. It may seem ancient history to some, but to the Kachin these lessons of the past are still important. The Americans of the OSS employed their Kachin comrades in gathering intelligence and harassing the occupying Japanese forces. In fact, it was these and other ethnic minorities that provided the core of the anti-Japanese resistance in Burma.
Part of this same historical reality is that the majority Burman population actually cooperated with the invading Japanese. These things are not forgotten by the minorities. In fact, Aung San Suu Kyi’s late father, the famous General Aung Sang, rallied his Burmese troops to assist the Japanese invasion. It wasn’t until later in the war when the tide was turning that an indigenous OSS intelligence agent guided General Aung Sang and his troops to shift his allegiance back to Britain’s General Bill Slim in India. It’s a tale that President Obama most certainly would have heard about had he any contact with Kachin leaders several weeks ago — which in fact he did not have.
General Aung San would once again shift his allegiance when he led the battle after the war’s end to remove British colonial rule. There is no doubt that his now equally famous daughter Aung San Suu Kyi’s political and physical life was saved by the memory of the General’s own earlier opportunistic exploits. Her perception as a “princess” has been created by history as much as the adoration of her political followers. Her popular appellation, “The Lady,” derives from this. The Burmese have a princess because they created one. The shifting scene of Burmese political life today values such continuity as much as it fears it, and she is careful not to overreach.
Then there is the suspended hydroelectric power project in the state of Kachin known as the Myitsone dam. This multi-billion dollar Chinese construction project was aimed at providing an economical power source to China through the damming of the Irawaddy River. The lack of substantive benefit to the resident Kachin people made it a less than attractive development to them and everything had to be halted part of the way through. Of course there is also that old animosity toward the central Burmese government that goes back to WWII. The several thousand-man Kachin Independent Army is still the strongest of the ethnic militaries always ready to take the field against the much larger Burmese Armed Forces — and as recently as last year has done so.
The truth is that the Chinese have been able to take advantage of lower paid displaced ethnic minority Burmese labor. The question arises as to whether Obama realizes he is placing the United States in a position of interference in an area that long has been, if not a sphere of Chinese influence, certainly a convenient resource-rich neighbor easily exploitable through its long border area with China. Encouraged by Hillary Clinton’s personal friendship with Aung San Suu Kyi and George Soros’ longtime interest in gaining a foothold in the mineral rich potential of Burma, President Obama has taken the first steps to exerting American influence in both the political and economic life of this complicated Asian country.
Is this what the American president meant last fall when he announced his intention to “pivot” U.S. interests to the Far East and away from Middle Eastern conflicts? Certainly Beijing does not look kindly on Washington involvement in an area China has long cultivated. The chances are that the Obama Administration, enamored of the heroic story of The Lady’s struggle for democracy in Burma, has leaped rather naively into a portion of Asia as complicated and danger-filled as any in the region.
Barack Obama is attempting to make his mark in a part of the world he sees as less of a problem than that with which he has been struggling in the Middle East. He has been encouraged to see the future democratization of Burma as a potential major policy accomplishment. His aim to be acclaimed as a great peacemaker internationally fits this targeting perfectly. The problem is that Burma is just not the safe and innocent object that he views it as being.
Whether because of (1) the Chinese perception that the U.S. is involving itself where it has no rightful place, or (2) the ongoing conflicts of the mountainous northern states with the Burman majority’s government instruments, or (3) the pivotal role of the country’s military structure and its authoritarian social class, Burma is hardly a trouble-free part of the world. Washington should involve itself only in a peripheral manner unless it truly wishes to pivot to challenge Beijing’s broader ambitions.
About the Author
George H. Wittman writes a weekly column on international affairs for The American Spectator online. He was the founding chairman of the National Institute for Public Policy.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (29) | Leave a comment
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TLP| 11.30.12 @ 6:59AM
Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".
Read the New Rules.
It would seem, by the look of Today's Menu, that The Contest is sorely needed.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 7:04AM
This is how BAD today's lineup is.
I'm the first poster on practically everyone of these Lackluster Phoned in so-called "Stories".
Really?
I can hardly wait til Monday.
The Larch.
The Larch.
The Larch.
The Larch.
The Larch.
Pecos Pete| 11.30.12 @ 7:17AM
Today is worse than yesterday's "New Yorker" book reviews, etc.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:37AM
Then I will assume that you will be Honouring us over at The Contest, this Morning.
Please Read The Rules, as their has been a slight Tweak.
Occam's Tool| 11.30.12 @ 6:30PM
Mount Everest, the Mountain with the largest "T*&%TS" in the world.
Obama is a blithering nincompoop. My gun cabinet for my gold and pistols came in. Soon I will be looking at how to go off the grid with power. No, I'm not assuming a total breakdown RCV. I am simply assuming that electric costs are gonna go up.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 7:25PM
You've gotta cut RCV loose.
He's one of THEM.
He is not your Friend.
He is for everything that will make life Unbearable for your beautiful Children.
Don't ever forget that.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:32AM
I do find that this Story has seemed to Accidently veer in to a couple of Interesting thingamajiggers.
For instance: The Chinese are hiring the Burmese because they're a source of CHEAP LABOUR.
Hello?
If we're having the Chinese make everything, because they can do it Cheaper, and those same Chinese are hiring the Burmese to do the work, because they work for Less than the Chinese.............
Why don't we get the Burmese to do everything, and cut out the Middle Asian?
I also think that the Picture at the top of the page is very revealing, in as much as is shows that Any Man - even a well known Member of the Chicago Gay Batthouse Scene - is much Happier in the Company of a beautiful, feminine, gentle flower.
Especially when what's back home, looks like it needs at least One More Operation to make the Transformation complete, and would not look Out Of Place, if it had two or three Wrestling Title Belts slung over its shoulder.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:32AM
Did I mention that this Woman looks TERRIFIED?
Cats1cowboy| 11.30.12 @ 3:51PM
Yes, she does.
JimH| 11.30.12 @ 9:00AM
I think the Prez is guided by the movie Animal House. Whenever there is a crisis what does he do? Road trip. Next he’ll advise that we start drinking heavily.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 10:14AM
Also: There are 8 Comments, and 6 of them are mine.
Bob K| 11.30.12 @ 11:00AM
In your zeal to promote your "game" for this weekend you missed an opportunity to make a useful comment.
Did you notice the remark about George Soros's long time interest in gaining a foothold in Burma's "mineral rich potential" and that Hilary Clinton is encouraging Obama to expand America's interest in the region and that China does not seem to like it?
Stephie| 11.30.12 @ 11:44AM
Whats up with this game thing? I find it annoying Tim that you aren't speaking on the subject!
TeaPartyNow| 11.30.12 @ 1:31PM
Perhaps TLP has finally snapped. Wouldn't surprise me, the guy has been a fruit loop all along.
& now it's losing its little mind. Oh well...
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 3:01PM
Whatta you wanna know?
Go to Wednesday's Story on "The Honourable Backup". Scroll down to my name, read the Rules and the Prize List, and Enter The Contest.
We'd love to have you.
Stan Redmond| 12.1.12 @ 5:59PM
SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM
Rich D| 11.30.12 @ 11:45AM
More evidence that this impostor is way beneath his pay grade.
TeaPartyNow| 11.30.12 @ 1:27PM
If you actually believe that Chairman O doesn't know what is going on, then he has got you right where he needs you to be. & for your sake, I hope that it is at least quick & painless for you.
He doesn't fool me for a second. & I pity you.
Purp| 11.30.12 @ 2:02PM
"Washington should involve itself only in a peripheral manner unless it truly wishes to pivot to challenge Beijing's broader ambitions." - So you leave the actual value of the engagement to the end. The President is engaging the World, especially Asian nations as a national security bulwark against rising Chinese power. Is that beyond your comprehension?
The President, with Hillary Clinton's assistance, has a coherent, cogent and forward looking foreign policy, where American leadership is central and in our own interests as the "Exceptional and Indispensable Nation" ...
You have a problem with that? Or you just don't understand the nuances of foreign policy?
Cats1cowboy| 11.30.12 @ 3:54PM
National Security needs to start at Our borders.
CJW| 11.30.12 @ 5:38PM
Purp the Village Idiot posted the following after the elections:
"Purp| 11.8.12 @ 10:35AM
"The Lord rules, not Obama." - CORRECT!
The Lord works in mysterious ways... and this is something for the faithful to contemplate in the way the see the world:
Hurricane Sandy and Chris Christie was the Lord's way of pressing his thumb on the scale to tilt in the direction of President Obama. It was His punishment of Republicans for their lying and trying to cheat (Voter Suppression) their way to political victory, while espousing faith, freedom and constitutional credentials."
So purpie believes God killed over 100 persons and destroyed millions of dollars of property to help Obama win.
In Sept Purpie wrote that Amassador Stevens was at fault and caused his death.
Purpie also wrote that the unborn are biological entities not deserving of protection until God allows them to be born. (What does this mean?)
Purpie represents the Loon Left that should be mocked and ridiculed, and not engaged in conversation
Stan Redmond| 12.1.12 @ 6:01PM
Don't foget his claim to "work for" a fortune ten and makes millions in high tech. Maybe he's the president of HP
Purp| 11.30.12 @ 2:03PM
Oh- perhaps it's Obama Derangement Syndrome - he can do no right in your eyes. I get it.
Ronsch| 11.30.12 @ 3:43PM
Purp you really need to get your head screwed on straight....What part of "weakened" US military and throwing your allies under the bus part of NerObama's genius foreign policy do you not get?
The players in Asia are not in the least bit interested in stopping the Chinese communists, nor do they have the military means. Even with our weak backing (that is a laugh unless the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to take over a country, then your idol will jump right in and create an Asian Spring.) The Kachin is a sizable military force, but right now it is all they can do to hold their own against Burma's government and protect their people. Let's see, then we have Vietnam...Forget that, and no matter how many Hmong are left, we through them under the bus after the Vietnam War. Thailand is barely holding on, and has a fairly good tourist trade 9especially businessmen), Laos...well, that says enough. South Korea has it's own problems dealing with the North, and japan still has no large scale military...The JDF (Japanese Defense Force) is fairly good at dealing with internal terrorist threats, but the US has provided military muscle for so long they would really have to move hard and fast to beef up capabilities.
China has an active duty military of approximately 2.9 million with call up reserves (military service is mandatory for 18 year old through 49 yoa) of another 300 million.
You tell me what would stop that juggernaut sport?
Cats1cowboy| 11.30.12 @ 3:50PM
The man is either a clueless dupe or a malevolent charlatan.
Jane Chingo| 11.30.12 @ 4:43PM
Orwell had Burma pegged a long time ago. Go read.
fmm| 12.1.12 @ 12:06AM
O has given new life to the phrase Ugly American.
Stan Redmond| 12.1.12 @ 6:08PM
I still maintain Obama is a stupid man.
What is dangerous about that is he substitutes blind ideology for intelligence. His ideology is Chairman Mao's, Marx, Alinsky, and FM Davis. He would not be visiting Burma or the region, and making a fool out of himself, if it did not advance his PERSONAL ideology. I shudder to think what it is. What do Warren Buffet, General Electric, and George Soros have to gain from this?
PJ| 12.1.12 @ 10:06PM
Money & power.