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Interesting.
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It’s very disturbing that such incidents are happening pretty often. As if Nigerian government doesn’t have any control or any intention to control the northern region.
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With the Myanmar situation not looking to ease anytime soon, one question I always have is:
With all the condemnation the external parties have for the Junta actions, the inability to take any action essentially agrees with what China said (as much as I sympathize with the Burmese especially my friends who are based there trying to make sense of whether to stay or leave and my customers who became friends), that it is essentially a domestic matter.
From civil wars in the middle east, to just Russia walking into Crimea, an Ukrainian territory to this Burmese issue, when is it considered appropriate for just talk and sanctions and when is it appropriate for external military action like in some parts of middle east? Not an easy decision isn’t it as much as we know that talking is not going to help.
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Yeah. There must be sensitivities about western governments getting involved coming across as asserting colonial influence again. If you’re looking to unite the population, perhaps that’s worth trying?!
I do think that this aspect does cause countries to pause and hold back in circumstances where they might otherwise be more ready to intervene on humanitarian grounds. I can imagine the UK thinking…“have we left it long enough?”
Presumably it’s being raised at the UN Security Council? Is China blocking any intervention?
Its not just about western on eastern, like my question is more broad, like when Russia walked into Crimea a number of years ago, I was like, surely someone will act because its an outright invasion to me but we all know what happened, nothing happened and Crimea is basically now Russian territory. And my broad question is, when then there was no military action in Crimea from for example the US or the EU or the NATO but yet there was in some parts of the middle east? As much as no one would admit it, the brutal answer probably is that there was simply nothing to gain and so there were no actions but plenty to gain or lose in the middle east, thats why there was? Then its pretty hypocritical isn’t it, all these talks about human rights blah blah blah and asking them to stop, which they would not have even started if they bothered about differing views. And yes China and Russia I think voted against some motion in the UN council (i think something along the lines of issuing a statement or something…as if it helps) I believed calling it a domestic issue.
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Yes, I agree with you although the other factor in not perhaps taking action with the Crimea situation when countries acted against Iraq and Afghanistan is that Russia is a whole different fish kettle. The same with China.
Turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in Saudi and Qatar, for example, is almost entirely financial and geopolitical interests at play. Turning a blind eye to illegal annexations by Russia is simply because they’re one of the big boys.
I can’t think of a single conflict in the last 50 years or so that the UN, NATO, US, UK or whoever has got involved in that has involved standing up to a country it didn’t dwarf militarily.
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Regarding Russia and Crimea, one factor to consider is that during the time of the USSR, when Ukraine and Russia were part of the same political entity (in other terms, when the Ukraine was Russia’s vassal within the USSR), Crimea was bureaucratically displaced from Russia to Ukraine. It was absolute nonsense at the time, as Crimea is historic Russian soil. People speak Russian and consider themselves Russian.
So, when Russia invaded Crimea, they certainly set a dangerous precedent, but everyone knew that there would be zero resistance from inside Crimea, that many people were glad to see the former error rectified, and that Ukraine had zero historical legitimacy to keep Crimea.
This I think led to the West’s passivity at the time. And by the way, you don’t military aggress a power like Russia. They have the nuclear bombs, it’s too dangerous.
Anyway, military intervention is very rarely the best answer to a political problem. Any large-scale war causes much more damage than the problem it was supposed to solve. Best is to stay well clear of any military answer, and to apply other means of pressure.
Economic sanctions for instance are already frightening enough to convince a nation to stay quiet: many tens of thousands of people * died in Iraq during the ten years between the two Gulf wars, mostly children and fragile people, due to economic sanctions applied by the western allied nations to this country. The damage to the country’s economy was crushing.
(* that’s a conservative take on it, here is a link to an article which says that the most serious studies’ estimates go up to 300k for children only! https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/hard-look-iraq-sanctions/)
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@Hope.in.your.heart I don’t think the Western silence/inaction regarding Russian invasion and subsequent annexation of Crimea is due to the Russia’s historic or legal claim over that land. It’s simply because The West could do nothing.
@gasband All military interventions/invasions are misguided and devastating. But The West is reluctant to enforce even a meaningful sanction. So far the sanctions are against the top Junta personnel and their business. But those business can easily bypass the sanction with some shell companies.
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Just to add. It would be disastrous if there is a military response and I don’t think that would solve anything. My question is more about after seeing so many sad cases, from Asia to Africa to Europe, whats the point of sanctions and condemnation? I mean, yes that should be done, but it changes nothing. Nothing has changed in North Korea. The Burmese Junta when questioned about the sanctions just casually said, we will just learn to live with lesser friends. And that is why I mentioned when China mentioned that it is a domestic issue, to me, it can sound cruel and unfeeling but the more I ponder, its true, isn’t it? Because there is not a single damn thing that anyone else can do, other than talk and condemnation and sanctions, will change the situation at least in the short term.
Sorry for ranting, one of those days from an unemployed person cause of the pandemic, looking at how this shit covid is causing harm to the world and yet people still can add more shit with actions like this.
Tomorrow will be better.
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Meanwhile…
The best news that came out of this is the 2 bombers were the only ones who died. Got married 6 months ago just to commit this stupidity?
On wedding day:
Wife: where are you bringing me for honeymoon?
Husband: what you have in mind?
Wife: Surprise me
Husband: Ok, I promise it will be a blast
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Tragedy in Taiwan with the worst train disaster in 70 years…50 dead so far and hundreds injured with more to come as some are found with incomplete body parts…its really sad…Taiwan is a country I go to 4-5 times a year in the last few years…beautiful country, beautiful friendly people.
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Maybe not so important, but brilliant nonetheless
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Cool
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