Douche Bags Of The Week: Burma's Junta

Source: Associated Press

U.S. Navy ships are leaving Myanmar after failing to get the junta's permission to unload aid to "ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands" of cyclone survivors, the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said Tuesday.

Word of the aborted mercy mission comes even as the United Nations warned that a month after the cyclone swept through Myanmar, more than 1 million people still don't have adequate food, water or shelter and junta policies are hindering relief efforts.

Adm. Timothy Keating ordered the vessels to leave the Myanmar area Thursday, after the U.S. made at least 15 attempts to convince Myanmar's leaders to allow ships, helicopters and landing craft to offload their aid.

Myanmar's state media has said that it feared a U.S. invasion aimed at seizing the country's oil deposits. But the junta has also forbidden use of military helicopters from friendly neighboring nations, which are vital in rushing supplies to isolated survivors.

Keating, in a news release from Honolulu, said the USS Essex and accompanying ships would return if Myanmar's leaders change their minds.

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Stories have emerged of survivors going days without food or being forced to drink from dirty canals. The Associated Press has interviewed survivors in recent days who still have not received any government or international assistance and turned to the country's revered monks for help.

Human rights groups have also accused Myanmar's military rulers of kicking homeless cyclone survivors out of camps, schools and monasteries and sending them back to their devastated villages to help restore the country's agriculture sector.

"It's unconscionable for Burma's generals to force cyclone victims back to their devastated homes," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Claiming a 'return to normalcy' is no basis for returning people to greater misery and possible death."

I lose sleep if I hurt someone's feelings. What type of people can let millions suffer by their actions? Why is hanging on to power so important? How does power change from being in charge to help people to helping one's self?

These insecure, power hungry, selfish losers are my Douche Bags of the Week.
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