Radical Avenue

Laura Bush has been pretty rough on the Burmese military junta recently. She threatened additional sanctions if things don’t improve there in the next couple of days. She has also called for the removal of Burmese General Than Shwe and his regime. You go girl. I rather hoped that her husband would have more to say about the pro-democracy Saffron Revolution. Maybe Mr. Bush could go back to New Orleans and make another speech from Jackson Square. He could throw a saffron robe over the statue of Andrew Jackson. It would make a great photo-op. Oh well, I guess as Americans we have to take leadership wherever we can get it.

Perhaps Laura is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Hillary Clinton. She may be looking to enhance her foreign policy credentials in anticipation of a run for the US Senate. Then she could run for president in 2016. We should all be sick of Hillary by then. We’ll be longing for the good ol’ days, but Jen and Barbara won’t be ready yet. Someone will need to maintain the Clinton/Bush dynasty. When Laura’s done she can hand the keys to the kingdom over to Chelsea.

It’s more likely that George Bush just doesn’t care much about Burma. The CEO of Exxon probably told him that it would take too long to get enough oil wells built there before he’d see a solid return on his investment. Besides, the whole mess is a distraction from the President’s battle against his true sworn enemy, the Democratic Party, or the Democrat Party as he likes to call them. Mr. Bush is likely in the midst of scheduling a massive terrorism alert around the time of next summer’s Democratic convention, or should I say the Democrat convention.

Of course the ever vigilant Congress has certainly done its part to recognize the plight of repressed people around the world. This week they introduced a resolution condemning the genocide of Armenians… in 1915. The Burmese generals must be shaking in their boots over the likelihood that 92 years from now the US Congress will pass a non-binding resolution scolding them. What’s next, a resolution condemning the Thuggees of 19th century India? At least that would be the correct continent, and, after all, those Thuggees were seriously nasty people.

Burma, Myanmar, Burmese military, democracy, Burmese revolution, Laura Bush, Burmese junta, General Than Shwe, Congress, Democrats, Thuggees