With lots of news, I haven't commented much lately.
I'm middle of the road on the abortion issue. Yes, Republicans, I want abortions to be legal. No, Democrats, I don't want them to be too convenient to get. Something to make everyone mad at me.
My heart is with Ukraine, but the West made Russia pretty angry. Again, something to make everyone mad at me.
And so it is with Myanmar, formerly called Burma.
History time: Aung San Suu Kyi's father was the George Washington of Burma. With the land just emerging as a real nation, he got whacked. That made him a martyr. His daughter became like a fairy princess. While being wildly popular, she was completely talentless in helping her country while she was in charge.
Last year her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won re-election, and was on the verge of forming a government. The military tried to negotiate with Suu Kyi, to maintain power. She said "I won, you lost, get lost". The military called the election as being stolen, and chased the NLD out of office.
Suu Kyi was so popular, her NLD could have defeated anybody. They're basically Communists, right down to the red flag. The main opposition is a group of capitalists who strongly support the military. And then there are several ethnic regional parties, each popular in their own area.
Myanmar's population is perhaps half Burman, towards the center of the country. Eastern and western Myanmar is populated with more than a dozen ethnic groups, such as Karen, Kachin, and Wu. These ethnic groups typically have their own ethnic armies and administrative structures. They are often fighting with each other, and with the central Burman military.
Suu Kyi's dad was in the process of uniting these people into one nation, when he was whacked. So the nation didn't really solidify as it could have. And the central government has been fighting a continuous civil war ever since. It was in this environment that last year's election was held.
While the election was held in an unstable environment, Suu Kyi's NLD was popular enough to win anyway. The world recognizes this, and has placed Myanmar's government under sanctions.
Suu Kyi's backers, the NUG (National Unity Government), has been pushing for the violent overthrow of the military government, making allies with existing ethnic militias, and forming new ones of their own. But Myanmar's "Tatmadaw" central military has been fighting a civil war for many decades. It is both powerful and well trained. The NUG government has very little hope of winning against them. All they are doing is making a bloody civil war that much bloodier.
Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? The central military government is trying to create this. They are trying to turn a previous round of "NCA" ceasefire agreements into a permanent peace. This would help the Tatmadow stay in government. This is while the NUG promotes warfare and brags about the numbers of Tatmadaw they've killed.
The Tatmadaw has a peace plan. It is time for peace.
Official government news site:
Nongovermental news sites:
With Joe Biden's "Ministry of Truth", foreign commentators will eventually be referring to American news the same way.