The contrast of Afghanistan with Burma is stark.
The noble cause in Afghanistan takes the life of another Australian soldier. The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Defence Minister:
Mr Fitzgibbon said the Government was determined to ensure that Afghanistan and the border areas around Pakistan would not be again used as a “breeding ground” for terrorist attacks.
This concern manages to overlook the obvious. The Pashtun lands would cease to be fertile soil for terrorism if the invaders would leave and the drone and helicopter attacks ceased. We are going to be told, hand on heart, that the additional Australian troops are needed to protect the upcoming Afghan elections, to promote democracy. As usual there will be mission creep, and they will stay, until the noble imperial cause has won the day through violence, murder and destruction and the suffering of the Afghan people long after the murders have left.
The Australian Government, meanwhile, remains mute and compromised on the cause of Burmese Democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi remains in detention, and others protesters remain incarcerated by the dictatorship.
Here is where the internet may make a difference. Avaaz.org has called for people to support a petition at their website. They say:
Risking danger to speak out for their jailed friends, Burmese activists this week demanded the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and called on the world to help. As the global economic crisis makes aid flows more essential, Burma’s generals are becoming more vulnerable to international pressure, but we need a flood of petition signatures to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to make this a top priority.
Aung San Suu Kyi is the international face of the struggle for democracy in Burma. She has been detained over and over again since 1988. She is now under house arrest and is allowed no contact with the outside world.
But growing international pressure is working — In December, 112 former Presidents and Prime Ministers from 50 countries sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging him to press for the release of all political prisoners, and 20 political prisoners were released in February after a United Nations envoy visited the country.
Sources now say that the military regime is fearful of this unified and massive online call to the UN — over 160 Burma exile and solidarity groups in 24 countries are participating in the campaign. But it will take all of us and all our friends signing this petition to get Mr Ban’s attention. Avaaz has done it before for Burma – we can do it again.
It is a long process, requiring patience and dedication, but we are more likely to achieve democracy by supporting campaign of nonviolence in Burma than the campaign of violence in Afghanistan.
ELSEWHERE:
The Guardian’s Julian Borger reports from Afghanistan that in real terms NATO is losing. The American allies, perhaps with exceptions such as Australia, are hoping that the workable military strategy involves an exit strategy. Tariq Ali, on Democracy Now, expressed the opinion that it was sheer craziness to destablize Pakistan as part of the Afghanistan venture.
On the situation in Burma, there is no news.
There would appear to be a profound misapprehension in ABC Online Headline: “Government Urged to Sell Afghan War as Death Toll Rises”. There is something lunatic about comparing the death toll of the Australians with other contingents, such as the Canadians and British. Aside from those considerations the government has not explained, nor had to, or expected to, explained in detail the mission of the Australian deployment. Save us from the lunatic explanations, as proffered by the Foreign Minister.