Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Financial Times
May 19, 2008 By John Burton and Amy Kazmin
"Take Notice" is the motto of the USS Essex, and Burma's military rulers - long said to fear a US military invasion to drive them from power - must be acutely aware of the US amphibious assault ship, with its helicopters and sophisticated landing craft, drifting near its shores.
For nearly a week the Essex and three other US vessels have waited 60 miles from the coast, hoping to deliver clean drinking water, medical aid and other much-needed relief supplies to up to 2.5m people in Burma's cyclone stricken Irrawaddy delta. France's naval vessel, Le Mistral, with about 1,500 tons of aid, is also waiting just outside Burma's territorial waters as is Britain's HMS Westminster.
With the Burmese junta rebuffing the ships' offers of aid and potentially valuable logistical help, frustration is growing among the US crews. "You spend a week working on contingency plans and then you are not allowed to help," said one junior naval officer. "This is the biggest pushback . . . we've ever received." Another seaman said: "It's like a punch in the stomach when a government stops us from helping."
Since the September 11 2001 attacks, the Essex and other Japan-based US naval ships have spent much of their time on humanitarian missions in south-east Asia - a display of "soft power" to counter anti-American feeling. Their biggest humanitarian operation was during the 2004 Asian tsunami.
"It's part of the global war on terror by promoting goodwill," said Lieutenant Colonel Scott E. Erdelatz, who helps lead a marine unit that provides aid.
But the Burmese regime's deep-seated suspicion of the US, and its intentions, has so far proven an insurmountable obstacle even for the well-equipped Essex, and its crew, to overcome.
Washington was once friendly with Burma's military rulers, maintaining good ties with the late General Ne Win, who seized power in a 1962 military coup and ruled for the next 26 years. In the 1970s and 1980s, his government received significant US counter-narcotics aid, including helicopters, crop-dusting aircraft and chemical defoliants, which the Burmese military then used in counter-insurgency operations against ethnic separatist rebels. Burmese army officers also went regularly to the US for training.
That all changed in 1988, after the army suppressed a huge pro-democracy uprising, killing an estimated 3,000 people, then ignored a 1990 landslide election victory won by the National League for Democracy, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Washington cut off aid to Burma, and imposed a gradually tightening noose of punitive trade, investment and financial sanctions, including barring Burma from taking loans from the World Bank and other multilateral institutions. Washington has also been stepping up funding for exiled Burmese dissidents seeking the overthrow of the junta.
Gen Than Shwe, the junta's powerful yet reclusive chief, is said to be deeply concerned about a US invasion to drive the generals from power - with this fear often cited as a reason for his shock relocation of the capital from Rangoon to remote central Burma in 2005.
And after last September's huge anti-government protests, the junta blamed the unrest on a Washington-financed plot to subvert the adoption of a new military sponsored constitution.
Despite this animosity, some within Burma's military establishment are thought to covet closer US ties. "Even though today the Burmese government tends to see America as their number one potential threat, this memory of friendlier times during the cold war is still very much there," said Thant Myint-U, a Burmese historian and author.
"Many of them have a desire to normalise relations with the US, especially if it doesn't involve any real compromise with the opposition."
Since the cyclone, the Burmese generals have allowed more than 20 US military C-130s to fly into Rangoon airport with relief supplies. But allowing US troops, boats and helicopters deep into Burmese territory seems to be a step too far.
Commander Dave Bossert, captain of the USS Harpers Ferry, said US troops would not try to deliver aid without the Burmese go-ahead. "We either have diplomatic clearance or we don't go in."
Yet a sense of foreboding is growing among the ranks. "Every day we wait offshore, another 5,000 people die," said a marine officer.
--Burton reported from the USS Essex off the Burmese coast, and Kazmin from Bangkok
May 19, 2008 By John Burton and Amy Kazmin
"Take Notice" is the motto of the USS Essex, and Burma's military rulers - long said to fear a US military invasion to drive them from power - must be acutely aware of the US amphibious assault ship, with its helicopters and sophisticated landing craft, drifting near its shores.
For nearly a week the Essex and three other US vessels have waited 60 miles from the coast, hoping to deliver clean drinking water, medical aid and other much-needed relief supplies to up to 2.5m people in Burma's cyclone stricken Irrawaddy delta. France's naval vessel, Le Mistral, with about 1,500 tons of aid, is also waiting just outside Burma's territorial waters as is Britain's HMS Westminster.
With the Burmese junta rebuffing the ships' offers of aid and potentially valuable logistical help, frustration is growing among the US crews. "You spend a week working on contingency plans and then you are not allowed to help," said one junior naval officer. "This is the biggest pushback . . . we've ever received." Another seaman said: "It's like a punch in the stomach when a government stops us from helping."
Since the September 11 2001 attacks, the Essex and other Japan-based US naval ships have spent much of their time on humanitarian missions in south-east Asia - a display of "soft power" to counter anti-American feeling. Their biggest humanitarian operation was during the 2004 Asian tsunami.
"It's part of the global war on terror by promoting goodwill," said Lieutenant Colonel Scott E. Erdelatz, who helps lead a marine unit that provides aid.
But the Burmese regime's deep-seated suspicion of the US, and its intentions, has so far proven an insurmountable obstacle even for the well-equipped Essex, and its crew, to overcome.
Washington was once friendly with Burma's military rulers, maintaining good ties with the late General Ne Win, who seized power in a 1962 military coup and ruled for the next 26 years. In the 1970s and 1980s, his government received significant US counter-narcotics aid, including helicopters, crop-dusting aircraft and chemical defoliants, which the Burmese military then used in counter-insurgency operations against ethnic separatist rebels. Burmese army officers also went regularly to the US for training.
That all changed in 1988, after the army suppressed a huge pro-democracy uprising, killing an estimated 3,000 people, then ignored a 1990 landslide election victory won by the National League for Democracy, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Washington cut off aid to Burma, and imposed a gradually tightening noose of punitive trade, investment and financial sanctions, including barring Burma from taking loans from the World Bank and other multilateral institutions. Washington has also been stepping up funding for exiled Burmese dissidents seeking the overthrow of the junta.
Gen Than Shwe, the junta's powerful yet reclusive chief, is said to be deeply concerned about a US invasion to drive the generals from power - with this fear often cited as a reason for his shock relocation of the capital from Rangoon to remote central Burma in 2005.
And after last September's huge anti-government protests, the junta blamed the unrest on a Washington-financed plot to subvert the adoption of a new military sponsored constitution.
Despite this animosity, some within Burma's military establishment are thought to covet closer US ties. "Even though today the Burmese government tends to see America as their number one potential threat, this memory of friendlier times during the cold war is still very much there," said Thant Myint-U, a Burmese historian and author.
"Many of them have a desire to normalise relations with the US, especially if it doesn't involve any real compromise with the opposition."
Since the cyclone, the Burmese generals have allowed more than 20 US military C-130s to fly into Rangoon airport with relief supplies. But allowing US troops, boats and helicopters deep into Burmese territory seems to be a step too far.
Commander Dave Bossert, captain of the USS Harpers Ferry, said US troops would not try to deliver aid without the Burmese go-ahead. "We either have diplomatic clearance or we don't go in."
Yet a sense of foreboding is growing among the ranks. "Every day we wait offshore, another 5,000 people die," said a marine officer.
--Burton reported from the USS Essex off the Burmese coast, and Kazmin from Bangkok