that many kossacks probably got too:
Moon Nay Li has seen things that most of us can't imagine. Five-year-olds rounded up and murdered. Feet amputated in the jungle by candlelight with no anesthesia. A grandmother gang-raped and tortured by soldiers in a church sanctuary for three days -- that happened just three weeks ago.
Moon Nay Li is risking her life to document the human rights abuses being waged by the military of the Southeast Asian country of Burma against an ethnic minority called the Kachin. A Kachin herself, Moon Nay Li has seen Burma's military systematically rape, torture, and murder to "clear the land" for big corporations to harvest the rich natural resources of her homeland.
Despite these horrors, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just announced that American corporations can join the frenzy in Burma -- the U.S. is suspending economic sanctions on Burma that had previously blocked American companies from doing business there.
Just sign a petition to Hillary Clinton, the lady who first said "corporations are just people," and all the horrors will go away.
That would sure be swell.
Maybe you would like to meet an old Vietnam vet who has been there again and again and again below the fold.
I haven't seen Sonny Jurgensen for many years now. Hope his head isn't on a stick like I used to greet him.
Sonny was an "antique dealer." I put antique in quotes because much of what he picked up in the jungles of Myanmar and other places was not antique by most any definition because stuff doesn't tend to last long in jungles.
When I was at antique shows and would mention something about Sonny people would say, "You mean that Vietnam veteran?"
A little funny that because Sonny never talked about Vietnam unless asked. He told me his stay was rather short. Went out on a patrol day or two after he arrived and was wounded. When he recovered, Sonny went out on patrol again and woke up in a hospital in The Philippines. And that was it.
Not a lot to talk about.
But he did have a lot to talk about from Myanmar.
Sonny told of having family heirlooms pushed into his hands by the natives in rebel-held areas. The people would even refuse payment when he would ask if they didn't want to keep them. Sonny would be told that the people expected to be killed along with their families by the fine government of Myanmar. Just because of who they were and wanted to live on in some way even if it was through some small momentos in a foreign land.
Though he met no Americans there, Sonny said he saw lots of evidence of the American government in Burma, I mean Myanmar - primarily the CIA, even when we had no official relations with the government. Myanmar was a hub of the illicit drug trade. Maybe that's where Ollie North got his drugs so he could finance our patriotic war on Nicaragua.
If you want to sign the petition to Hillary Clinton, I am all for it. I would applaud you. I don't think it will do any good, but, hey, it might. There have been some momentous changes in Myanmar.
Some day there may even be changes in America. I mean good changes. I am getting more and more pessimistic but then I am old and a Vietnam veteran and I have seen too much to be optimistic.
Maybe you will try to understand why I am not voting again for Obama and will always suspect the elites and overlords, whether billionaires or middle class. Give me ordinary working class people anytime.
Best, Terry