Update From Thailand

Sawadee, everyone. I was sent to Thailand on May 3 to participate in a regularly scheduled annual military exercise. As I flew in, I didn't realize that 30,000 feet below, tens of thousands of people in Burma were perishing in a cyclone. As soon as I arrived at headquarters, I was assigned to the Burma relief mission.

Burma is a very closed country and mistrustful of others. For days they refused all offers of aid and would not allow aid workers into the country. Eventualy, they began to allow a small amount of relief supplies into the country, but only as far as Rangoon airport. Foreign planes are required to unload their cargo and leave immediately. Internal distribution is done only by the Burmese government. There are reports that labels are changed on the supplies so people will think they were supplied by the Burmese government. Reports of donated goods being sold or sent to army warehouses. The worst reports say that aid is only going to communities that the government deems loyal.

Because of the exercise, there is a Navy task force carrying Marines in the vicinity. A task force like this was used to help after the tsunami a few years ago and last November after a cyclone hit Bangladesh. They were moved around the Malaysian peninsula and are ready to ferry supplies quickly to the most devastated areas, but we won't do it until we have permission from the Burmese government. Right now a French cargo ship loaded with supplies has been denied permission to dock.

I wish the "Code Pink" ladies who are protesting the Marines up in Berkley, California could see how many volunteered to go into an unfriendly country where death and disease are all around, just to deliver relief supplies to those in need. Unfortunately, none have been permitted to go. Why are we working so hard to give relief supplies to such an unwilling recipient? 1. The people really need it. 2. Much of the world thinks the US is the cause of most of what's wrong with the world and we want to change that perception. 3. Burma has been shut off from us for two generations and this may be an opportunity to open a dialog (even though we disapprove of their government).

There's a lot more, but I wanted to keep this short. I'd give you some impressions of Thailand, but I haven't seen any of it. All I've done is work and sleep. It feels like Florida in the summer. Heat, humidity, and spectacular thunder storms that mess with your satellite communications.