I did too. I sent more for Katrina, but I'm waiting for some type of statement or confirmation that they are actually accepting aid now before I send more. If I can find out which relief organization is being allowed in...


>They already are. According to a BBC report I heard on NPR yesterday evening, people are "desperate for food and shelter." Bodies are piling up by the thousands and they can't even do anything about it.
>
>I sent $100, although it's a pittance.
>
>>The sad thing is that the people will suffer all the more for it.
>>
>>
>>>>I think this is a case of your paranoia over-ruling good sense Dragan (probably justified from your prior experience with unwanted assitance aka interference from
>>>>other countries). But this is a national disaster - they need the aid. Also, I wouldn't put it past the populace to take advantage of U.S. troops onsite to spur trouble even though the U.S. troops would be unable to intervene.
>>>>
>>>>Look at 2006 alone:
>>>>
>>>>http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/July/20060712172520berehellek0.4737207.html
>>>>
>>>>Now, if the U.S. was talking about deploying troops for other purposes then I would agree. That hasn't happened though and this was designated strictly humantarian aid, nothing else.
>>>
>>>Like I said, I never was a junta, and I don't know if I can be paranoid enough to understand their thinking :).
>>>
>>>The very ease with which any such concerns can be written off as paranoid makes them sort of valid. There's the humiliation of the local authorities who are shown to be obviously incapable of dealing with the disaster (as they are - what matters is that it becomes obvious), there are all sorts of psychological effects when you get foreign uniforms on your soil, all the way down to cargo cults. I'm not saying that would be bad in case of Myanmar, just trying to explain, by way of reading my paranoid instincts (or my ways of recognizing a Stalinist mind), why are the generals refusing aid.