Since I will probably be writing a great deal over the coming months about Burma (aka Union of Myanmar --- I will use Burma as it is easier to type and UoM looks like University of Maryland, with which I have no affiliation), I feel compelled to disclose certain background items so that you, the reader, can make up your own mind concerning "where I am coming from", to use the vernacular.
First, there are certain things that make me slightly crazy. Just as some people in love affairs make others crazy in those same love affairs, some topics make me crazy when I write about them. And just as in a passionate love affair, you cannot stay away from the people that make you crazy because you are deeply passionate about them. I cannot stay away from these topics because I care very, very deeply about them even though they make me slightly crazy. Make sense so far?
OK, the topics that make me slightly crazy are (in no particular order):
1. Nuclear weapons, nuclear war and most things nuclear
2. Radical Islam, al Qa'ida, and terrorism (particularly IEDs and vehicle bombs)
3. Burma, SLORC, the NLD and Daw Aung Suu Kyi
4. The former Soviet Union, Old-Style Communism, and traditional Marxist-Leninist Doctrine (may be strongly related to 1 above)
Now, joy of joys, I find that all are slowly converging into a coherent, monstrous whole, otherwise known as my own worst personal nightmare. It is as if time has slowed to a crawl, and I am walking in a large vat of clear Jello, trying to run. I see a situation developing that I cannot control, and that I feel is very, very dangerous. So, for the time being, all I can do is sound the alarm and write about these fears (perhaps as a way of confronting them head on). I swear I have ingested nothing stronger than coffee.
Now the obverse of things that make me slightly crazy are those which have a calming effect on my psyche. For some reason which I cannot explain, China and things Chinese have always had a calming effect upon me. Perhaps it is their earthy pragmatism. Perhaps it is their utter Confucian rationality without pretense. Perhaps it is their "straight-ahead" economic development theories since Premier Deng Xiaoping took over from the crazy Maoists (I was always a big fan of Chou en Lai, and not of Mao Tse Tung, the Cultural Revolution and the Gang of Four). So, whenever I get slightly crazy, I meditate with a few deep breaths, a cigarette and dream of China. I am definitely old school, and, like Popeye, I "yam what I yam".
Mother India and I have a slightly different relationship. When I was a young man, all the rage was Eastern religions, and the Beatles themselves converted to Transcendental Meditation. I had previously studied the Ghita and Vedas on my own, was conversant with some of the many tenets of Hinduism, and was a fan of yoga and India's Self-Realization Fellowship. For some reason, I always associate India with my youth and hippy period, for India and her religions made a very deep impression on my young, impressionable mind. This has resulted in a "carefree" type of association with India loosely maintained over 40 years or so. India also figures into my slight craziness aspects.
If, after reading the above, you, the reader, feel that "this cat is just a bit too weird for me", I won't take offense (to each their own), so read no further. For those of you out there for which the above is either comprehensible or makes perfect sense, feel free to continue.
Briefly stated, my life's path has been as follows: born into a straight, Roman Catholic, McCarthy-ite California family shortly after World War Two, rebelled, took drugs, became unsuccessful drug dealer, went religious, went straight, went to university and law school in San Diego (at a Catholic university), went overseas, worked and lived in Japan, Thailand and Burma, returned to Orange County, California in 1995, became independent researcher and struggling writer. Ex-drunk with two unsuccessful marriages behind me, estranged from both ex-wives and two (known) children (not the marrying and fatherly type evidently, although I do love women and tolerate kids). Me in a nutshell. Bias disclosure fulfilled.
So what has all of this (or any of this) has to do with the four topics listed above? Everything and nothing. I have been personally studying all of the four for varying lengths of time, Burma being the most recent (about 20 years). All the others I have been studying, reading and experiencing for 40 years or so. I have no scholarly pretenses about these topics; others are much more skilled than I at that route. I just intensely approach them in my own way.
Finally, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Nor am I a member of any military intelligence organization whatsoever. I had a brief, quite unsuccessful Navy career as an enlisted man during the Vietnam War. I am not a member of any State Department organization, intelligent or otherwise. My interests have brought me into contact with a lot of CIA, military, and State Department types over the years --- both the vigorous field personnel and the more analytical types. I have also known a few Mormons in my time, but this does not make me a member of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, does it?
In any event, there is an old joke about secret stuff being, well...secret. So, even if I ever was any of the above (I am NOT), I could not tell you about it, could I? I do enjoy their way of thinking, which often comports well with my own. We have certainly exchanged many views and experiences over the years, and that is no secret. The only security clearance I ever held was a measly Top Secret one in Navy spy school (everybody got one) a long, long time ago. It has long since lapsed. I have lived on civvy street since August 1967.
I state the above so my Burmese, Chinese and Indian friends will not entertain any suspicions about my bona fide status as an independent researcher/writer. My Russian friends are all deeply paranoid anyway, so why bother trying to convince them?
Regarding Islam, its more deviant adherents and action-based Believers, I have always disclosed to them up front that I am a big, big fan of Israel. I have been studying Islam and "fundamentalism" for over twenty years now. There is still a lot I have to learn, and my Arab friends have been very patient with me (I think they believe that I am either a fascinating lab experiment or potential convert). I admire and respect Islam very deeply, but have no truck with terrorism and its wanton violence. Felt that way for more than thirty years now. Never changed one iota in that respect.
Now, getting to the point at hand, Burma is, apparently, in the process of doing some things that strike me as...monumentally unnecessary. One is shifting all the government offices from Rangoon (Yangon) where I frequented a few of them ten years ago to some huge, isolated, godforsaken bunker complex about halfway between Rangoon and Mandalay. According to published reports, this is because of a fear of some type of unspecified "invasion". Now, if my Russian friends are merely paranoid (happens to the best of us), my Burmese friends are well...quite different. In their thinking and behavior. I am not making any judgments about this, mind you, just noting it for the record.
Now, my dear, dear Burmese comrades and friends, do you not think that if there was huge invasion contingency plan like the Overlord D-Day plan that General Eisenhower was in charge of, I would have heard about it? You cannot muster the hundreds of ships, thousands of military personnel, the aircraft, the bombers, the spies, and all the other things necessary for a full-scale invasion without making some waves. Plus, it costs a lot of money to do this kind of thing. Where would the budget come from? Some deep black covert operations line item disguised as something else in the massive U.S. government budget document maze? Be serious. In this day and age, such things are simply not done anymore. Newspaper articles would be written, rumors would be flying about and strange things would be occurring. Is any of this taking place? A thousand times, no.
I can categorically tell you, openly, without fear or favor, that there simply is no such invasion plan. I do not know what you fellows have been smoking up there in Burma, but I strongly advise cutting back at least. This is just...wrong, and a colossal waste of hard-earned Burmese taxpayer funds. If it makes you feel better, build a few nice statues of General Aung San in auspicious places. And you can check with your Bangkok embassy personnel if you don't believe me. If there was an invasion plan, it would be hatched and run out of the American Embassy in Bangkok. There is no evidence of such a plan that I can find.
Ask the Chinese and Indian embassy personnel. I feel confident that they will back me up in denying any evidence of such an invasion plan. We are all getting, well a bit concerned about you. Why would you relocate all the government offices to the middle of nowhere? When it costs a great deal of money to do so? Burma is not Brazil, after all. While perhaps not known around the world as a paragon of rationality, Burma deserves better than such a nonsensical scheme. Are you sure some giant construction company is not pulling your leg a bit?
Ask the monks at the Shwedagon Pagoda, where I spent so many happy hours in contemplation and conversation. Everything of any importance in Burma begins and ends at the Shwedagon Pagoda, doesn't it? Don't believe me; check with your own people, for goodness sakes.
Surely you have completely rebuilt your military and intelligence structures since I was there ten years ago, haven't you? By the way, I appreciate you sparing the life of General Khin Nyunt (S1) and only imposing house arrest. I never formally met the man, but he and his people treated me well when I lived in your lovely land. He did let me take his photograph during that big ethnic festival thing by the lake. I thought that was really something, by the way. Spectacular.
What will happen to prices in Yangon if all of you move up to the middle of nowhere? Tear all the old government buildings down and build new commercial high rise office buildings? Condominiums? Is this all about some big real estate deal?
Your American friends and supporters are all (well most) getting deeply concerned about Burma and its government. Why would they do such a thing? Was some kind of Asian Armageddon scheduled when I was sleeping?
Now, about that nuclear reactor in the Shan States...
And the Rohingya refugees...
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