Burma

There is currently a massive human rights travesty going on in Burma.

It began when thousands of Buddhist monks staged peaceful protests in which they walked in public and prayed for peace. The Burmese military smashed these protests, beat and defrocked the monks, and tossed them into jail. Students and other monks took up the protest, and were beaten and jailed as well.

This is a country with a long history of having some of the worst prisons in the world. People routinely have their fingernails pulled out, among other things.

Public outcry expanded after video of the military shooting a Japanese reporter at (approximately) point blank range made its way out into the wider world. There was a brief spasm of public interest fueled by video of soldiers beating and shooting students and monks.

The military government of Burma cannot presently account for even *how many* people have been hauled off to prisons … much less provide their names. Current estimates are around 6,000 monks imprisoned. They have cut the main internet lines into the country to prevent more embarrassing images from leaking out.

The United States should act unilaterally, now, to stop this massacre. We are presently holding back, at least in part, because of reluctance from China to have us acting in their backyard.

Please watch this and then watch this.

Watch as long as you can stand it. Keep watching. Your stomach should be knotted in fury, and you should have a cold sweat going before you stop.

Then write, call, and visit both your favorite media outlet and your national representatives and demand that they pay some attention to this. Please do the same with your friends and family.

If we sit silent on this one, I’m not kidding when I say that “the terrorists win.”