Mission Aborted
Insight Myanmar5 Huhti 2025

Mission Aborted

Episode #330: “When President Bush called that morning and said, ‘Pull back [away from Myanmar],’ I just couldn't compose myself. I broke down in front of all the Marines, and so I had to run into the bathroom and I just cried and cried,” says Mie Mie Winn Byrd. “I knew we had all the capability to help them, to relieve suffering and provide aid, but there was nothing I could do.”

In a powerful and emotional reflection, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Mie Mie Winn Byrd recounts her role in Operation Caring Response, a U.S. humanitarian relief mission following Cyclone Nargis in 2008, which killed over 135,000 and displaced millions. Born in Burma, Byrd brought vital regional expertise to the U.S. effort. Yet despite American readiness to help, Myanmar’s military regime blocked aid access, allowing only limited deliveries of critical supplies, which it then left to rot on—or disappear from—the tarmac.

Byrd draws clear and direct parallels between Cyclone Nargis and the recent earthquake in Myanmar, underscoring the military’s pattern of paranoia, cruelty and obstruction. Byrd calls the junta not a legitimate government, or even a legitimate army, but rather a Mafia-like, organized crime syndicate.

In contrast, she finds inspiration in Myanmar’s civil society and diaspora, whose grassroots response has saved lives despite immense hardship. She urges international donors to bypass the military and support trusted, local actors: “They open up their hearts, their purse, and [are] doing it again.”

Jaksot(507)

Alan Senauke, Engaged Buddhist

Alan Senauke, Engaged Buddhist

In the aftermath of student strikes in 1968, Alan left Columbia University and moved to Berkeley, California. There, he found himself amid a whirlwind of social unrest: the counter-culture movement, a...

3 Maalis 20222h 6min

The Language of Freedom

The Language of Freedom

Most people would not regard a violent military coup as the best time to start an organization, but that's exactly what Katie Craig and her partners did! Katie has worked with minority language commun...

24 Helmi 20221h 28min

This Woman’s Work

This Woman’s Work

“I think Tatmadaw is a place where soldiers and their families have lost their human rights,” Su Thit asserts. Her bold criticism of Myanmar's military is somewhat unusual because her husband was one ...

17 Helmi 20221h 2min

Looking Within A Burmese Nunnery

Looking Within A Burmese Nunnery

Like so many other spiritual seekers from the West, Kim Shelton and her husband were attracted to Myanmar by the opportunities that the country presents for developing a deeper Buddhist practice. Kim’...

10 Helmi 202258min

Depicting a Golden Kingdom

Depicting a Golden Kingdom

When films examine a subject in detail, it’s sometimes described as a “meditation on…” that particular theme. Golden Kingdom, a 2015 film by Brian Perkins, fits this expression in more ways than one.B...

5 Helmi 20221h 34min

From Burma With Love

From Burma With Love

Kenneth Wong, a Burmese language instructor at UC Berkeley, has spent a lifetime studying the history of Burmese films, and is one of the organizers of the Burma Spring Benefit Film Festival. He grew ...

31 Tammi 20221h 9min

Revisiting the Burma Spring

Revisiting the Burma Spring

For her first post-coup documentary, Padauk: Myanmar Spring, Jeanne Hallacy’s team employed a technique called “in-depth personal storytelling,” and the results were simply stunning. It allows the vi...

26 Tammi 202256min

Portrait of an Activist

Portrait of an Activist

Little T’s ongoing nightmare started, as it did for so many Burmese people, with the violent coup launched last year by the military. Soon, the first peaceful mass protests hit the streets. Besides or...

22 Tammi 20221h 48min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

aikalisa
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
tervo-halme
politiikan-puskaradio
viisupodi
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
rss-podme-livebox
rss-asiastudio
otetaan-yhdet
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
rss-tasta-on-kyse-ivan-puopolo-verkkouutiset
the-ulkopolitist
rss-hyvaa-huomenta-bryssel
radio-antro
rss-kiina-ilmiot
rss-kaikki-uusiksi
rss-vain-talouselamaa
rikosmyytit
rss-kovin-paikka