Mission Aborted
Insight Myanmar5 Apr 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.”

Avsnitt(507)

Authorization Pending

Authorization Pending

Episode #493: The entry point was children. During the reform period, as the Myanmar military and other armed groups feared making concessions that would affect the battlefield, international mine act...

27 Feb 2h 14min

An Uphill Battle

An Uphill Battle

Episode #492: Wong Chen, a Malaysian Member of Parliament active in international relations as Malaysia held the ASEAN chair, argues that the Myanmar crisis will not be resolved through moral appeals,...

26 Feb 1h 17min

The Weight of Survival

The Weight of Survival

Episode #491: The third episode in our five-part series features conversations recorded at the 16th International Burma Studies Conference at Northern Illinois University, where scholars, students, re...

24 Feb 1h 39min

Reckoning with the Dhamma

Reckoning with the Dhamma

Episode #490: Matt Walton, a political theorist and scholar of Buddhism and politics in Myanmar, and author the acclaimed Buddhism, Politics and Political Thought in Myanmar, argues that Burmese polit...

23 Feb 2h 29min

Choosing the Red Pill

Choosing the Red Pill

Episode #489: Neo grew up in Yangon, living a simple life—running a small convenience store, taking remote jobs, and spending his nights with friends, music, and beer. “I work and I play and I drink. ...

20 Feb 2h 16min

Enemy of the State

Enemy of the State

Episode #488: Veteran journalist and human rights advocate Chris Gunness describes Myanmar as “an extraordinarily fascinating country,” one that shaped both his early reporting career and his later wo...

19 Feb 1h 57min

The Right To Belong

The Right To Belong

Episode #487: Noor Azizah, a Rohingya genocide survivor and the founder and leader of the Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network, argues that violence against the Rohingya is still an ongoing real...

17 Feb 1h 21min

The Erasure of Mindfulness

The Erasure of Mindfulness

Episode #486: Daniel M. Stuart, a Buddhist studies scholar and vipassana practitioner, rejoins the podcast to describe his growing interest in Dr. Leon Edward Wright, a Black Christian theologian whos...

16 Feb 1h 41min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

aftonbladet-krim
motiv
rss-krimstad
p3-krim
fordomspodden
spar
flashback-forever
rss-viva-fotboll
aftonbladet-daily
rss-sanning-konsekvens
blenda-2
svenska-fall
rss-krimreportrarna
rss-vad-fan-hande
rss-frandfors-horna
olyckan-inifran
rss-flodet
dagens-eko
svd-dokumentara-berattelser-2
krimmagasinet