MSNBC is reporting that U.S. Navy ships are leaving Myanmar after failing to get the junta’s permission to unload aid to “ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands” of cyclone survivors, the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said Tuesday.

Adm. Timothy Keating ordered the vessels to leave the Myanmar area Thursday, after the U.S. made at least 15 attempts to convince Myanmar’s leaders to allow ships, helicopters and landing craft to offload their aid.

Myanmar’s state media has said that it feared a U.S. invasion aimed at seizing the country’s oil deposits. But the junta has also forbidden use of military helicopters from friendly neighboring nations, which are vital in rushing supplies to isolated survivors.

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Fears of an invasion indeed. Secrecy is what this is all about. An all-powerful government in charge of all aspects of daily like of it’s citizens, refuses aid from well intentioned neighbors and far away governments alike, and invoking fear as an excuse for that decision. You do have to thank your Lord if you live in a country where at least you have the freedom to speak, and get the unvarnished information out, even if in the end, the result isn’t what you hoped for (read: New Orleans). Democracy may not be perfect, and our current administration may be holed up in their own secrets, but at least we can freely complain about it, and sometimes, those complaints result in action.

Pray for those in  Myanmar.

More here: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/12/1010557.aspx

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