Neptunus Lex

If he can’t do it, it can’t be done:

The head of the U.S. Pacific Command flew into Burma on Monday aboard the first U.S. military aid flight, to press for a full-scale international relief operation for victims of Cyclone Nargis. Facing mounting international pressure to open their country’s borders, Burmese officials promised to consider the request.

In New York, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed “immense frustration” with the pace of the relief effort, slowed by Burma’s secretive military government. After trying for days to get top general Than Shwe on the telephone, Ban said, he sent a letter urging him to facilitate a massive aid operation.

Adm. Timothy J. Keating flew in a U.S. Air Force C-130 from an air base in Thailand that is turning into a staging area for Burma relief. Accompanying him was Henrietta H. Fore, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. At the airport in Rangoon, Burma’s largest city, they conferred with Burma’s top naval officer in the highest-level military contact between the two countries in decades.

Keating and Fore did not go beyond the airport before flying back to Thailand. Fore said she believed that “our discussions were a good first step” toward broader U.S. help.

It’s crazy on a couple of different levels that¬†a four-star COCOM has to practically go begging on his knees to the leaders of a military junta that would rather see many several thousands of their countrymen die in horrible conditions than allow outside help.

This isn’t a country they’re running - it’s a prison ship.