Notably absent from the aftermath of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in the poor Southeast Asian nation Myanmar: the uniquely skilled, well-equipped and swift search-and-rescue teams and disaster-response crews from the United States.
At least 15 Asian and Western government rescue teams have landed crews reaching hundreds of workers in size, alongside initial pledges of financial aid reaching tens of millions of dollars, as the death toll of the March 28 quake tops 3,000, Myanmar’s government says. Cameras showed Vietnam’s team on arrival, marching square-shouldered to the rescue behind their country’s flag.
“We” threw 2 million dollars at the problem and pretended that was just as helpful as sending actual aid, as had been done in the past.
Did we? I guess I’m glad to hear that since it’s better than the “absolutely nothing” I was expecting…
I really haven’t seen anything claiming we did more than that, or claiming we had an impact at all. Honestly, I’ve barely seen more than this one article on the topic that even mentions the US’s (craven lack of) involvement in this. Does anyone in the current admin even care enough to misrepresent our involvement? Is that as depressing a question as it sounds?