James Mulvaney
Laura Bush: Political Prisoner?
Is Laura Bush a political prisoner?
If not, then why did she file an Opinion piece in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal headlined "A Burmese Birthday."
The dirge is a lament for Aung San Suu Kii, the deposed leader of Burma who has been held under house arrest in her home in Rangoon for 17 years.
I'm the first one to condemn the military junta in Burma, as we call it, or Myanmar as they (and the United Nations) call the country, for its systematic abuse of human rights. Since the late 1980s, Burma has been an outlaw state, periodically closing its borders, beating up its citizens and acting as poorly as any Asian regime since the Khmer Rouge.
But, unless Ms. Suu Kii is a librarian, why has Laura Bush suddenly gotten her llongyi (sarong) looped up like a lariat?
The state of the world this week is that everything is going to hell in a hand-basket: The Taliban are retaking territory in Afghanistan; Vladimir Putin is honing his Khrushchev-act; American troops continue to die; West Bank-Gaza boiled over; Pakistan is about to do a Three Mile Island and gasoline is costing me something like $3 a gallon.
The good news? Laura Bush feels for the deposed Burmese leader and supports the new political opposition.
Okay, it is probably a good time to dispatch the First Lady out with a feel-good message. Think back on other tough times: Rosalyn Carter at Habitat for Humanity when the Jimmy's fireplace cardigan chat failed; Nancy Reagan picking party dresses; Barbara Bush polishing the pearls and posing with the grandkids? I won't push this analogy too far. Nobody sent Hillary to fly solo when Bill was self destructing (although my recollection is that it did increase the number of Chelsea photo ops).
Why would anyone suggest something as counterintuitive as Burma? ......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-mulvaney/laura-bush-political-pri_b_52910.html