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Subscribe to RSSSecretary of State Hillary Clinton embarks on an historic trip to Myanmar (also called Burma) this week, the first time a secretary of state will visit the isolated country in more than 50 years, NBC’s Kristen Welker reports. She will also meet for the first time with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Laureate who had been a political prisoner in Myanmar for 15 of the last 22 years until she was freed last year.
On November 18, Welker notes, President Obama announced he was sending Clinton to Myanmar, saying that he had seen “flickers of progress” in the country which has been governed by military rule for half a century. “President Thein Sein and the Burmese Parliament have taken important steps on the path toward reform,” Obama said while in Bali, Indonesia. “A dialogue between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi has begun. The government has released some political prisoners. Media restrictions have been relaxed. And legislation has been approved that could open the political environment.”
Still the trip is a potential foreign policy risk, Welker observes. On the one hand, the United States could help the country usher in a new era of open government while loosening China’s influence in the region. But Myanmar still has a long way to go -- it currently holds a number of political prisoners and has been heavily criticized for its treatment of minorities and its relationship with North Korea. GOP Sen. Richard Lugar released a statement saying that Myanmar’s relationship with North Korea should be closely scrutinized. “North Korea is believed to be continuing development of its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons program…over five years ago, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was informed…of Burma’s reported intention to develop nuclear weapons in coordination with North Korea” Lugar said. For years the United States has imposed a number of sanctions against the country and there is almost no chance that this trip will lead to a loosening of those sanctions.
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Forget Hillary... I'd like to know where Obama is? Why hasn't he said or done anything about his failed 'super commitee'? Oh ya, he's out on the campaign trail pretending it's really an effort to get his jobs bill passed... another of his ideas doomed to failure!
I see that the cost of his bus trip is on our dime not the democrats as it should be!
No wonder Cain is such an attraction to the democrats... it's taking everyone's attention from our do nothing president?
The battle cry is not Where's Waldo.... it's WHERE'S OBAMA?
Where's Boehoner, McConnell, Cantor, and the rest of the tea people GOP republican congress, oh ya their on a weeks vacation for the 26th time this year.
Come on Sam, is that all you tea people GOP republicans have is to whine about you tea people GOP republicans "super committee". Remember it was you tea people GOP republicans that held out for the "super committee". Always trying to blame someone else for your mistakes.
I too have noticed obama's absence from the spotlight... how is he feeding his narcissm? Is he being ignored or is he ignoring us? What a farce this guy has perpetrated on the country...! This bus trip of his is really an effort to keep his job, not create jobs for the country! Where is Obama indeed?
Romney 2012, more than ever!
Mo (Mo?), your watching the wrong channel if you aren't hearing Boehner and others saying the same thing.... Where's Obama?
Just this morning I heard Christie on Fox saying the same thing.... Where's Obama and why isn't he doing the job we pay him for?????
Whose failed "Supercommittee" is it?
When the deal was made over the summer that created the "Supercommittee" Speaker Boehner stood up and proudly proclaimed, "We got 98% of what we wanted."
Why have we not heard from the Speaker?
...and what is the President supposed to do? He can't force the members to negotiate. It's not in his job description. Congress legislates...and you don't have to be a Constitutional Lawyer to know that.
Is the Speaker incapable of leadership on his own and does he need the President to hold his hand?
Bill T,
Are you simply being disingenuous? I would hope so. It's too scary to think you're serious.
BTW: "your" is possessive, as in "Is that your book?" "You're" is a contraction for "you are", as in "you're watching the wrong channel."
Okay, I think I've got the answer now. It's you who are watching the wrong channel. It began back in First Grade.
Bill T,
I hope you're simply being disingenuous. It's too scary to think that you know so little about the way the three branches of government work, and how hard the Republicans are trying to blame Obama for their inaction, and that you're actually a voter. . . . That's just much too scary.
Obama is allowing them enough rope to hang themselves ...which then have been doing ..one by one ...feeding on each other ...He has already won the people back ..who wants their union busted or their Medicare /Social Security taken away from them ....It was solvent until the congress raided it to pay for their crusades...I think the pension that congress has paid into should be turned over to the Social Security fund as their punishment for not doing whats best for the people !
Bill T, you just proved yourself irrelevant by using Fox (aka tea people GOP republican propaganda machine) as your source.
BTW: Now we know where all you tea people GOP republicans are getting your talking points this morning. As if it wasn't already obvious.
Bill T, did you read the report that Fox (aka tea people GOP republican propaganda machine) viewers are the most misinformed (liars) of any news organization?
Mo, can't have it both way... you quote Fox when the break the story on Cain's new woman.... yet claim they lie about everything else! interesting! If Fox is so bad why are their ratings so good?
"...his failed 'super commitee'"?
I didn't know the super committee belonged to Obama or that it was under control. It appears that Seldom Seen Sam doesn't know what he is talking about...again.
Fail.
[Just this morning I heard Christie on Fox...]
Well, there's your problem!
[Why hasn't he said or done anything about his failed 'super commitee'?]
EPIC Fail...All Your Base Are Belong To Us...
And it appears that SeldomSeenSam is an appropriate username...children should be "seen" and not "heard".
Burma used to be the home of the best rubies in the world.
How much is this little trip by Hillary going to cost the U.S. in foreign aid? Myanmar (Burma) is a very poor country and is looking for financial support. I am willing to bet that Obama will throw some money their way hoping he can buy some foreign policy good will. Myanmar is one of the most repressive countries in the world, along side N. Korea, nothing will be accomplished except wasting more American tax payer money. Obama can't run on his economic record so he is trying to build a foreign policy record. Obama might want to look at what happened with the so called "Arab Spring".