Myanmar (and China) Need the Odd Couple

When the tsunami hit parts of Asia and Africa in December 2004, President George W. Bush asked his predecessors, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, to travel to the stricken region and bring relief and hope to the victims.

The tsunami, a giant tidal wave in the Indian Ocean, would claim 271,000 lives and leave 1,000,000 homeless. The "odd couple," as former first lady Barbara Bush dubbed the ex-presidents, cemented their unlikely friendship and raised a record-breaking $1.2 billion in relief funds.

Wouldn't it be something if this current natural disaster in Myanmar which has left an estimated 1.9 million Burmese villagers injured, homeless and exposed to disease and starvation, could bring together 41 and 42 in another heroic effort? They could add to their itinerary China where, several days later, nearly 10,000 people died and tens of thousands more, including children and students, were injured as a terrifyingly strong tremors shook buildings and flattened schools and factories across four provinces.

The cyclone and the earthquake struck just at the time that Bill Clinton is facing his own crisis, looking downhearted and angry as conventional wisdom casts him as hurting rather helping his wife's tireless, desperate effort to capture the nomination.

Would George W. (43) ask his father and his immediate predecessor to repeat their tsunami tour? Would 43 allow Hillary's standard stump line -- "It takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush" -- stand in his way? Would he remember Hillary's promise to send 42 and 41 abroad as envoys to fix the relationships with foreign leaders that, Hillary charged, 43 had ruined. (It took just minutes for 41's spokesman to respond, nothing doing; the former President Bush said, explaining that he is proud of his son's accomplishments in the foreign policy arena.)

When the former presidents responded so effectively to the tsunami, they were greeted with banquets and banners and groups of children smiling through their terror. The natural disaster in Myanmar is much more difficult. The generals in the ruling junta have been turning away doctors and disaster experts; barring foreigners from this closed, despotic society; willing increasingly to accept relief supplies but insisting on administering the supplies themselves. The New York Times reported that U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon was telephoning the junta's senior general, but that Than Shwe was not returning the U.N. head's calls.

Would that general return Bill Clinton's calls? Clinton's status may have suffered at home -- he made so many mistakes in his campaign for Hillary that television producers were calling me to ask if he was suffering from early-onset dementia; I said no, he's just, as usual, sleep deprived -- but not abroad.

Bill Clinton, as I show in my book on his post presidency, Clinton in Exile: A President Out of the White House, has time and again picked himself up from the depths of despair and reinvented himself. Post presidency, he did just that following the scandals surrounding the pardons he issued on his way out of the White House. He'll have to do it again soon, and will. It will be a heartwarming chapter when the account of Bill's next four years is written. If Hillary loses the nomination to Obama, Bill Clinton will spend time plotting for Hillary to run again in 2012. But the super-energetic Bill Clinton can juggle several balls at once and one of those balls could be rushing to the scenes of real devastation where he can make a huge difference.

People will quickly remember why, in the time before Hillary's hamhanded campaign, he was called the most popular man in the world and the rock star ex-president.

Comments

[wizened]

Very interesting piece. Is Bill too preoccupied with Hillary's failing campaign to turn his attention to the Asian disasters? Aiding China may be problematic or unnecessary, but Mynamar needs to be shamed into minimizing suffering. What better way to do that than to send such larger than life personalities to publicize the effort.

[kusalarhetoric]

The situation you have now is one of dire humanitarian need, sandwiched in-between a government trying desperately to preserve its sovereignty in the wake of China’s ascendancy and the world’s leading democracy wanting to bomb it back into the stone age through sanctions. The aid will probably be accepted only if it comes without political strings, and, speculation to the contrary, we won’t quite know where it will go (secrecy in these matters being an Indochinese value).

Would this situation change with the addition of a strong personality (or, as you perhaps facetiously suggest, a pair of personalities)? When Bush was asked what he was going to do, he said with his daughter’s wedding this weekend, he’d get around to it on Monday. Bill could do nothing more than preside over the transfer of aid but not experts . . . I thought the elder Bush was brought along on the Tsunami tour with the 42nd president to keep tabs on him, prevent him from grandstanding too much . . . the US Armed Forces did a good job in Sri Lanka, but they were quickly asked to leave by a nervous India. Now, in Myanmar, is the time for aid to come without strings, and with trust in the general morality of the populace. As to the earthquake in China, there is nothing Bill Clinton can do to prevent it from being perceived as an omen portending doom, which will be the biggest aftershock.

[jimpryor99]

Under no circumstance should they team up for anything. Neither country respects us and I'll be danged if the USA should respond with aid in any way, shape or form. How much aid did China contribute to Katrina? How much aid did Burma contribute to Katrina? Exactly. We help those that are our FRIENDS.

[chumleypotts]

I missed the part where Venezuela, Iran and North Korea volunteered their time and treasure to assist their fellow world citizens in China and Myanmar in this, their time of need. I'm sure they did, I must've just missed it.

[wildflowermaven]

Great idea, but I don't hold out much hope. Burma's leadership seems determined to go their own way, no matter how much the people suffer.

[julieeiluj]

Somehow i think that those generals in their tragically decorated attire will only respond to what they consider nicer military attire.

[tompoe]

You haven't given us a report on success for Katrina. How did the odd couple do? Will the victims of Katrina welcome them, today? After all, they're still waiting.