Crackdown in Burma Continues

The Myanmar military junta isn't done with its systematic destruction of the pro-reform movement. Word out of the country's largest city is that the military is now agressively going after people who protested the junta's iron-fisted control:

Soldiers said they were hunting pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar's largest city Wednesday and the top U.S. diplomat in the country said military police had pulled people out of their homes during the night.

Military vehicles patrolled the streets before dawn with loudspeakers blaring that: "We have photographs. We are going to make arrests!"

Shari Villarosa, the acting U.S. ambassador in Myanmar, said in a telephone interview that people in Yangon were terrified.

"From what we understand, military police ... are traveling around the city in the middle of the night, going into homes and picking up people," she said.

How many times has this scene been repeated in the last 100 years? The sound of jackboots on the pavement outside your house. The knock on the door in the middle of the night. The disappearance of a loved on never to be seen again. From Germany to Russia and all points after and in between, the tyranny of government has but one purpose; cow the people into submission.

With indications that the government crackdown has resulted in the massacre of thousands and with the departure of the UN envoy who tried to talk reason to the unreasonably violent, it appears that the world will acquiesce and outside of some additional meaningless sanctions, not lift a finger to assist those who stood up for freedom only to be murdered or imprisoned for their trouble.