What do China, India, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, the Philippines, and probably a bunch of other countries have in common? They beat the US, formerly among the largest suppliers of foreign aid and disaster response in the world, in sending support to Myanmar in the wake of the enormous 7.7 earthquake that devastated the country on Friday. Trump, Musk, and Rubio illegally killing off USAID likely contributed to the thousands of deaths already piling up.
“We had the assets, we could have saved lives, and we missed it,” one former USAID leader, including in Myanmar, told the Washington Post. He was referring to the critical few days immediately following major earthquakes, when people may still be alive under the rubble of collapsed buildings and other infrastructure. Instead of immediately mobilizing what used to be considerable US resources to help a poor country already beset by the military junta ruling since 2021, the Trump administration spent Friday trying to completely shutter the foreign aid agency, with Marco “99-0” Rubio saying the USAID “era is now over.” They have pledged $2 million to help a country where 20 million people needed humanitarian assistance before the earthquake hit.
Meanwhile, according to reporting from The Guardian and elsewhere, other countries have been trying to step in. China has sent hundreds of people as well as supplies, Russia sent 120 rescuers and medical workers, five flights and two navy vessels from India have either arrived or are on the way, and so on. Much of the rest of the world is engaging in a long-standing, generally accepted practice while Trump’s new doctrine of isolationism when it helps others and outright imperialistic warmongering when it (ostensibly) helps him has already taken hold.
As of Monday, the death toll in Myanmar stood at 2,056, with at least 13 dead 600 miles away from the quake’s epicenter in Bangkok. Another 3,900 people in Myanmar are injured, and those numbers are going to rise, potentially by quite a lot; we won’t be able to say how many of the deaths can be placed at Trump’s feet, but it is more than zero.
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