Meanwhile, elsewhere
by digby
The violence isn’t confined to the middle east. Or here. Or Europe. This happened in Myanmar earlier today:
Myanmar President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the Kokang region in the east and imposed a three-month period of martial law there in an announcement on state television on Tuesday night.
Fighting broke out on Feb. 9 between the Myanmar army and an ethnic Kokang force called the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).
At least 47 Myanmar soldiers and 26 MNDAA fighters have been killed since then, the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported, and thousands of civilians have fled, either to other areas in Myanmar or over the border into China.
Unknown attackers shot and wounded two people on Tuesday in a convoy of eight vehicles marked with the emblem of the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) that was attempting to transport civilians displaced by fighting in Laukkai, on the Chinese border, a witness said.
“We haven’t had such an attack before,” said MRCS spokeswoman Shwe Cin Myint. “This would be the very first.”
Everyone seems to be following the advice of Dr Ben Carson: there’s no need to follow any rules in war.
I just mention this because it’s important for us to remember that people do awful, evil things to other people even when it has nothing to do with religion. As I’ve said before, it’s a species problem not a religion problem. And our species seems to be working itself up into another one of our periodic, ultra-violent froths.
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