“One of the illusions that convinced some otherwise well-meaning people to go along with the conquest of Iraq in 2003 was, ‘Iraq is so bad, how could we make it worse?’ But we could. So with Burma. I know almost nothing about the junta that rules Burma. But I know that it’s the junta that rules Burma — that is, that they’ve extended their writ over a preponderance of the territory we think of as Burma, more or less. That is to say, they successfully maintain power. The junta apparently numbers 19 guys, but 19 guys don’t run a place like Burma by themselves. They’ve got people for that. Cops, soldiers, secret policemen, bureaucrats. And those people have families and friends and hangers-on. Stakeholders.” (05/15/08)