In the race to save lives after Myanmar quake, US rescuers are notably absent
Day after day Chinese rescue teams haul children and elderly people from collapsed buildings as cameras beam the thanks of grateful survivors around the world Russian anatomical teams show off field hospitals erected in a flash to tend the wounded Notably absent from the aftermath of the -magnitude earthquake in the poor Southeast Asian nation Myanmar the uniquely skilled well-equipped and swift search-and-rescue teams and disaster-response crews from the United States At least Asian and Western cabinet rescue teams have landed crews reaching hundreds of workers in size alongside initial pledges of financial aid reaching tens of millions of dollars as the death toll of the March quake tops Myanmar s cabinet says Cameras indicated Vietnam s gang on arrival marching square-shouldered to the rescue behind their country s flag While Myanmar s military junta and civil war have posed challenges the U S administration has worked with local partners there previously to successfully provide aid for decades including after deadly storms in and aid agents say The American regime dwarfs other nations rescue ceiling in experience limit and heavy machinery able to pull people alive from rubble But in Myanmar after the majority of new quake the U S has distinguished itself for having no known presence on the ground beyond a three-member assessment crew sent days after the quake We all worried what would be the human impact of President Donald Trump s dismantling of the six-decade-old U S Agency for International Evolution declared Lia Lindsey a senior humanitarian strategy adviser for Oxfam which scrambled to provide tents blankets and other aid to quake survivors Now Lindsey commented we re seeing it in real time We re seeing it in increased suffering and increased death A retreat from decades of American plan may be fueling the absence The United States the world s largest market system long saw its strategic interests and alliances served by its standing as the world s top humanitarian donor Myanmar s quake is as close to a no-show as the nation has had in modern memory at a major accessible natural calamity Current and former senior private and regime representatives say the Myanmar tragedy points to several of the results for people in need on the ground and for U S standing in the world of the Trump administration s retreat from decades of U S strategy That approach held that Washington necessities both the hard power of a strong military and the soft power of a robust aid and evolution operation to deter enemies win and keep friends and steer events Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Europe for a NATO gathering rejected a suggestion that the administration was ceding influence abroad by canceling thousands of its aid and rise contracts including for disasters He stated reporters that those complaining were the aid groups which he accused of profiting off past U S aid We will do the best we can Rubio explained Friday But we also have other demands we have to balance that against We re not walking away He pointed to a lot of other rich countries in the world They should all be pitching in and do their part Leading Senate Democrats wrote Rubio this week urging him to scale up U S mishap aid to Myanmar and fast Separately Delaware Sen Chris Coons a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee spoke of watching a news broadcast of the catastrophe showing Chinese administration teams at work It hurt my heart to see where instead of a USAID band leading the response there was a organization from the PRC that was being celebrated for having saved certain people in the rubble Coons disclosed The -month-old Trump administration through Elon Musk s Department of Ruling body Efficiency teams has frozen USAID funding terminated thousands of contracts and is firing all but a handful of its staff globally It accuses the agency of waste and of advancing liberal causes The Myanmar quake is the first major natural tragedy since that work started The Trump administration and a few Republican lawmakers say they will reassemble a reduced slate of aid and improvement programs under the State Department fitting their narrower interpretation of work that serves U S strategic and economic interests The first announcement of help came days later Days after the Myanmar quake the U S made its first announcement of help It was sending a three-member assessment association of non-specialist advisers from a regional USAID office in Bangkok Thailand Coincidentally like hundreds of other USAID staffers around the world the three had received layoff notices from the Trump administration on March within hours of the quake current and former USAID agents endorsed The administration also promised million in aid and released another million Friday But there s a much larger number at play That million total is dwarfed by the roughly billion in payments for previously rendered services and goods that the Trump administration has owed nonprofit humanitarian groups and other contractors and executive and nongovernment foreign partners aid personnel say The Trump administration abruptly shut down USAID and State foreign assistance payments including for work already done on Jan Inauguration Day Combined with abruptly terminated aid contracts and the freeze on the USAID and State aid and progress payments the U S back debt is forcing larger aid operations and businesses to scale back their services to people in need and to slash staff Particular smaller organizations were driven out of business That was even before the Myanmar quake Under court order the administration is slowly making good on those back payments In the meantime nonprofit groups are having to draw on reserve funds they would normally use for sudden unplanned disasters like the Myanmar quake to pay the bills that the U S should have paid disclosed Lindsey the Oxfam official Sought about the burden that the non-government organizations another name for aid groups say USAID s unpaid back bills are placing on their work the State Department reported in an email The U S ruling body cannot comment on how NGOs manage their financing Trump Administration Mar America's European allies are trying to pry their unspent money back from USAID Trump Administration Mar Judge rules DOGE's USAID dismantling likely violates the Constitution Trump Administration Mar Secretary of State Rubio says purge of USAID programs complete with of agency's programs gone Typically the United States itself would have provided million to million in the initial phase of response to a calamity like the Myanmar quake with more later for long-term aid and rebuilding explained Sarah Charles who ran catastrophe response and overall humanitarian affairs at USAID in the Biden administration We have a long history in Burma Charles disclosed adding It s an milieu that the U S regime has been operating in over the last various decades Normally the United States also would have had to specialized tragedy workers on the ground in as scarce as hours Charles reported That number would have jumped to or more if USAID had flown in urban rescue teams from California and Virginia They deploy as self-contained units with dog handlers and the quota to feed and provide clean water to the teams Charles revealed The Trump administration preserved contracts for the California and Virginia rescue teams under pressure from lawmakers But the contracts for their delivery are considered among the thousands of USAID contracts that the administration canceled That left the U S no quick way to move search-and-rescue crews when mishap struck Charles disclosed Britain has pledged million in aid and reported it will match up to million in private donations and China and others have promised financial aid At least countries sent in dozens or hundreds of rescuers or aid workers including Russia China India and the United Arab Emirates according to Myanmar authorities China shares a territory line and close ties with Myanmar Chinese rescuers had their first success Sunday fewer than hours after the quake when they joined hands with local people to pull an elderly man from a badly damaged hospital in the capital city of Naypyitaw By Wednesday Chinese rescuers had pulled out nine survivors including a pregnant woman and a child In Mandalay Chinese rescuers saved a -year-old man who trapped for nearly hours - Rising stated from Bangkok Matthew Lee and Didi Tang contributed from Washington and Jill Lawless from London
