By Jim McNalis

Any discussion about dealing with the regime in Burma includes the ominous declaration that they devote over 40% of their annual budget to the military and have assembled an army of over 400,000 soldiers. That represents one of the largest military forces in the world. Since Burma has no hostile neighbors, one must speculate on the need for and use of such a large army.

The regime’s leaders are notorious for their xenophobia and paranoia regarding foreign governments, particularly the United States. It is speculated that one of the principle reasons for squandering millions of dollars to build a new capital in Naypyidaw was fear of a U.S. invasion.

We continue to hear reports of their purchase of weapons, ships, armament, ammunition and jet fighter planes from China, Russia and a variety of other sources.

The Tatmadaw has always been promoted as enormous and powerful and as a force that it would be unwise to antagonize.

Cyclone Nargis, however, revealed something very striking about this army. As the world community practically begged to help provide aid to the cyclone victims and ships of the U.S., French and British navies assembled off the coast of Burma how did the Tatmadaw respond? One would have expected the Tatmadaw’s full and fearsome capabilities to be on display. Where were the constant reconnaissance flights over these ships of foreign nations? . Why were no regime marine forces on maneuvers? Where were the displays of force presented by jet fighters buzzing and intimidating these foreign military vessels? This would have been a chance for the regime to display it’s awesome might and resolve to the world community. It would have been the perfect opportunity to intimidate someone other than their own unarmed citizens.

While it is true that some units of the marine and air forces of the regime were damaged by the cyclone, surely the entire fleet of new Chinese fighter jets could not have been disabled. Rather than a display of strength we saw nothing. Evidence of confusion, lack of resolve, timidity and weakness?

We see spit-and-polish rows of Tatmadaw soldiers marching in formation at celebrations in the new capital, however, these displays are no more impressive than the legions of uniformed, precision marching bands seen at high school football games all over the world.

This inevitably leads to several possible explanations. Like the leaders of the regime, can it be that this huge army is inept, unrealistic, and unprepared to deal with the outside world? Like their leadership is it possible that the military force is paranoid and fearful.

We know for certain that the Tatmadaw and the USDA are expert at displays of power and intimidation. We have indisputable proof that they are highly effective in attacking, beating and killing unarmed civilians and monks and even foreign press representatives. But when has this force ever been tested by an equally large, well equipped army? When have they ever gone up against another army in battle?

Since the main events of 2008, whenever one considers the Tatmadaw, “fearsome”, “huge”, “powerful” and “well equipped” are not the first words that come to mind. They are superseded by new terms that might be much more accurate: Inept, Incompetent, Unprepared, Uncertain, Fearful and most important, Cowardly.