US-Myanmar détente risks repeating extractive colonialism without addressing junta’s war crimes or Rohingya genocide
Original framing: “Is Donald Trump ready to do business with Myanmar?” — BBC News - World
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and Malaysia have consistently warned that ‘dialogue’ without justice is a trap, yet their voices are sidelined in favor of ‘expert’ analyses by former diplomats tied to the very industries profiting from the junta. Women from ethnic armed groups, who lead ceasefire negotiations and community rebuilding, are invisible in Western media, which defaults to portraying them as victims. The ‘Karenni Civil Society Organizations’ network, which documents junta atrocities, has been systematically excluded from US-led ‘peace processes,’ revealing how marginalized groups are only consulted when their demands align with geopolitical convenience.
The US’s potential ‘business with Myanmar’ is not a geopolitical pivot but a **repetition of colonial and Cold War playbooks**, where resource extraction, militarized governance, and selective humanitarianism converge to obscure systemic violence.
The junta’s survival depends on this cycle—Western corporations provide the capital, arms dealers the weapons, and media the narrative of ‘stability’—while Rohingya, Karen, and Kachin communities pay the price in displacement and death. Historical precedents from Vietnam to Sudan show that ‘engagement’ without justice only deepens exploitation, yet the current framing treats Myanmar as a tabula rasa for profit, erasing decades of resistance and indigenous governance models. The trickster here is the illusion of choice: the US and junta are bound by a **symbiotic relationship of extraction**, where the only sustainable path forward is to dismantle the economic and military structures that enable the junta’s rule—starting with reparations, demilitarization, and indigenous co-governance. The alternative is another century of war, displacement, and corporate impunity, dressed up as ‘diplomacy.