Is President Bush purposely goading Myanmar into rejecting our aid?

I mention in my previous post that the First Lady's severe condemnation of the Myanmar government mixed in with the offer for aid yesterday surely seemed bent on forcing Myanmar to reject it.

Now, I'm a believer - I think that Bush really wants Myanmar/Burma to reject U.S. help. Here's Bush giving the #1 enemy of the present Myanmar government a "Congressional Gold Medal." The timing is "coincidental" of course:

President George W. Bush signs H.R. 4286, Congressional Gold Medal: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, during a ceremony Tuesday, May 6, 2008, in the Oval Office. The bill awards a congressional gold medal to the Nobel Laureate for her courageous and unwavering commitment to peace, nonviolence, human rights and democracy in Burma.

Today's "Guardian Unlimited" features an excellent analysis from Brigit Welsh, "assistant professor in the Southeast Asia Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington":

The international community has yet to fully accept the hand that has been extended. It is also locked in political games. Governments with entrenched political positions remain focused on elite politics. Yesterday's statement by Laura Bush is illustrative. Rather than wait to be asked in, the US administration browbeat the Burmese government for not accepting their small disaster relief team. The first lady made the offer, while simultaneously criticising the junta, essentially narrowing the space for genuine humanitarian aid to reach those in suffering. The Bush style of telling rather than asking is illustrative of defeating self-righteousness and misplaced arrogance. While the US was trying to do the right thing, how it has done it so far served to undermine the good intentions. Couching offers of aid with conditions will only alienate the junta further, and turn it further into the hands of Asia's growing superpower, China. Ironically, what the US is offering Burma today is a pittance. The amount of aid - $250,000 - is minuscule compared to the disaster. Sadly, more is spent in one day in Iraq.

Today Bush increased the offer by $3 million. Then, of course, he stuck another knife in the side of the offer by awarding the medal and using the opportunity, once again, to condemn the Myanmar government:

This is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman who speaks for freedom for all the people of Burma, and who speaks in such a way that she's a powerful voice in contrast to the junta that currently rules the country.

Bush's wears his motivations on his sleeve like other people wear their emotions. The government rejecting U.S. aid makes Bush look like the good guy to many Americans and (he hopes) to the Myanmar/Burmese people. Rejecting U.S. and other aid would mean untold suffering for the people of Myanmar/Burma whose past protests were ruthlessly crushed by the junta. In the neo-con mind, such added suffering could mean further destabalization and increased hostility to the junta government...and an opportunity.

In other words, the Bush Administration is willing to allow people to suffer and die so that he can get his way.

Gee...that's so unlike him...