Joe Biden’s Challenge Was Barack Obama’s Victory

When Myanmar was summoned to The Hague last year to face allegations that its armed forces had carried out a genocide against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority, no military officers attended. Instead, it was the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi lamenting that the horrific reports and photos seen by the world were “an incomplete and misleading factual picture of the situation.” Domestically, her speech was viewed as a defense of her country. Abroad, it was read as bold support for the military, an organization for which she has in the past expressed fondness despite its atrocious human-rights record, and, more personally, its having held her captive for some 15 years, thwarted her bid to become president, and constantly stymied her attempts at constitutional reform.

With Suu Kyi’s capitulation, it appeared that Myanmar’s generals had what they wanted: a global democracy icon standing with them, absorbing a deluge of international criticism as well as a rush of nationalist support defending their campaign against the largely detested Rohingya. But this patina of cohesion masked the fissures Suu Kyi and the military’s top brass. Angered by a number of moves from Suu Kyi, who continued, in the eyes of the military, to disrespect the institution and push the limits of the junta-drafted constitution, long-simmering tensions split open this week with the armed forces staging a swift, well-crafted coup.