In today’s edition of “I Can’t Believe A Politician Just Said That,” Information Minister Pe Myint is giving President Trump a run for his money by comparing the Maungdaw attacks in October to the September 11 attacks in the United States. Yes, really.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that was published on Wednesday, Pe Myint says of the attacks: “This is like 9/11 in America, we were targeted and attacked in a huge way.
To recap — the attacks in Maungdaw took place on October 9 when an insurgent group attacked three separate guard posts, resulting in the deaths of 17 people, including nine police officers. Following the assault, military troops have swarmed and completely shut down the area to carry out a ‘clearance operation.’ Reports of random killings of the local Rohingya population, rape, arson against whole villages, and arbitrary arrests have since emerged from the conflict zone.
The September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda that injured over 6,000 people and killed another 3,000. It is still regarded as one of the largest terrorist attacks in history.
While maybe there’s something to be said about the persecution of large groups of innocent minorities for the crimes of a few criminals, we don’t get the sense that that’s what Pe Myint is getting at.
We don’t like comparing two horrific tragedies to determine which one was worse, so we’re going to refrain from making any comments (and would like to recommend that the Minister take the same approach in future interviews?).
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