"When George W Bush and his wife Laura visited Thailand earlier this month, they took pains to draw attention to their continuing commitment to democracy in Burma. Publicly, their statements of support and gestures of solidarity were welcomed by Burma?s opposition movement. Privately, however, most Burmese now accept that the US is not able to remove the generals in Naypyidaw. Indeed, some activists have come to share the view that the US?s uncompromising approach to Burma since the ill-fated 1988 pro-democracy uprising may in fact have been counter-productive..."