December 10, 2007: Polls indicate that supporters
of deposed prime minister Thaksin
Shinawatra will win this months national elections. The military will be in
trouble if that happens. It was the generals, the king and the urban upper
classes that carried out the coup. Since then, the army has gotten huge
increases in its budget. Thaksin had
refused to spend that kind of money on the military, and those spending plans
were now in danger again. Thaksin
Shinawatra was a wealthy, successful businessman, and a populist politician. He
stepped on toes, and got a coup for his trouble. But his followers, the
majority of the population, are still there, and the anti-Thaksin crowd face
defeat, and retribution. Anymore attempts to deny the majority could lead to
civil war, or at least greater civil unrest.
December 5, 2007: In the south, Islamic terrorists
bombed a restaurant, killing six and wounding over twenty. Police continue to
find and arrest Islamic terrorists, while attacks on Moslems, by terrorists,
increase.
