U.S. Absence Felt In Myanmar Quake Response

Forbes

01-04-2025

TOPSHOT - A resident looks on next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on March 28, 2025, after an ... More earthquake in central Myanmar. A powerful earthquake rocked central Myanmar on March 28, buckling roads in capital Naypyidaw, damaging buildings and forcing people to flee into the streets in neighbouring Thailand. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
When a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked central Myanmar on March 28, 2025—killing more than 2,000 people and injuring thousands more—many expected the U.S. to deploy emergency personnel within hours. In previous disasters, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) would have assembled a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) and coordinated relief with local and international partners.
This time, there was no massive deployment. Days after the quake, there is a pledge of $2 million in financial support — but no DART team nor the vast resources the U.S. typically brings to bear. That absence is not an oversight, but the result of recent policy decisions about USAID. Trump Administration cuts shuttered 39 out of 40 development projects in Myanmar in February and placed most humanitarian staff on indefinite leave just as the country faced its worst natural disaster in decades. Former USAID leader Chris Milligan summed up the consequences: 'This is what the world looks like when the U.S. is not in a leadership role. Other countries have mobilized, and we have not.'
KATHMANDU, NEPAL - APRIL 30: Earthquake survivor, Pemba Tamang is carried away after Fairfax County ... More emergency personnel working with USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team assisted in the effort to save Tamang from the rubble on Thursday April 30, 2015 in Kathmandu, Nepal. A deadly earthquake in Nepal has killed thousands. (Photo by Matt McClain/ The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The gap left by USAID's dismantling is more than symbolic—it is tactical. For over 30 years, the United States has led international disaster response not only with personnel, but with unmatched logistics and equipment capabilities. Assets such as military-grade helicopters, cargo aircraft, drones, communications technology, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have enabled rapid response and coordination in complex environments like post-earthquake Nepal. Many of these resources are already staged in the region at Thailand's U-Tapao Air Base. 'They could have mobilized that equipment easily,' said a former USAID official involved in the 2015 Nepal earthquake response. 'But we haven't. '
Among the most capable and experienced U.S. teams now sidelined is Virginia Task Force 1 (VATF-1), based in Fairfax County, Virginia. This FEMA- and USAID-sponsored team has deployed to over 20 international disasters, including Haiti's 2010 earthquake and the 2023 Türkiye-Syria quake. Equipped with advanced search-and-rescue tools, structural engineers, medical personnel, and canine teams, VATF-1 is trained to locate and extract survivors in the critical 72-hour window after a quake. Yet this time, a responder from the team confirmed that they have not been called. 'No one from the State Department nor FEMA's international affairs office has been in touch,' he shared anonymously. 'The team is sitting on their hands watching preventable deaths.' The same source also expressed frustration that their equipment is ready and staged, but unused.
Myanmar was already in crisis before the earthquake, with over 20 million people in need of humanitarian assistance due to civil conflict. The disaster's fallout has only worsened conditions, particularly in rebel-held areas where aid has been slow or deliberately diverted by the ruling junta. In past emergencies, U.S. search and rescue teams would have played a central role in accessing hard-to-reach areas, coordinating with local actors, and bringing rapid logistical support. Their absence not only limits the immediate rescue efforts but also signals a retreat of U.S. humanitarian leadership from a region increasingly shaped by geopolitical competition.
China, by contrast, has pledged $13.7 million in aid and deployed heavy machinery and personnel within hours. India, Russia, and ASEAN neighbors have followed suit. Beyond the current emergency, this moment reflects a broader shift in global disaster diplomacy. The U.S., once a reliable first responder in times of crisis, is now absent by design—its tools idle, its teams grounded, and its values questioned. The gap it leaves behind will be measured not just in geopolitics, but in human lives lost beneath the rubble.