Commanders worked hard to reverse anti-American sentiment caused by a seemingly callous U.S. attitude toward civilian deaths and injuries.

CNN: Bring drones out of the shadows

But it is a measure of how little inclined the leadership is to trust the market's callous hand operating through such things as mergers, sales and, especially, bankruptcies.

ECONOMIST: Out of the shadow of Deng

In January, when his government was under pressure over the army's callous treatment of ethnic-Rohingya boat people, originally from Myanmar, Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister, told journalists that the illegal-immigrant problem had to be solved.

ECONOMIST: Migrant workers battered by the slump