Time to Invade Burma?
- 05.09.2008 - 12:51 PMToday, the United Nations World Food Program suspended the shipment of relief supplies to Burma, also known as Myanmar. The country had been ravaged by Cyclone Nargis on Saturday.
The suspension was prompted by the Burmese junta’s seizure of supplies that the agency had already sent. “All of the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated,” said the UN’s Paul Risley. “For the time being, we have no choice but to end further efforts to bring critical needed food aid into Myanmar at this time.”
Previously, the government blocked almost all disaster assistance offered by the international community, including the United States. According to official statistics, almost 23,000 have died. Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Rangoon, says the toll may have already exceeded 100,000.
The UN says the flights will resume tomorrow, but we do not know whether they will in fact be allowed to land. Yet at this moment we are sure of this: Burmese are dying only because their government, which insists on handling disaster assistance itself, has proven utterly incapable of doing so. Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, has therefore raised the possibility that the United Nations invoke its “responsibility to protect” and deliver aid to Burmese citizens without their government’s permission. Such an action would save lives, but it probably would trigger conflict with the militant regime. So the issue arises: Is the world willing to invade Burma?
Invade? The international community cannot “protect” the Burmese people from a military government without employing military means. The United Nations, of course, is not prepared to use force. So Burmese by the tens of thousands will perish.
Of course, there are good reasons not to start a war against the junta this week. There are, for instance, tens of millions of other people who urgently need to be shielded from the tyrants who threaten their lives, and we cannot forcibly help all of them now. Yet even if the international community had the capability to do so, I doubt it is ready for dozens of simultaneous “interventions.” It’s not ready for even one. How do I know that? The United States undertook an obligation to protect the people of Iraq from the murderous Saddam Hussein. And we can see what the rest of the world now thinks of that.
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May 9th, 2008 at 1:08 PM
Once again,
Another invasion on the false premise of human rights. maybe the UN should have invaded the US after hurricane katrina struck.
Mr. Chang, I bet that if this was any other place in the world with a friendly government who wanted to run the rescue operations alone, you wuold not advocate an invasion……just like in iraq, your intellectual dishonesty is staggering.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:59 PM
But what you are ignoring, Sam, is that “wanting to run rescue operations alone” presumes they’ll be run at all. They aren’t here. It’s not enough that the Burmese people have to suffer under a terrible, freedom-depriving government, but now they have to endure the ravages of the cyclone AND be deprived of the materials to help them by the very same government. Why is it intellectually dishonest to advocating doing something rather than letting people suffer and die because of a paranoid government?
May 9th, 2008 at 2:02 PM
Well, aside from the legalities and wisdom of the case, which I’ll leave to others, there are practical problems. Our forces are overstretched as it is. The last war we fought in Southeast Asia didn’t turn out too well, either. The affected area is right near the capital, too, so a temporary occupation of the affected area without involving the rest of the country is a non-starter.
If anyone was going to invade, it seems to me, it should be neighboring India, Malaysia, or Thailand. The Chinese might not be too happy about such an eventuality (especially if the invader were India).
May 9th, 2008 at 2:10 PM
The only reliable military force the UN might command would be those the U.S. contributed. That ain’t gonna happen, so we’re going to see if the indifference to human life going under the name of fatalism that was often commented on in the West before political correctness rendered it unsayable is still at work in Asia.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:12 PM
False premise,
So using your logic, you should invade every country that is inept at running its own rescue efforts or refuses to run them at all.
you want to be the world’s policeman? but at the same time, you are the biggest criminal the world has ever known.
if you want to do something to stop suffering and injustice, why don’t you overthrow all the regimes in the middle east who are your allies for obvious human rights reasons….oh wait, you c an’t because those countries are your surrogate states, and they live to serve you.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Ah, the world’s policeman argument. Too difficult to bother with all those pesky facts about oppression of the Burmese people, eh?
And, when I start reading America is the world’s biggest criminal, and other such silliness, there’s really no point to continuing to read the rest, is there?
May 9th, 2008 at 3:36 PM
#5 Sam
I’m not a fan of the hegemonism, democratism, and interventionism of many posters on this blog, but this statement is either hyperbole or reflects abysmal ignorance.
Not every act or policy of the US is shrouded in nobility, but even if one takes a dim view of most of our policies in the last 125 years, folks from King Leopold to Pol Pot, with Stalin, Hitler and Mao in between, have outdone even our most violent episodes by orders of magnitude.
Criticize my country if you like, but don’t lie about it.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:56 PM
Thank you, Grumpy. I get so ticked hearing the canned mantra of how horrible and “mean” America is when it is so patently untrue. I couldn’t have said it better myself, so I am glad you pinned Sam’s ears back…and hopefully stopped him cold in his tracks.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:10 PM
Grumpy, thanks for your good words in defense of America. It’s always important to keep things in perspective.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:40 PM
Kouchner’s idea has my support. I think the French should go for it. It would be glorious to see some leadership from the EU on this. Send in EU troops to ensure that UN aid is delivered to the suffering in Burma.
Aux armes, citizens of Europe! You have the unstinting moral support of millions of Americans.