Anne Applebaum: Is it time to “intervene” in Burma?
posted at 10:22 pm on May 12, 2008 by Allahpundit
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I have no answers, I just wanted to relay the question for discussion. How dire is the situation? “[T]he death toll is thought to have reached 100,000,” she writes, “a further 1.5 million Burmese are now at risk of epidemics and starvation, parts of the country are still underwater, hundreds of thousands of people are camped in the open without food or clean water—and, yes, if foreigners come and distribute aid, the legitimacy of the regime might be threatened.” If that’s not graphic enough, watch this. Note that she’s not — necessarily — calling for an invasion, but the only alternative I can think of is airdrops, an imperfect solution insofar as it can deliver medical supplies to the population but not the personnel needed to administer them. What’s left?
Hence the “logic” of the regime’s behavior in the days since the cyclone: the impounding of airplanes full of food; the refusal to grant visas to relief workers and landing rights to foreign aircraft; the initial refusal to allow U.S. military (or indeed any foreign military) to supply the ships, planes, and helicopters needed for the mass distribution of food and supplies that Burma needs. Nor is this simple anti-Western paranoia: The foreign minister of Thailand has been kept out, too. Even Burmese citizens have been prevented from bringing food to the flood-damaged regions, on the grounds that “all assistance must be channeled through the military.”…
The French—whose foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, was himself a co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières—are already talking about finding alternative ways of delivering aid. Others in Europe and Asia might join in, along with some aid organizations. The Chinese should be embarrassed into contributing, asked again and again to help. This is their satrapy, after all, not ours.
Think of it as the true test of the Western humanitarian impulse: The international effort that went into coordinating the tsunami relief effort in late 2004 has to be repeated, but in much harsher, trickier, uglier political circumstances. Yes, we should help the Burmese, even against the will of their irrational leaders. Yes, we should think hard about the right way to do it. And, yes, there isn’t much time to ruminate about any of this.
The junta is allowing foreign aid into the country, just not foreign experts or equipment; in the case of the World Food Programme, that means less than 20 percent of the daily food allocated for relief has been delivered. Realistically, no one’s going in there with guns blazing to dislodge the army and inherit a broken country unless it’s the UN, but who’s going to commit troops for that mission and risk having to deal with a Burmese insurgency replete with niceties like mass starvation and malaria mixed in? As far as I can see, we’re stuck with airdrops plus whatever leverage China can exert over the regime to admit foreign aid workers — an exertion you’d think they’d be willing to make if only to spare themselves a catastrophe happening next door when the Olympics finally get going this summer. Exit quotation: “This is the worst government in the world. Same as Saddam Hussein. Why you cannot help us?”
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You cannot airdrop supplies into the jungles of Burma from 40,000 feet. You have to go low and slow. What the hell is the world gonna do when the first airdrop results in POWs in bamboo cages (or worse)?
Limerick on May 12, 2008 at 10:25 PM
Why is this generating less outrage than Tibet?
- The Cat
MirCat on May 12, 2008 at 10:26 PM
Import the comments from the “Headlines” post, please.
malan89 on May 12, 2008 at 10:28 PM
Where is the frickin UN? They obviously have their collective finger up their butts again.
Yeah, we should do something. Air drops without people is not a good idea. I say kick the UN in the ass and tell them to provide security for NGO’s going in or don’t expect another dime from us.
Maxx on May 12, 2008 at 10:31 PM
Problem is Burma is a freind of china and they dont want the US involved there
William Amos on May 12, 2008 at 10:32 PM
My husband is a USAF pilot. NO IT IS NOT TIME TO SEND THE US MILITARY. To Myanmar or to Darfur.
Unless you are serious about killing lots and lots of bad guys….which the left cannot countenance.
Therefore NO.
funky chicken on May 12, 2008 at 10:33 PM
Remember Somalia. Imagine Obama having blackhawk down happen again. Remember that Bin Laden used our retreat in Somalia has a basis for the tactics they employ today. Spineless leadership shouldn’t go sending troops into situations where they aren’t needed.
lorien1973 on May 12, 2008 at 10:34 PM
BTW wasnt the complaint that the Sanctions in Iraq were harming the people cant the argument be made that removing Saddam was a good thing ?
William Amos on May 12, 2008 at 10:35 PM
Let China help them out, China’s economy is booming! And they live in the neighborhood.
Hog Wild on May 12, 2008 at 10:36 PM
“Yes, we should help the Burmese, even against the will of their irrational leaders.”
Add to list of things to do: Burma, North Korea, Somalia, Darfur, Zimbabwe, Tibet, Cuba, Haiti, Iran…
mred on May 12, 2008 at 10:36 PM
Amen! Even with a perimeter set up by ground forces how are you going to get the supplies distributed? You can’t. Only China could pull this off and right now, big as she is, she has her hands full.
Limited supply might be possible, but the idea of C-130s skimming the trees to hit their target is insanity. The only they they will end up hitting is a shoulder fired missle.
Limerick on May 12, 2008 at 10:38 PM
The left needs a feel good use of our military again…
Just another reason for me to support Iraq. We do not have enough troops for another Bosnia, or Somalia whew!
Theworldisnotenough on May 12, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Anyone who has ever protested against our invasion of Iraq should have no right to suggest we intervene in Burma, Darfur or elsewhere. How does the left expect the administration to stick its neck out again? The humanitarian reasons for going into Iraq were just as great, and, yet, he’s vilified for it.
Had those who protested (are still protesting) the war in Iraq gotten behind this noble mission, I’m sure Bush & Co. would have had no reservations about going into Darfur and Burma to clean house and free more people from oppressive regimes.
I wonder if we’ll hear a plea from George Clooney about how “we’ve got to do something”? Too bad Hollywood can’t come up with a black & white checklist for when we should intervene and when we shouldn’t…people end up getting killed in the grey areas.
Tokyo Times on May 12, 2008 at 10:43 PM
No. We’re not going to ‘intervene’, not in Burma, not in Sudan, not in Zimbabwe, not in North Korea. Dictatorships kill their own people. That’s what they do. As a practical matter it’s easier to rule a starved, beaten, isolated population than the reverse. Ask Kim Jong Il.
We are not waging a war against dictatorships nor a war to rid the world of evil. What’s happening in Burma may offend your sense of morality (and mine) but it’s the nature of the world.
Vote Sauron 08 on May 12, 2008 at 10:44 PM
I really doubt that China’s rulers have any “issues” with their brother tyrants in Burma, nor do I think that they would lose any sleep at all if even millions of Burmese died.
MB4 on May 12, 2008 at 10:46 PM
55,000,000 million people. 250,000 sq miles of jungle and mountains. That is one helluva lot of manpower to pull into a jungle based army to attack any troops put on the ground.
Right over the ‘hump’ is Burma’s daddy, China, who would be all too happy to supply the SAMS and AKs to help her out.
Limerick on May 12, 2008 at 10:49 PM
BTW, China is not going to help either. They have their hands quite full with an earthquake and the Olympics. Sorry to say but no one is going to help these people. Moralists in the West will wring their hands, reporters will submit terrible stories filled with shocking images (just like Rwanda). There’ll be lots of editorials and hour-long specials and magazine cover stories but in the end these people will die as a direct result of the military dictatorship.
It’s only a matter of time.
Vote Sauron 08 on May 12, 2008 at 10:49 PM
There is no need for a “true test,” as the Western humanitarian impulse has been proven time and time and time again.
JohnW on May 12, 2008 at 10:53 PM
It’s true that Burma has an evil government, but Burma keeps its evil to itself. Despite any maudlin sentiment we may have, there are bigger priorities for intervention like Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Berkeley.
thuja on May 12, 2008 at 10:55 PM
I say drop leaflets from 20,000 feet and invite the people of Burma to leave and set up places for them in the Pacific to escape to. Dont send the aid in bring the people out.
William Amos on May 12, 2008 at 10:56 PM
The UN is an organization of eunuchs who chatter about being good by doing well, but never seem to get beyond the talking stage.
There are very few countries in the world that have the will or capacity to take on these sorts of challenges and one must weigh the very real possibility that military intervention would make the situation worse in the near term for the very people we hope to assist.
As much as I’d like to see the junta go away, there is no reasonable way to achieve that baring direct foreign intervention.
Having said that, I would hope we are keeping an open ear for anyone within the country that might be interested in giving the bad guys a dirt nap. That might be something we could assist with, provided it could be done quickly with a ready to go leadership who would then allow the UN in to assist. Baring a pre-packaged coup d’état/UN aid deal, we do what we can with the realities on the ground.
moxie_neanderthal on May 12, 2008 at 10:56 PM
obligatory
ninjapirate on May 12, 2008 at 10:56 PM
Foreign policy based on the emotions of the moment is a very dangerous foreign policy. However, dropping food and supplies from the air is okay with me. What’s Burma going to do, shoot down the planes?
SouthernGent on May 12, 2008 at 10:59 PM
I love that picture, don’t you?
malan89 on May 12, 2008 at 10:59 PM
Yes
Limerick on May 12, 2008 at 11:00 PM
So was Burma behind 9/11 ? do they have WMDs ? Have they attacked their neighbor ? Do they have anything to do with US interests ?
This is all speculation the only enemy a President Obama would ever order the military out for is inside the US to “Fight Crime”
William Amos on May 12, 2008 at 11:01 PM
Very true. China has demonstrated a clear international policy by which they seek economic or political relationships but are agnostics when it comes to the ethics or morality of the governments with whom they interact.
moxie_neanderthal on May 12, 2008 at 11:01 PM
Are you kidding me?:
The military rulers in Myanmar would rather their people die than receive outside help from anyone and this tool uses the resulting humanitarian crisis to take a cheap shot at Bush over Iraq. I guess it’s the global warming-Iraq war blame nexus.
Spolitics on May 12, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Burma Intelligence Review (Janes-98)
Limerick on May 12, 2008 at 11:02 PM
I would say………. dire!
Seven Percent Solution on May 12, 2008 at 11:02 PM
If we don’t have permission, sure. We’re talking about the same people that hold votes right after disasters and then most Burmese don’t even know what was voted on. We’re talking about the same country which is letting thousands (if not more) of its people die in order to save face.
amerpundit on May 12, 2008 at 11:04 PM
No, they won’t.
SouthernGent on May 12, 2008 at 11:04 PM
The UN can sit around all day and pass resolutions against Israel for their wall that prevents Israeli citizens from being blown to bits, but do you think the UN will pass a resolution against China or the Burmese junta for letting all these people die?
Maxx on May 12, 2008 at 11:05 PM
Somebody take a note. I agree with MB4.
funky chicken on May 12, 2008 at 11:08 PM
Buddy, pal, ‘my friend’, (all meant sincerely) read the link to Jane’s I posted, esp the air defense capability.
Limerick on May 12, 2008 at 11:08 PM
All the world community had to do was threaten to pull the Olympics from China and you would have seen a “miracle” change of attitude.
econavenger on May 12, 2008 at 11:11 PM
Hey Anne, how about you pilot a jet nice and low over the jungles of Myanmar. Let us know how it goes. Damn, what a perfect liberal:
As long as it doesn’t cost you anything but other people’s money and time, right Anne? And maybe other people’s lives, but hey, if they were good people they wouldn’t have joined the US military.
funky chicken on May 12, 2008 at 11:13 PM
the rest of the world is really ridiculous
they yell at us for being so “unilateral”
then they give us this “uh, are you going to do something” look whenever they refuse to take the lead.
fuck the rest of the world. AMERICA!
blatantblue on May 12, 2008 at 11:16 PM
forgot to add
let the bureau-peans take the lead for once. hows that?
blatantblue on May 12, 2008 at 11:17 PM
I read a story earlier that said the government was confiscating aid boxes so they could stamp the generals’ names on them before they distributed it so as to make it a propaganda event. Pure evil.
And, for those who think Burma is just a little country, they have nearly 50 million people.
CP on May 12, 2008 at 11:17 PM
Food drop kills woman
The Pentagon has suspended parachute drops of large containers of humanitarian supplies into Afghanistan after a package crashed into a house and killed an Afghan woman. The container filled with wheat, blankets and cold weather gear dropped on Mazar-i-Sharif.
Drops of smaller packages will continue, the US military said.
AnthonyK on May 12, 2008 at 11:23 PM
you know, i had a stupid prof. talk about how americans generosity is gone because at that point (a few days after the disaster in burma) US aid had not arrived yet. i wanted to strangle him and remind him of the buckets of blood our men and women have spilled in countries around the world, even in the last decade, and all the gazibillions we’ve spent in iraq and afghanistan and other countries. these people and the bureau-peans are out of their minds and i despise them.
the US is damned if it does and damned if it doesnt
blatantblue on May 12, 2008 at 11:24 PM
Hollywood will be silent. No oil, but plenty of cocaine.
OldEnglish on May 12, 2008 at 11:25 PM
If this lady wants to be humanitarian by invading a soverign nation she should hire Blackwater to do it.
snaggletoothie on May 12, 2008 at 11:25 PM
This shows a complete lack of understanding of China and Chinese people.
I do think we should pressure China by making it clear what is happening in Burma, and also taking subtle jabs at China for holding up UN action. China is busy with its own problems now with the earthquake, so I don’t think they will fight humanitarian aid going into Burma (since they are going to be looking for it themselves), especially if we make it clear to them that we are willing to help them, but we also need to help the Burmese people, and won’t help one and not the other.
p40tiger on May 12, 2008 at 11:27 PM
burma is no little country. it’s roughly the same size as thailand, where i am living. 50-60 million.
the gov’t there is of a piece with north korea and saddam’s iraq. the simple fact that they are refusing assistance from us when thailand welcomed us and everyone else with open arms after the tsunami should tell you everything you need to know.
invasion is not an option. air-dropping supplies, etc. to those in need, however, most definitely is.
let’s get those birds in the air!
homesickamerican on May 12, 2008 at 11:27 PM
Funny, everyone blames the UN. The UN can’t do anything that a member of the permanent security council fails to support, and China is a member. China only wants to protect their fascist little general friends in countries like Burma and N. Korea.
Anyone who was proclaiming the moral high ground by bringing Islamic democracy to Iraq should support a military invasion of Burma. Unfortuantely, I think that Iraq has restored the Vietnam syndrome, and even the right is gunshy about another military operation.
If the most recent memory of US military invention abroad was Bosnia, the chances of US military action to topple Burma’s thugs would be much, much higher.
bayam on May 12, 2008 at 11:33 PM
But
IraqMyanmar is a sovereign country! We have no right to intervene!WisCon on May 12, 2008 at 11:38 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW4fd8pUblM
surrounded on May 12, 2008 at 11:54 PM
The UN did send materials initially but halted them when the junta seized the first ones.
baldilocks on May 13, 2008 at 12:41 AM
Somolia Part Deux,lets hope not!
Someone needs to approach the UN,ya its crazy talk,we
know the UN will sit idley by,my point is get every
member on board,vote it up or down!
Then when the UN does nothing,the people in Burma will
starve and die,and the world can sit by,and blame the
UN!
What a freaggin pickle!
canopfor on May 13, 2008 at 12:54 AM
No doubt they learned the art of killing multitudes of their own people by watching Blood-Red China through the decades.
jgapinoy on May 13, 2008 at 1:02 AM
I say bomb the new capital, whose name I don’t even remember. It’s comprised exclusively of government buildings. I say follow the Spiderman principle: with great power comes great responsibility. The US can make a difference to save innocent people. It’s what the country is all about, standing up for what is good in this world.
Baphomet on May 13, 2008 at 1:05 AM
If your neighbor was not feeding his kids, or was not allowing them to have desperately needed medical care, would you say, “That’s his sovereign house”?
jgapinoy on May 13, 2008 at 1:08 AM
I know. There are refugees to rape, so you’d think they’d be lining up already.
Laura on May 13, 2008 at 1:24 AM
America, F*** Yeah!!! World Police!!!
Yeah, let’s just push our cannon fodder - excuse me - military into danger to satisfy completely infantile ideas about foreign policy. Great idea! That’s what they’re there for, right? To die at the whim of some goofball journalist?
I wish the nitwit who wrote that article would send her own family and herself over there first to straighten things out.
Django on May 13, 2008 at 1:47 AM
Invade Burma? Why?
We have learned some lessons from Iraq. Sure the Burmese Junta is a dictatorship, but haven’t we heard ad nauseum from Liberals that being a dictatorship is not necessarily a bad thing. The Burmese, like the Iraqi’s, might need a strong hand to control them after 46 years of repression. If we removed their authoritarian government, it might result in chaos in the streets. Maybe even a million dead. But haven’t we been told that we need to leave Iraq even if it results in ‘genocide’? So I guess allowing a million to die is an option.
So far, the dead still number in the tens or hundreds of thousands. That’s not even a quarter of the number that we’ve found in mass graves in Iraq. At least these people weren’t killed by execution squads as in Iraq. But we’re being excoriated daily, both at home and abroad, for stopping that.
We had no problem abandoning the Vietnamese or Cambodians. We scurried from Somalia as soon as we took casualties. That was a UN sponsored operation. No freelancing there.
When mass murder became daily life in Rwanda we sat on our hands.
We felt bad about it. I’m sure we will feel bad about the Burmese also. Maybe we can have a concert or something. That might make us feel better.
But invasion? We have learned our lesson. America is not going to ride to the rescue anymore.
Well, maybe in the Balkans. But those people are white Europeans, kind of.
schmuck281 on May 13, 2008 at 2:07 AM
The drive-by media is confusing the heck out of me.
Is it OK, or is it not OK, to invade a sovereign nation that poses no threat to our national security, a nation whose rulers oppress its people, even to the point of using WMD on them and starving them and trying to commit genocide against segments of them?
I’m so confused.
misterpeasea on May 13, 2008 at 2:14 AM
As John Kerry might say, the kids who don’t do good in school will get stuck in Burma.
Buddahpundit on May 13, 2008 at 2:27 AM
“This is the worst government in the world. Same as Saddam Hussein. Why you cannot help us?”
Because, pal, the entire world has been taking one gigantic, steaming s*** on us for the last five years for removing Saddam from Iraq. Every eurotrash scumbag alive (about 300 milion of them) has been screeching against it as well as using it to aid and abbett political opportunists around the world since before that war even started. Just as they damned us for sorting out Yugoslavia and trying to help in Somalia. And now the pissants who’ve done nothing but harangue us and undercut us for years want Americans to die to satisfy their ideas about philanthropy while they sacrifice nothing (as usual)?
China’s right next door and could address the situation in a hurry if they made even a slight effort. Gee, maybe we should invade China and straighten that place out too to satisy the amateur diplomats.
Django on May 13, 2008 at 2:33 AM
Indeed…Their usual food-for-sex operations should work like a charm in Burma.
Django on May 13, 2008 at 2:40 AM
Let her send her illiterate son to save the Burmese. I mean that is what they think of the USA military, is it not? Kerry, Obama, King, Moore, etc.
pat on May 13, 2008 at 2:52 AM
Wow, though I hadn’t read much of her stuff for a long time, I though Applebaum wasn’t a complete idiot.
She is in this piece, though - and AP, sad to say, yet another D-minus for you on sophistication and substance. This column is absurd. If you’re going to use it as a hook for the intervention question, how about doing at least a cursory evisceration of her idiocy? Geez.
She compares the “hit” to the Bush administration from Katrina to the possibility that the cyclone’s aftermath will weaken the junta. Nice! A storm whose major impact was on coastal Mississippi, and which in general was handled just fine by the federal government - and disastrously by the LA state and local authorities - is comparable to a natural disaster in a Third World dictatorship where a junta cold-bloodedly blocks assistance out of political paranoia? Gee, Anne, ya think that the “hit” from Katrina might have been from the Soviet or Nazi-levels of distortion and hysteria in the “media” that accompanied Katrina? Guess you didn’t notice when Brown humiliated that pathetic Cong. Shays from CT at his little hearing, wherein he attempted to make one itsy-bitsy bit of additional political hay out of the communists burning the Reichstag.
Behold, folks, someone so stupid and misinformed as to talk of the “damage” done by the Iraq war to coalitions of the willing gets columns published. As if the morally imbecilic and contemptible, cowardly behavior of France, Germany, and many others WRT Iraq somehow is the reason they’re all so powerless and pusillanimous about helping in Burma. News flash: “Europe” can’t project power, to include humanitarian intervention, on any significant scale much beyond the borders of Europe.
Oh, and BTW, “air drops” in this situation are ludicrous. Enteric disease is the big killer, and that is unlikely to be affected at all by the provision of a few more food or medical items.
Some days, one cannot resist the conclusion that ignorance and moral inversion ARE winning the battle. And after years of silence from the Bush people, does anyone expect Maverick’s administration to jolt people back into using facts and logic? Wouldn’t that violate the “high road” principle by upsetting some people?
IceCold on May 13, 2008 at 3:25 AM
The hippies, media and Democrats spit on our soldiers. Repeatedly tell everyone that they are “too stupid” to do anything else. Call them “baby killers” and worse.
The hippies, media and the Democrats scream to high heaven that we must not do things in a “unilateral” way no matter what the reason.
The hippies, media and Democrats consider AmeriKKKa to be the most evil place on earth. They hate this country with a passion.
So, hippies, time to walk the walk. Get off your asses and do what you deamnd of others and go help these people? They have plenty of hippie billionaires who can donate millions to the Obamamessiah I am sure that they can spare a few million to aid Burma. They have fleets of private jets that they can fly aid over with. And, most importantly, the Burmese may be more receptive about getting aid for communists like Medea Benjamin, Mikey Moore and the rest of their ilk. I would much rather have Medea or Mikey hacked to death and given the Mogadishu treatment then our servicemen and women. I would rather see Ben Cohen get shot down over the jungle dropping Ben & Jerry’s then a US military aircrew.
Nahanni on May 13, 2008 at 4:16 AM
Because we did help in Iraq with Saddam Hussein, and everyone on earth since then has screwed us.
Let the U.N., Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, John Murtha, and so on take care of it.
seanrobins on May 13, 2008 at 6:49 AM
I’m not sure we can deploy troops to Burma without a Congressional Authorization can we? I mean, that’s what the Democrats have been screaming for how long? So wouldn’t we need time to debate the need to take any action in Burma?
Now, once we have an agreement from out allies, and not just a few, but all of them, because we didn’t have agreement from France, and that meant that our allies were not with us in Iraq, and we were acting unilaterally with something like twelve nations coming with us.
Also, do we have any authority from the UN? I’m not sure we can take action without a clear UN Resolution, not only from the Security Council, but also the General Assembly.
Since Burma is in Asia, we’d have to get a meeting going with the major powers in Asia, and have them approve any and all activity wouldn’t we?
Oh I imagine we can get this all done in a year, or perhaps two, providing that we all work together. We’ll need time to review the intelligence won’t we? How do we know that the Press isn’t lying to us about what is really going on? Does Halliburton have any interest in Burma? If so, does that void any and all intelligence?
So many questions, and so little time Libs. Too bad that humans dying isn’t a good enough reason any more. If we go in and depose a dictator who is in essence wiping out his own population, aren’t we in fact creating a land that is ripe for terrorists?
Snake307 on May 13, 2008 at 7:31 AM
Wait, I had forgotten and the wife reminded me. Didn’t Jimmy Carter say he preferred to talk to Dictators, since then he only had to speak to one person, and get the feel of the whole nation?
If so, then if the Dictator in Burma says they don’t need help, they don’t need any help.
Snake307 on May 13, 2008 at 7:38 AM
This is yet another reminder about a lesson we have to learn over and over again: there is no ‘world community’. There are 200 self-interested nations. Waiting for the ‘world community’ to help these people is like waiting for the Tooth Fairy or Iron Man.
Vote Sauron 08 on May 13, 2008 at 7:44 AM
Al-Ozarka would give them in-state tuition, you heartless bastards.
Cuffy Meigs on May 13, 2008 at 7:54 AM
Time for China to use their military for something…
Seixon on May 13, 2008 at 8:09 AM
Would you fly that plane? Would you want your son/daughter to fly that plane?
Saltysam on May 13, 2008 at 8:32 AM
Sorry. Let’s try that again…
Would you fly that plane? Would you want your son/daughter to fly that plane?
Saltysam on May 13, 2008 at 8:33 AM
Good point. Anybody else here read Atlas Shrugged and think maybe we’re approaching a tipping point too?
I bet it looked simply hilarious when the coffee shot right out of my nose. Pity you couldn’t see it.
Laura on May 13, 2008 at 8:51 AM
We’ve intervened in the world enough already much less where we’re not wanted. We can’t save the world, or feed it for that matter.
If they want help, let them ask for it and let them ask China.
orlandocajun on May 13, 2008 at 8:55 AM
funky chicken on May 13, 2008 at 9:14 AM
funky chicken on May 13, 2008 at 9:16 AM
The government of Myanmar is a particularly bloody thugocracy. If we supply food or supplies against their will, they may just kill the people who used them. Terrorists have done this in both South America and the Middle East; what is to stop the terrorists who run Burma from doing the same? Certainly not moral fiber, nor any moral suasion from the West. The only country which has the ear of that government is the region’s 800-lb gorilla, China, and only when they grab it to lead the thugs around.
China likes being surrounded by client states just like Russia does. In their calculus, a neighbor that thinks like you do (but not as well), knows not to make trouble for you, and is willing to run to your side if threatened is an asset, and one that you don’t risk just to make your adversaries happy.
njcommuter on May 13, 2008 at 9:58 AM
Sudan
roux on May 13, 2008 at 10:04 AM
No, we should not invade Burma. It will be just another war our leadership wont have the resolve to win. And the media will see to it that we lose too.
abcurtis on May 13, 2008 at 10:09 AM
Sickening and sad, but not our deal. Yes, we should help every way we can, but this is China’s mess. And now with China reeling from a 7.9 earthquake, they have problems of their own.
Communist dictatorships are not healthy governing bodies.
Jaibones on May 13, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Someone said Sudan. For all of those whining liberals who like to talk about how horrible the U.S. is, let’s give them a dose of reality:
Myanmar
Sudan
Somalia
Lebanon
Syria
North Korea
Venezuela
Bolivia
Indonesia
China
Jaibones on May 13, 2008 at 10:51 AM
How could I forget: Zimbabwe!
Jaibones on May 13, 2008 at 10:51 AM
Short answer: No national interest in Burma. Typical Leftist nonsense.
Hucklebuck on May 13, 2008 at 11:00 AM
I am surprised and disappointed at the levels of ignorance displayed in this thread. Anyone who thinks Anne Applebaum is a leftist, or a hippie, goes in that category.
By the way, if one supports the freedom agenda and the idea that everyone has a right to democracy, then what’s wrong with intervening in Myanmar? The risks are minimal, since the regime has no military power at all (except against its own people, at ground level). You can’t support a full invasion of Iraq whose purpose is to install a democracy (as opposed to just bombing Saddam from the sky) and then say there is no “national interest” in Myanmar.
Baphomet on May 13, 2008 at 11:58 AM
No, no invasion of Burma.
A war against murderous jihadists that actually is in our national interests - that war we can’t fight. But we have time to invade Burma now? We must oppose communism and dictatorships, but we don’t have to invade countries to do it.
However, the reason we don’t invade countries is not because Europe and the UN look down on us; screw ‘em. We don’t do it because it’s unwise.
emailnuevo on May 13, 2008 at 12:55 PM