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Thursday, May 15, 2008

I might even support a humanitarian military mission for this
Posted by Jill | 6:18 AM
Of course we all know that the invasion of Iraq was NOT to "liberate the Iraqi people from a tyrant", but let's just go with that for a minute. If it's a "noble cause" to liberate people of an oil-rich nation to "spread freedom", why isn't it OK to liberate people in a country devastated by the Pacific equivalent of a Katrina-level hurricane and flood from a tyrannical regime that won't even let aid get to its people?

Myanmar's junta announced Thursday that a pro-military constitution has won overwhelming support in a referendum, which was held despite widespread criticism and in the midst of a national tragedy — a devastating cyclone that the Red Cross says may have killed more than 125,000 people.

Myanmar's government issued a revised casualty toll Wednesday night, saying 38,491 were known dead and 27,838 were missing.

But the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said its estimate put the number of dead between 68,833 and 127,990.

Even though the figures seemed precise, spokesman Matthew Cochrane said they were not based on body counts, but were only estimate designed to provide Red Cross donors and partner organizations with an idea of the numbers being discussed within the aid community.

U.N. officials have said there could be more than 100,000 dead in the May 2-3 cyclone.

With up to 2.5 million people in urgent need of food, water and shelter, aid agencies were preparing or moving in a wide-range of relief supplies including material for temporary shelters, rice, drinking water, kitchen utensils and medicines, including 2,000 anti-snake bite kits.

The World Health Organization said an increase in snake bites was feared in coming days. U.N. agencies and other voluntary groups have been able to reach only 270,000 of the affected people.

But instead of accepting foreign help freely, the government continued to issue only a few visas to foreign aid experts, and all but shut them out of the hardest-hit areas.

The regime insists it can handle the disaster on its own — a stance that appears to stem not from its abilities but its deep suspicion of most foreigners, who have frequently criticized its human rights abuses and crackdown on democracy activists.


If George W. Bush really cared about spreading freedom and democracy throughout the world, he would send troops in a noncombat role to get this aid through. But then, Myanmar/Burma doesn't have oil.

Except that it does.

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3 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
How could any troops be non-combat?
5/15/08, 6:29 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...
>How could any troops be non-combat?

They could be French?
5/15/08, 2:51 PM  
Blogger Porlock Junior said...
Oh boy, now we've got Bart Simpson as a commenter. But he has a point: they could be French (I think) or Canadian or any number of nationalities that have done peace-keeping duties in recent decades. Unarmed, using their military discipline to not shoot people who really deserve it; and often suffering in the process.

However, would this save anybody? Sadly, I'm not sure. The people in charge there are definitely evil and not improbably mad; and if they have any military force at all, they can do lots of harm to people delivering stuff for relief. And fighting back gets you into some more asymmetrical warfare, just what we need, even if our High Command were competent and (related issue) had any forces left to use.

Not quite so dogmatically sure of that as I sound, but that's the case that makes sense to me just now. I would very much like to be proved wrong, in the most practical, concrete way.
5/15/08, 4:04 PM  
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