Posted on 05/10/2008 12:36:34 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
That's why it's time to consider a more serious option: invading Burma. Some observers, including former USAID director Andrew Natsios, have called on the U.S. to unilaterally begin air drops to the Burmese people regardless of what the junta says. The Bush Administration has so far rejected the idea — "I can't imagine us going in without the permission of the Myanmar government," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday — but it's not without precedent: as Natsios pointed out to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. has facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid without the host government's consent in places like Bosnia and Sudan.
A coercive humanitarian intervention would be complicated and costly. During the 2004 tsunami, some 24 U.S. ships and 16,000 troops were deployed in countries across the region; the mission cost the U.S. $5 million a day. Ultimately, the U.S. pledged nearly $900 million to tsunami relief. (By contrast, it has offered just $3.25 million to Burma.) But the risks would be greater this time: the Burmese government's xenophobia and insecurity make them prone to view U.S. troops — or worse, foreign relief workers — as hostile forces. (Remember Black Hawk Down?) Even if the U.S. and its allies made clear that their actions were strictly for humanitarian purposes, it's unlikely the junta would believe them. "You have to think it through — do you want to secure an area of the country by military force? What kinds of potential security risks would that create?" says Egelend. "I can't imagine any humanitarian organization wanting to shoot their way in with food."
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Not before we get Washington first!!
Not our business.
Berlin Airlift
I think we should just send in Rambo. That was a pretty good movie even for what it was (good guys kicking the crap out of bad guys).
NO.
What are we crazy? Too many problems and wars already. Who wants to go back into jungles of Far East?
Let Burma deal with their problems and we’ll deal with ours.
Boy I wish the lefties would make up their mind! I was under the impression that they thought we shouldn’t be anywhere but at home guarding our shores?
This is hilarious.
So, Iraq is an unjust war, even though their Head of State declared the same on us many times before we actually went in again. On top of that, there’s no disputing the fact they had a WMD program.
Burma did NOTHING to ANYONE except of course their own people, and they want us to INVADE THEM.
Iran, by contrast, has threatened the mass destruction of Israel on more than one occasion, and is without doubt to ANYONE building nukes and the capability to deliver them.
But LET’S NOT INVADE THEM OR ANYTHING. There’s simply no justification for it, you see.
It the wet-ass hour, they come running to Uncle Sam, but when they are taking pate and champagne at some reception, we’re the devil.
I’d make them a deal. We’ll invade Burma, and YOU invade Iran and do your F’IN job and make sure that don’t hit the West with nukes!!
My wife has an old friend Bob whose wife was convinced he was having an affair. She berated and accused him constantly that he was cheated on her, even though he was not. Eventually, it got to the point where he figured, well, if she is convinced I am cheating on her then I might as well do so. We call it the “Bob Rule”. It applies to Burma. Since they are convinced we want to invade them and overthrow their junta, we might as well do so. (applies to taking control of Iraq oil as well, since the left has accused Bush of having that as his motivation for invading Iraq from the start).
I just can’t think of a much better way to start a serious ground war with China... than by doing something that stupid.
It's not clear why. For some perhaps they feel guilty when we have a national interest at stake. For many, they simply are on the other side and don't want our country to be stronger in the world.
A coercive humanitarian intervention?
Now that just reeks of Nanny State Socialist, Ben &Jerry ice cream eating, eco-tree hugging, liberal trash nonsense.
Maybe they can drop in a few million cases of mercury loaded fluorescent light bulbs while they are at it and save the Planet, to boot.
"You have to think it through — do you want to secure an area of the country by military force? What kinds of potential security risks would that create?" says Egelend. "I can't imagine any humanitarian organization wanting to shoot their way in with food."
I kind of doubt that there is any precedent there at all unfortunately but what is your plan then, Jan? I can't imagine any sick and starving victims of the flooding being real thrilled to have their aid served up in a crossfire of mortars and artillery shells either.
Since the military junta in Burma cow tows to Beijing perhaps you could talk to the Hu Jintao clique about exerting some pressure on them to get things moving? Of course they're a little busy right now trying to keep a boot heel on the necks of the Tibetans and preparing for the Olympics at the same time. France and Germany aren't real busy anywhere maybe they could invade Burma for you. /s
Hell no! If they don’t want the world’s expertise (including the US) on helping them recover, I say we just drop it all from the news. Walk away from it - forget it.
I saw a quote from some UN clown (can’t forget his name for some reason, it was John Holmes)saying “They haven’t given us the access we have the right to expect.” Of course they haven’t, John - they’re a secretive military junta - they don’t want your interference.
I’ll support the invasion of Myanmar if DOD will designate it Operation Burma Shave.
No war for bloated bodies!
The progressives want to declare war on Burma and China.
LOL--you don't know? He wants the US to do it so he can sit on his butt and criticize.
The shells are flying
The bombs drop near
The signs are clear
The Marines are here!
Operation Burmashave
Havent you heard? Burma is the new Darfur.
The old “it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission” is counter productive in world politics.
This is a sovereign Nation and the USofA MUST treat it as such and not create political problems.
You want to help? Give money to Catholic Social Services for the Myanmar people through Caritas Internationalis. 100% of your donation will go to the people. Most Nations will allow the habit-clothed Sisters into their Nation because the Catholic Church has a reputation for not proselytizing.
MYANMAR: KARUNA MYANMAR SOCIAL SERVICES Karuna Myanmar Social Services was officially established in June 2001 by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar. But as early as 1995, the Bishops’ Commission for Social Development started to encourage and organise social development activities in the Church in Myanmar. Its mandate is “to provide welfare and relief services, promote integral human development, and work for the realisation of peace in Myanmar”. Its Statutes were approved by the Bishops’ Conference “ad experimentum” for five years in September 2001. Karuna Myanmar applied for membership with C.I. in November 2001
Maybe Obama will invade and Republicans will go wild and trot out Ron Paul because we didn’t declare war like the Constitution says. Obama will just say that we have to get rid of dictators and it could take us 100 years to build a nation there. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Dubya will be having a beer and toasting the power of the Executive.
That would be a war that leftists and MScuM would get behind: One with no US interests at stake. (Rush says this all the time, and he’s right, as usual.)
I expect with a name like Jan Egelend he is from Sweden. ??? How much money and how many boots on the ground (armed personnel not rice servers) is Sweden going to put into this? What did you say, Jan? Three soldiers and 1/100,000th as much money as you want the U.S. to contribute?
Aggressive humanitarianism? WTF? “Accept our help or we’ll kill you?” Leftism gone bonkers...
OK, so maybe it’s more “let us help your people or we’ll kill you”. Indications elsewhere are that it’s not that the gov’t there is refusing aid generally, it’s that aid in general IS being accepted, but a narrow situation where an aid-giver wants to dictate the rules is being rebuffed - it’s not like aid isn’t reaching the needy, it’s that a few aggressive humanitarians are being told to mind their business.
The left is clinically insane.
And so is their candidate.
They would "talk to Ahmedinejad" and "invade Burma (and Pakistan)".
Dear Lord, spare us.
But, but aren’t all wars bad for children and other living things? Would the benefits outweigh the dire effects of American bombing (even if only with relief supplies)?
/s
These self-same moonbats dismiss any and all positive results of the Iraq operation, claiming that it is just not worth the suffering inflicted on innocents. How would Burma be any different?
The moonbat count of Iraqi dead is now up to 2 million, btw, per turncoat talk-show droid Jay Diamond.
In any case, the last people to invade Burma were the Japanese, in 1942. They put up a hell of a fight but it ended pretty badly for them.
Then again, there won’t be any evil imperialist armies to intervene against present-day invaders, so it might work.
I propose a compromise: We recruit a million gullible moonbats and send them to camps in neighboring Thailand. We can arm them with shovels, seeds and custom made bongs with plenty of hooch and send marching over the border, arm in arm, chanting recycled slogans and singing Kumbaya.
Oh trust me, Mr. Egeland: A very dangerous precident was set when we allowed a two-bit megalomaniacal thug, named Mao Tse-Tung, to murder approximately 100 million people in the half-century between 1925 and 1975.
Anything that's happening in Burma today is peanuts by comparison.
I'm sure the junta of Myanmar wouldn't see that as an act of war or anything. /s
Who was backing the Ivory Coast and what was their logistical position? Communist China is sitting right next door to Burma and they have sort of an itchy trigger finger on those nuke tipped ICBMs Bubba gave them. Let's get Venezuela to invade them. He's a big humanitarian. Where's Raul Castro when you need some first class health care in Myanmar?
Seems it is in the chi-coms back yard. Let them show their good will to the world for once instead of just kicking around very small powerless neighbors.
Stop it! Stop that mean-spirited retelling of history. What’s next? A reminder of the millions who died when we backed out of SE Asia and left it to deal with communism all on its own? You horrible little...history teller!!!
Jan Egeland is the same clown who ran around denouncing Israel for the fictitious “genocide” at Jenin.
We should wipe the genocidal Burmese regime off the face of the Earth permanently.
NO! Could our g-d-m "leaders" starting doing us a favor and stop pissing away the nation's treasure, something granted them as a public trust, not to be abused.
Damn the politico's of both parties, including Bush, who think they've been elected to create heaven on earth at our expense.
...are they serious?
Libs were content to sit around and watch the genocide and torture in Iraq and Rwanda. What makes this so different?
Gee “Andrew”,
Are you and “other observers” proposing that the USA unilaterally violate international law by entering Myanmar without the permission of its elected government?
Maybe you ought to propose that the UN take action.
We should not act until the UN has completed its job. Isn’t that what people like you have complained about that arrogant idiot George Bush since 2003?
A unanimous vote of the UN security council might take the oh, a couple of years but we sure wouldn’t want to act unilaterally and tarnish our image with the rest of the world by acting like “cowboys”... would we?
Meanwhile, send in Sean Penn with his canoe! Send in Angelina Jolie with a couple of dozen adoption lawyers. Send in the Mayor Nagin of New Orleans and Governor Landrieu with her proven crisis management skills. Let’s hear a plan from Nancy Pelosi the most powerful woman in the world. Send in John Kerry with his yacht. Send in all those people who hate the USA for acting unilaterally except when it is not acting unilaterally.
But curiously- why just Burma? North Koreans have been starving for years.
We might want to ask a few of the old Brits who fought the Japanese in Burma under General Slim. Its a rain forest with 800 inches of rain per year for starters. Then there are the snakes to deal with.
Not our problem.
I suppose that after the destruction caused by the storm the higher level military will be in a relatively fewer number of places and, thus, more easily targeted for a few smart missiles to take out.
What a shock. Not!
Invasion/war - obviously, a very crazy idea.
Just airdrop the stuff on which the expiration date is about to ring, and get outta there.
What’s the issue?
Well, the issue is the left thinks our military ought to function like the peace corps.
I will not willingly send my sons to fight for bloated bodies.
I will do that for oil, but we have only done it, historically, with MBA blinders securely affixed to notions of globalization.
Globalization: The worst idea since PC; though really it’s just a symptom of PC disease.
Thanks for the reminder.
It would be for Burma’s oil if Bush does it..
China is real interested because they would like to build a pipeline from Burma to China to shorten the tanker route from the middle east..which must go via Straits of Singapore where we can stop the supply easily.
But it really looks like the people will just suffer..nobody is going to really suggest using force to go in.
From the air.
With nukes.
Candy Bombers would be more like it.
Supposedly a "cyclone" hit.
What killed all the people? Wind? Rain?
Enlighten me.
I do not know of any reports of Burma performing any anti-American action outside of their own borders. They should therefore be low on our priority list since our military is stretched thin as it is
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