The Washington Post’s conservative internationalists are in full high dudgeon over Burma. But what they suggest … well, it’s not clear exactly what they are suggesting, other than, very urgently, that something be done.
Fred Hiatt is distressed over the United Nations’ failure to intervene to address the humanitarian disaster now underway:
But the stalemate in Burma, also known as Myanmar, shows how difficult it is to translate “responsibility to protect” into action. It’s hard to imagine a government more deserving of losing the national equivalent of its parental rights; yet it seems more likely that hundreds of thousands of people will die needlessly than that the United Nations will act.
This paragraph captures some of the incoherence of his argument. It is difficult to translate the UN’s vague commitment into action in this case – not because the UN doesn’t have its act together, but because there is not really anything it can do to force Burma to open its borders. Hiatt implies some kind of multinational force should be deployed. But this is preposterous. Even if there were willing participants, it would take weeks to organize. Even if it could be done by this Friday, the mission would be to, er, distribute aid while engaging the Burmese military and possibly overthrowing its leadership?
Anne Applebaum also comes up with nothing:
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.
Lamentably, there is very little the international community can do when the rulers of a xenophobic police state decide to shut it out. Perhaps some food and supplies can be airdropped into targeted areas. But to have an impact on a disaster of this scale, you need people on the ground – lots of them – to distribute food, provide medical care and supplies, and clean up. And you need the cooperation of the local authorities. Maybe this can still be achieved. If it isn’t it will be a terrible crime. But fulminating that “something must be done” without an idea of what is just moral posturing, something that’s only gotten us into trouble in international affairs of late.
