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I dunno, I hear about both situations constantly, but I guess public radio isn't considered mainstream media?
There's no way the Burmese government would tolerate our invading their country, even if we say it's for humanitarian purposes. That ignores the entire reason we are even discussing this: that they are so paranoid that they resist any sort of aid because they think other governments are out to get them. You better believe that they'd fight back were we to invade, whatever our reasons, and I don't know whether or not the citizens would "greet us as liberators." This is a people who are quite afraid of and superstitious about their government. The Burmese government is known to consult astrology before making major decisions, and many of the Burmese people wonder what kind of "inside" info the government has.
Don't get me wrong: like I said before, this is exactly the kind of situation where I intervention is appropriate. Just because it's appropriate, though, doesn't make it simple. It would be nearly impossible to intervene without dedicating ourselves to overthrowing the junta and rebuilding the Burmese society. As much as I think the current situation demonstrates a time when such action should be seriously considered and may be appropriate, there is also the reality that the idea of external intervention is quite tainted. When we (and others) intervene militarily and politically so often and so unnecessarily in order to enforce our own interests time and time again, and yet ignore other situations over and over again where such intervention may be less important to our interests but far more important in humanitarian terms, we totally lose any moral authority to intervene at all.
One day, perhaps there will be a world where reasonably minded countries mind their own business when other reasonably minded countries come to political conclusions that may differ from their own, and one day those reasonably minded countries which disagree about how best to govern may still come together in solidarity to intervene when unreasonably minded governments ignore the welfare of their own citizens on a massive scale.
Unfortunately, that day is not today.
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Le temps détruit tout
"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling
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