Is It Time to Invade Burma? [A Just War?]

  • Thread starter Thread starter gilliam
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
No to invasion, do what we can if their government allows it. Beyond that, its out of our control and we just have to accept it.

Jim
 
jkatpc said:
Sigh. OK, I’ll do your homework for you. U.S. Code Title X deals exclusively with the Armed Forces. Subtitle A, Part I, chapter 20, section 404: The President may direct the Secretary of Defense to provide disaster assistance outside the United States to respond to manmade or natural disasters when necessary to prevent loss of lives or serious harm to the environment.
Click to expand...
There’s times Jaxon when God’s Law takes precendence over Legal Law
 
If I had to guess, and it’s just a guess, I will guess that the Burmese government will, at some point, relent, and allow the U.S. to bring in aid. After all, they saw us do it in Indonesia and we didn’t conquer the place, did we? We didn’t overthrow that corrupt government and we have no bases there.

As much as many like to bash the U.S., it’s the only country that can actually be trusted to do only what’s needed.
 
If force is used in Burma to save what victims are remaining (reminder, we are at 10+ days - the average time for aid is a maximum 15 days before most is lost), why not Darfur, Zimbabwe, North Korea?
The facts on the ground are that, notwithstanding nature’s fury, civilians in many other countries are suffering just as severely from government oppression, natural disasters and tragedies not of their making.
Some cultures have a huge tolerance for pain and suffering. I don’t doubt that the government in Myanmar see the loss of lives as fewer mouths to feed.
In the end, most of these victims will die. And they will be quickly forgotten when the next disaster occurs.
 
But just how do you expect the people to "rise up and overthrow them themselves?
Click to expand...
Vern,

The same way that a disjointed group of colonies, with almost no help from anywhere, fought off the British Empire.

John
 
john1863 said:
Vern Humphrey:
But just how do you expect the people to "rise up and overthrow them themselves?
Click to expand...
The same way that a disjointed group of colonies, with almost no help from anywhere, fought off the British Empire.
Click to expand...
But the circumstances aren’t the same. During the American revolution, the ruling government was months travel distant from the action. Plus Americans had major help from the French.

I will set aside the travel difference, but are you suggesting that the Burmese people should receive major military help from a foreign country? If so, do you have a country in mind?

I am uncertain about the correct course of action. Several people in this thread have cautioned against imposing our ideology on Burma, but isn’t human life an absolute value rather than a relative value? Would these same people support a woman’s right to choose abortion?

On the other hand, military intervention could make matters worse instead of better, especially if it were a unilateral invasion. And then there is the matter of what happens after disaster relief is distributed - would the invading country be bound by duty to engage in nation-building?
 
Myanmar regime accused of hoarding cyclone aid

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — The United Nations said Tuesday that only a tiny portion of international aid needed for Myanmar’s cyclone victims is making it into the country, amid reports that the military regime is hoarding good-quality foreign aid for itself and doling out rotten food.
 
gilliam said:
Myanmar regime accused of hoarding cyclone aid

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — The United Nations said Tuesday that only a tiny portion of international aid needed for Myanmar’s cyclone victims is making it into the country, amid reports that the military regime is hoarding good-quality foreign aid for itself and doling out rotten food.
Click to expand...
Not only that, some parcels distributed to the Burmese have been re-packaged international aid and are being labelled as gifts from individual military officials. We have just received an e-mail from one of our friends who is a Salesian priest in Burma. The Archdiocese of Rangoon and the religious communities are doing what it can from its own funds.
 
wapsi said:
Several people in this thread have cautioned against imposing our ideology on Burma, but isn’t human life an absolute value rather than a relative value? Would these same people support a woman’s right to choose abortion?
Click to expand...
It is important for us to speak up in defense of life and to persuade individuals to choose actions which will preserve life. But that doesn’t mean we, as individuals, are justified in using force to stop someone from getting an abortion. Wouldn’t unilateral military action be similar to a vigilante attacking a woman in order to prevent an abortion?
 
MORE than 60,000 people may have died as a result of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, and at least 1.5 million are homeless or otherwise in desperate need of assistance. The Burmese military junta, one of the most morally repulsive in the world, has allowed in only a trickle of aid supplies. The handful of United States Air Force C-130 flights from Utapao Air Base here in Thailand is little more than symbolic, given the extent of the need.

France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has spoken of the possibility of an armed humanitarian intervention, and there is an increasing degree of chatter about the possibility of an American-led invasion of the Irrawaddy River Delta.

As it happens, American armed forces are now gathered in large numbers in Thailand for the annual multinational military exercise known as Cobra Gold. This means that Navy warships could pass from the Gulf of Thailand through the Strait of Malacca and north up the Bay of Bengal to the Irrawaddy Delta. It was a similar circumstance that had allowed for Navy intervention after the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004.

nytimes.com/2008/05/14/opinion/14kaplan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
 
gilliam said:
MORE than 60,000 people may have died as a result of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, and at least 1.5 million are homeless or otherwise in desperate need of assistance. The Burmese military junta, one of the most morally repulsive in the world, has allowed in only a trickle of aid supplies. The handful of United States Air Force C-130 flights from Utapao Air Base here in Thailand is little more than symbolic, given the extent of the need.

France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has spoken of the possibility of an armed humanitarian intervention, and there is an increasing degree of chatter about the possibility of an American-led invasion of the Irrawaddy River Delta.

As it happens, American armed forces are now gathered in large numbers in Thailand for the annual multinational military exercise known as Cobra Gold. This means that Navy warships could pass from the Gulf of Thailand through the Strait of Malacca and north up the Bay of Bengal to the Irrawaddy Delta. It was a similar circumstance that had allowed for Navy intervention after the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004.

nytimes.com/2008/05/14/opinion/14kaplan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Click to expand...
I would consider it…especially if UN member nations are behind it.

Complete UN approval is not necessary IMO, but I don’t think we should go it alone…call it a “coalition of the willing” 😉 .
 
With what? Our troops are currently suffering from such a high rate of post traumatic stress that throwing a job like this at them would be cruel and insensitive. If you want to fly to Myanmar and volunteer to help in relief efforts for a population with whom you cannot orally communicate, be my guest. Other than that, leave it to the relief agencies that deal with such matters. Leave my tax supported, over worked, over stressed military personnel out of it.

Matthew
 
drafdog said:
With what? Our troops are currently suffering from such a high rate of post traumatic stress that throwing a job like this at them would be cruel and insensitive. If you want to fly to Myanmar and volunteer to help in relief efforts for a population with whom you cannot orally communicate, be my guest. Other than that, leave it to the relief agencies that deal with such matters. Leave my tax supported, over worked, over stressed military personnel out of it.

Matthew
Click to expand...
Did you read Gilliam’s last post? We already have troops “gathered in large numbers in Thailand for the annual multinational military exercise known as Cobra Gold. This means that Navy warships could pass from the Gulf of Thailand through the Strait of Malacca and north up the Bay of Bengal to the Irrawaddy Delta.”
 
Why should we go? Burma (Myanmar) is a former British colony. Let the British Commonwealth deal with it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top