By
Russ Wung
May 15, 2008
Imagine you’ve been stranded at sea in a rather large lifeboat for weeks with a hundred survivors of a shipwreck, including two ex-convicts, who have taken over through intimidation and force. Supplies are running out and a few people are already nearly dead of dehydration.
Luckily, a naval vessel happens to pass by, and the crew lowers rescue boats to bring you and the other survivors aboard. But your “leaders” refuse to allow anyone to leave, proclaiming that nobody on the lifeboat needs help from these devious interlopers, who are clearly up to no good.
Realizing you will all die if these two have their way, the captain and the ship’s marines board the lifeboat and kill your “leaders” when they attempt to resist and save the other passengers.
Is the behavior of these hypothetical mini-tyrants far-fetched? Hardly. The SPDC, short for the Orwellian-sounding State Peace and Development Council, the self-appointed military dictatorship of Burma, is behaving exactly the same way by choking the flow of international aid in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
The deaths occurring during the cyclone were the result of nature. However, blame for the casualties occurring in the wake of the disaster from inadequate supply and disease epidemics rests squarely on the SPDC and its obstructionism. Thousands — perhaps tens of thousands — of people will die needlessly between the time I send this column to my editor and the time it goes to print — a mere four days.
The torrent of diplomatic castigation directed at this inflexibility carries little weight since the junta has a strong self-interest in blocking foreign aid. From the regime’s point of view, allowing more humanitarian assistance now would be humiliating and destabilizing. Only a government thoroughly lacking in accountability to its citizens would have such perverse incentives to stonewall outside help in times of crisis.
Such behavior leaves no moral excuse for failure to respond decisively. The time has come to send the armies of democracy into battle to crush this group of petty tyrants. Yes, that’s right — invade Burma, overthrow its “government” and start distributing relief supplies en masse.
Wars have been generally thought to precipitate humanitarian crises, but a swift strike would only serve to mitigate the greater crisis resulting from the cyclone. To protect itself from likely popular uprisings, the regime’s leaders have built a bunker capital named Naypyidaw, far removed from civilian population centers.
A foreign expeditionary force would easily establish air and sea superiority at the outset, decapitate the regime’s leadership structure in Naypyidaw and establish control of the country in a matter of days. The junta’s backup defense strategy relies on a bizarre Viet Cong style guerilla insurgency, this erroneously imagines popular support for the regime actually exists.
In reality, Burma has a vigorous internal dissident movement and an elected government-in-exile ready to take up the challenge of proper governance. The only thing these democrats lack is military firepower. It is the duty of the great powers to intervene and strike down the illegitimate stratocrats blocking the path for recovery and redevelopment.
To topple the regime, the attacking coalition must violate Burma’s territorial integrity. But no government that rules without the consent of the governed should be accorded legitimacy or sovereignty. The civilized nations of the world must not acquiesce to tyranny out of a blindly egalitarian respect for sovereignty, lest they become unwitting accomplices in this genocide of negligence.
15 Comments
#1 padauk wah
on May 15, 2008 at 3:33 a.m.(Hove, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
Yes i heartily agree with you. it had been 46 years now since 1962, the military has been the rulers without the consent of people. why they are not helping their own people now is hardly surprising because the army itself is starving and they have to search/loot/ for their own food and also those pro-militia also have to search/loot for their own food, they will confiscate anything they can get their hands on because they know their superiors will not take any action to them as long as they control the people not to rise against the junta. thats how it works in Burma.the junta gave authority to them to do anything in return for their hold on ordinary people.
#2 e
on May 15, 2008 at 10:05 a.m.(Beaverton, OR | Unverified Name)
hey russ, i think i speak for almost everybody on campus when i say that we are really tired of hearing your point of view on anything. you haven't had an original thought in your entire writing career and crap like this is only intended to provoke angry letters to the editors so you can get your massive ego stroked.
your point is not only ridiculous, it's juvenile. you sound like a kid on the playground telling his underage peers that war is the answer to peace. if we don't get what we want, we can just take it by force with superior firepower and military technology. yea, the kids say, lets bomb them back to the stone age. then everyone gets tired of talking and runs off to play handball.
i have to wonder how much research you did before submitting this article. you obviously looked up the name of the capital and it looks like you got the years right, though i don't know where you would have found a handbook of burmese military tactics to justify the remarks about a "viet cong" style insurgency. perhaps you were doing a favor to the burmese by rushing through that part of your article, to spare as many of their lives as possible before this terrible article was sent to the printers. i'm sure those people appreciate your non-effort.
the next time you get inspired to write garbage like this, preview it to your primary demographic first: ask a local kindergarten teacher if you can sub-in for story time.
#3 agreed
on May 15, 2008 at 11:25 a.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
the daily should be ashamed for publishing drivel like this. russ wung speaks for the 25% of the population suffering from cranial-rectal inversion syndrome.
#4
on May 15, 2008 at 11:59 a.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
Article: bull.
Sorry, but it's true.
#5 R. Wung
on May 15, 2008 at 1:48 p.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
Dear Mr. E,
My source regarding the Tatmadaw Kyee's tactics and strategic relocation, may be found here
http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/docs/wps/wp...
pages 6 and 7
in a working paper from the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore.
Although you do perhaps generously overestimate my skill at kindergarten-level pedagogy (a difficult enterprise if ever there was one), do consider my ego sufficiently stroked by the tone of your letter.
Cheers,
the author
#6 k
on May 15, 2008 at 3:25 p.m.(Beaverton, OR | Unverified Name)
I'm proud of you for finding a source to back up one the most tenuous statements in that entire body of pre-adolescent nonsense, Russ. Good for you.
More important than references for your dumb ideas is why you spent so much time writing such a pitifully stupid article about invading a country suffering from its worse humanitarian disaster in half a century. In what damp and dingy crevasses of your dark and beleagured mind did you come up with such an absurdity? Did you actually believe people would be impressed with the logic behind your assertions? "If country A does not give us what we want, let's invade them. By the way everyone, I represent the conservative point of view in today's paper and though you can't tell from the newsprint, my tie is, and always has been, a bright and shiny red."
One day your editor will graduate or get fired and you will have to face somebody who isn't as profoundly incompetent as they are. On that bright and happy day, we of the university community will benefit greatly by the loss of your journalistic insight.
#7 R. Wung
on May 15, 2008 at 4:27 p.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
Well goodness gracious, it sounds like you're badly in need of a bigger platform. Maybe you should apply for this job sometime--there's nothing like getting paid to write.
Enjoy Life,
the author
#8 Mr. Council
on May 15, 2008 at 5:21 p.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
I think your views are very original Russ, keep it up!
#9 R. Wung
on May 15, 2008 at 7:47 p.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
I should, but I think this poor fellow's strawman can't handle any more beating. He's only made the all too common mistake of giving the Burmese dictators the respect of sovereignty. Maybe he's too distracted calling me names to actually cogitate on who's getting who killed.
#10 pete
on May 15, 2008 at 9:33 p.m.(Redmond, WA | Unverified Name)
Hey, no personal attack. You can disagree with the view points. But state yours too so that there is a healthy debate. I do find Russ's views original although I do not agree with him half of the time. How boring would this form be if we can only read those politically correct articles. Three cheers to the editors!
#11 Original
on May 16, 2008 at 12:24 a.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
but stupider than hell.
#12 C.N.
on May 16, 2008 at 3:47 a.m.(UW Campus | Unverified Name)
Whenever I encounter self-classified "republicans" such as yourself, I calmly and carefully reach into my dusty jar of change emblazoned with the words dulce bellum inexpertis. I proceed to set aside thirty-seven shiny pennies out of every income tax dollar to be paid on my next filing, in glimmering stacks. Wistfully, I know my little copper babies will soon be off to do America's work, whether it is fighting interest on the inconsequential national debt, or the pesky Islamo-Facists in Middle-East-Stan (why can't they just be like Israel?) It is as clear as Lincoln's stamped profile that justice will be done.
And you stated the primary directive of our nation so eloquently, it was a refreshing outlook on 70 years of constitutionally biased bad-press on our national policy of foreign-intervention and nation building:
"The civilized nations of the world must not acquiesce to tyranny out of a blindly egalitarian respect for sovereignty, lest they become unwitting accomplices in this genocide of negligence."
Power is certainly not with the military regime, you stated so yourself, and all the civilians need are a couple assault rifles and a few days in training; what better place to get the goods than Uncle Amerigo, the cowboy country who listens to no one, has a closet full of skeletons (Viet Cong, Taliban, or just plain Pinko,) and has a huge cabinet of weapons in his study.
Well, since Vietnam went so well, and Iraq is getting safer by the day, I figure, why the heck not? Let's get our gloriously heroic troops back overseas, off American soil where they're probably just grab-assing, and over into this obviously backward country on the taxpayers' dime (or penny) and spread the good gospel of democracy. After all, it is our international and cardinal duty as Americans.
Right Mr.Wung?
#13 Chopper
on May 16, 2008 at 12:14 p.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
Russ, why do you hate America?
#14 concerned student
on May 16, 2008 at 6 p.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
I find it hypocritical that the liberal students here only want to quiet the voice of the opposition, yet want to shove their ideology down everyones throat. Guess what, not everyone is liberal, and some of us actually like to use our own mind and think for ourselves.
Sorry libs, but not all us will sit back and regurgitate whatever the profs say. We actually like thinking for ourselves.
#15 Lil' Bush
on May 17, 2008 at 10:05 p.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
"In reality, Burma has a vigorous internal dissident movement and an elected government-in-exile ready to take up the challenge of proper governance. The only thing these democrats lack is military firepower. It is the duty of the great powers to intervene and strike down the illegitimate stratocrats blocking the path for recovery and redevelopment."
Hmm...sound familiar? Now, if only the Burmese leadership had weapons of mass destruction...
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