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Clemency Burton-Hill
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Should we intervene in Burma?

Friday, 16th May 2008

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Ivo Daalder, one of the advocates of a "league of democracies", has already called for international pressure to be applied against the junta. George Packer is willing to contemplate armed intervention, if necessary:

Forcing the regime to let the rest of the world save its people would have a devastating effect on morale. Burma’s leaders are so isolated and irrational that they actually believe their own propaganda about being the only group that can hold the country together. It’s possible that the junta would collapse out of sheer humiliation...

If the fear of Baghdad and Falluja is what keeps foreign powers from saving huge numbers of Burmese from their own government’s callousness, that will be one more tragic consequence of the Iraq war. On the other hand, if it’s going to be done, it should be done quickly. I know all the arguments why we shouldn’t. But there are at least a million counter-arguments why we should.

[Photo: Buddhist monks pray for victims of Cyclone Nargis outside UN headquarters in New York. Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images]

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