Robert D. Kaplan writes that a humanitarian intervention is “militarily doable” — American forces are in the neighborhood. But there’s a catch:
It seems like a simple moral decision: help the survivors of the cyclone. But liberating Iraq from an Arab Stalin also seemed simple and moral. (And it might have been, had we planned for the aftermath.) Sending in marines and sailors is the easy part; but make no mistake, the very act of our invasion could land us with the responsibility for fixing Burma afterward.
See also Joseph Loconte on how the crisis in Burma is in many ways yet another UN failure.
