Mountains of Burma

Megan McArdle:

Invading Burma to disburse humanitarian aid seems (note my ironic understatement) like sort of a bad idea. But if they continue refusing to let aid workers in, what's wrong with violating their airspace to carpet bomb the place with relief air drops?

Well, there's this thing called international law, and we're unlikely to violate that.

Though in a situation like this, one longs for a state that will play "Dirty Harry." Hmmmm. Maybe we have to save that one for special occasions, though. The International Harold Tribune:

UNITED NATIONS: With 1.5 million people in Myanmar now believed to be facing the threat of starvation and disease and with relief efforts still largely stymied by the country's isolationist military rulers, frustrated United Nations officials all but demanded Thursday that the government open its doors to aid and aid workers.

"The situation is profoundly worrying," said the United Nations official in charge of the relief effort, John Holmes, speaking in the measured tones of diplomacy. "They have simply not faciliated access in the way we have a right to expect."

He said that Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had spoken with the senior general in Myanmar's government, Than Shwe, to similarly urge him to allow aid workers into the country to do their jobs.

Five days after Cyclone Nargis inundated Myanmar's densely populated coast, wiped villages off the map and left untold tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, the first two United Nations flights carrying relief supplies arrived in Myanmar on Thursday.

One carried a mere seven tons of high-energy biscuits. The other contained a larger load of humanitarian supplies. But because of logistical delays heightened by the storm damage, officials were not immediately able to distribute the supplies in the disaster areas.

Since the cyclone hit, aid officials said, Myanmar's military rulers have approved visas for aid workers only grudgingly and placed restrictions and roadblocks on supplies coming into the country, while reassuring citizens that it has a grip on the worsening humanitarian crisis.

The government's slow response has drawn international criticism that echoes the condemnation it received after its brutal suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations last September. Its usual wariness towards outsiders is widely believed to have been heightened by a national constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday, from which it has barred international monitors.

I'd love to argue with the use of the word "right," but in fact giving humanitarian relief is a right in the same sense the Founding Fathers used the term: something self-evident that is granted by God [or, for my agnostic and atheist readers, the divine in human nature].

We are halfway into the 10-day window, after which supposedly casualties are likely to spike, unless we get these people some fresh water, food, medial attention, and temporary shelters.

Pray for the people of Myanmar [or, you know: vibe them in a nondenominational way]; I don't know what else to do. I go now to cry my eyes out.