The Myanmar Cyclone

The Myanmar cyclone that struck a few days ago looks worse and worse every day. Currently it is estimated that 100,000 may have died, and this is only the beginning. There is no clean running water or functioning sewerage in the disaster area, which means dysentery and cholera will arrive in about a week, killing tens of thousands more. Starvation looms. And who knows how many children were orphaned by the storm, or are separated from family, and at risk of death?

The junta that has controlled Myanmar (formerly Burma) since the 1980s is resistant to allowing foreign aid to come in. The President and the First Lady are urging the junta to allow U.S. assistance, which is fine, as far as it goes. The French are calling for the U.N. to invade Myanmar and forcefully deliver aid, which is much more like it. There are only a few days left before this disaster becomes a secondary disaster of infectious disease and starvation. There is no time to wait for a corrupt government to come around.

Unfortunately, in U.S. politics everything comes back to Iraq. Our army is pinned down over there, meaning the U.S. really doesn't have the personnel to spare for a military-led rescue. Which is what critics of the war have always pointed out: As long as we remain in Iraq, our hands are tied everywhere else in the world. So we get to wait while the U.N. gins up to molassas speed in an attempt to step in.

 It's a very sad day for the people in the West who want to step up and help. But not nearly as sad as it is for the people of Myanmar.