It’s been ten days since Cyclone Nargis ravaged Burma, leaving tens of thousands of people dead and more than one million homeless. The situation daily grows more desperate, yet Burma’s military junta continues to block international efforts to deliver food, water and medicine to the victims. In an unconscionable display of nationalistic vanity, the generals insist that they deliver all emergency aid, even though they clearly lack the capacity to do so with anything like the necessary speed.

Meanwhile, the junta (which refers to the nation as Myanmar) went ahead with a May 10 national referendum on a sham constitution. For the generals, validating their repressive rule apparently takes precedence over preventing more Burmese citizens from falling victim to the storm’s aftermath.

The international community has responded with its usual mixture of moral outrage and impotence. But this need not mean that the United States, which has the will and the capacity to help, should stand by helplessly.

Sixty years ago, the United States launched the Berlin Airlift to keep the Soviet Union from cutting off the German capital from the West. America should take a page from that illustrious chapter in its history and launch a Burma Airlift aimed at saving lives today.

Air-dropping aid to the Irrawaddy delta region, the hardest hit and most remote area, would have the biggest impact. Since Nargis has cut much of the delta off from the outside world, its inhabitants have little hope of receiving the junta’s assistance. Moreover, the Burmese military is largely absent from the Irrawaddy region, and therefore less likely to intercept the airdrops.

An Irrawaddy Airlift will not be risk-free, but neither was its predecessor in Berlin. If the international community has a “responsibility to protect” people from abusive rulers, as the United Nations affirmed three years ago, this would seem to be an opportunity to exercise that responsibility. Every delay increases the chance that thousands will die needlessly of disease, starvation, and exposure to the elements. Experts talk of a ten-day window following a disaster, after which the number of deaths skyrockets.

Furthermore, the U.S. earned immense goodwill for the Pentagon’s timely relief efforts following the 2004 Indonesian tsunami. An Irrawaddy Airlift could build on that achievement as an act of generosity that builds America’s good name and moral authority.

An airlift could be a mechanism for regional diplomacy. With a multilateral effort, the U.S. could strengthen relations with India and Thailand, and simultaneously force China, the junta’s closest ally, to take a stand on a humanitarian issue at a time when the world’s eyes are on Beijing and its preparations for the Olympics.

The risks are palpable: Some worry that chaotic scrambles for airdropped aid packages could result in additional suffering on the ground. America could face a military firefight should the junta lead an armed resistance to supply drops. The operation wouldn’t be cheap, either. In the year after the Indonesian tsunami, the U.S. pledged about $950 million to aid victims of that disaster.

But in the final analysis, the potential rescue of thousands of Burmese who might otherwise be at grave risk should be the priority. An Irrawaddy airlift could save tens of thousands of lives, even while reminding the world of American internationalism’s greater purpose.

This entry was posted on 5.13.2008 at 10:42 am and is filed under National Security, Ending Poverty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.