The New Republic:

On May 5, as the winds of Cyclone Nargis were dissipating to the north of Burma, the U.S. government took its best shot at saving the day. A grand total of $250,000–the price of a condo in Dallas, or a lecture from Bill Clinton–would be sent to help the storm’s victims. The amount of aid offered by the United States would grow in the days to come, but the pattern was set: America was not going to do nearly enough to help the Burmese people.

Ah, the Left’s canard about a stingy USA.

In fact, a US Navy carrier group was a few hundred miles away practicing humanitarian rescue operations, such as the Tsunami rescue, when the cyclone struck. No doubt, the cost of that operation was in the millions. We immediately offered aid to Burma.

Actually, our most atrocious failure in Burma has nothing to do with money. It has to do with politics. In the three weeks since the disaster, the country’s brutal junta has seized shipments of food and medical assistance, blocked vessels with aid cargo–including three U.S. Navy ships–and kept out many foreign relief workers. At the height of the chaos, Burma’s military leaders even forged ahead with a constitutional referendum, passed with suspiciously broad support, that consolidates and continues the regime’s pillage of national resources.

If this disaster had happened ten years ago–that is, before Iraq–plans would almost certainly be on the table for some form of humanitarian intervention designed to resolve the situation. Maybe we would be talking about deposing the Burmese regime outright; maybe we would be discussing–as Robert Kaplan did in a recent New York Times op-ed–more modest steps, such as sending U.S. Marines on boats to deliver supplies to the hardest-hit areas. But, either way, realistic options would be considered for saving Burmese lives, even if those options involved violating Burmese sovereignty.

Instead, American diplomats in Asia have explicitly avoided direct criticism of the regime. And, even as the USAID brigade waits for visas in Bangkok so that it can enter Burma, the White House has made sure to clarify that no threat of force is on the horizon.

Hmm. Maybe they’re playing smart. Maybe empty threats will only make matters worse for the Burmese victims.

This is, put simply, an unacceptable abdication of our moral responsibilities. Even though our standing in the world has been severely diminished by Iraq, we should at least be debating intervention in Burma.

This is rich.

In the mid-1990s, the Left was all atwitter about the plight of everyday Iraqis. This led to Oil for Food, which prolonged Saddam’s ability to inflict misery on Iraqis, and provided him the billions to buy off the French and Russians in the UN.

Thanks to us Iraq was able to bring the tyrant to justice and is today a fledgling democracy. A moral service was performed over the objections and ridicule of the Left, which now wants to get tough.