In Burma, U.N. inaction can't be accepted

I would like to begin by offering my praise to those Duke students and organizations that brought the tragedy in Burma to light here on our campus. I have known about the oppression in Burma for several years now, and it is no better now than it was then. Thanks to the situation in Burma being brought to bear by many outraged people such as ourselves, the U.N. announced it would send a diplomat to the country.

Now I know that something needs to be done in Burma, but I also know that the U.N. will not be the organization to do it. The illustrious United Nations is now but a mere shadow of its former self, wallowing in its own impotence for the past decade or so. If the U.N. should deem that there be a problem in Burma, what then? They will hit them with economic sanctions, like they always do to countries where human rights violations occur. These sanctions have become a staple for the U.N., and are nothing more than monuments to how out of touch the U.N. is with the real world. Did economic sanctions prevent Saddam Hussein from massacring thousands of Kurds? No. Did they help to ease the terrible events in Darfur? No. Have they stopped current Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from proceeding with nuclear enrichment? No. The list goes on and on.

Withholding grain or oil from the junta in Burma will not deter them; they already live off the wealth (and I use that term comparatively) of their country while their people starve. Economic sanctions would just further hurt the already suffering.

So I am left to wonder, what has happened to the great bastions of freedom around the world? I would hope that in a time like this, the great countries of the world would rally around Burma. Where is America, Britain, France or Germany?

If the U.N. cannot resolve this problem, than we owe it to the Burmese people to help them in their struggle, even if that involves removing the junta. But our country languishes in inaction because the word "war" nowadays has become synonymous with political suicide.

Politics all aside, we owe the Burmese people our help. Let's not sit on our hands while the bureaucracy of the U.N. spins its wheels. After all, do we really want to take the same path as an organization that allows Sudan to sit on the Human Rights Council? I certainly don't.

Daniel Simpson

Trinity '11