Time for creative thinking on Burma relief

Brian Vogt, a Senior Advisor at the Partnership for a Secure America (PSA), wrote a great blog post on PSA's blog, Across the Aisle. Vogt likens the junta's response to cyclone Nargis to the Soviet's handling of the Chernobyl disaster--terrible. He then presents his ideas on how the United States and the international community should respond to the current humanitarian crisis.

Retired General William Nash of the Council on Foreign Relations says the U.S. should first pressure China to use its influence over the junta to get them to open up and then supply support to the Thai and Indonesian militaries to carry out relief missions. “We can pay for it — we can provide repair parts to the Indonesians so they can get their Air Force up. We can lend the them two C-130s and let them paint the Indonesian flag on them,” Nash says. “We have to get the stuff to people who can deliver it and who the Burmese government will accept, even if takes an extra day or two and even if it’s not as efficient as the good old U.S. military.