Keep Up the Pressure on Myanmar’s Generals
As the only obvious alternative to what Winston Churchill is said to have called “jaw-jaw” and “war-war,” economic sanctions have a mixed record. They have yet to show any sign of bringing Iran’s leaders to the negotiating table; in Iraq they made the lives of civilians worse while merely driving Saddam Hussein deeper into his bunker.
But in Myanmar, which has been ruled for half a century by its army, more than two decades of sanctions finally seem to be doing the trick. That is a good reason to keep the pressure on until the Burmese people are truly free.
The West gave up on jaw-jaw — diplomatic efforts to persuade the government to lighten its rule — after 1988, when the army killed several thousand unarmed protesters.… Seguir leyendo »