Madam, - As I write, a brutal and illegitimate government in Burma is most likely torturing, imprisoning and killing hundreds of Burmese citizens who have played some part in the ongoing pro-democracy protests. Meanwhile, powerful Western leaders talk, as they always do, of sanctions, and of bringing international pressure to bear on Burma's leaders.
Yet history has taught us that sanctions, more often than not, do nothing to harm the people they are supposed to harm but rather heap further misery on the people that they are designed to help.
History has also taught us that unless dictators are confronted militarily, they kill and kill again, before dying in their beds as old men. In other cases, like that of Slobodan Milosevic, they are allowed to pile innocent corpses into mass graves in full view of the international community before any action is taken.
Military intervention should never be undertaken rashly. Sending other people's children into harm's way without just cause is wrong. Yet, what is an organisation like the United Nations for if not to help people like the Burmese who are engaged in a righteous struggle for freedom? And when the only way of helping entails, as it often does, military force we should know that it is the right thing to do. - Yours etc,
BARRY DOYLE, Artane, Dublin 5.