Before the Iraq War, a friend who believed strongly that Saddam Hussein was a poor man's Stalin and should be overthrown yet saw the difficulties in launching an invasion of the country made the following modest proposal:

Do a non-invasion. That is, instead of attacking, establish a cordon sanitaire and set up an alternative government. Invite the Iraqi people to freely participate and demonstrate peacefully the superior benefits of the alternative government. Given that we have now spent the equivalent of $120, 000 of each and every Iraqi citizen, cost could be no objection.

A similar plan could be put into effect in Burma. Security would be defensive in nature, with no aggressive moves towards the other side. However, it would be made clear that the slaughter of refugees would not be tolerated. In Iraq, we already enjoyed a no-fly zone. In Burma, one would have to be established and a healthy defensive force put in place. But we would not have to condone the slaughter of thousands of conscripts in the Burmese military in the name of humanitarianism.

Thoughts?