The latest atrocity from Myanmar’s military junta presents a grim tableau. A rebel village gutted by fire, civilians executed, and British aid agencies crying out for a ceasefire. Why should the West feign surprise?
The junta’s playbook is as predictable as the Roman Empire’s decline: crush dissent with brute force, then blame shadowy enemies. Meanwhile, our humanitarian instinct kicks in, offering Band-Aids for bullet wounds. But here lies the uncomfortable truth: we cannot civilise savagery with charity alone.
History, from the Napoleonic Wars to the fall of the Soviet Union, teaches that counterinsurgency campaigns are never clean. The junta knows this. They calculate that our attention spans are short.
We will wring our hands, send our aid, and turn to the next crisis. Yet the pattern remains: bloodshed in the periphery, impotence in the centre. The British Government must stop playing the naive philanthropist and start using real leverage.
Sanctions without teeth are sermons. Arms embargoes without enforcement are theatre. Until we treat such barbarism as a calculated act of war, not a tragic accident, we will keep drafting identical statements to identical massacres.
