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• Saturday, May 10, 2008 01:08 PM

  Time Magazine: Seriously in Need of Meds

  This is offtrack (well not entirely, one military analyst is quoted), but I just can't resist. Time is completely schizophrenic in this one. Here's the title of a new story:

  Is it Time to Invade Burma?

  But, they are not talking about overthrowing the junta. The underlying thesis is:

  Some observers, including former USAID director Andrew Natsios, have called on the US to unilaterally begin air drops to the Burmese people regardless of what the junta says.

  To me, that is only marginally different than the private relief efforts that individual citizens undertook when our government failed to act to help the people of New Orleans after Katrina and is actually an action I advocated last night when discussing the situation with someone.

  Not content to leave it at that, however, the article ends with this little gem:

  As the response to the 2004 tsunami proved, the world's capacity for mercy is limitless. But we still haven't figured out when to give war a chance.

  I can't decide whether the entire article is satire or if the title and closing sentences were written by a different person than the one who wrote the body. What am I missing here? (And yes, I got the dig throughout where it is "Burma" and not "Myanmar".) Maybe Paul Dirks can translate from Timespeak for us.

  Link: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1739053,00.html

  —Jim White Read Jim White's other letters
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