Too right, Teribus. Should we care? Yes. Can we do much about it, personally? No. Western pressure hasn't worked against the Burmese government for years, and it isn't magically going to start working now. The best that Western countries can do without military intervention is make it economically hard for Burma, but North Korea shows graphically that this isn't enough to break the will of a dictatorship.

What will work is if the Army and government stop behaving like soldiers and start behaving like humans. The monks are applying as much pressure as they can here by basically damning all soldiers and government officials and their families.

Of course, the West *could* send in troops to break the Burmese government. But that's a problem. First off, the countries most likely to do this (Britain and the US) are over-extended as it is. Second off, there isn't currently a mandate for a global policeman, as much as there should be, because too many nations won't willingly submit to international scrutiny (the US joined North Korea in refusing to sign up to proposed international agreements on war crimes courts), and if the likely "policemen" won't themselves submit to the same rules then the whole thing becomes a global dictatorship. And third off, Iraq shows all too clearly what can go wrong with sending in the troops.

Graham.