Mike Lillis at The Washington Independent makes a good point about how some commentators -- and there have been many -- have taken rather unexpected stances with regards to the question of humanitarian intervention in Burma:

The unusual nature of the crisis has turned politics on its head. Critics who have blasted the White House for a lack of diplomacy in relation to Iraq are suddenly calling for an intervention that ignores negotiation -- not to mention the sovereignty of a foreign nation. The Bush administration, in turn, seems prepared to leave the responsibility to the same United Nations it has skewered, on occasions, as inept, impotent or both.

However, Lillis' analysis misses the complexity and the continuity of these two respective groups' responses. Clearly, not all voices who opposed the Bush administration's cowboy diplomacy in the run-up to the Iraq War are calling for a unilateral invasion of Burma. As I've stressed before, even invoking the Responsibility to Protect doctrine -- which enshrines the right to overcome state sovereignty and intervene in cases of crimes against humanity -- should not be seen as a short-circuiting of diplomacy, but as an intricate extension of it. Exploring the possibility of some sort of humanitarian intervention in Burma -- not necessarily of the military variety, and, crucially, in concert with the international community -- is simply not analogous to the rush toward war in Iraq.

As for the Bush administration's response -- "leav[ing] the responsibility to the [] United Nations" -- this is not as much of a surprise as Mike suggests. We continually ask the global body to assume more and more responsibilities -- urging additional peacekeeping missions, calling for greater humanitarian responses, and pushing valuable political reconciliation missions -- yet often neglect to appreciate its accomplishments, continually decry its flaws, and even fail to fully fund its important endeavors. Unfortunately, relying on the UN and questioning the organization's value do not always seem to be mutually exclusive stances, despite the stunning contradiction of this position.

Preliminary reports from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that American CO2 emissions rose in 2007 to 5,984 million metric tons. For those of us who use the English measurement system, that's over 13 trillion pounds. Let me just write that number out so you can see how long it is:

13,000,000,000,000 lbs.

This means that in 2007, the U.S. alone produced about a ton of carbon dioxide for every human being on the planet. If we just count the American population, our per capita emissions are about 22 tons per person. That's more than the weight of an 18-wheeler truck per person per year.

A little more perspective: for every dollar in the American economy, there is nearly a pound of CO2 produced.

These figures really draw out what I'm now calling the "American Carbon Obesity Epidemic." It is an interesting idea to think of carbon weight like human weight. By pairing Americans' collective desire to slim waistlines with the collective need to fight global warming, hopefully progress toward good habits and reasonable consumption will be made easier. Individuals could even create a "target carbon weight" and try to slim down to fit into that old climate that looked so good on us in the old days.

>>Lebanon - After five hard-fought days of negotiation in Doha, Hezbollah and Lebanon's government have agreed to a final agreement to end the 18-month political crisis. Under the agreement General Michel Suleiman, the commander of the Army, will be elected President in the next few days. Also, Hezbollah and its allies will be given an apportionment of cabinet seats sufficient to sustain a veto. And, a new electoral law, governing representative in the government, will be put up for debate.

>>Spain - A joint operation between French and Spanish authorities nabbed Francisco Javier Lopez Pena (aka Thierry), the top political leader of the Basque separatist group ETA, in Bordeaux. Pena is thought to have led ETA since the failed 2006 peace negotiations. He is also thought to have ordered the 2006 bombing of the Madrid airport, which ended a nine-month ceasefire.

>>Uganda - According to foreign investigators and humanitarian groups, the Lord's Resistance Army has stepped up its campaign of child abduction over the last month, scooping up over 100 children from the Congo, Uganda, and the Central African Republic who will likely be pressed into service or used as sex slaves. This occurred during international efforts to finalize a peace agreement between the LRA and the Ugandan government.

• Trouble in Abyei

Africa

• Tunisia - Tunisians to appeal against UK-Italy extradition
• South Africa - South Africa tries to curb attacks on foreigners
• Kuwait - Kuwaiti emir re-appoints premier
• Sudan - Heavy fighting erupts in Sudan oil town
• Ethiopia - Six million Ethiopian children at risk of malnutrition as crops fail and prices rise
• Ethiopia - Explosion rocks Ethiopian capital, fatalities reported
• Somalia - Italian Workers Kidnapped in Somalia
• Zimbabwe - Mugabe accuses opponents of violence, MPs arrested

Americas

• Mexico - Violence erupts in Mexico's drugs heartland
• Cuba - McCain says Obama soft on Cuba
• Cuba - Cuba to build 14,000 plastic houses a year
• Argentina - Farmers Ready to Resume Negotiations
• Colombia - The ecological impact of Colombia's cocaine trade

Asia

• Myanmar - Flags at half-mast as U.N. aid envoy presses Myanmar
• Taiwan - New Taiwanese president reaches out to China
• China - Survivors Rescued 8 Days After China Quake
• Malaysia - Mahathir plot fails to oust PM
• China - Aged Cling to Ruined Mountain Towns
• China - At Chinese Tent City, Order and Incongruity
• Japan - Japan to allow military use of space

Europe

• Germany - Dalai Lama Arrives in London
• Iceland - Iceland minister warns on whaling
• Belgium - Europe chips away at food prices
• Monaco - Cramped Monaco plans new district - on stilts
• Iceland - Survey puts Iceland at top of peace league
• Hungary - Australian says he's not guilty of Nazi war crimes
• Italy - Berlusconi hosts Naples meeting
• Germany - Surprise rise in German business confidence
• Spain - Spanish ministers annonce arrest of ETA leader Francisco Lopez Pena

Middle East

• Israel - Two dead in Israeli air strikes
• Iraq - Prosecutor of Saddam aide Aziz urges stiff sentence
• Iraq - 'Bush apology' for Koran shooting
• Israel - Olmert proposes naval blockade on Iran: report
• Syria - Israel confirms talks with Syria

From the IHT:

The secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, was on his way to Myanmar on Wednesday, hoping to pry open the door to more international relief aid at what he called a "critical moment" in the country's slow recovery from the cyclone that left more than 100,000 people dead or missing.

"Aid in Myanmar should not be politicized," he said as he stopped in Bangkok on Wednesday. "Our focus now is on saving lives."

But the opening offered by Myanmar appeared to be a narrow one, and some analysts said the ruling generals were conceding only enough to defuse international pressure after the May 3 cyclone.

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