A good reason for the US to invade another foreign country ...

There is a strong purely moral case for the US and its allies to ignore the Burmese government and enter the country without authority, to deliver aid to the cyclone victims directly and unilaterally. This would almost certainly be seen as an act of war by the Burmese who would send out their army to try to stop them. The western forces would have to fight them off, with minimum safe force, to allow the aid workers to save lives unhindered as far as possible.

This would certainly be an illegal invasion, and would cost the lives of western military personnel. Then again it would be no more illegal than the invasion of Iraq.

The difference is that it would save vastly more lives through the aid effort than would be lost in battle against the Burmese forces, so would be absolutely the right thing to do on pure humanitarian grounds.

The Burmese would of course see it as nothing more than cover for a military coup. However, to their surprise the US and allies would, at the end of the humanitarian operation, leave again in their entirety, having fired no shot on Rangoon and taken no military action other than in defence of the aid operation. The US's world image as a humanitarian force for good would enjoy a massive boost.

Sadly this is a pipe dream because it will never happen. We are also probably too late. The window of opportunity has already been missed and many cyclone victims will now be dead or doomed.

Still, I would rather see an illegal invasion of a foreign country to save lives on a mass scale, and get out reasonably quickly, than mess someone else's country up on a mass scale and get stuck in a quagmire there.

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