WHY WE CAN'T SIMPLY THROW AID AT BURMA

He was offering his advice as to how this country should forcibly bring aid to the suffering people of storm-devastated Burma.

In short, he was advising the West to invade the place, as have other commentators. Whether the foul Burmese junta will co-operate in the aiding of its own people or not, even if the cause is humanitarian and good, roaring in without Rangoon’s consent is still invasion. And it probably would not work.

If you want to mount an air bridge, as the West once saved West Berlin in 1948/49, you need three things. You need take-off points that are close to the disaster zone. Neighbouring Bangladesh and Thailand have made plain their airfields are available if, but only if, the Burmese junta grants assent to receive the relief planes. So far it has not.

And you need safe landing grounds. There are no landing grounds in the Irrawaddy Delta, one of the most remote regions in Asia. It is a tangled web of creeks in a sea of mangrove. And you need safe skies. The Burmese tyrants have an air force; not very good but jet fighters will blow a low, slow freighter out of the sky. Penetrating sovereign airspace against national veto is an act of belligerence.

If you want to air-drop cargo, you need safe skies and manned drop-zones. Neither are available. If you want to go in by sea, you need a fleet of cargo ships which can discharge the aid into an even bigger fleet of landing craft. We have neither. If you send your planes in under fighter escort and the landing craft under armed escort then you really have declared war.

If you wish to bring the aid by land, but without permission, you have to drive in. But that means neighbours willing to assist and it means armoured car escorts. Another naked invasion. (We invaded Afghanistan via willing Pakistan and we invaded Iraq via helpful Kuwait.)

The only successful air bridge bringing in relief food to save starving children against the wishes of the governing military junta occurred during the Nigeria-Biafra war 40 years ago. The Biafran children were dying; Nigeria’s blockade even denied powdered baby milk.

Refusing to watch the children die and do nothing, a group called Joint Church Aid chartered some clapped-out piston-engined cargo planes and flew missions, technically illegal, from the islands of Fernando Po (a Spanish colony) and Sao Tomé (Portuguese) over the Niger Delta and into the Biafran enclave.

I recall we had to fly in the dead of night, the planes showing not a spark of light, because somewhere above the delta two Nigerian Mig 17s were hunting us. It was – how shall I put it? – quite interesting.

About half a million children were saved from death. But this would not work in Burma. For one thing, back then the departure islands gave their consent. For another we were landing on an airstrip controlled by the Biafrans. In Burma, the Burmese army obeys the dictatorship and controls the whole Burmese territory. Illegal relief flights, even if they got through, could not land.

The sad fact is that with the UN adamant that “getting in there” without official permission is an act of war, and the West not prepared (or in Britain’s case even able) to go that far, there is little we can do about the horrible Burmese junta.

What I would like to see is every rotten, cruel, corrupt general in that junta publicised worldwide and charged before the International Criminal Court with mass murder by criminal negligence.

Meanwhile, I hope Wing Commander Morgan can calm down, go away, study the theory and practice of hostile air drops and perhaps volunteer as loadmaster on the first plane to take on the Burmese Migs.