Max Sawicky wrote:
> The case for East Timor is better than that for Kosova.
>
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I agree. The Timor case meets all the normal moral criteria for humanitarian intervention. Unlike Kosovo, there's an immediate threat of massive numbers of deaths. And unlike Kosovo there's no question of settling the matter diplomatically, at least through negotiations. Cutting off military or financial aid is an option that should be taken seriously, but the first might well turn out to be ineffective and the second might well make things worse. (Of course, if there's good reason to expect these to stop the violence in Timor, they should be prefered over intervention.)
The problem is that without Jakarta's permission, intervention would amount to a war with Indonesia. That could result in more bloodshed than if no intervention were undertaken at all. On the other hand, who the hell knows if it would?
The important thing is that without intervention, hundreds of thousands of Timorese are very likely to die within the next month. Had the conflict in Kosovo been allowed to continue without NATO intervention, that figure would have been around 200. And diplomacy was a genuine option in that case.
Seth