Invasion Burma

Referring to Time's proposal that we invade Burma, the Belmont Club...

The rational part of me believes this is all cocktail conversation. The kind you utter between giggles and sips of white wine. As in 'why not invade Burma? Please pass that chestnut puree and shrimp cracker will you?' Sort of like a joke you hear but shouldn't take the trouble to rebut.

Yet over time I realized that half the bizzaro ideas floating around out there are actually taken seriously. There's a universe of strange ideas which people actually believe in. Yakub the Muslim scientist who invented the white man. The Mother Ship. Thetans. The fact that fire doesn't melt steel; the supposedly therapeutic value of Man-Boy Love. In a certain universe these wacko ideas are all real. If so, what's so strange about talking to Hamas, surrendering to Iran, withdrawing the forces in Iraq to Okinawa? Compared to some of the ideas out there, these are all eminently reasonable. And while we're at withdrawing the forces to Okinawa, why not invade Burma?

That's why it is so comforting to believe that articles about invading Burma really are cocktail chatter. They must be. Imagine if some people actually took it seriously. I mean, it is cocktail talk, isn't it? Isn't it?