Earlier this week, the Senate unanimously adopted a resolution which condemned the ruling military junta in Burma for the brutal suppression of a recent pro-democracy demonstration. Led and inspired by thousands of scarlet-clad Burmese monks, the peaceful demonstration swelled to include over a hundred thousand as supporters poured into the streets to protest dictatorial oppression and economic abuse. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) responded by murdering a suspected 200 (including journalists attempting to report on the massacre) and imprisoning over 1,000 (consisting of over 700 monks).

The Senate resolution, after citing a handful of examples demonstrating the junta's illegitimacy and brutality, settles upon two necessary courses of action. First, the SPDC must cease its violent suppression of human rights. Second, regional neighbors must apply sufficient pressure to dissuade the continuation of such behavior.

However, this resolution will almost certainly prove aspirational.

As regards the first proposal, one cannot fail to appreciate that the SPDC is a bloody dictatorship of the kind 1st world populations struggle to comprehend. When the Burmese people staged a peaceful, pro-democracy demonstration for economic and political liberty against a military dictatorship in 1988, the military coterie which would become the SPDC responded by killing hundreds and seizing control of the nation (declaring a new nation, Myanmar, which the U.S. refused to recognize).

The similarities to last week's demonstration are apparent, and the resulting retaliation by the SPDC should not come as a surprise. The SPDC have responded to peaceful appeals for human dignity with bloodshed and savagery in the past, and their atrocities have been rewarded without cost or penalty. Words have merit, and they are the beginning of diplomacy - but absent the promise of impending consequences, words have no prospect of effectuating change in such tyrannous brutes.

Cognizant of the unfortunate truth of this prospect, the Senate commendably wasted no time in proceeding to the next step in diplomacy - regional influences. Recognizing the interests and potentials inherent in local intervention, the resolution calls upon regional countries to take action to moderate the tragedy. However, a potentially insurmountable obstacle looms in the path of regional intervention: economics.

Fully half of Burma's exports are sold in Thailand, including natural gas which constitutes 20% of Thailand's electricity. Bangkok depends upon Burmese exports, which renders the nation nearly impotent as a strategic broker. On the other hand, Burma purchases over one-third of its total imports from China, which would be loathe to endanger a market of 47 million consumers. India is a significant destination for Burmese exports, while substantial imports arrive from Singapore. Further, nearly every country in the region is presently bidding on lucrative contract rights for natural gas extraction. The promise of trade and commerce has muted the protests of local nations, and will likely continue to trump their convictions for human rights.

While laudable in principle and rhetoric, the Senate resolution seems to be all sound and fury, signifying nothing. An unsettling prediction looms on the horizon: the SPDC, having achieved their goals and silenced their pro-liberty dissenters (a second time), will simply allow the status quo to resume. And life will go on as though nothing ever happened - for those who survived. The Burmese people lived in fear and poverty before the monks came and offered a different path, and they live so now.

The international community has, as always, proved useless to prevent or mitigate this disaster. The UN has sent an envoy - who the SPDC simply left in a waiting room for several days. And now, the U.S. has passed a resolution - a bittersweet testament of our resolve. Such bloody occurrences are hardly rare, and they do not seem likely to fade from the memory of man in the near future. Each occasion bears unique circumstances and presumably demands unique responses, but the underlying theme is universal. America must consciously decide if a rhetorical resolution satisfies our collective resolve - or if we choose a different path.