WASHINGTON -- When is military intervention justified? What is a just war? Are some wars mere whims? Americans have been debating these questions recently as the crisis in East Timor escalated.
John Dori, research associate in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation here, says Washington faces a difficult task. "While helping to end the suffering in East Timor and expressing its displeasure with Jakarta's handling of the situation there, it also must work to prevent the violence from spilling over into the rest of Indonesia."
Before he went to Auckland and the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, U.S. President Bill Clinton was said to be mulling a cutoff of International Monetary Fund and other aid to Indonesia. But extending aid and then cutting it off provides complicated advantages and disadvantages for both the donor and the recipient. There can be leverage in both directions. The Indonesian military knows this very well.