On Cyclic De-Apathization

I'd like to note that it really depresses me when human rights abuses in certain countries appear in the news for a short time (usually once a year), invoke the empathy of readers, sometimes lead to condemnations from world leaders, then disappear from the headlines and peoples' minds two weeks later. This is currently happening in the case of Myanmar, the South Asian state that's been suffering under the yoke of a military junta for ages (Belarus is another common example of the phenomenon). Right now, angry dissidents led by large numbers of Buddhist monks are protesting the government, and the whole world has taken notice, just as they took notice all the other times they sat idly by and watched previous groups of monks get beaten.

I'm not trying to be callous about the plight of Burmese; it just makes me sad when I look at groups of Westerners getting engaged in the issue and know that most of them will stop giving two shits about the situation once the protests are (probably) quashed. As much as I hate the concept of nation building, perhaps it's time to support Burmese dissidents with rifles instead of words; we have a post-Cold War stigma in America about propping up insurgents, but I think the results may be better when we support actual democratically-minded groups instead of whatever brute hates the Ruskies. But that's probably just my youthful naivete creeping in.