After all the foreign policy disasters, damage to our national security and international reputation the past 7 1/2 years, is there anyone who still believes that Republicans are "strong on foreign policy?" If so, what cave are they living in and what med's are they taking? For the latest exhibit of "heckuva job" foreign policy incompetence by the GOP, take Georgia - or, more to the point, let RUSSIA take Georgia after "egging on" the Georgians in the first place.
Regardless of what happens next, it is worth asking what the Bush people were thinking when they egged on Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's young, Western-educated president, to apply for NATO membership, send 2,000 of his troops to Iraq as a full-fledged U.S. ally, and receive tactical training and weapons from our military. Did they really think Putin would sit by and see another border state (and former province of the Russian empire) slip away to the West? If they thought that Putin might not, what did they plan to do about it, and how firmly did they warn Saakashvili not to get too brash or provoke an outburst?It's heartbreaking, but even more infuriating, to read so many Georgians quoted in the New York Times-officials, soldiers, and citizens-wondering when the United States is coming to their rescue. It's infuriating because it's clear that Bush did everything to encourage them to believe that he would. When Bush (properly) pushed for Kosovo's independence from Serbia, Putin warned that he would do the same for pro-Russian secessionists elsewhere, by which he could only have meant Georgia's separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Putin had taken drastic steps in earlier disputes over those regions-for instance, embargoing all trade with Georgia-with an implicit threat that he could inflict far greater punishment. Yet Bush continued to entice Saakashvili with weapons, training, and talk of entry into NATO. Of course the Georgians believed that if they got into a firefight with Russia, the Americans would bail them out.
Wonderful, eh? And what about John McCain? Well, when he hasn't been busy jet skiing with Georgia's president, he's been egging him on as well. The following is from Prime-News (Georgia), August 29, 2006:
Mikheil Saakashvili awarded the US Senator John McCain with Saint George's medal.[...]
After viewing the newly built Senaki military base, U.S. Senator John McCain addressed Georgian servicemen and thanked them for their contribution to the peacekeeping operation in Iraq. "I want to express the appreciation of the American people for your service and sacrifice in Iraq. Someday the people of Iraq will know freedom and democracy, and if they do it will be because of your service and sacrifice. Again on behalf of President Bush, the United States Congress and the American people, we thank you; you are America's best friends." -declared U.S. Senator.
Addressing the so called frozen conflicts, he said that "Someday the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will also know what it is like to live in a free nation."
That's right: John McCain was essentially giving Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili the green light to fight Russia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, implying that the United States would support its "best friend" in the conflict. Today, as swaths of Georgia lie in ruins and as McBush's bravado is revealed for what it really is - a pathetic joke - we can see the results of a foreign policy approach long on macho/tough-guy talk and short on any sense of realism, realpolitik, national interest, balance of forces, etc.
So why in hell does the corporate media (aka, idiot media) give Republicans a pass as supposed foreign policy/national security experts, when it is apparent from example after example - including this latest debacle in Georgia - that they are utterly incompetent? In reality, it's the Democratic Party with the approach towards foreign policy that is realistic and that actually has a chance of succeeding. With the Republicans, it's just one disaster after another.
By last week, "the Russians approached us with some concern, asking us to restrain Georgia. We and the Russians had what appeared to be a collaborative effort." He said that Russia "promised it would ask the South Ossetians to stand back" and that the administration was "unambiguous" in urging Georgia not to provoke Moscow.
Maybe Georgia didn't understand that when you are a proxy, you do as you are told. These interviews with Georgians and their government's actions are still bewildering to me.
The larger points in the Slate article about Western antagonization of Russia, however, are true. And wtf is with the McCain quote? Someday the people of S. Ossetia will know what it's like to live in a free country? Wtf does that even mean? Does that mean accepting Georgian rule? Does that mean accepting Russian rule? Does it mean some sort of fantasy about being independent from both of them? Now THAT'S ambiguous.
Sad, all this posturing over a tiny country in the Caucus Mountain Range that has little to do with US or European strategic interests. A pipeline to get around Russia? Big Deal. The oil is still coming from corrupt, authoritarian Azerbaijan or across the Caspian from corrupt, authoritarian Kazakhstan. Why really the entire Caspian is ringed by authoritarian governments? Is there a Caspian curse?
We can't have everything we want, and we should have passed on Missile Defense and NATO in Russia's backyard to get Russia's support in dealing harshly with Tehran on the nuclear program. As I said yesterday, springtime in Tehran. They must be looking at this row and thinking God has smiled upon them.
Modern corporotism or, if you prefer, Disaster Capitalism thrives on, even requires crisis after crisis to establish its ascendancy and fulfill the unmitigated greed of its greatest entrepreneurs, and those entrepreneurs in the end have absolutely no loyalty to any government--- it is all about them and the success of their corporations. Every other person in the world is merely a tool to be used, abused, and discarded, every other organisation including governments, all are there only to advance the endless growth and profitability of the corporation and its leaders (and not even its shareholders when you get down to it, just the CEOs and hangers-on), Behold the new, global nobility. Our real enemy is these corporotists and their new-style Class Warfare.