JordanT: Again, I’m not proposing anything, relative to an American intervention. Bush definitely diddled the dog on this one, and largely because he gave Georgia the impression that we would back them and then whiffed when Putin called his bluff and invaded.
That being said, the Russians are clearly exploiting a situation here, as evidenced by their using South Ossetia and Abkhazia as stalking horses for a larger expansionist policy. The fact that Russia was handing out Russian passports to members of both nationalities right up until a few weeks before the invasion, as well as the fact that Russia has been arming the more extemist elements of both speaks to some level of premeditation on Putin’s part.
And for those of you conflating Russia’s invasion of a sovereign nation (Georgia) that was dealing with two breakaways within it’s internationally recognized borders with our invasion of Iraq: Get real. We were enforcing UNSR 1441, which contained clear and irrevocable language regarding the use of force against Saddam. As to Afghanistan, we were invoking the right of self defense and the intel and subsequent events there justify that action beyond any shadow of a doubt.
Saying that we lack the “moral authority” to question Russia is a convenient cop out, and one the Europeans are using at present, hence my mention of the deafening silence of Germany and Italy.
The Europeans lack not only the military force to oppose Russia’s imperial designs, but they lack the will and cojones also. Putin knows how far to push this, and he has a two powerful weapons at his disposal: Russian control of a large chunk of the European energy market and European cowardice in the face of a determined foe.
We don’t have to go back to 1938 for an example; Spain’s collapse in the wake of the railroad bombings is very illustrative of the current timidity displayed by the Europeans and NATO and the UN as well. Russia’s bullying over Zimbabwe shows, in a clear cut example of supporting a murdering despotic ruler, how quickly we’ve returned to the bad old days of the Cold War.
Yeah, Russia is loaded with Moral Authority. That’s probably what they named the invasion of Georgia.
