Open Thread
2 days ago
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Russia ignoring world won't leave Georgia.
The Soviet Union, I mean Russia is refusing to leave the tiny country of Georgia. As a matter of fact they have moved further into Georgia and are threating the Capital. Bush may have looked into Putin's soul but I think McCain had it right when he said, I looked into Putin's eyes and saw K.G.B. There's not much we could do about this even if we weren't fighting the War on Terror. An Attack on Russia is the begining of World War three. We are going to have to find some diplomatic solution to this problem. The best ones being thrown around are Trade Sanctions and kicking Russia out of the G-8. Anyone have any better ideas?
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I doubt the correct perspective, or a conservative one has been brought forth on Georgia as of yet. Russia watched while its ally, Serbia, was stripped of territory which had always been part of its legal borders,(Kosovo)and given to the rebels who were partially supported by middle east money because they were nominally Islamic. Thank you Bill Clinton. Now, there is another territory which has always been part of Georgia, but which wants to break away and be part of Russia, and has in effect been semi-autonomous for the last 16 years, and the official U.S. policy is: NO WAY! So, the U.S. foreign policy is hypocritical, at least in Russia's eyes.
ReplyDeleteIs the Georgian President a mad fool, like many say? Or at least miscalculating in effectively starting a civil war by sending troops to reclaim the seceding province? Probably.
Is the State Department hypocritical? On the surface it appears so. Is the Russian bear back? Well, maybe not, but he is not going to play dead anymore. Is the world going mad? Without a doubt!
Conservative Response: Support refugees, urge a referendum by residents of the two provinces, live with the outcome.
Bill
Here's my take:
ReplyDelete1. Georgia should not be allowed in NATO.
2. Georgia won't be able to get into NATO regardless.
So, first, the U.S. should stop pretending that Georgia has any shot of joining NATO.
Then we need to use back-channels to let these satellite nations know that we're not going to war on their behalf.
Then I would suggest giving positive incentives to Russia. Threats -- coercive diplomacy as its known -- don't work very well, and the U.S. historically has not been very good at following up on them;
So, I'd look for something Russia wants, and offer that on the condition that they not use such overwhelming force in the future. Then let the satellite states know that what actions they take, they take on their own.
Satelite States? So basically you have no problem with Putin putting the U.S.S.R. back together. These countries are not satelite states and they haven't been satelite states since the fall of the Soviet Union. They're independent democracies. Maybe Georgia started it, but the Russians have gone way to far and some diplomatic penalties are going to be enacted.
ReplyDeleteJust so you know what Russia wants is their empire back, at least that's what Putin wants. I don't think that's something we should offer them.