Russia Invades Georgia: What Does This Mean for America?
As the world turns its head towards Beijing, Russia has seized the opportunity of an occupied limelight and invaded Georgia. I cannot say I’m surprised. Just the hour or so of research I’ve done on the Ossetia-Georgia conflict shows that something was eventually to happen. With no ceasefire in sight and the quick advance of Russian troops beyond South Ossetia, things may escalate further.
Georgia and Russia could agree to a ceasefire in the next 20 minutes and decided they’re going to work together to solve their differences to bring about change. Lovely as it sounds, world conflicts are only that simple in an Obama fairytale. At worst, world war could break out. I believe it’s going to be somewhere in between, though one never knows. But each passing day bring a greater chance of Georgia calling upon the US for help.
The obvious question is what does this mean for the United States? If this conflict grows, it will become a central issue in the McCain/Obama election. So let’s see who has the upper hand.
While vacationing in Hawaii, Sen. Obama issued a statement condemning the attacks against Georgia, calling for a retreat of Russian military forces, calling for the US, UN, and EU to mediate political solutions, and calling for peacekeeping forces to be deployed to help the affected civilians.
Sen. McCain’s speech in Erie, PA addressed immediate steps that need to be taken to begin to resolve the conflict. Specifically, McCain called for a UN resolution to be passed condemning the Russian attacks, urged NATO to allow Georgia’s membership and discuss plans for peacekeeping and Russian relation, called on Secretary Rice to begin diplomacy, constructing a US-Euro position on Georgian sovereignty and the US to hold an emergency “G-7” meeting, stressed the importance of securing Georgia’s neighbors, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, and the sending of US humanitarian to aid Georgian citizens.
This is a perfect opportunity to judge Barack Obama and John McCain and how they deal with real world crisis. John McCain offers diplomatic solutions and is acting presidential. Barack Obama is issuing vague statements that any middle schooler could come up with in between holes on the golf course.
With everything I could say, I’m going to let Obama and McCain speak for themselves.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12419.html
Tags: Georgia, Jacey Paladino, McCain, Obama, Ossetia, Russia
August 18th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
what i don’t get is why georgia is assumed to be the good guy by so many bloggers on both the left and right. i mean, while russia really overreacted, georgia really did bring this upon itself. georgia is the one who started an offensive in south ossetia after russia warned them not to do it and massed troops in north ossetia. and while georgia claims that it had the right to start the offensive in the name of territorial integrity, the bottom line is that the south ossetians don’t want to be part of georgia. why should we force them to be ruled by georgians when they want autonomy?
as for the candidates various statements, it’s mccain’s that i find to be the most reckless. simply threatening russia is the stupidest course you could possibly take. if we let georgia into NATO, that means the u.s. is at war with russia. is it really worth getting into yet another war for the cause of forcing ossetians to be part of a country that they don’t want to be part of?
August 18th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Russia has NO RIGHT to tell Georgia to do anything. They are their own sovereign nation. Whether or not South Ossetia wants to be part of Georgia is none of Russia’s business. South Ossetia is part of Georgia whether they like it or not. If the Georgian government want to put troops there for whatever reason, they can!
What I don’t understand is why the Left always assumes that us and are allies are to blame.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
that’s a strange stance you’re taking, since until fairly recently georgia was part of russia. if georgia had the right to become independent and split off from russia in 1991, why can’t south ossetia become independent and split off from georgia? if you really believe that parts of sovereign nations can’t become independent, then russia would have the right to send troops anywhere in georgia just because georgia was once part of russia. and, for that matter, do you even support u.s. independence?
and i’m not blaming “us and our allies”, once again you’re oversimplifying things. both georgia and russia have, at various times in recent years, been called “our allies.” no matter which side you favor, you are arguably opposing one ally or another. and just because you’re an ally doesn’t mean every single thing you do is right. georgia was reckless to send troops into south ossetia. even if you don’t support the ossetian’s independence movement, on a purely practical level the the russian reaction was completely predictable.