Excellent Analysis By "Loudoun Insider"

By: Lowell
Published On: 8/10/2008 7:46:33 AM

On the subject of our completely screwed up foreign policy (exemplified by Russia's invasion of Georgia and the fiasco of China's hosting of the Olympics), I completely agree with "Loudoun Insider" over at generally pro-Republican blog "Too Conservative."  This is an excellent post, I just wish there were more brutally honest Republicans out there like "Loudoun Insider."

...Current events once again remind us how utterly thoroughly GW Bush has screwed our world leadership position.

[...]

Russia of course uses the Olympics as cover to invade Georgia...While the only superpower capable of intervening is overwhelmed in Afghanistan and Iraq did they really think they could stand up to the Russian Bear?

Of course we are in a horrible strategic position purely due to the folly of the Bush-Cheney "foreign policy".  In addition to damaging the huge international goodwill we received after 9/11, Bush has almost single handedly destroyed the GOP brand.  I can't wait until he and his henchmen are gone.

In November, we have two fundamentally different choices: 1) John McCain, who will continue Bush/Cheney's foreign policy "folly"; or 2) Barack Obama, who will return this nation's foreign policy to [an updated version of] the post-World War II bipartisan, internationalist consensus that valued alliances, "soft power," and a return to traditional American foreign policy that blends idealism with a healthy dose of realism.  Tough choice, huh?

Comments



it is far worse than that (teacherken - 8/10/2008 7:58:41 AM)
1) Georgia has had troops in Iraq, whom we have trained
2) We apparently encouraged the Georgians to take this effort
3) We are now flying 1,000 of the Georgian troops in Iraq back to Georgia

does that put us in a possible confrontation with Russia?  What if they try to shoot down our transport planes?

Oh, and by the way, several other former Soviet Republics, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, have come out in support of the Georgian effort to restore their territorial integrity.   Does this therefore has the possibility of widening. . .

And in case anyone did not grasp what this is about, it is again about petroleum -  Azerbaijan is a source, and they use a pipeline that goes through Georgia, which is designed to eliminate the possibility of the Russians having a chokehold.  

How often what this administration does is about oil.  



my comment may be out of date (teacherken - 8/10/2008 8:13:28 AM)
as the Georgians have announced that they are pulling their troops out of S Ossetia -  looks like the Russians have succeeded in breaking that off from Georgia, and I suspect they will ensure the same happens with Abkhazia.  


Fluid situation but McCain already is showing his bias towards confrontation (Shenandoah Democrat - 8/10/2008 8:55:49 AM)
In the two campaigns responses so far to this crisis, you see a microcosm of their personalities. McCain's response was confrontational and self-righteous, while Obama's was more thoughtful and focused on securing a peaceful solution. This is defintely a 3 AM moment, and ole John shows his first response is confrontation..see here
http://www.politico.com/news/s...

BTW, does anyone recall Bush's first meeting with Putin? Why doesn't he just phone up his friend Vladimir and peer into his soul and resolve this conflict? (hehe) Historians will see this as a true nadir in American foreign policy. Reminds me of when Brezhnev invaded Afghanistan and the US was distracted by the Iranian hostage crisis. This is much worse because Georgia is not a quagmire, and Russia's establishing an expansionist precedent that I dare say is Hitleresque.



Cool it, John (Teddy - 8/10/2008 3:23:36 PM)
McCain's temperament led him instinctively to a bellicose and provocative response to the Russian incursion into South Ossetia, an automatic and universal reaction typical of the far right wing of his party. McCain's yammering as though engaged in a playground pissing contest is inappropriate, especially since the unfortunate truth is this: the United States (and the West) are holding very few cards in this game.

Russia has a definite national interest in what goes on at its borders, especially among its former possessions, and has frankly expressed a desire to be able to control the gas and oil pipelines through the Caucasus which provide oil and gas to the Ukraine and Europe--- Putin has already shut off that oil and gas on more than one occasion in order to bring pressure to bear, and would like to control these additional pipelines to increase Russia's ability to exert even stronger pressure in the future. Russia did not actually start this latest confrontation, Georgia's American-educated president did, possibly with the connivance of some part of the US government. But Russia aims to finish the confrontation, and has made it clear Moscow will not accept a "return to the status quo" (ante).

It is necessary to think beyond South Ossetia, beyond the problem with Gazprom and Russia's controlling the pipelines, because we have many other problems in the Middle East, including not just Iraq, Iran, Syria, and ethnic terrorists.  What about, for example, control of the loose nukes and nuclear technology left behind by the Soviets? What about China pushing into Central Asia? What about negotiations with N. Korea? What about the fact that many scare metals crucial to modern science and warfare are actually found in Russia? Whatever we end up trying to do about Georgia, we have a military bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we certainly do not want to imagine the answer to this regional problem is a direct conflict between Russian and American military. We have managed to avoid that mistake for over sixty years. Nor do we need McCain, dealing from weakness not strength in this situation, to try spitting in the eye of the bear.

A recovering Russia has domestic political reasons itself for being aggressive in the Caucasus (and, for that matter, in the Baltic states) as well as concerns about NATO's expansion eastward, American missile sites in Eastern Europe, and on and on. George-Ossetia is only the fringe of the problem, let's think more than one move ahead, Senator McCain.