So, here’s where it’s going with American foreign policy. A former Russian satellite, Georgia, challenges the mother country of Russia and is brutally attacked. Georgia, like many former Russian satellites, has formed close relationships with western powers like the United States. Why wouldn’t they? We are “The Superpower” after all. But now that they’re about to be crushed by the resurgent power of Russia, a nation bolstered by its natural resource wealth, the U.S. has nothing to offer them but strong words of support. Both of our major presidential candidates are saying simailar things, knowing that there’s not much they could do if elected, because a war with Russia is still, despite Cold War triumph, impossible to win cleanly. And that’s the problem with our foreign policy. What are we going to do if Russia and China decide to act up at the same time? Oh yeah, there’s Iran, too. And the problem with Afghanistan. And all of this is vastly more important than Iraq, which is the second most important issue in the U.S. presidential election, well behind the problems in our own domestic economy. Welcome to modern politics and policy!
We need diplomacy and we need a strong military. Barack Obama gets that; John McCain is clinging to the hope that a strong military alone will deter emerging powers like China and Russia. It won’t. We aren’t the only show in town anymore. It’s time for a new generation of leadership. We need to project American ideals like freedom and democracy through modern means. Obama’s election would inspire a generation of people here and abroad. McCain’s would simply tell the world that we are trying to hold on tight to the power America has already enjoyed for 60 years, bolstering the views of anti-American forces all over the globe. Hey, vote how you want. Guns. The estate tax. Whatever. But ignore this Russia situation at your own peril. This tells us much about where America really stands.
I think you missed something. Georgia initiated this conflict by attacking an ethnic enclave that had been effectively independent since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The Russians had peace-keeping troops in the enclave and it was effectively under their protection. Most of the residents had ethnic ties to Russia and had been given Russian citizenship.
It appears that Georgia may have been mislead by their “friendship” with the United States into believing that we could/would protect them from the inevitable Russian response to their attack. This is one more example of the disastrous results of an expansionist foreign policy where the administration has made promises, real or implied, that we can’t keep. Cheney is apparently still encouraging Georgia.
I don’t think either McCain or Obama are likely to continue to make the catastrophic mistakes that Bush and company have. The real advantage of Obama is, as you say, that it sends a clear message that the kind of adventurous foreign policy that lead to this crisis is at an end.
As for China, I think we are its largest trading partner. There is not much reason for us to see them as an adversary. But there is a danger that Taiwan will provoke the same kind of conflict as we are seeing in Georgia under the illusion that the United States will step in to protect them. While some public ambiguity on that point is useful, but it shouldn’t lead our friends to miscalculate our intentions.
This conflict was created by Georgia adventurism. It ought to be a lesson to others. The United States will not be manipulated into taking on a fight that isn’t ours.
To first poster: I agree with almost all of your statement. However, I disagree that McCain will not continue with the foreign policy blunders that have defined the Bush Administration. His policy statements are very belligerant and many of the same advisors that were/are part of the Bush Administration are currently advising McCain and would likely be kept around for a (gulp) McCain Administration.
It doesn’t really matter why Georgia got into the scrap with Russia. The point is that they are part of a group of many satellite nations trying to get into NATO and the western alliance and if and when they do get into NATO we’ve got WWIII in an event like this. The lack of a cohensive foreign policy — and McCain’s willingness to continue the same kind of jumbly policy we now have — is going to bite us big time unless we change course.
McCain wants them in NATO. He has explicitly stated that. If Georgia is in NATO we are obligated to defend militarily. Because of incoherent foreign policy led by the Bush Administration there is no way we could muster the resources to accomplish military action against Russia. That would be a nightmare scenerio and I am so glad we currently have no such obligation.