Barack Obama Mimics George Bush on Russia’s Invasion?
By Larry Johnson on August 9, 2008 at 6:30 PM in Current Affairs
I am writing this from Ford Island, Hawaii–which sits in the middle of Pearl Harbor. Sixty eight years ago the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the United States and destroyed a significant portion of the U.S. fleet in the Pacific. My room is 300 yards from the resting hulk of the USS Arizona, which blew up and sank with over 1100 U.S. sailors entombed. A few yards south of the memorial for the USS Arizona is the battleship USS Missouri. The battleship named for my state of birth was the platform in the Tokyo harbor where Japan surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur.
These two naval monuments–one a sunken graveyard and the other a floating museum–are the bookends for the U.S. war against Japan. The war started with the sinking of one and ended in a somber ceremony on the teakwood deck of the other.
Which brings us to the newest war in the 21st century–Russia’s invasion of Georgia. Ben Smith at the Politico offers this summary:
Russia has long attempted to reclaim now-sovereign parts of the former Soviet Union, stoking conflicts in the enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are universally recognized to be Georgian soil. Russia has also used the ensuing military tensions to set back Georgia’s bid to enter NATO.
But Georgia appears to have sparked the conflict by marching on the South Ossetian capital as Russia’s powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin headed to Beijing for the Olympic Games. Russia, in turn, welcomed the conflict, launching a large-scale attack on its smaller neighbor and sending tanks across its border.
Both American candidates back Georgia’s sovereignty and its turn toward the West. But their first statements on the crisis revealed differences of substance and style.
So how do they differ? Smith says that Barack has adopted the position of the the White House, the European Union, NATO and a series of European powers:
“I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict,” Obama said in a written statement. “Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint and to avoid an escalation to full-scale war. Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected.”
Obama added briefly that the international community should get involved. More than an hour later, as more details of Russia’s incursion into Georgia emerged, he cited Russia more directly: “What is clear is that Russia has invaded Georgia’s sovereign — has encroached on Georgia’s sovereignty,” he told reporters in Sacramento.
And McCain?
“[T]he news reports indicate that Russian military forces crossed an internationally recognized border into the sovereign territory of Georgia. Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory.
“The government of Georgia has called for a ceasefire and for a resumption of direct talks on South Ossetia with international mediators. The U.S. should immediately work with the EU and the OSCE to put diplomatic pressure on Russia to reverse this perilous course that it has chosen.”
The fact that Barack’s position mimics that of the Bush White House does not necessarily mean Americans should feel comforted. Let’s start with the fact that we live in a damn glass house. Our unprovoked invasion of Iraq does not give us much moral authority for lecturing other countries about violating sovereignty of others.
Nonetheless, this case is more egregious on the part of the Russians. Georgia is a democracy and is friendly with the West. Georgia is not governed by a brutal thug like Saddam Hussein. And Georgia has been cooperating with the United States in going after Islamic extremists. For many years Islamic radicals directly tied to Osama Bin Laden operated in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia.
Let me suggest that the reaction of George Bush and Barack Obama is weak and dangerous. If someone invades your house and is killing your family members are your supposed to show “restraint?” Give me a break. Trying to treat the Russians and Georgians as equals in this dispute sends a message of weakness that is likely to embolden Russia and leave the Georgians with a sense of betrayal.
I am not advocating we enter this war on the ground and that we fight alongside the Georgians. But Barack’s comparatively weak, mealy mouthed response to the violation of another country’s sovereignty does not give me a warm, fuzzy feeling. And the fact that he is lining up with the likes of the failed Presidency of George Bush is even more troubling. At least John McCain seems to understand that unprovoked aggression, left unchallenged, leads to more violence and more death.
by Ronald Scott
* More novels by 
* 
(
)
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
Pingback: John McCain’s Second Statement on the Crisis in Georgia : NO QUARTER
Pingback: “From Milk Toast Internationalist to Brave McCain-Like Warrior. . . In under 24 hours.” : NO QUARTER
Pingback: Make Them Accountable / Media & Politics (only one section today)
Pingback: Hillary Democrats United » Blog Archive » Campaign Updates for 8/11/08