by Damozel | Every time I swear I'm done with her forever, something pulls me back in to her Vortex o' Vacuity.. But having managed for several days not to read her column, I found a quote in The Agonist (h/t!) from a piece with some good bits in it. Gah. I hate it when that happens.
As Russian troops continued to manhandle parts of Georgia on Friday, President Bush chastised Russian leaders that “bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century” — and then flew off to Crawford.
His words might have carried more weight if he, Cheney and Rummy had not kicked off the 21st century with a ham-fisted display of global bullying and intimidation...
President Bush and his Russian “expert” Condi have played it completely wrong with Russia from the start. W. saw a “trustworthy” soul in a razor-eyed K.G.B. agent who has never been a good guy for a single hour. Now the Bush crowd, which can do nothing about it, is blustering about how Russian aggression “must not go unanswered,” as Cheney put it. (W.’s other Russian expert, Bob Gates, was, as always, the only voice of realism, noting, “I don’t see any prospect for the use of military force by the United States in this situation.”)....
As Michael Specter, the New Yorker writer who has written extensively about Russia, observed: “There was a brief five-year period when we could get away with treating Russia like Jamaica — that’s over. Now we have to deal with them like grown-ups who have more nuclear weapons than anybody except us.” (NYT; emphasis added)
Mind you, I have some reservations. MoDo seems to have swallowed the media narrative hook, line, and sinker. She quotes Saakashvili about having looked evil in the eye without stopping to consider how his bombing of South Ossetia helped bring this about. Not that this excuses the Russians and not that what they are doing ain't evil---it's just that this is the un-nuanced view of the situation. But who looks for nuance from MoDo?
But as Sean-Paul Kelley says at The Agonist, what are the odds that we can deal with Russia "like grown-ups" if McCain is elected?
Like grown ups? Fat chance with McCain's chief foreign policy advisor being the former registered former agent of Georgia. Fat chance with the Old White Haired Dude, as Paris Hilton called him, echoing the Bush foreign policy line. Can Obama's pragmatism make it through the filter of the right wing noise machine? Let us hope so.
He also says:
And when, oh when, are we going to get over this whole, "evil, we're fighting evil" crap? (The Agonist)
Russia-Georgia Conflict: Cease Fire Agreement Reached (Update: and Key Bridge is Blown up)
Georgian Conflict: Leaders Show Increasing Anger, Russia Digs in, Civilians Suffer (A News Round-Up)
Conflict Over Separatist Enclaves Continues Amid Claims of Atrocities Against Ethnic Georgians
A "Turning Point" in the Georgian Conflict?
"The Idea that There is a Ceasefire is Ridiculous" (Updated)
Russians Continuing to Push Into Georgia?
Do our Media Understand the Russia-Georgia Conflict?
More on the Russo-Georgian Conflict (Opinion Round-Up)
Georgia Declares Itself to be in a State of War Against Russia; Conflict Expands
she worse as the front runners, neither obama nor mccain has a real historical or geopolitical grasp on whats up with Georgia & russia
Posted by: rawdawgbuffalo | August 18, 2008 at 10:20 PM