A military response by the NATO powers is not really an option but it is looking increasingly like we may fail Georgia diplomatically as well. As usual, history clearly illustrates the peril of ignoring the aggression of authoritarian regimes . And also, as usual, history is going to be ignored:
It’s striking that dictatorial and aggressive and fanatical regimes — whatever their differences — seem happy to work together to weaken the influence of the United States and its democratic allies. So Russia helps Iran. Iran and North Korea help Syria. Russia and China block Security Council sanctions against Zimbabwe. China props up the regimes in Burma and North Korea.
The United States, of course, is not without resources and allies to deal with these problems and threats. But at times we seem oddly timid and uncertain.
When the “civilized world” expostulated with Russia about Georgia in 1924, the Soviet regime was still weak. In Germany, Hitler was in jail. Only 16 years later, Britain stood virtually alone against a Nazi-Soviet axis. Is it not true today, as it was in the 1920s and ’30s, that delay and irresolution on the part of the democracies simply invite future threats and graver dangers?
Others Blogging:
Hugh Hewitt
The U.S. needs to rush relief to Georgia and to continue the blunt condemnation of the Russians. It has taken the weekend for the MSM to figure out that Russia is attempting to turn an ill-advised effort by Georgia to reassert control over its land into a strategic thrust against the West, but the butchery and the bombing has clarified the picture. Russia is killing many innocent civilians far from the area where Georgia attempted –rightfully if not prudently– to move its forces. That’s the bottom line.
Political Machine
Back at home, the neocons are barking for the president to take a firmer hand in Georgia. To them, the military solution is always plan A. But a dispersed Taliban is one thing, and the Russian Army is another. No wonder the president has been spending so much time in the bleachers.
at-Largely
Russia’s attack on Georgia is illegal and immoral. On that we can all agree. But, because our voice of reason and diplomacy has long been sold off to military defense contractors, our leaders criticizing Russia is irrelevant and worse, hypocritical because we attacked Iraq, illegally. I have been trying to explain this very problem to the far-right, but it is like trying to explain the basics of math to a flea.
