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Don’t Poke a Stick in the Bear’s Eye
By JBC | August 15, 2008
The American president and the two leading presidential candidates from the major parties have it all wrong. But, given our country’s backwards and dangerous foreign policy over the last several decades, it is not surprising. But, there are some mistakes you can get away with, while others will get you hurt. This could be one of the latter.
Of the Russian response to Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia, President Bush said:
With its actions in recent days, Russia has damaged its credibility and its relations with the nations of the free world. Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century.
Hmmm, doesn’t that sound suspiciously like the words used to denounce America’s decision to invade Iraq? Weren’t we chastised for damaging our relations with other nations of the world? Weren’t we referred to as imperial bullies, and denounced for having an overly aggressive foreign policy? It seems their is no lack of hubris or hypocrisy among the neocons who have hijacked the Republican Party.
Speaking of neocons, what did Mr. McCain have to say about Russia’s defense of distraught Ossetians and Russian expats? Well, he said “We are all Georgians”. Hmm, he has a point. We did invade lands of foreign-speaking people to bring them into our sphere of influence, which is exactly what Georgia did. But should we be proud of supporting Georgia, who sought an “old-school” solution to a republic who wanted no part of Georgia’s so-called “democracy”? Additionally, McCain referred to Saakashvili as “Mischa”. How nice. Makes me fondly recall how another moron, Franklin Roosevelt, referred to Joseph Stalin, a bigger murderer than Hitler, as Uncle Joe. Nice, huh? Anyway, McCain claims that Putin, and his successor Medvedev, are “bent on reasserting Russian influence in the region and perhaps the world.” That is pretty shocking. Nobody is claiming that Russia is innocent, but they can at least claim that South Ossetia and Abkhazia wanted NO PART of being under Georgia’s thumb, and are thankful for Russian intervention. Russia certainly has no love for Saakashvili, who we’ve used as a stick in the Bear’s eye by doing everything in our power to get them into a now archaic and useless NATO, thus surrounding Russia. But to claim that they want to take over the world is pretty silly. I think a better claim for that can be said about China, whose communism and oppression we’ve overlooked, to the point of licking Chairman Mao’s little red books and butts to avoid financial crisis (they own half our debt).
Now, what of the Socialist Party candidate, Barak Hussein Obama. Surely the man who opposed the Iraq war would see the folly of Georgia’s activity. Hmmm, his forceful response was thus, “Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full-scale war.” Mmmyeah. Wow. I can imagine a third grader having the same response when two peers are fightng over the last chocolate milk…c’mon, don’t fight, puhleez! He also called on the ultimate toothless tiger, the United Nations, to step in and solve the situation. Yeah. The United Nations has solved exactly how many crises over the last several decades? Zero. That is just about as many years of experiece BHO has with foreing policy. Heck, I would expect Obama’s response to be the same if Russia invaded Atlanta Georgia. “Now is the time for those southerners to show some restraint.”
Anyway, I’m amazed that our politicians would go so far to back our puppet, Saakashvili, in order to continue our encirclement of Russia. The Cold War is over, and we must realize that Russia will do everything in her power to protect those holding Russian passports, which are the majority in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. We would do the same to protect our citizens in nearby countries. All parties should have immediately denounced Saakashvili for an unwarranted attack. Being that we did not, we risk going down in history as hypocrites, due to the fact that we acted much the same way in the Democratic invasion of Kosovo, not to mention our last little foray into Iraq.
Given the Cold Warrior stance of McCain and the complete lack of intellectual gravitas of Obama, I’m not sure that I feel safe in our future dealings with the injured but powerful Bear.
JB
Topics: Foreign Policy, Elections, Foreign Politics, Political Philosophy |
August 24th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Hey JB,
Have you seen the article about Phillip Berg’s lawsuit against Obama? If there’s any truth to it, what a nightmare it would be for the dems….
August 25th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
T.E.,
I have seen the lawsuit, but it seems that it won’t hold water. Although there COULD be some truth to Berg’s claim, such as BHO could have been born overseas, and then have received a Hawaii birth certificate after the fact, do you really think Politically Correct America would allow such an attack on The Chosen One? Even if it were a matter of record, America would have to prove its tolerance by somehow overlooking Constitutional restraints. Such is the world we live in.
how y’all doin’?
JB