John McCain and Condi Rice's recent chest thumping with respect to Russia is comical.
Both are supposedly experts on Russia (Rice in academia, McCain in his own mind) and both sound insane. Rice has to sound tough, I guess, as she is the Secretary of State. I suspect she actually knows better.
But McCain just sounds like an idiot.
Here are two of the stupider things he has said in his long ramblings, speeches and pretend commander in chief press conferences about the conflict:
"We are all Georgians now."
"In the twenty first century, nations don't invade other nations."
And Rice said:
"This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten a neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it. Things have changed."
Where to start?
Barack said he was a citizen of the United States and of the world and McCain's supporters blew a gasket. Now McCain says we are all Georgians? Puh-lease! Most people don't give a hoot about Georgia, if they even know what and where it is, and since Georgia provoked this over-reaction from Russia, and opened the door for them to flex their muscles, they have to accept some of the blame here. And so does McCain, for having a lobbyist for Georgia on his campaign staff, for visiting Georgia and talking about independence for South Ossetia, and for giving the Georgian president the impression the U.S. would come to their aid.
It's amazing to me that with a Secretary of State who is supposedly an expert on Russia, this administration could have been so seemingly clueless about the strength and pride of a post-Soviet Russia. (Once again, Bush's famous gut instincts - and looking into Putin's eyes and seeing his soul - trumped realistic assessments of a foreign country and its leadership.)
Of course Russia is going to be looking towards its own interests, and it isn't in its interests for Georgia to push Russia around in South Ossetia (Georgian troops killed several Russian peace keepers there). Nor is it in Russia's interest to allow all those states on her border to join NATO. Russians are not wimps, and Condi Rice of all people should know that.
She should also know that what Russia did is not unreasonable, from their perspective. Were the Bush administration (or god forbid a McCain administration) to be in a border dispute with Mexico, and they provoked us by sending soldiers into the disputed region and killed some of our border guards or peace keepers, you can bet we would do exactly what Russia did. We would send in the tanks and the bombers and we might not stop until we got to Mexico City. And we would dare any other nation to stop us.
Another possible comeback to Condi: "No, this is not 1968 and things have changed. Now it is the United States that can occupy not just a capital but an entire country (or two), overthrow a government and get away with it."
As for Russia not being able to "get away with it," it appears they are. We have no diplomatic strength as Bush prefers to use force and threats rather than diplomacy. We have no available troops, thanks to Bush's ill-conceived and endless war in Iraq. And the Russians know it. So how do we stop them from "getting away with it?"
Back to McCain's political posturing, which is all it is since he has absolutely no authority or power to do anything othert than send his two best buddies over to Georgia to wring their hands, his pronouncements are just silly. No, we are not all Georgians now. This is not 9/11 when France expressed solidarity with America (and a group of morons in Congress returned the sentiment by renaming French fries "Freedom fries" and urging Americans to pour out all of their French wine). What are we going to do about Russian agression - rename Russian roulette "Freedom roulette" and dump our vodka?
As for nations not invading other nations in the 21st century, oh really? What about our little "excursions" into Iraq and Afghanistan and McCain's threat to bomb Iran?
Rice and McCain are high atop their self-righteous, nationalistic, American pedestal, using rhetoric to make Russia into the bad guy, although there is almost nothing they can do to change Russia's behavior.
What if we dared examine which of the two nations has been the most aggressive over the past eight years?
Which nation, for instance, is involved in two wars halfway around the world, involving more than 150,000 troops, and having killed close to 100,000 civilians?
And which nation has 702 overseas bases in 130 countries?
Hint: It isn't Russia.
