Our Opinion: Taming the bear
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 10:33 AM PDT
President George Bush said all the right things Monday when he lambasted Russia over the conflict raging in the old Soviet-breakaway republic of Georgia.
Bush called for the Russians to end its war in Georgia and said their actions are “unacceptable in the 21st century.”
At the end of the day, however, there is not a whole lot America, or President Bush, can do about Russia’s latest aggression.
European leaders and members of NATO are racing between the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and Moscow to end the conflict, offering a number of alternatives — such as a general ceasefire and international monitoring of the situation — all of which the Russians have refused.
According to published reports, at least one senior Bush administration official tried to stir up Cold War-era rhetoric regarding the situation, saying Russia’s move into Georgia represented past Soviet-style invasions of Afghanistan and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
That kind of sentiment is fine for hardliners but hardly sums up the conflict. Actually the fight going on in Georgia is complex and traces its roots back several centuries.
Russia has a long history of inserting its will, prestige and blood of its youth in the southern sections of its vast expanse. From the czars to the communists, Russia has long considered ethnic areas such as Georgia to be well within its sphere of influence.
None of that makes Russia’s actions right. To the contrary, the actions by its military and policy-makers in Georgia is wrongheaded and will damage the nation’s international standing.
Yet condemning another nation, as President Bush did Monday, for invading a foreign nation will be a hard sell to the rest of the world when framed against the background of America’s actions in Iraq.
For many spread across the globe, Russia is doing nothing more extraordinary than what America did in 2003 when it invaded Iraq.
Of course the circumstances in 2003 were far different, the stakes much higher, but our credibility to cleanly criticize other nations for pirate-like actions against another sovereign nation has suffered during the past five years for a host of reasons, most of them related to Iraq.
Short of military action, America has little option but to voice concern about Russia’s move and then sit back and see what happens.
Not exactly the hallmark of great diplomacy.
