Russia invades Georgia, while Bush sits back enjoying the Olymlpics. Will history remember Bush as the "vacation president?"And what about his relationship with Putin? I guess Bush didn't see this when he looked deeply into Putin's eyes.
And the timing on Putin's part is excellent. The U.S. military is strapped with two wars while the administration pounds the war drum about Iran. Our economy is in shambles. And our lame Congress just went out for its August recess.
And ... the world's attention is on the Olympics this week, so it's a perfect time for an invasion!
So how did the administration respond?
Well, as mentioned above, Bush thought it more important to watch beach volleyball. Condi Rice couldn't be bothered actually GOING to Russia to complain. The New York Times reports:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sent a mid-level State Department official, Matt Bryza, to the region to back up mediation efforts which are being led by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France. [...]Thank goodness France is taking this seriously.
Democratic critics of the Bush administration criticized the administration’s moves so far as weak. Richard C. Holbrooke, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations, noted that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France was leading the efforts to mediate.
Ms. Rice, Mr. Holbrooke said, should be on a plane to Moscow, particularly given the administration’s close ties to Georgia, and its encouragement of that country’s efforts to join NATO.
“Their idea of an envoy is Matt Bryza, who is not an envoy at all since he doesn’t have the international standing,” Mr. Holbrooke said. “What administration in history would not have sent somebody to Moscow immediately? Why are we not in their face?”
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4 comments:
With a military stretched thinly because of Iraq and Afganistan, there's no way we could contribute much in the way of troops.
Since Russia is such a major source of crude oil, we're in a delicate position to begin with, since a restriction in production would send our own gasoline prices ever higher.
This is a delicate situation that I'm not sure we can change aside from diplomacy. Our hands, so to speak, are severely tied.
I don't think anyone is even considering sending Western troops. The Georgians themselves haven't asked for that. We are not going to take even the slightest risk of going to war with a country that has 18,000 nuclear weapons.
Other countries are often said to be frustrated that the United States is so militarily powerful that it's really impossible for anyone else to stop us from taking action we're determined to take. We forget that there's one other country which is in the same position: Russia. Nobody messes with an 800-pound gorilla. Not even the other 800-pound gorilla.
As for diplomacy, arguably we should be doing more, but there's not the slightest chance that diplomacy or threats of sanctions would change Russia's course at all. Populations with Russian citizenship have been attacked and many killed; Russian peacekeeping troops have been killed. They had to take action. We would feel the same way.
This is an example of a situation which is quite rare: one in which the United States is completely powerless to affect the outcome.
Wait, I thought the Bush Doctrine was to invade militarily aggressive countries that have oil? ;-)
Of course, silly Georgia thought that by supporting us in Iraq the US was actually them in its conflict with Russia.
ho-hum---
just more of the same:
Bush went on vacation the moment he took the **ahem** Oath of Office in 2001.
Bush was at a birthday party when Katrina struck [although we knew it was coming well in advance] and didn't cut his vacation short afterward.
Bush was on vacation when the flooding of most of the midwest happened this year. [ditto, re getting back to work afterward.]
and now, he's watching sports while Russia invades its neighbor.
oh, yeah, he did get up and say something about it being a Bad Thing to invade a sovereign nation for no reason.
uh-huh. right.
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