Talk about a present sitting on my front porch after returning from vacation. I come back well-rested from an uneventful and uninteresting summer of politics — and a fresh viewing of Capote — and what awaits me but yet another conflict involving a country that I, until now, never knew existed.
There’s a freshness to it when it involves an as-yet-unnoticed nation. Its like watching a science fiction movie, where two alien races (looking remarkably human, though speaking a strange, indiscernible dialect and sporting skin color different from ours) battle to the death, while those of us reclining comfortably on our couches with a cold one reap all the benefits.
Its better than the Olympics; Its like “Afghanistan: 1978” all over again.
Upon learning of the conflict, I was quick to criticize my more left-leaning “associates” (I use such a term loosely) for their distinct lack of audacity. When the United States valiantly stormed the borders of Iraq in pursuit of peace and justice, you were all screaming in the streets.
But when the Russian Federation reinforced a UN-recognized peacekeeping force in South Ossetia that had been present since November of 1992, where were the hand-made signs? Where were the cute, neon orange drums made of paint buckets and the cleverly-crafted effigies made of paper maché?
Why aren’t you burning Russian flags?
Will someone come over here and help me burn this Russian flag?
My Republican rage is rising. Sovereign nations are having their territory violated. Luckily, there are rational voices in the U.S. government who have the moral fortitude to recognize the dangers of allowing large, militaristic nations to invade other smaller, weaker nations all willy-nilly whenever it suits their interests.
Sensible, level-headed people like President George W. Bush, who stated the obvious on the 11 August when he said such actions are “unacceptable in the 21 century” and have “substantially damaged Russia’s standing in the world.”
I ask you: Who is more qualified than him to make that statement?
Other natural-born leaders were quick to guide America toward the right course of action as well. Sen. John McCain, eager to one-up former “Emperor” Reagan (a man can dream), who had declared once that he, too, was a Contra, abandoned the singular declarative and decided that we are all now Georgians, and must therefore come to the aid of our Brethren in the Balkans.
And this Presidential hopeful (wink) had the foresight to place a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government as his chief foreign policy adviser.
Now that is change I can believe in.
The morally sound course of action in this conflict is obvious. Soft-handed political maneuvering and stern finger wagging will not deter nations like Russia. It is obvious that Putin, Medvedev and the other Russian heads of state are so hell-bent on imperialist expansionism that no amount of rhetoric can sway them.
This is the 21 century, and it is simply unacceptable that any nation’s leaders, regardless of military might, can arbitrarily invade other sovereign nations under the flimsy guise of “protecting its citizenry from attack” and get away with it.
Why, if I lived in a nation that committed those kinds of heinous crimes, you can bet your left-leaning behind I would be the first one out in the streets demanding a public lynching. Luckily, however, we have people like Bush and McCain who know better than to advocate such reckless, cowboy foreign policy.
Matthew Kirchner is a senior English major and a columnist for the Daily Forty-Niner.
Uhh… How about the fact that Georgia started the war by ambushing and murdering civilians in the disputed territories?
Granted, it came as a surprise after the U.S.A. allied itself with Georgia. But that was a little bit Saddam Hussein-esque of Georgia’s president, don’t you think?
How can Russia possibly act like a diplomat to Mr. Saakashvili while he is engaged in killing Russians? For that matter, how can the U.S.A. even have a relationship with his regime?
After what we’ve been through in the last decade, I think I am siding with politicians who don’t wan’t to go ballistic with Russia quite so soon.