Until the last few days, most Americans thought Georgia was the home to Scarlett O’Hara and the Allman Brother Band. That South Ossetia was rap singer. And Abkhazia was a singer in a Disney movie. Now they know about the country of the same name.
The first thing to know about South Ossetia and Abkhazia is that they have every right to secede from the country of Georgia. As America’s Declaration of Independence put it:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
South Ossetia, especially, has a right to independence. It’s a completely separate ethnic group. Georgians are Caucasians, ancient people who have lived in that area for thousands of years. South Ossetians are part of the Indo-European group that includes Iranians and Indians and, more distantly, Russians, Germans, Englishmen, Irishmen, Italians, Frenchmen, etc. The Mongols pushed the South Ossetians out of their original location into where they are now.
The Bush regime and its Neocon propagandists, predictably, are opposing the South Ossetians’ independence and attacked Russia for interfering. As Ralph Peters put it:
AS I write, Russian tanks grind into a brave and isolated democratic state…. This is a fight between a very small David [Georgia] and a very large Goliath [Russia]. That said, the Russians may be surprised at how fiercely the Georgians defend their homeland.
Except that Georgia isn’t “democratic.” Last November, President Saakashvili repressed opposition to his autocracy. And he started this mess by invading South Ossetia. On Aug. 8, the Chicago Tribune reported:
Georgian troops launched a massive assault on the breakaway province of South Ossetia on Friday, taking control of much of the region and bringing Georgia’s U.S.-allied government closer to the brink of full-scale conflict with Russia.
The Russians responded because they’re allied to the South Ossetians. (North Ossetia is a part of Russia.) And there are a lot of Russians in South Ossetia.
Mark Almond reports:
Unlike in eastern Europe, for instance, today in breakaway states such as South Ossetia or Abkhazia, Russian troops are popular. Vladimir Putin’s picture is more widely displayed than that of the South Ossetian president, the former Soviet wrestling champion Eduard Kokoity. The Russians are seen as protectors against a repeat of ethnic cleansing by Georgians.
NATO is defunct
In case you’re wondering, I was the coldest of Cold Warriors. 30 years ago I even joined the U.S. Army and became a Russian linguist in Military Intelligence to help thwart the Soviets. But the Soviet Union is dead. This is not a new Cold War.
And you might remember that in the early 1990s, as the last Soviet dictator, Michael Gorbachev, effectively surrendered, took his troops out of Eastern Europe, and let the Eastern European countries, Georgia, Kazakstan, etc. become independent countries, President George H.W. Bush promised that NATO would not be expanded in Eastern Europe or the elsewhere up to the borders of Russia.
That promise was broken by President Clinton and President George W. Bush (the current one), who expanded NATO throughout Eastern Europe and the Baltics. Bush II even tried to expand NATO to Georgia, but the Europeans sensibly objected.
(In fact, NATO was created to thwart Soviet military designs. With the Soviet Union defunct and communism dead, NATO should be disbanded.)
Good thing McCain isn’t president now
What’s scary is John McCain’s position on Georgia. He said in a statement:
Today, news reports indicate that Russian military forces crossed an internationally-recognized border into the sovereign territory of Georgia. Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory….We should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to assess Georgia’s security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation.
If McCain were around in 1776, he would have opposed interference by the French autocracy in helping the American revolutionaries because America was part of the “internationally-recognized border” of the British Empire.
McCain long has had an obsession with Georgia. And his top foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, reports the Wall Street Journal, “was a paid lobbyist for the former Soviet republic until March….”
So if McCain becomes president and Scheunemann his Secretary of State, America well could get into a shooting war with Russia because the Georgians stuffed money into Schuenemann’s pockets.
And a shooting war with Russia could mean nuclear war. McCain’s famous temper and hatred of Russia could lead him to launch America’s nukes at Russia, with the Russians replying in kind, dropping a nuke on your home. McInsane reminds me of the president who launches a nuclear war in “The Dead Zone” movie:
Georgia isn’t America’s business
Here’s a better policy: America doesn’t get involved. We follow George Washington’s sage advice:
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible….
Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world….
Let’s mind our own business and bring all our troops home, not only the advisors in Georgia, but all the troops from Iraq, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and elsewhere.
McCain, the anti-George Washington, is a Napoleonic militarist who would get us involved in endless foreign “rivalship, interest, humor” and “caprice.” In doing so, he might get us all killed.
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