Posted by
Darrick Johnson on Monday, August 11, 2008 11:25:42 PM
The rapidly deteriorating situation in Georgia leaves a sick feeling in the stomach. When the American left has been crying wolf about an imperialist, aggressive war for oil in Iraq, a real oil and power grab is taking place at the edge of Europe, and the left has very little left to say.
Georgia has been a loyal ally of the United States. They provided troops for Iraq, even as our own politicians sought a withdrawal. They want to be a western democracy, and are eager to break the yoke of the Bear. And now, if we believe media reports, their military is on the run, the Russians have destroyed their largest port, and key cities have fallen. And the world can't do much more than watch. The most we can currently threaten Russia with is the loss of an Olympic games, and some sanctions. Sanctions that won't take effect in time to save Georgia.
And Russia has every reason to believe they can get away with it. Just a few weeks before the invasion,Germany vetoed Georgia's bid for a membership path into NATO. With that, Russia had the green light.
I was 9 when the Berlin wall fell. Most in my generation don't have clear memories of Eastern Europe behind the iron curtain. We haven't seen client states, beholden to their massive neighbor. For a generation of Americans, we think that this kind of thing can't really happen. And Putin is smart enough to fool American Liberals, and Obama-kids. As long as he doesn't raise the Russian flag over Tblisi, he can install a puppet regime, exile the pro-western leaders, and subjugate a neighbor, and many in the West will accept Russian propaganda, that each incursion of the Russian Army is, as it was in Poland in the 1980's, at the request of the "independent" neighbor. Georgia will be subjucated, and Russia's neigbors will be on notice, that Russia will have her oil, and have her territory.
Whatever can be done, needs to be done. Russia needs to stare in the face of not just sanctions, but near catastrophic sanctions. Georgia (if she still exists), Ukraine, and other pro-western Russian neighbors need to get emergency NATO member status, and a healthy complement of American money and materiel, so the next time Putin tries to strike out, he does so in the face of not just international condemnation, but F-16's, Patriot Missiles, and Abrams tanks. The Cold War was too long, too painful, and too costly to begin again. Putin needs to be stopped before the Hammer and Sickle are flying again.