Hi Gang,
Russia and Georgia's simmering border dispute in South Ossetia has blown up. It's not clear who fired the first shot (does it really matter at this point?) but the Russian army seems to be engaged in a full scale invasion of Georgia. They claim this is to protect Russian citizens from Georgian aggression but I'm guessing that the ultimate outcome will be that Russia will conquer and annex the disputed territory.
So how do the powers that be respond? NATO has called for an immediate cease fire and direct talks between Russia and Georgia. The Bush Administration called for an immediate cease fire and direct talks between Russia and Georgia. Obama called for an immediate cease fire and direct talks between Russia and Georgia. NATO, Bush and Obama all call for a peaceful resolution but don't specify the terms of that resolution. But McCain calls for an emergency UN Security Council Meeting and calls on Russia to "reverse course." McCain's tone is far more confrontational and he seems to see the UN as a means for forcing Russia to back off.
First of all, if McCain thinks the UN can pressure Russia to back off, he needs to review the UN charter. Russia has a veto on any UN Security Council decision.
Second, if McCain were President and saying what he says now, it would be tantamount to confronting Russia over an armed conflict on their border (that used to be inside the USSR). McCain likes to say that Obama doesn't have the judgement to guide our foreign policy. But in this case, McCain is showing himself to be even more reckless and "cowboy" like than Bush!
So here we have a situation where McCain is showing that he doesn't understand the potential role of the UN and that he would conduct foreign policy based on emotional responses rather than reason. Do we really need four more years of that?
PS: I can't wait for some canned talking point response from a McCain drone.
4 comments:
Nice post, RbR. I thought the same thing about McCain when I heard his take on the situation, but I did not realize how out-of-step he is with the White House, NATO, and the world. Important as it is, military experience is not foreign policy experience. We see that clearly in McCain's "bull in a china shop" approach to international relations.
McCain's call for the United States to, "immediately convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to call on Russia to reverse course," is laughable. The UN Security Council has already started a meeting... and that was at Russia's behest.
Perhaps McCain is unaware that there is more than one Georgia.
Unfortunately, the average American knows even less about the UN and its rules than about the Republic of Georgia. So will anyone outside of NPR and PBS really call McCain out on his stupidity?
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