Was Georgia really so niave as to rely on WSJ editorials and conservative foreign policy think tanks in making its moves? I doubt it, they gambled and lost and their stupidity does not excuse Russian aggression.
The head neocon cheerleader is still trying to save Georgia's naïve ass, and he's using a very big forum to make his case:
Op-Ed Columnist - Will Russia Get Away With It? - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
Will the United States put real pressure on Russia to stop? In a news analysis on Sunday, the New York Times reporter Helene Cooper accurately captured what I gather is the prevailing view in our State Department: "While America considers Georgia its strongest ally in the bloc of former Soviet countries, Washington needs Russia too much on big issues like Iran to risk it all to defend Georgia." But Georgia, a nation of about 4.6 million, has had the third-largest military presence -- about 2,000 troops -- fighting along with U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq. For this reason alone, we owe Georgia a serious effort to defend its sovereignty. Surely we cannot simply stand by as an autocratic aggressor gobbles up part of -- and perhaps destabilizes all of -- a friendly democratic nation that we were sponsoring for NATO membership a few months ago. For that matter, consider the implications of our turning away from Georgia for other aspiring pro-Western governments in the neighborhood, like Ukraine's. Shouldn't we therefore now insist that normal relations with Russia are impossible as long as the aggression continues, strongly reiterate our commitment to the territorial integrity of Georgia and Ukraine, and offer emergency military aid to Georgia?
Will the United States put real pressure on Russia to stop? In a news analysis on Sunday, the New York Times reporter Helene Cooper accurately captured what I gather is the prevailing view in our State Department: "While America considers Georgia its strongest ally in the bloc of former Soviet countries, Washington needs Russia too much on big issues like Iran to risk it all to defend Georgia."
But Georgia, a nation of about 4.6 million, has had the third-largest military presence -- about 2,000 troops -- fighting along with U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq. For this reason alone, we owe Georgia a serious effort to defend its sovereignty. Surely we cannot simply stand by as an autocratic aggressor gobbles up part of -- and perhaps destabilizes all of -- a friendly democratic nation that we were sponsoring for NATO membership a few months ago.
For that matter, consider the implications of our turning away from Georgia for other aspiring pro-Western governments in the neighborhood, like Ukraine's. Shouldn't we therefore now insist that normal relations with Russia are impossible as long as the aggression continues, strongly reiterate our commitment to the territorial integrity of Georgia and Ukraine, and offer emergency military aid to Georgia?
Have their been an LTE's written on this topic that could be recycled to respond to this column? Cynicism is intellectual treason.
When the "civilized world" expostulated with Russia about Georgia in 1924, the Soviet regime was still weak. In Germany, Hitler was in jail. Only 16 years later, Britain stood virtually alone against a Nazi-Soviet axis. Is it not true today, as it was in the 1920s and '30s, that delay and irresolution on the part of the democracies simply invite future threats and graver dangers?
They will apply this worn-out drek to any situation, any time, to justify warmongering.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
I want to comment on this.
Is Kristol aware, that the Nazis and the Soviets were enemies, not allies? Is he aware, that the Soviet Union had ~ 300 times as many losses in WW II than the US?
And to his appeasement indications. What would have happened, if GB would have declared war on Germany, instead of appeasing? Isn't it possible, that the fascists and the democratic countries would have fought war until complete exhaustion, and then the Soviets take over all of Europe? We don't know, but isn't it possible, that Chamberlain rescued the free world, by letting the biests attack each other instead of fighting them both?
Maybe some historic more educated people can comment on that. Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den MenschenVolker Pispers
Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den MenschenVolker Pispers
Anyone? Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
They aren't arguing. They are advertising. And advertisement works by repetition, endless repetition. One small screwup - even a major screwup like this one - is as unimportant as a faulty transmission of a soap ad. There are thousands of other repetitions to fall back on.
Historical insight (or basic intelligence, for that matter) isn't necessary to spew talking points, and they have better uses for the educated, intelligent cadre, so the idiots get to go on TV.
Between Fall Weiss (Poland - fall 1939) and Operation Barbarossa (USSR - summer 1941), the USSR and Nazi Germany were indeed the next best thing to allied. Of course, just three years earlier, the USSR had been allied to France... And indeed the USSR ended up fighting and defeating Nazi Germany (the British and American effort in the European theatre was... underwhelming, and France had been effectively knocked out in the fall of 1940).
So Kristol is technically correct when he says that there was a Soviet-German alliance in 1940. But incredibly disingenuous at the same time.
And calling it a Nazi-Soviet Axis is the next best thing to an outright lie. The Axis in Europe was the vertical line between Rome and Berlin (AFAIK, Mussolini was the first to use the term Rome-Berlin Axis publicly in a speech in (IIRC) 1937 - the idea was that all of Europe would "revolve around the Axis" between Berlin and Rome). Precisely how Japan got into the Axis is unclear to me, but it's probably a combination of the fact that they were in the Anti-Comintern Pact and the fact that they were "not in the Allies."
But of course, people like Kristol would probably really rather forget the Italian fascists, considering how much the Americans cooperated with them in the postwar years...
