Aftermath of war in the Caucasus - The Irish Times - Wed, Aug 20, 2008
Madam, - It seems that in a more and more desperate attempt to excuse Russian aggression against Georgia, some of your letter-writers are scraping ever harder at the bottom of the barrel. Frank Schnittger (August 19th) tells us that - shock, horror! - Georgia has a paid lobbyist in the US. And that lobbyist is close to presidential candidate John McCain, thereby accounting for McCain's strong position on Georgia. Well, it seems that in having a paid lobbyist in Washington, Georgian deviousness knows no bounds. What Mr Schnittger doesn't tell us, of course, is why a relatively impoverished country like Georgia feels the need to have a paid lobbyist in the US in the first place or why it feels the need to join Nato. Perhaps the television pictures of Russian troops bombing and looting Georgia and terrorising its citizens might answer that question. As for Mr McCain, he has a long and honourable record of standing by smaller nations in eastern Europe. During the Bosnian war, when Russia openly flouted the UN arms embargo on former Yugoslavia to arm Serbia and let it slaughter Bosnia's largely defenceless Muslims, Senator McCain was foremost in calling for the lifting of the embargo so that Bosnia could defend itself. And he did this without prompting from a lobbyist. I get the feeling that some of those justifying Russia's aggression still haven't recovered from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism. Perhaps that is why, once events move east of the Danube, their moral compass goes haywire. Most East Europeans, by contrast, having endured decades of Communist dictatorship, overthrew their repressive governments and have repeatedly shown that they prefer Western-style democracy to the despotism of Vladimir Putin. - Yours, etc, SEAN STEELE, Kilfenora Road, Kimmage, Dublin 12.
Madam, - It seems that in a more and more desperate attempt to excuse Russian aggression against Georgia, some of your letter-writers are scraping ever harder at the bottom of the barrel.
Frank Schnittger (August 19th) tells us that - shock, horror! - Georgia has a paid lobbyist in the US. And that lobbyist is close to presidential candidate John McCain, thereby accounting for McCain's strong position on Georgia.
Well, it seems that in having a paid lobbyist in Washington, Georgian deviousness knows no bounds. What Mr Schnittger doesn't tell us, of course, is why a relatively impoverished country like Georgia feels the need to have a paid lobbyist in the US in the first place or why it feels the need to join Nato. Perhaps the television pictures of Russian troops bombing and looting Georgia and terrorising its citizens might answer that question.
As for Mr McCain, he has a long and honourable record of standing by smaller nations in eastern Europe. During the Bosnian war, when Russia openly flouted the UN arms embargo on former Yugoslavia to arm Serbia and let it slaughter Bosnia's largely defenceless Muslims, Senator McCain was foremost in calling for the lifting of the embargo so that Bosnia could defend itself. And he did this without prompting from a lobbyist.
I get the feeling that some of those justifying Russia's aggression still haven't recovered from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism. Perhaps that is why, once events move east of the Danube, their moral compass goes haywire.
Most East Europeans, by contrast, having endured decades of Communist dictatorship, overthrew their repressive governments and have repeatedly shown that they prefer Western-style democracy to the despotism of Vladimir Putin.
- Yours, etc,
SEAN STEELE, Kilfenora Road, Kimmage, Dublin 12.
My concern with trying to challenge the whole framing of Russia bad, US good is that Challenging a whole paradigm like that is very difficult to do in a short letter which is generally only allowed to make one point if it is to have a good chance of publication. However I will do my best:
draft response
Madam - Sean Steele, Letters 20/8/08, accuses me of "scraping ever harder at the bottom of the barrel" in a "desperate attempt to excuse (the) Russian aggression against Georgia" and that the Russian bombing of Georgia explains why Georgia feels the need to employ lobbyists in Washington. He rather misses my point on both counts. I am not in business of excusing Russian or any other Countries' aggression against a smaller country or territory, nor am I naive about the lobbying processes that go on in Washington. Quite the reverse: the evidence indicates Randy Scheunemann, Senator John McCain's senior foreign policy adviser, may have used his influence on Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to persuade him that "Washington would have his back" if he invaded South Ossetia - especially during a US Presidential election campaign. In so doing he handed his current employer, Senator John McCain, a badly needed boost to his floundering Presidential campaign at the cost of another embarrassing defeat for "the West" in the battle for supremacy (or stability) in world affairs. It is not in Ireland's or in Europe's interest to rekindle the Cold War just for some perhaps fleeting advantage in a domestic US political campaign. There is an ever increasing economic, political, energy and environmental interdependency between western and eastern Europe (including Russia) and the fanning of Cold War embers by either Georgia invading South Ossetia supported by "the West", or by Russia invading Georgia is the very last thing we need. Already this has resulted in Poland and the US today signing an agreement to site US anti anti-ballistic missiles on Polish territory, allegedly aimed at rogue states or Al Qaeda - when in practice, only Russia has ballistic missiles capable of reaching Europe. The successful enlargement of the EU was achieved in large measure by the ending of the Cold War. Why ever would we want to re-start it - even if it does play well in some sections of domestic US politics?
He rather misses my point on both counts. I am not in business of excusing Russian or any other Countries' aggression against a smaller country or territory, nor am I naive about the lobbying processes that go on in Washington.
Quite the reverse: the evidence indicates Randy Scheunemann, Senator John McCain's senior foreign policy adviser, may have used his influence on Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to persuade him that "Washington would have his back" if he invaded South Ossetia - especially during a US Presidential election campaign.
In so doing he handed his current employer, Senator John McCain, a badly needed boost to his floundering Presidential campaign at the cost of another embarrassing defeat for "the West" in the battle for supremacy (or stability) in world affairs.
It is not in Ireland's or in Europe's interest to rekindle the Cold War just for some perhaps fleeting advantage in a domestic US political campaign. There is an ever increasing economic, political, energy and environmental interdependency between western and eastern Europe (including Russia) and the fanning of Cold War embers by either Georgia invading South Ossetia supported by "the West", or by Russia invading Georgia is the very last thing we need.
Already this has resulted in Poland and the US today signing an agreement to site US anti anti-ballistic missiles on Polish territory, allegedly aimed at rogue states or Al Qaeda - when in practice, only Russia has ballistic missiles capable of reaching Europe.
The successful enlargement of the EU was achieved in large measure by the ending of the Cold War. Why ever would we want to re-start it - even if it does play well in some sections of domestic US politics?
