No Appeasement of Russia Over Georgia, Iraq vs. South Ossetia

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Socialist gains are irreversible.

Again it's nice when people decide to act like they're dribbling idiots. Mindless paste-eating toddlers who can't tell the difference between the toppling of a violent regime who had attacked its neighbours, commited crimes against humanity and defied world opinion in claiming to possess weapons that would be an imminent threat to world security (Iraq) and a regime similar to that (Russia) attempting to exert imperialist influence over a sovereign and democratic nation (Georgia).

This is where the hysterical hyperbole just gets in the way of any kind of good sense. For all the many many faults of the US invasion of Iraq, the US has no desire to be imperialist. In fact it is having to empty its coffers in order to assist in restoring order and assist in the rebuilding of that country. Anyone who cannot tell the difference between that and the thuggish terrorising of a sovereign nation needs to stop eating lead paint. How can I make it any clearer? The US does not want, neither does it intend, to operate Iraq as if it were a satellite state.

Whatever you want to say about the pretext for war in Iraq, there was sufficient acknowledgement within the relevant security council resolutions for a legal basis for regime change. In the case of Georgia, the Russians provoked a response from the Georgian government after months of goading them. And with that slight provocation, proceeded to offer the most disproportionate response imaginable. If the Russian army had not planned the invasion, do you think it could so easily mobilise as quickly as all that?

Would it be nice if the US had a halo and did the right thing all the time and rode on a white horse? Sure. But back here in the real world they are at least acknowledging that Russia is flouting international law under the flimsy pretext of "peacemaking". The Russians disliked Georgia simply because it seemed to be leaning too far towards the West. Iraq had no friends by the end - much less was trying to move into a communist orbit.

If John McCain is going to take a hard line, then damn right. Russia has to understand that the privileges it enjoys being part of the world economic community require it conform to social and political norms, rather than acting like they have some kind of inherent claim on their "near abroad". People are trying to be calm and not say this is a new Cold War, but it looks remarkably close to the actions of another war that was nowhere near as chilly. I rather enjoy the irony that after scolding people above for exaggerating I'm going to now overreach in my assertions. But if Russia is allowed to annex and control Georgia, how is that in the end different from allowing Nazi Germany from marching into the Sudetenland? Russia in this case is not simply "walking into it's own backyard." They do have a legitimate claim of either influence or sovereignty over a democratically run nation state.

If people have been wary of accusing people of "appeasement" in the past, the time for that caution is gone. This is exactly a situation that merits at least a considered assessment of what Russia considers it's endgame given their actions in the past week.

Campbell Brown is a fucking idiot. And the Daily Show is at its worst when it doesn't speak truth to power so much as simply lose all perspective on what is true and accurate. There's a point where you're just being a dick. And finding ways to disagree with people simply because you don't like them, rather than disagreeing on principle based on an honest assessment of what is going on. For so long they relied on the ridiculousness of what was being said in comparison to what was happening - where has that gone? Or is Truthiness only funny when it's on the other foot?



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This page contains a single entry by subtitles published on August 13, 2008 8:38 PM.

Who Funds This Crap? - Bullshit on a Stick in Place of Social Activism was the previous entry in this blog.

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