Georgia and the West's response.
Bush's former appointed ambassador to the UN, John Bolton writes about http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2563260/John-Bolton-After-Russias-invasion-of-Georgia-what-now-for-the-West.html.
I hate saying this, but aside from a few basic assumptions which make Bolton as disgusting as he is, his main point about the Bush response being entirely too tepid and useless is completely correct.
Now onto where he's wrong:
There is no reason to lay blame for this at the UN or Europe's feet. NATO exists specifically to come to the world's aide when the UN is stopped. NATO can't trust US influence anymore post Iraq. Not to mention, the US didn't use its influence.
Russia's invasion across an internationally recognised border, its thrashing of the Georgian military, and its smug satisfaction in humbling one of its former fiefdoms represents only the visible damage.
Hold it up to a mirror, Mr. Bolton. Replace Russia with US/UK and Georgia with Iraq. I think our media was a bit more exuberantly smug than Russia's international response (probably not more than their media though). Move along, nothing to see here.
And connecting it to campaign reactions definitely feels like a good thing to do, except that the campaigns don't get any special super secret knowledge of what's actually going on. McCain's reaction wasn't proof that he at once grasped the larger, geostrategic significance of Russia's attack, and the need for a strong response, it was proof that he wants the only hegemony in the world to be US hegemony. Obama's reaction was exactly the reaction one should want from a candidate whose biggest foreign policy experts focus on Iraq. In a full administration, he would be fuller staffed. And the fact that his reaction changed before Bush's is proof that he's willing to listen to experts and make decisions that are unpopular but necessary.
In the end, Bolton's main observation that Russia is acting the schoolyard bully and that the US failed to act as the World's Policeman is completely correct. The conclusions he draws and the changes he proposes are so drenched in nonsensical poppycock to make intelligent people rather ignore Georgia than do something about it.
So in the end, you may be a quarter right, Mr. Bolton, but for the sake of the world, please sit down and shut the fuck up. And you've lost all credibility since you treated Tony Benn like he was senile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZLGHy2WS_M
Disagree with him if you like, but he's completely correct. (I'm sorry the title of the video is completely biased, and I'd rather the entire show be online, but it isn't. Still, the footage speaks for itself.)
I hate saying this, but aside from a few basic assumptions which make Bolton as disgusting as he is, his main point about the Bush response being entirely too tepid and useless is completely correct.
Now onto where he's wrong:
There is no reason to lay blame for this at the UN or Europe's feet. NATO exists specifically to come to the world's aide when the UN is stopped. NATO can't trust US influence anymore post Iraq. Not to mention, the US didn't use its influence.
Russia's invasion across an internationally recognised border, its thrashing of the Georgian military, and its smug satisfaction in humbling one of its former fiefdoms represents only the visible damage.
Hold it up to a mirror, Mr. Bolton. Replace Russia with US/UK and Georgia with Iraq. I think our media was a bit more exuberantly smug than Russia's international response (probably not more than their media though). Move along, nothing to see here.
And connecting it to campaign reactions definitely feels like a good thing to do, except that the campaigns don't get any special super secret knowledge of what's actually going on. McCain's reaction wasn't proof that he at once grasped the larger, geostrategic significance of Russia's attack, and the need for a strong response, it was proof that he wants the only hegemony in the world to be US hegemony. Obama's reaction was exactly the reaction one should want from a candidate whose biggest foreign policy experts focus on Iraq. In a full administration, he would be fuller staffed. And the fact that his reaction changed before Bush's is proof that he's willing to listen to experts and make decisions that are unpopular but necessary.
In the end, Bolton's main observation that Russia is acting the schoolyard bully and that the US failed to act as the World's Policeman is completely correct. The conclusions he draws and the changes he proposes are so drenched in nonsensical poppycock to make intelligent people rather ignore Georgia than do something about it.
So in the end, you may be a quarter right, Mr. Bolton, but for the sake of the world, please sit down and shut the fuck up. And you've lost all credibility since you treated Tony Benn like he was senile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZLGHy2WS_M
Disagree with him if you like, but he's completely correct. (I'm sorry the title of the video is completely biased, and I'd rather the entire show be online, but it isn't. Still, the footage speaks for itself.)