August 16, 2008
Article Excerpt
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The world really cannot allow the Russian attempt to annex the territory of its neighbor, the republic of Georgia, to succeed.
If it does, if the West acquiesces to Russia's seizure of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, it is not necessarily a return to the Cold War. But it is the beginning of a period of heightened tensions where great risk accompanies miscalculation by either Vladimir Putin or by America's next president, Barack Obama or John McCain. It's no time for indecisiveness, for lack of clarity and hints of timidity.
The invasion of Georgia is, like 9/11, a defining moment -- less consequential, obviously. A military response to the invasion is not an option.
While Georgia is a beacon of aspirational democracy that suffered for generations in Communist bondage, the strategic interests of the United States in the republic of Georgia are circumscribed by its location and by more direct threats to our national security elsewhere.
Still, the entire world -- and the Western world in particular -- has to assert every noncombat effort possible to enforce a cease-fire and to replace Russian "peacekeepers" in South Ossetia and Abkhazia with an international force. The United States and other nations cannot look away while Russia effectively annexes the two regions -- not now and not two years from now.
In the initial U.S. response to the invasion, the clearly decisive
leader was McCain, not Obama or President Bush. Obama's initial reaction was to urge both the rapist and the victim to show restraint, while McCain spoke forcefully to denounce the invasion and to call for specific actions, including withdrawal from "sovereign Georgian territory," an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, action by other official bodies and the creation of "a truly independent and neutral peacekeeping force."
Ten days later, McCain's first response appears to have been the right one.
Obama reflected uncertainty in part because of inexperience and in part, too, because he was responding as events unfolded. He is far more comfortable, as indeed the administration's critics are, in letting President Bush act and then declaring that he or they would have been smarter, wiser and righter had they been making the decision.
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The world either agrees now that Russia can declare a sphere of interest that includes surrounding itself with compliant states. Or it exerts every noncombat effort to protect the sovereignty of Georgia and to recognize its territorial integrity. That involves some risk. Medical and humanitarian resupply, for example, would be in proximity of Russian forces.
The invasion makes the world less safe. We enter a period where Putin and other Russian leaders should have no doubts about our intentions and our resolve. We have to take some risks in undoing the aggression, but there can be no false signals. In a time of testing, America needs a seasoned leader.
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