Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2008 > August > 18
Monday, August 18, 2008
Liberation Russian style
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Russia promises, of a sort, to begin moving its forces, including 2,000 tanks, out of the territory of its neighbor, the republic of Georgia, today. To paraphrase a former governor of this Georgia, Marvin Griffin, everybody who believe that should pick up a tank and follow me.
In Griffin’s phrase, the object to be picked up was a bale of cotton. But the point is the same. Nobody expects Russian President Dmitry Mededev or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to honor the promise to begin leaving Georgian territory today — except, perhaps, to begin a months-long trickle, while building up their defenses in the Georgian province of South Ossetia.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was asked by Wolf Blitzer Sunday on CNN Late Edition whether “those Russian peacekeepers who were in South Ossetia before the violence started about 10 days ago…will be allowed to remain?”
“Well, you know, there is no such thing as Russian peacekeeper,” Saakashvili replied. “I mean, these are obvious Russian interventionist forces, Russian occupiers.”
They are that — and the challenge for the rest of the world, Europe and the U.S. most prominently, is to get them out, not only of the undisputed territory, but out of all of Georgia, including South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russians in Georgia “are destroying our pipeline and port infrastrure…they are just rampaging and going — looting… this is liberation, Russian style,” said Saakashvili on CNN.
The U.S. is the sole superpower remaining in the world, but there’s never been any doubt that it cannot be the world’s policeman. Some problems are first and foremost our responsibility, regardless of whether a single ally joins in. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq is an example. Some, Sudan for instance, require regional intervention. Others require a global response — in this case to make it clear to the Russians that it cannot seize and actually or effectively annex the territory of a sovereign nation.
