Q&A / SAM NUNN: ‘Right now, we’ve got to pull together’

Russia should immediately exit Georgia as promised, former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn said Monday.

But Nunn, who is advising Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on the crisis, also warned that the granting of NATO membership to either Georgia or Ukraine would commit the West to military action that it isn’t prepared to take.

In an interview with staff writer Jim Galloway, Nunn also said he’d like to see President Bush offer both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates a briefing on the confrontation and its implications.

The former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has often been mentioned as a possible running mate for Obama. But with one week before the start of the Democratic National Convention, an Obama-Nunn ticket seems less and less likely.

Nunn said the Obama campaign hasn’t asked for any of the financial documents that are typically used to assess the backgrounds of potential nominees for vice president.

Below are excerpts of the interview:

Q: What’s the largest interpretation we should give the Russian invasion of Georgia?

A: No. 1, I think the stakes are very large, both for the United States and for Russia, and of course for Georgia and South Ossetia. Russia has brought back historical memories of the horrors of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Those memories as well as the actions taken by Russia cause fear in all of Russia’s neighbors.

Only Russia can reduce those fears by moving out of Georgia, quickly, keeping their word of a cease-fire and withdrawal, and allowing some type of international peacekeeping force to go into what I call the enclaves, the regions that were autonomous after 1991 but part of Georgia, legally —- South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

So Russia’s got to step up to the plate if they want to preserve their place in the international community. This is a lose-lose-lose situation for everybody.

[Nunn quickly widened his answer to include the implications for the United States and Europe.]

I think NATO … and clearly the United States need to pause, look and listen before we rush into making Georgia and Ukraine part of NATO. If we’re going to do that, we have to understand that this is a military commitment. And we have to back it up militarily.

Right now, we’re not doing well in Afghanistan. Our NATO allies seem to be reluctant to put in more forces. NATO’s got a lot of credibility at stake in Afghanistan. And the defense spending by most of our European allies is way down.

And if you look at the map, you can see pretty quickly that defending Georgia will require enormous expenditures unless we’re going to go back to a Berlin sort of situation, where we threaten to use nuclear weapons in response to conventional progression by the Soviet Union. That’s what we did then ….

Q: What do you expect to come out of Tuesday’s meeting of NATO?

A: I don’t know. I just hope they consider the military implications of what they’re doing. … A wounded bear is going to defend itself. I think Russia’s made a profound mistake, and they’ve got to correct it. [But] we have a real reason to avoid compounding the problem.

Q: Short of nuclear weapons, is there any chance of military action from the West?

A: [Defense] Secretary [Robert] Gates has made it clear that that’s not on the table. … The secretary of defense was also right in promoting to President Bush the humanitarian relief. I think Gates has got it about right. I’m glad there, because I think he understands the stakes involved on both sides.

Q: Last weekend, President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia seemed to imply that the United States has not come through with commitments it had made to Georgia. Have we been writing checks that we can’t cash?

A: I can’t answer that question. The administration denies that. There’s been a big misreading here. Whether that means the leader of Georgia made some profound mistakes —- or whether we unintentionally misled him, or whether some people off-line were giving him assurances that were not official, I don’t know.

But whatever it was, there were some profound misjudgments and miscommunications or misunderstandings that had huge implications for Georgia.

Q: How should the Russia-Georgia conflict be treated in the presidential campaign?

A: I would like to see President Bush brief both candidates with his top security people. I’d like to see the candidates ask for a briefing. … I’d like to see a united front at home. We got time to sort out later how many mistakes were made … but right now, we’ve got to pull together.

Q: Anything new on the vice presidential front?

A: The answer to that is no. All I know is what I read in the newspapers.

Q: Has the Obama campaign asked you to submit documents for a background check?

A: The only person who’s asking about my assets, my liabilities, the way I’m spending my money, where that money is coming from, primarily, is my wife. And there’s nothing I can do about that.