Georgia, on my mind...

I've been enjoying the Olympics. It may be degrading to the games that speed- walking and trampolining are events, and I'm still unenthused by many other events, but overall, few things are more exciting and inspiring than the Olympic games.

Then there's the news. At least, the headlines. You have to dig if you want news.

Seems like Russia is up to their old tricks. That's what the AP, Reuters, CNN, FOX, ABC/CBS/NBC, MSNBC, etc. are all saying. Russia invaded Georgia. Russian tanks are rolling through Georgian streets threatening people, destroying stuff; Putin is passing the vodka around and sharing a laugh with Medvedev while they both wear bear hats and clank their cycle and hammer together in a maniacal toast.

Well, thankfully, all our mainstream news outlets project approximately the same message, so it is simple enough to turn off the TV. I googled a couple of things.

Have you heard of the places called South Ossetia and Abkhazia?

Neither had I. But I had come to discover that contrary to the TVedia ideas I had that Russia was trying to take over Georgia -- Saddam Hussein into Kuwait style -- Russian troops were actually mostly limited to this defined regional area. It's an area that had apparently declared its independence from Georgia in the 90's, though no one recognized it. It's an area whose people want to be Russian rather than Georgian, or maybe neither.

And, as more first hand accounts started coming out of Ossetia, it turned out that it was Georgia who had built up troops and invaded Ossetia in an attempt to clense it of Russians. Concommitantly built up Russian tanks and troops then invaded (though apparently some Russian troops have been in Ossetia for awhile now) to push them back and actually defend the Ossetian people. Weird, huh?



It was Georgian troops killing Ossetians and bombing buildings, and it was Russian troops defending them. Again, weird. The paranoid in me can't help but wonder about the timing of Georgia suddenly getting a green light on this. The Olympic games, Barak Obama on vacation in Hawaii, McCain now looking tough and enjoying an opinion poll bump. But coincidences do happen.

Quick, what do Georgia and Poland wish they had in common?

Answer: NATO.

Many of these former soviet republics are attempting to fast track into NATO. Thankfully, several NATO member nations are trying to cool off this U.S.-led expansion. Georgia was one of these nations that was initially rejected. This rejection is being condemned by U.S. neocon leaders, like McCain, who insist we lay out a MAP (Membership Action Plan) for Georgia's inclusion.

But can you imagine this situation if the U.S. were bound under NATO through Georgia's inclusion to fight Russian troops over a territory of maybe 80,000 people who want to be Russian anyway? Is that really what we would ask our troops to do? I mean, we (and Israel) already are giving Georgia equipment and support, but what if it were our own Marines over there?

How would you characterize the just cause for that fight?

What about Poland then? Oh yeah, well we're putting Patriot-2 missile installations there. Russia is thrilled. So is Poland. They've been caught between Russian aggression and Western indifference before. So they're signing it into the missle contracts, that we now will legally owe them protection. We're just finding all sorts of ways to tip-toe our way into a hot war with Russia. It's already dawning on me that we're in a new cold war.

I was never a big fan of history, but I remember a take-home point from one of my high school teachers (shout out to Dr. Monahan) that large wars are caused by friendly treaties that drag countries into conflicts. I recall the advice of our Founding Fathers, "avoid entangling alliances." This is not an isolationist position, but a common sense one; a position that the neocon fraternity seems to blatantly undermine.

With the upcoming political conventions, the ensuing debates and a population that is haggling over intangibles like "experience" or "toughness" or "security", I think it's important to pay attention to real actions and policies of candidates (or regimes). Personally, I wish the people of Georgia and Poland the best of luck, but I probably wouldn't fight for them.

Oh yeah, and there's a ton of oil in the Caspian Sea basin... don't forget about that. I knew there had to be a financial reason lurking around here somewhere.


But until then, I'd rather get back to the Olympics...

(Author's note for additional reading: The Russia/U.S. via Georgia situation,
Poland/U.S. missile agreement, and U.S. Global Military presence.)