In wresting Kosovo from Serbia, the West, led by the U.S., established the precedent -- and therefore bears some measure of responsibility -- for what Russia is doing in the Republic of Georgia, at least if the Russians aims there are limited.
The rationale for what we did was that the people in Kosovo were being mistreated by Serbia's government and people. Russia is claiming that it acted and is acting to protect people who were being similarly mistreated in two Georgian provinces -- people with less affinity with Georgia than with Russia. Although the two cases are not as similar as the Russians claim, they are correct in pointing to the precedent we established for splitting up a sovereign country.
Serbia was and is friendly with Russia, which protested vehemently to no avail when we tore Kosova from its ally. So it's payback time and we now are as humiliatingly powerless to help Georgia as Russia was to help Serbia when we ignored Serbia's national sovereignty and borders. This, of course, assumes that Russia does no more than establish the autonomy of the Georgian provinces in question.
It will be an altogether different story if the Russians go farther and replace Georgia's democratically elected government and leaders with a puppet regime.
Nor does the foregoing detract from the fact that Russia is an uncivilized and barbaric power acting as a brutal bully . . . but then, what major power's government doesn't behave this way?
In fact, Russia's actions to this point have been far better planned and far more efficient, effective, and intelligent than anything that the government of the U.S. or that of any of our western allies has done in recent memory.
On this last point, see: A Czar Is Born
No comments:
Post a Comment