Posted on 08/11/2008 3:15:27 PM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, on Monday upstaged George W. Bush’s administration over the Georgia crisis with his strongest statement so far calling on the US and its allies to come together in “universal condemnation of Russian aggression”.
Mr McCain, who gave his first response early last Friday several hours before any official word from the Bush administration, said the US should take steps to assist Georgia and other democracies in the region that he said were threatened by Russia’s actions.
EDITOR’S CHOICE Editorial Comment: Russia is forfeiting standing in world - Aug-11In depth: South Ossetia crisis - Aug-10Lex: Investing in Russia - Aug-11Video: Quentin Peel on South Ossetia crisis - Aug-04Slideshow: Russia-Georgia crisis in pictures - Aug-10Oil prices fall while war in Georgia continues - Aug-11“Russia’s aggression against Georgia is both a matter of urgent moral and strategic importance to the United States,” said Mr McCain. “The implications go beyond their threat to . . . a democratic Georgia. Russia is using violence against Georgia, in part, to intimidate other neighbours such as Ukraine, for choosing to associate with the west.”
Mr McCain’s statement – his third since the crisis began – stood in clear contrast on Monday to the relatively low-key response of the Bush administration and the Obama campaign. Barack Obama himself issued a statement on Saturday but remains on vacation in Hawaii. President Bush, at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, expressed “grave concern” about Moscow’s “disproportionate response” in South Ossetia, but did not follow Mr McCain in portraying the crisis as a watershed moment for democracy in the region.
“What is interesting about the US response is that you have the McCain campaign in one corner immediately understanding the significance of Russia’s aggression and in the opposite corner you have the Bush administration standing with the Obama campaign taking a much more diluted stance,” said John Bolton, the former Bush administration ambassador to the United Nations.
However, many detected some echo of Mr McCain’s harder-line stance from Dick Cheney, the vice-president. He told Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili on Sunday that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered” and warned its continuation would have “serious consequences” for US-Russian relations.
Mr Cheney expressed US “solidarity” with Georgia “in the face of this threat to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, according to a White House account of the conversation. A spokesperson for Mr Cheney rejected suggestions that the vice-president was trying to push the administration towards a more hawkish position on the crisis, insisting he was speaking in “unison” with Mr Bush and other US officials.
Others picked up a by now familiar pattern of division and confusion within the administration, which has suffered a depletion of senior personnel and is entering its final months in office. “This crisis is a watershed moment that demands an exceptionally high quality of diplomacy and it is not clear whether this tired and distracted US administration is able to provide that,” said Sarah Mendelson, senior Russia fellow at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Security.
Mr McCain’s response, which included recommended policy actions for the administration, has also enabled his campaign to restate its support for a “league of democracies”, which would exclude Russia and include countries such as Georgia. Mr McCain pointed out at the weekend that Russia’s membership of the United Nations Security Council had prevented that body from taking any “meaningful action”.
Mr McCain also called on the Bush administration to redouble its efforts to offer Georgia and Ukraine a membership action plan to join Nato. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Now that the USA has written off George Bush as a powerless lame duck, what better time to reconstitute the Soviet Empire. Europeans and the USA will woe the day they beat up George Bush as the Evil Empire takes control of the oil fields in the countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.
At least McCain understands!!!!!
Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter Obama is lolling on the sands of Waikiki in between times reconstituting his birth certificate!!!!!!
Search works wonders.
Posting press realeases saying to Russia and Georgia saying "Can't we all just get along"?
IMHO, I don't think McCain upstaged Bush at all. I would bet McCain & Bush are closer than we think, at least on this issue of National Security and helping our Allies.
President Bush has nothing to gain except criticism if he made this statement, McCain shows his leadership to get elected looking like he is distancing himself from the President.
Frankly, I think we will see President Bush's approval rating jump in the next month and he will be an asset to those wanting to be re-elected or elected. I hope he chooses wisely.
I like “Tire Gauge Hussein Obama” better.
The difference between McCain and Bush? One of them is responsible for his words and actions, the other wants to be.
Good explanation.
Bush is a fool!
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