George Will: Russia's Power Play

realclearpolitics.com ^ | August 12, 2008 | George Will

[Tolik]

<excerpts-WashPost>

...Russian tanks, heavy artillery, strategic bombers, ballistic missiles and a naval blockade batter a European nation. We are not past such things after all. The end of history will be postponed, again.

Russia supports two provinces determined to secede from Georgia. Russia, with aspiring nations within its borders, generally opposes secessionists, as it did when America, which sometimes opposes secession (e.g., 1861-65), improvidently supported Kosovo's secession from Russia's ally Serbia. But Russia's aggression is really about the subordination of Georgia, a democratic, market-oriented U.S. ally. This is the recrudescence of Russia's dominance in what it calls the "near abroad." Ukraine, another nation guilty of being provocatively democratic near Russia, should tremble because there is not much America can do. It is a bystander at the bullying of an ally that might be about to undergo regime change.

...This crisis illustrates, redundantly, the paralysis of the U.N. regarding major powers, hence regarding major events, and the fictitiousness of the European Union regarding foreign policy.

...John McCain, the "life is real, life is earnest" candidate, says he has looked into Putin's eyes and seen "a K, a G and a B." But McCain owes the thug thanks, as does America's electorate. Putin has abruptly pulled the presidential campaign up from preoccupation with plumbing the shallows of John Edwards and wondering what "catharsis" is "owed" to disappointed Clintonites.

McCain, who has called upon Russia "to immediately and unconditionally ... withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory," favors expelling Russia from the G-8, and organizing a league of democracies to act where the U.N. is impotent, which is whenever the subject is important.

[Tolik]

...This year's August upheaval coincides, probably not coincidentally, with the world's preoccupation with that charade of international comity, the Olympics. For only the third time in 72 years (Berlin 1936, Moscow 1980), the games are being hosted by a tyrannical regime, the mind of which was displayed in the opening ceremony featuring thousands of drummers, each face contorted with the same grotesquely frozen grin. It was a tableau of the miniaturization of the individual and the subordination of individuality to the collective. Not since the Nazi's 1934 Nuremberg rally, which Leni Riefenstahl turned into the film "Triumph of the Will," has tyranny been so brazenly tarted up as art.

A worldwide audience of billions swooned over the Beijing ceremony. Who remembers 1934? Or anything.

 

[Tolik]

Nailed It!

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[Arthur Wildfire! March]

“John McCain, the “life is real, life is earnest” candidate, says he has looked into Putin’s eyes and seen “a K, a G and a B.” But McCain owes the thug thanks, as does America’s electorate.”

Not bad. But don’t forget, Obama stopped the tanks with his ‘air sabre’.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Incredibly insightful article and articulated as well as he thinks.

I usually find a few points of contention with Mr. Will.

But I must say I agree with everything in this article. We are at a major crossroads and America better be awake and vigilant ready for a long fight.

$4-a-gallon gasoline is a drop in the gas bucket compared to what Putin wants to do to America economically, which is his primary pay-back scheme, to prove that communism is — even after Reagan's stunning economic victory — the superior economic system.

But at the heart of it is the same old Russian bully, whether Czar or Bolshevik or Stalinist or Putinist (learning from the ChiComs to accept an amalgamation of whatever works, even limited free markets in order to maintain totalitarianism).

The reason behind the seemingly mysterious and accidental August recurrence, is simple Mr. Will. It is at the threshold of winter. The Russians do very well controlling their enemies in the winter. It is their best opportunity to dig in like a tick into the scruff of their enemies and prey.

[Dick Bachert]

I’ve been saying all along that the communist oligarchs who run Russia — and much of the rest of the world — didn’t “collapse.”

They simply swapped their KGB IDs and grim faces for business suits and a smile.

Vlad Putin and his handlers obviously read “Death of a Salesman.”

There WILL BE BLOOD!

[xzins]

My sense is that agreements were made at Yalta. Georgia will not be defended. If it comes to it, neither will the Ukraine.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Now is a good time for McCain to start talking up his idea of a “League of Democracies”, first developed, I understand, by Charles Krauthammer. This would be a re-do of the United Nations but restricted only to true democracies — to focus on the world’s problems and how to confront the rogue nations like Russia. They wouldn’t attempt to eliminate the UN — just to make it even more irrelevant than it already is.

The beautiful thing about this policy is: this is something Obama just couldn’t embrace given his history and predilictions (and supporters) so this would be a real differentiator.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

League of Democracies? Great idea! I think a FReeper once suggested that some time ago. McCain is for the concept?

[MeekOneGOP]

bump! bump! bump!

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/european_war_enters_the_presid.html

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Just confirmed. McCain does want a League of Democracies. I’m pleasantly surprised. Here is part of a McCain speech from last year:

“But if some in Russia yearn to turn the clock back two decades, the zealots of Islamic radicalism would turn it back centuries. The mullahs of Iran and the leaders of Al Qaeda and Hezbollah want to cleanse the Muslim world of modernity and the ideals of the Enlightenment, and return it to an imagined past of theological purity. They state their goal plainly: a universal Islamic theocracy, a new Caliphate across all the lands once dominated by Islam, including the lands held in Europe centuries ago. Meanwhile, Mideast autocracies fuel this radicalism by denying their people political expression, economic opportunity or hope for a better future ... But our national interests also require that we continually press for progress ... We have seen how autocratic governments often work against our interests. Iran is able to aggressively pursue nuclear weapons and hegemony in the Persian Gulf, in part, because it has been shielded by the world’s powerful autocracies. North Korea defies the international community with its nuclear weapons and missile programs and an obscene human rights record. Last month, North Korea unsurprisingly missed the first deadline in the most recent nuclear agreement and it remains to be seen if China will use its enormous influence to demand better behavior... We must expand the power and reach of democracy, freedom, and human rights using our many strengths as a free people. But that means making some substantial changes in how we do business... Our partners must be good allies, too. They must have the will and the ability to act in the common defense of freedom, democracy, and economic prosperity... They must spend the money necessary to build effective militaries that can train and fight alongside ours. They must help us deliver aid to those in need and encourage good governance in fragile states. They must face the threats of our world squarely and not evade their global responsibilities. And they must put an end to the mindless anti-Americanism that today mars international discourse. No alliance can work unless all its members share a basic faith in one another and accept an equal share of the responsibility to build a peace based on freedom... This League of Democracies would not supplant the United Nations or other international organizations. It would complement them. But it would be the one organization where the world’s democracies could come together to discuss problems and solutions on the basis of shared principles and a common vision of the future. If I am elected president, I will call a summit of the world’s democracies in my first year to seek the views of my democratic counterparts and begin exploring the practical steps necessary to realize this vision...Americans should lead this effort...When our nation was founded over two hundred years ago, we were the world’s only democratic republic. Today, there are more than 100 electoral democracies spread all across the globe...”

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

TY Meek. FRegards ....

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Clinging to the Obama campaign's talking points like a drunk to a lamppost, Richardson said this crisis proves the wisdom of Obama's zest for diplomacy, and that America should get the U.N. Security Council "to pass a strong resolution getting the Russians to show some restraint." Apparently Richardson was ambassador to the U.N. for 19 months without noticing that Russia has a Security Council veto.

Ouch!

[jagusafr]

“The reason behind the seemingly mysterious and accidental August recurrence, is simple Mr. Will. It is at the threshold of winter. The Russians do very well controlling their enemies in the winter. It is their best opportunity to dig in like a tick into the scruff of their enemies and prey.”

An excellent observation and the first time I’ve seen it mentioned.

Colonel, USAFR

[Frank_Discussion]

Just Damn. How in H*ll did the American electorate get so bamboozled to let a joker like Obama even get close to the primaries? I really have a difficult time understanding such idiocy from the citizenry...

[xkaydet65]

The only thing keeping the Russian economy afloat is oil. They have managed to create a few billionaires while failing to provide a materially better life for the people. They have used, like Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries used gold from the Americas, their oil to enrich a few and create a military power. If we drill off our coasts, recover our shale, create renewables and find and develop our deposits of natural gas, the Russian wealth is decreased by many factors.

Best to move now and begin the process of restoring an empire while they have the military strength and economic hammer, oil and, to keep the EU in line, natural gas. Let the supplies of both increase and their prospects diminish. And if threatening the pipeline trough Georgia pays off in higher prices all the good.

[McGruff]

McCain...favors expelling Russia from the G-8, and organizing a league of democracies to act where the U.N. is impotent...

Sounds like a plan.

[fatez]

The real beneficiaries are the Red Chinese. Moscow is flexing it's muscles, but her long term prospects are very dim. China is watching how the West is reacting and planning accordingly. Taiwan has got to be watching this nervously (probably even Japan).

Putin has just proved what lots of Freeper’s have said over the years, NATO no longer serves a purpose. The pretense of shared defense does not work if your partners are not armed and dangerous. Does anybody fear Brussels?

[Law is not justice but process]

I do not know if this was exactly the point George Will was trying to make, but it finally dawned on me that we Conservatives should really stop bemoaning the ineffectiveness of the United Nations. What is far more frightening than an ineffective UN is an effective one. Imagine an organization where the votes of totalitarian Russia and China count exactly the same as that of the United States. Or an organization where the huge democracy of Brazil could be voted down by Venezuela and Cuba. Voting members of the UN include Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and [insert the name of your least favorite repressive foreign regime here]. I finally realized that the last thing we would want is an effective UN. A UN that could really galvanize itself into action would have intervened in Iraq - to restore Saddam Hussein. An effective UN would come to the US and take away our guns and SUVs, no matter what the American electorate or Constitution might say. An effective UN would be dedicated to preserving the right of tyrannical governments to violate the human rights of their own people.

Thank God for an ineffective UN. I will vote for the candidate who says he (or she) will make any and all efforts to insure the UN remains impotent.

[uglybiker]

They wouldn’t attempt to eliminate the UN — just to make it even more irrelevant than it already is.

Is that possible?

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Thank you, sir, for you comment and your service to our country.

It was largely the Russian winters that enabled them to hold the Nazis in check during WWII. I suspect that if WW II had continued a couple more years, all things then being equal, the Germans would have figured out how to fight in the harsh winters and may have completely changed that front of the war.