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Im actually worried what will become of the world if Obama gets elected president. His ridiculous response to this mess has changed my whole at ude towards him.
Support Obama?
His response to this mess has been a joke! This is the guy we want to be the leader of our country?!!! The Russians and Chinese are gonna walk all over us.
This editorial from the New York Suns sums it up better than I can:
McCain Out Front
Editorial of The New York Sun | August 12, 2008
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The speed with which Senator McCain seized the leadership in the first foreign policy crisis of the presidential campaign may not be surprising. Mr. McCain after all, backed the surge strategy in Iraq, while Senator Obama and many others were opposing it. But his emergence on the Georgia crisis is no less impressive. When Russia took advantage of the Olympics to launch an operation aimed at ousting the democratically elected government in a neighboring country that is an aspiring NATO member, Mr. Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, initially called on both sides to exercise restraint. Mr. McCain saw it immediately for what it was, Russian aggression.
President Bush underscored the stakes in his Rose Garden remarks yesterday, saying it appeared an effort was underway to depose Georgia's democratically elected government. "Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century," Mr. Bush said.
In the conflict between South Ossetia and Georgia, we have no dog in the fight. Nor in the fight between Abkhazia and Georgia. But in the fight between Georgia and Moscow, American sympathies and interests lie with the former Soviet satellite now headed by a democratically elected government that has sought to throw in with the West.
Some might argue that America's interests lie with letting Moscow do what it wants, as it is a stronger power than Georgia. But if America is just going to abandon a friendly nation that sent troops to fight in Iraq — well, then American friendship will come to be devalued around the world, which will have its own great cost to America's interests.
Mr. McCain grasped as much in his statement yesterday, saying, "Russia is using violence against Georgia, in part, to intimidate other neighbors such as Ukraine for choosing to associate with the West and adhering to Western political and economic values. As such, the fate of Georgia should be of grave concern to Americans and all people who welcomed the end of a divided of Europe, and the independence of former Soviet republics."
Added Mr. McCain: "The international response to this crisis will determine how Russia manages its relationships with other neighbors. We have other important strategic interests at stake in Georgia, especially the continued flow of oil through the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which Russia attempted to bomb in recent days; the operation of a critical communication and trade route from Georgia through Azerbaijan and Central Asia; and the integrity and influence of NATO, whose members reaffirmed last April the territorial integrity, independence, and sovereignty of Georgia."
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, framed the issue not as one of values but as one of sovereignty. "The UN must stand up for the sovereignty of its members, and peace in the world," he said, an argument that just as easily might have been used against, say, the liberation of Iraq, or might be used in the future against an Israeli pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. No one knows what conflicts the four years between 2008 and 2012 will bring, what will be the South Ossetia of 2010, the obscure region that suddenly becomes the focal point of a global crisis. But by the evidence so far Mr. McCain is more ready for the challenge than is Mr. Obama.
Im actually worried what will become of the world if Obama gets elected president. His ridiculous response to this mess has changed my whole at ude towards him.
are? have you been in a coma?
call your congressman and tell him "we need to protect this high moral ground we've leveled".
or you could just walk through life blaming a senator.
That might be germane if the notion of liberation of peoples was actually a guiding value in American foreign policy; we all know it's not, since the concern for liberation is absolutely absent in many places where the suffering is far greater and the authoritarianism much more significant than existed in Saddam's Iraq. Where is the call for Iraq-like invasions into the autocratic regimes on the African continent? Or to end the absurd suffering going on in places like Darfur? Oh, yeah -- there's no resources there, so there's really no need to liberate the oppressed people in those places. American foreign policy isn't about liberation and the notion that Obama's response to Georgia would have guided opposition to "the liberation of Iraq" is ridiculous.
I find it interesting that McCain's rhetoric (as well as the sitting President's) is equally aimed at respecting sovereignity, yet somehow Obama is showing weakness by expressing concern for assuring sovereignity among and when was that concern somehow an unjustifiable stance when it comes to foreign policy?
Indeed, what the Sun seems to lament is the possibility that America might not have a hawkish president. It's curious that, in the end, the lack of true justifications for invading Iraq have placed the American government in the very position of ignoring the paramount concern that McCain, Bush, and Obama place on sovereignty in addressing the Georgia issue. In the end, the American invasion of Iraq turned out to be as much about regime change as anything else -- and regime change is fairly inconsistent with respecting the sovereignity of nations, regardless of who undertakes to create the regime change.
But, to make this all right, I think we should revoke Becky Hammon's citizenship. None of this crap happened until she decided to play basketball for the Russian Olympic team.
McCain and Obama both essentially said the same thing, "stop fighting". There's not a damn thing else to say.
More from the New York Post on this issue:
Following McCain's Lead on Russia, Iraq
By Rich Lowry
President Bush's assurance back in 2001 that he looked into Vladimir Putin's soul and liked what he saw was the international equivalent of his "heckuva job" boosterism of Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown in the immediate wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The two statements will compete for the dishonor of the most notoriously misbegotten he uttered as president. Bush's endorsement of Putin was partly a matter of calculation; when he says glowing things about foreign leaders in public, he tells those leaders in private how he expects them to deliver. But with Putin, Bush seemed as if he were playing Ned Flanders to Putin's Tony Soprano.
John McCain's assessment stands up much better: When he looked at Putin, "he saw three letters: a K, a G, and a B." Putin's neo-Soviet state has launched a nakedly illegal invasion of neighboring Georgia that is reminiscent of the Winter War against Finland at the outset of World War II. The Russian press is pumping out absurd lies about Georgian acts of genocide, even as the Russian military indiscriminately bombs and s s Georgian cities. Edward Gibbon's description of the Inquisition comes to mind -- nonsense defended by cruelty.
The Bush administration made twin mistakes with Russia. It overpersonalized relations, with Bush hoping to coax out Putin's better side, and tiptoed around Moscow in the hopes that gentle treatment would encourage it to act responsibly. The irony is that Barack Obama -- with his commitment to personal diplomacy and a gentler U.S. footprint around the world -- wants to make those two tendencies centerpieces of his foreign policy.
The Bush and Obama statements in the immediate wake of the crisis could have been issued by a joint campaign. Bush's spokeswoman urged "all parties," both Georgians and Russians, "to de-escalate the tension and avoid conflict." Obama declared that "now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint." In their implied moral equivalence, these reactions were a little like urging the Kuwaitis to de-escalate with Saddam's Iraq in August 1990.
Upon flying back from Beijing, Bush issued a sterner rebuke of Russia from the Rose Garden Monday. He said its apparent plan to topple Georgia's democratically elected government is "unacceptable in the 21st century." But, absent the threat of credible consequences for Moscow's defiance, it's unclear why Russia wouldn't tighten its stranglehold on Georgia.
It's true that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili allowed himself to be baited into military action in the breakaway province of South Ossetia. But let's be clear who was doing the baiting and why. Russia had supported South Ossetian forces attacking Georgian villages and troops in order to detach the province slowly from Georgia or provoke a military confrontation that Georgia could never win. Mission accomplished.
The larger strategic goal is to keep the pro-Western independent states on Russia's border in turmoil. As George Kennan said, on its borders Russia can have only vassals or enemies. Russia's neighbors have an incentive to be clear-eyed about this, which is why the presidents of the Baltic States and Poland all condemned "meaningless statements equating the victims with the victimizers."
McCain's proposal from a few months ago to boot Russia from the G-8 has gone from seeming needlessly provocative to practically prescient. Together with the surge in Iraq, the Georgian crisis is the second strategic matter on which everyone else has followed the senator's lead.
McCain warned of Russian designs on its "near-abroad" when Boris Yeltsin was still in power, and advocated the enlargement of NATO into Eastern Europe -- as a way to cement those countries into the West and check Russian adventurism -- years before the Clinton administration adopted it as policy.
McCain's judgment benefits from years of marinating in national-security issues and traveling and getting to know the key players; from a hatred of tinpot dictators and bloody thugs that guides his moral compass; and from a flinty realism (verging at times on fatalism) that is resistant to illusions about personalities, or the inevitable direction of History, or the nature of the world.
Putin launched his assault on Georgia on the same day the Olympics opened with the theme of "One World, One Dream." Putin put paid to that within hours with steel and blood. All you need to know about his soul is the testimony of the rocket launchers and T-72 tanks still flowing into Georgia.
© 2008 by King Features Syndicate
No ......what else could Obama say??? We dont have enough of anything to go in there and straighten things out.....no money, no oil, no military personnel.
WHEN IS THE US GOING TO STOP POLICING THE WORLD??
Only McCain also called for an immediate emergency meeting of NATO and a boot of Russia from the G-8.
Obama went body surfing.
WHEN IS THE US GOING TO STOP POLICING THE WORLD??
It's all just talk. McCain isn't President. Did countries try to kick the US out of the G-8 when we (wrongfully) invaded Iraq?
I don't get it. One minute, liberals are calling for one percent of our GDP to be donated to foreign aid. The next, they're saying "lets just stay out of it".
Can't have it both ways. Sorry.
You can bet your ass China and Russia are hoping for an Obama presidency after seeing the reactions of both McCain and Obama this past week.
Foreign aid, as in helping a poverty stricken country correct? You don't see the difference?
We should invade to liberate oppressed people -- except in places where people are truly oppressed!!!!
The world is hoping for an Obama presidency. No one wants the same old, same old for the next four years. But McCain isn't doing anything to help himself this week, especially with the DHL issues.
I see it the other way.....they want McCain.....so we can go to war with them with minimal military bases, troops, money and oil. Oh yeah, we will kick some ass.
Look back at history my man.......every single solitary World Power has fallen.......every single one. I just hope the US realizes this before we go off wanting to kick everyones ass.
he also called for abolishing the salary caps in sports and looking at britney and paris instead of him. BFD
what we need is a sec. of state.
Foreign aid...as in Georgia:
Georgia: Foreign aid challenge
Huge infusion of US aid expected to directly benefit half a million Georgians, though some analysts have their doubts.
By Tamar Khorbaladze and Manana Khidasheli in Tbilisi (CRS No. 310, 20-Oct-05)
An unprecedented programme of US aid was last week ratified by the Georgian parliament, representing a major foreign policy victory -- but there are lingering questions about how the money will be spent.
The package gives Georgia 295 million US dollars over five years, a substantial boost for the country.
so, you want the US and NATO to act?
you're ing crazy!
Im sure the Russians and Chinese are.
I mean, think about it. Another Regean/Thatcher, or another Carter? Which adversary would they rather face?
No, I want to catch a wave with Obama!
I was always a fan of Brian Wilson.
The world wants an Obama presidency, so I'm pretty sure Russia and China are apart of the world. If McCain is elected, four more years of Bush.
get a head start. when does your flight leave for Gori?
It's funny that candidate Obama is criticized for vacationing during this crisis while the sitting President, well, um, well, he um, see, he was um:
Ah...the proverbial "John McCain is George W. Bush in disguise" agrument (only you forgot to mention that he's much older too).
I like "Grampy McSame" the best.
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