Georgia On My Mind

I'm usually pissed at the media for talking a story to death, but today I'm pissed because they're not covering the Russian invasion of Georgia nearly enough. I want to know what's happening. Fuck John Edwards and fuck Obama and McCain for a couple of days and tell us about the important stuff!

Russia's invasion is horrible and disturbing and people are dying terrible deaths for power plays. Putin, ex-KGB man that he is, is a Soviet to his core and the events of the past few weeks hearken back to the U.S.S.R.'s incursions in Afghanistan, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia to name three. Worse yet, they hearken back to our own invasion of Iraq.

There is no fundamental difference between what's happening in Georgia today and what happened in Iraq in 2003. A superpower creates a rationalization to present to the world and unilaterally destroys another sovereign nation. Who's going to join the defender against a world power? Georgia's President begs for help. He's fucked. No one is going to join in a war against Russia. No one ran to Iraq's defense. We'll see this again when China sweeps up Taiwan, U.S. treaty or not. We're all playing RISK and the little people are paying with everything they have.

We have lost the moral high ground as well. Maybe we can convince G8 to become the G7 once more. Maybe we can encourage sanctions. But our moral influence has evaporated. Any discretion that we point out on the Russians' part can be reflected back on us. Should the G8 become the G6? Maybe the Russians will petition for it if they get tossed out. What kind of logical, legal defense could we present to ensure a different treatment for ourselves?

Bush can protest Russia's actions. He can protest China's human rights violations. He should do both of these things, whether or not he's guilty of them himself, so I back his complaints. But what kind of weight do they carry? Who takes them seriously and what power do our words have when we've bankrupted those words through our own actions time and time again?