Stoopid Stuff

Hypocrisy in Action

Sure. The logic is clear, and easy to follow. See, the US backed independence for Kosovo, a separatist "breakaway region" of Serbia. You see, it's just Democracy in action, the people don't want to live under the bootheel of Serbian governance. They want to forge their own path, make their own decisions, form a nation of like-minded people of similar ethnic background and live in peace with their neighbors. This was vehemently opposed by the Russians.

The Russians could not sit by and watch the aspirations for Democratic independence amongst the Abkhazians and South Ossetians crushed by those dangerous, authoritarian Georgians. The people who occupied those separatist "breakaway regions" of Georgia didn't want to live under the bootheel of Georgian governance. They wanted to forge their own path, make their own decisions, form a nation of like-minded people of similar ethnic background and live in peace with their neighbors. This was vehemently opposed by the Americans.

While every player in this panoply of pawns is obviously guilty of the most blatant, self-serving hypocrisy, I do have to say that Putin (oh, I'm sorry - should I be saying Medvedev? Haha, just kidding) and Medvedev are just slightly less guilty than bush/rice. Both events, Kosovo and Georgia, happened on Russia's frontier, deep inside their sphere of influence. Just exaclty what the US and NATO think they are accomplishing creating military and political challenges to Russia on her doorstep is hard to determine. Most of us learn very early on that if you are INSIDE the bears cage, repeatedly poking the bear with a sharp stick is going to lead to some highly counterproductive results.

So the US put radars in the Czech Republic, and Midcourse Defense Interceptors in Poland, explaining patiently to Putin and the Russians that they are just SILLY if they construe that as any kind of threat to THEM - it should be obvious that missiles in Poland were necessary to counter the threat from Iran and North Korea. The Russians, however, don't seem to be buying that logical construct. But I think it's historically interesting the way the US reacted to the possibility of Russian missiles in Cuba. For that matter, the rhetoric employed by the US Diplomatic Corps after the Chavez Government in Venezuela negotiated military purchases from Russia.

But the best available analogy to the American "activities" in Georgia is hypothetical. Just imagine Washington's reaction if the Russian government began developing extensive military, diplomatic and economic ties with Mexico. If the Russians were training the Mexican Army, and providing arms and military aid. If they invited Mexico to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Do you think the US goverment would smile and welcome the Russians to the Western Hemisphere? Somehow, I doubt that the American reaction would be terribly sanguine.

So Bush chastises Russia for using military force against a sovereign nation, and Rice flails Medvedev over Georgia's "territorial integrity" (Russia's EXACT argument against the independence of Kosovo) while people - real people with lives and families and houses and possessions and hopes and dreams - people watch those lives and dreams extinguished over nothing more than a playground scuffle. But on this playground, the boys who are fighting both have big brothers who can wreck the whole neighborhood if they get drawn into the fight.

It's the tribal madness of ideology writ large. No one stands to gain anything but a little international leverage - and the world stands to lose so much...

posted by mikey @ 11:30 AM