Listen to Joseph Biden closely tonight. How will he discuss the U.S. stance against Russian neo-imperialism? He will predictably say how we must stand behind our Georgian allies and boost humanitarian aid there -- typical touchy-feely Democrat stuff. But will he frame what lies ahead for U.S.-Russian relations in the same blood-curdling, Brezhnev-era language as the neocon hardliners on the right? Will he dare drop the c-bomb?
Russia experts, especially those nesting in right-wing think tanks, love nothing more than to talk about a new cold war. It's the topic that launched a thousand Washington brown bags (Many an inbox groans from invitations to events with hackneyed titles like "A New Cold War?", where inevitably Bush's looked-into-Putin's-soul comment gets mentioned as the most important thing to happen in U.S.-Russian relations since Khrushchev removed his right shoe and threatened to bury us).
Russia could not have timed its invasion of Georgia any better for the Republicans. Surely they were smirking when they read of its incursion into Gori and thinking: This only helps McCain! He can now say, See? I told you we can't trust these rascally Russians. Let's give them the heave-ho from the G-8, put the kibosh on their WTO prospects, and keep Jackson-Vanik on the books. Let's also accelerate that missile shield in the fields of Poland (even if it's supposedly aimed at, uhum, Iran and not Russia).
With Iraq fading from the front pages, enter Russia stage-right. Notice how little neocons seem to mention terrorists and that amorphous war we have been waging. They have set their sights on a more traditional foe: Russia. The right will drop phrases like a "new cold war" not because there is in fact a new cold war (there's not) but because it benefits McCain. A new cold war demands somebody who will stand up to Russia, a cold warrior with white hair, not somebody who will coddle dictators and dare note the nuances of the Georgian conflict (never mind that Georgia invaded South Ossetia first, not Russia). "The same Republican neocons who fabricated the reasons for going to war in Iraq are back, and now they have been paid to trigger a new cold war with Russia that benefits John McCain," Tom Hayden correctly noted in The Nation. "These are dangerous, expensive unwinnable games being played with American lives to benefit Republican politicians and their oil company friends."
Biden, who was just in Georgia, should not fall into the Republicans' trap. I can already imagine Randy Scheunemann (whose large paycheck from the Georgia he long ago cashed) and his band of attack dogs are just drooling to slam the vice presidential candidate's less-than-Churchillean stance against Moscow.
McCain likes to say that Obama is willing to lose a war (in Iraq) to win a campaign. Interestingly, it appears that McCain is willing to start a new cold war to win a campaign.
Both Russia and the US have mutual interests that can best be served through cooperation, mutual respect and collaboration on fish that are much bigger to fry. Protecting a pseudo democratic nation like Georgia, a banan republic at best and a two bit politicial amateur like Shakashvili should not override the bigger objectives of Russia, Western Europe or the US.
First the boogeyman was the communists and the evil empire (which was true), then it was the "islamic terrorists" and the axis of evil, now it is the Russians and the Islamic terrorists together.
I am still waiting to see how the Chinese will fit in this formula.
I suspect; though China presents the greatest longterm threat, that the Republicans will ignore them because too many republican cronies have business dealings with this country...not to mention that China owns half of our debt/securities.
How many times do we need to see this before we wake up to the fact that these boys all eat lunch at the same table on the playground?
A new cold war....
That would be about as accurate as the last cold war--Which is to say, if you have a proven money maker, Go with it!
This is exactly the same playbook as in the 1930s: Provoke trouble in a neighboring country and then use that as a pretext to invade the place on the pretext of "restoring order."
Whether you agree or disagree with McCain, don't let Putin off the hook on this one. He's the one who has been bombing Georgia, sending in the tanks, the bombers and the short-range ballistic missiles. Not McCain.
We can disagree with how McCain wants to handle it. But let's not give the impression that we think Putin did the right thing. He didn't. It was an act of naked aggression on his part.
Goldman-Sachs, The FED, the Bank of England, Morgan, Bush, Medvedev and all the power brokers out at the Bohemian Grove started this war. And it's time that people took the care to learn about how wars are really started, by whom and to what end.
And the answer is always money. Just follow the money.
The formerly great republic of the US has been financialized and sold into debt service for perpetuity, which being a heck of a bleak future, causes dreamers of both parties to look toward a distracting war with dewy-eyed hope as an opportunity for all of us to forget the troubles here at home, and in the process, by harnessing the energies of so many young people to do great destructive things overseas, we might just diffuse some of the social tensions that arise out of chronic underemployment and unbridled inflation. It's called fascism folks, a shell game in which the most aggressive fighters for social change, the righteous young, are misdirected toward a foreign enemy while their social betters wear flag pins at the golf course, cheat on their taxes and exhort the poor to send their children to an early death in a war designed to preserve the class structure at home, where all dissent is treason.
But yeah, I'm joining the author to say: new cold war= bad idea.
Georgia is the Poster Child for McCain's INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE - a bizarre group paid for with YOUR tax dollars to put the neo-con WetDream of Pax Americana and constant war into full swing.
CONSTANT WAR MEANS CONSTANT $$$$$$$$ FLOW TO THE MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS.
War make Moola for McCain's crowd.
Both the IRI.ORG AND NED need to be SHUT DOWN.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Republican_Institute
Yes ,Georgia started but do you think Saakachivili would have started the hostilities without some encouraging words from Washington ? of course the Russians were ready ,but can you really blame them .... lets imagine how we would react to some military alliance with Russia and Mexico ?
I thought Bush could do no more harm ,this time it's me who was naive what about a third war since we are so good at it !
Putin is so happy to show the world how strong Russia is , but it's scaring the rest of eastern Europe which is changing her mind about joining OTAN ,no more hesitation !
Well, all this is not so bad for Bush is getting what he wanted a stronger and bigger OTAN and an other international crisis just in time for to reelect a republican .....
Fear is the best ally of Carl Rove !
Cold War -- Snowball fight. :-)
Actually Georgia started the hostilities. Let's not distort the facts like the Republicans like to do. Right now Obama needs to focus on hammering McCain and the Republicans on the economy and do it nonstop. It's the number one issues on everyone's mind right now and the McCain camp doesn't know how to handle it.