The GOP's Squandered Credibility

From the outside, it looks like an early Christmas gift for the beleaguered Republicans. A rejuvenated, swaggering Russia invades Georgia, threatening to push the pro-Western government to the brink of collapse. Namby pamby diplomacy, the only arrow in Europe and America's quiver (and certainly in the vacationing Obama's quiver), does nothing. Georgia pleads for America's help to no avail, while pundits galore point to a not-so-distant Cold War past as the context in which we should understand this situation. Advantage McCain-GOP, right?

Not so fast.

As Russia shilly-shallies about whether it is merely saying it's halting fighting or actually halting fighting, it becomes clear that there are at least three ways in which the Bush foreign policy doctrine -- and by extension the McCain foreign policy doctrine -- has failed with respect to Russia and Georgia.

First, by invading Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration and the war's supporters ran headlong from any moral high ground they might have held for criticizing the invasion of sovereign countries. Obama, who opposed the Iraq war in the first place, still has the diplomatic luxury of being able to denounce such incursions with a straight face.

Second, the Bush-McCain doctrine -- through a variety of blunders -- has sown the seeds for this current predicament. On the one hand, by foolishly pushing for Georgia's NATO membership and courting Georgia's pro-Western president Mikheil Saakashvili (McCain even nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005), the U.S. provoked the wrath of a Kremlin that still considers Georgia within its sphere of influence.

On the other hand, by overextending American military might in Afghanistan and Iraq and having turned saber-rattling into a tragicomic art, America has been reduced to a paper tiger. Although it is completely reasonable for Saakashvili to expect American support right now -- after all, Bush, Cheney and McCain have all been reiterating the party line that this aggression will not stand -- it is patently impossible for America to do anything but sit and watch. Aside from shipping back 2,000 Georgian troops who were stupidly in Iraq in the first place (another Bush-McCain blunder now being remedied by removing the third-largest foreign military force in Iraq, behind the U.S. and Britain), there's not much Bush, McCain and the rest can do aside from emptily and pathetically bluster at a resurgent Russia. At least Obama seems to have an inkling that America is not the only game in town these days -- a presidency that appreciates the limits of American power, and the multi-polarity of the world's power structure, would deal with situations like this far more efficaciously.

And finally, by bull-headedly pursuing an energy policy that flies in the face of conventional wisdom about the finiteness of oil, the Bush administration has handed an incredible amount of power to oil-rich states. Russia, like Venezuela and Iran, enjoys increased status and power because it helps feed the West's insatiable thirst for oil. And no, the Bush-McCain off-shore drilling panacea isn't going to do the trick. If the U.S. is serious about facing down these oil-rich, regimes, it had best move toward an energy policy that drastically reduces, rather than raises, America's dependence on oil. Let not myopia rule the day again.

The new president, whomever he is, looking to deal with a complex, multi-polar world stock-full of Gordian knots of the Russia-Georgia variety, best be prepared. And listening to McCain prattle on endlessly about needing to confront Russia, one gets the sense that at least one Cold Warrior is woefully unready for the job. Advantage, Obama.

Comments

[BabsfromKansas]

Good post - thank you.

[castlerider]

ARE YOU CRAZY???

Ohhh- OK, I see your point. Not so fast, right...

Actually, anyone who would think this is helping the GOPer's is about as smart and intellectual as a bag of rocks. WE all know that if our country had leadership that would have already found Osama B-L, and would have at least gotten out of Iraq after Saddam's downfall, playing on our strengths alone, we would be in a lot better position to deter such moves by Russia. As it is, we have to sit here and watch, powerless to do anything, and looking damn stupid, as the world looks towards us in dismay as what used to be the voice of reason, strength and justice.

Hard to believe how slow people are, to not be able to see through the crap and come out with the proper conclusions. But that's OK, That's a leader' s job.... During WWII, FDR would have everyone purchase or acquire maps of the world, and as he discussed the battles and strategies of our soldiers overseas on his radio addresses, he would explain where these countires were, and what they were about. Everybody could see what he talked about . We need leadership like that again, where someone has the patience to bring everyone in on what being the greatest nation in the world is really all about.

[mrsm08]

This was a fantastic post - thank you. Keep it up!