Time to Choose – Russia Backs Breakaway Provinces Bid for Independence

Touché?

For many decades, the west (UN and the USA) have found themselves prying small nations from the grips of the Soviet empire.  Today, Russia is running the PR game in reverse. 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/25/russia.vote/index.html

The move has been rejected by the US, NATO, UN and Geogian leadership as a means for Russia to justify its occupation.  Russia and the UN has already accepted these areas as part of Georgia in the past, so why the change now?

With Dick Cheney heading over to deal with the matter, it is time for some big time diplomacy.  The Russians have a strong urgency to keep oil prices high, so an unstable oil producing region under Russian military control helps their economy (and hurts ours).

We can put Georgian leadership on the spot here – do you believe in independence and freedom or not?  Russia – same question.  We can publicly back your shenanigans in exchange for you pulling your troops out.  The guy to send is whoever wrote George H.W. Bush’s speech to the UN after the accidental downing of an Iranian passenger plan in the 1980s.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

The speech to the UN was a tide turner.  (See VP Bush’s statement – starting in the middle of the link – http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1079/is_n2138_v88/ai_6813110/pg_8?tag=artBody;col1)

For months, the  US was the target of a PR campaign waged by the Iranians and the Soviets and others at the UN. 

Bush Sr. took the opportunity to change the debate.  He moved the discussion from the US responsibility for the act (he wouldn’t dignify the charges that it was deliberate) to the larger issue of another resolution.  That resolution (598) was intended to end the war that brought the US into the region in the first place. 

It is this type of diplomacy that has been lacking from George W Bush’s administration for the last four or more years.  Instead of simply dealing with this headline grabbing and economy-draining nonsense at face value (McCain and Obama are also guilty), why hasn’t anyone here stepped up to the plate with the larger issue?  

Why not spin this to our advantage?  Make a play for freedom and democracy and get the opponents to simmer down.  Instead, we have more lip service from all sides, Russian troops still in control and oil prices unable to continue their downward slide. 

Where was I?

Freedom.

Can the people of these regions (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) stand on their own?  Will the Russians allow that?  Is this really just a ploy to re-annex a region that sports a majority of Russians anyway? 

Should the US care – or should we just say that this whole thing is a matter for the UN to deal with (or to make empty threats)?

I doubt much of this matter will be on the DNC Convention schedule.  Too much is centered on catharsis, pity for an infirmed senator, unity and “celebutard” partying along with a passing word on protesters by FOX News.

As the theatrical event unfolds, our currency shrinks and our national debt climbs.  I hope the Republicans ate watching – and learning.  Eventually, Americans will wake up and take notice. 

Perhaps now is the time for George W. Bush to look at the polls and to realize that this could be his moment to make a change of his own.  This could be the week to make the world watch and see what can be done by the sitting US President without troops and massive spending.

That would bring new meaning to the phrase: shock and awe.