Posted on 08/12/2008 1:38:33 PM PDT by TitansAFC
Mention Georgia a few days ago, and most of us would have thought of the state evoked so sweetly in "Georgia on My Mind," the classic tune sung by Ray Charles. Very few of us had heard of the South Ossetia province of Georgia, the nation with the misfortune to have Russia as its neighbor, until war broke out last week.
Like Kosovo, Bosnia, Kuwait and other unfamiliar places before, Ossetia reminds us that a small, remote corner of the globe can explode into an international crisis. One who was up to speed on Georgia and the menace it faced from Russia was veteran Sen. John McCain. He had visited the Caucasian nation three times in a dozen years. When fighting erupted, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate got on the phone to gather details and issued a statement Friday summarizing the situation, tagging Russia as the aggressor and demanding it withdraw its forces from the sovereign territory of Georgia.
It took first-term Sen. Barack Obama three tries to get it right. Headed for a vacation in Hawaii, the presumed Democratic candidate for commander in chief issued an even-handed statement, urging restraint by both sides. Later Friday, he again called for mutual restraint but blamed Russia for the fighting. The next day his language finally caught up with toughness of McCain's.
Making matters worse, Obama's staff focused on a McCain aide who had served as a lobbyist for Georgia, charging it showed McCain was "ensconced in a lobbyist culture." Obama's campaign came off as injecting petty partisan politics into an international crisis. This was not a serious response on behalf a man who aspires to be the leader of the Free World. After all, what's so bad about representing a small former Soviet republic struggling to remake itself as a Western-style democracy?
The comparison between the two candidates served to emphasize the strength McCain's experience would bring to the White House in a dangerous world.
Obama's favored approach to international issues, diplomatic talks, failed to stop Russia's invasion. Vladimir Putin, a KGB bull in the former Soviet Union, wants to restore Russia as the supreme power of Eurasia and, to that end, bully former vassal states like Georgia out of their democratic ways. The fear is that Ukraine will come in his cross hairs next.
However the world's newest war ends, America's leadership must recognize and respond to the underlying dynamic of Russia's resurgent aggressive instincts -- the power bestowed on Moscow by its oil and gas riches.
While we don't get fossil fuels from Russia, Western Europe does, and the Kremlin's energy might is fueled by the worldwide demand for oil. Developing U.S. domestic energy sources and alternatives to oil will only enhance our national security and, by reducing the world's petroleum demand, undermine the economic, political and military advantage vast oil and gas reserves give to unfriendly powers like Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
Obama calls for transforming America's economy in a decade. He's got the right idea -- long term. But short term, this nation must push for energy security on all fronts -- now. That includes new offshore drilling for oil, which Obama loathes, and new nuclear plants, which he views with aversion. We can't just wait for breakthrough technologies for wind, solar and biomass energy.
McCain has got it right in advocating new offshore drilling and a federal push to add 45 nuclear generators over the next two decades. Given the evidence of Russia's energy-fueled aggression, he should abandon his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and to extending subsidies he favors for nuclear energy to include renewables.
As Georgia burns, we need to light a fire under all the talk about energy security and start doing what it takes to make it happen.
Coming from the Chicago Barack Obama Times.
Welcome to “Second Thoughts Theater”.
Amazing since the Sun-Time is deep in the tank for “The One.”
Obama started out parroting the Air America crowd(small that it is). Russia has been antagonizing Georgia ever since it won its independence.
Launching missiles, violating airspace, and setting up the situation in which the “breakaway” provinces originally broke away. Georgia is a grand Democratic nation which has totally rebuilt itself and is one of the most prosperous examples of Democracy in that region. Obama and his liberal staff just don’t get it.
Russian Invasion of Georgian Republic The Perfect Illustration of Difference Between ......
Russian Invasion of Georgian Republic The Perfect Illustration of Difference Between Presidential Candidates
Perhaps Obama and the leftists cannot understand why even people in other countries value their freedoms.
Back here in the USA, we have a bunch of congressionals under the Dome who are trying to make the US into a one-party country by refusing to debate important issues like DRILL HERE DRILL NOW and allowing an up or down vote.
Nope. If you want to get anything done in Washington, you’d better be the same party as Reid and Pelosi and you’d better vote with them. Every time.
Putin's incursion into Georgia may have been a cakewalk, but he'd better not get cocky. He might find himself with a bloody nose courtesy of another "former vassal state" he chose to attack.
Obama nailed nicely by his Hometown paper....
mark for later
What’s really in the tank (way, way on the bottom) is “The One’s” knowledge and understanding of geopolitics.
“the Kremlin’s energy might is fueled by the worldwide demand for oil.”
Another reason to allow drilling for our own oil.
Yes, Hussein is an empty-headed sissy-boy and McCain is a man.
I wish I understood this whole situation. I can’t really seem to get the drift of what really caused all of this. History is not my forte so maybe that’s why. If anyone knows a good source where I could just read about what caused what please let me know.
Yep, skewered, whipped and shown for the lightweight he really is.
History just takes reading time....see link at #7.
Phil...we need your graphic with Hussein and Putin...
“see link at #7”
Thank you, I appreciate it.
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