I was at the hospital and of course the TV in the room was on a quality news source – Fox News (that was sarcasm, folks) and they were talking about the cease-fire, or lack thereof, between Russia and Georgia. The nurse commented that she didn’t even know that Russia had invaded Georgia. When told that it had started almost a week prior, she was flabbergasted. Which only goes to show how little impact it has on the American public.
But George John McCain [was that a freudian slip, or what?] thinks we should get involved. Who knows what George ‘Dubya’ Bush thinks. He’s held a news conference today and I haven’t yet heard what he said about it. But already, Russia has publicly said, in effect, stay out of it, America shouldn’t point it’s finger at Russia after it’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And I couldn’t agree more.
My apologies to the Georgian people, who as much as I feel have the right to their own governmant and democracy, we’re just not the country to turn to right now. If they want support and want to keep the moral high ground at the same time, they’d better look elsewhere, because turning to the U.S. is like hiring a professional hit man to take out an abusive husband. Neither is right.
The European Union would be a better choice. They are closer both geographically and in terms of risk, more involved, if Russia has an imperialist agenda. It would also be a good time to see if the EU can hold up as a military or political force in world politics.
The U.S. has over-extended it’s role as ‘policeman of the world’ and nowadays is more like ‘thug of the world.’ One more overseas military involvement might push our already overtaxed (no pun intended, but appropriate) economy and military machine over the edge and our country into an economic collapse.
Maybe, that’s what Russia wants?
My silly side wonders, did George W Bush mobilize the National Guard and send them to Atlanta when he heard Russia invaded Georgia?
Nah, even GW isn’t that much of an idiot…
but I’m sure some comedian will use that line.
And when Dick and Condi had to break the news to him that Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman would not be available to lead, he was so disappointed seeing as Gen. Sherman had so much experience with Georgia.
Americans have a history of not paying attention to foreign affairs until all the news channels jam it down our throats until we’re sick of hearing about it. The only reason the Georgian conflict has gotten any press whatsoever is because it involves one of the worlds more notorious nations, Russia. Nothing has been covered about the injustices going on in South Africa in recent times, the now popular Darfur Conflict went on for a long time before it was brought to light over here. Same with the alleged injustices practiced by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe have gone largely unseen.
Nobody cares about these nations, because they seemingly don’t contribute to the world like a nation like China or Great Britain does. It is a valid point that the vast majority of citizens in this nation had no clue there was a country called Georgia, let alone where it is located.
A friend of mine and I were watching the Olympics and they showed a heartwarming clip of a Russian athlete and a Georgian athlete (Gymnasts I believe) hugging after a competition against each other. The commentator mentioned something about how the athletes can hug despite their home nations being at war is a testament to peace. My friend laughed and said, no they’re making nice because they’ll be on the same team soon enough, the way Russia is going. I thoroughly laughed at that one.
Very true. A country gets as much notice as its problems affect the economy and stability of the rest of the world. Even I had to stop and think a minute when I first heard of troubles in Georgia. I then realized I was listening to BBC radio and they were talking about Europe, but the announcer actually used the phrase “national guard troops” or something similar that made it sound American until I heard the full story.
I saw a report on one of the splinter Georgian republics on PBS.
The interesting thing was, they were trying to Democratically remove themselves from Georgia and either become independent countries, or align themselves with Russia.
So here’s Russia stepping up in favor of Democratic rule, while the U.S. is objecting to them doing so…
Now, that’s a switch. No wonder the world either doesn’t understand us or hates us…