The Whole Georgia Thing...and the American Left's Complete Misinterpretation of It

"Outraged" is such a dramatic word to which we have all be desensitized in the 2008 election cycle.

So, while I'm not outraged, I am pretty upset with left-leaning journalists in this country who flooded yesterday's Op-Ed pages and blogosphere with columns and posts titled such things as "Who Poked The Bear?"

According to Dan Froomkin in his "White House Watch" column in yesterday's WaPo, "hindsight suggests Bush has been playing with fire in that region for years now, and that an overpowering Russian response was a predictable outcome to continued provocation." Apparently, supporting democracy in the former Soviet Union and encouraging military cooperation with a former Russo-vassal justifies an over-aggressive military beat-down by a much larger Russian force who was spoiling for a fight.

Others further to the left sounded off on Josh Marshall's "Talking Points Memo". This gem from Monday is one of my favorites:

"Regardless of what happens next, it is worth asking what the Bush people were thinking when they egged on Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's young, Western-educated president, to apply for NATO membership, send 2,000 of his troops to Iraq as a full-fledged U.S. ally, and receive tactical training and weapons from our military. Did they really think Putin would sit by and see another border state (and former province of the Russian empire) slip away to the West? If they thought that Putin might not, what did they plan to do about it, and how firmly did they warn Saakashvili not to get too brash or provoke an outburst?"

I am by no means an expert, but for the American Left to place the brunt of the blame on Georgia and, by extension, a meddling, conspiratorial Bush Administration, seems entirely short-sighted. Putin's Russia (I don't care that Medvedev is president. We all know who's captain of that ship) has made it crystal-clear that their self-interest trumps all and routinely thumb their nose at international opinion. If the left is going to hold America's feet to the fire (as they rightly should) when we, contrary to international opinion and in brazen self-interest, invaded Iraq, they should call a spade a spade and blow the whistle on Russia when it does the same. But, their disdain for Bush is so potent that they are willing to forgive Russia for so egregious a violation of international law because Georgia likes the current Republican president. Talk about self-interest. But, I digress. Yes, Saakashvili did provoke an outburst from Russia. But not necessarily in the way our friend at TPM believes they did.

How did Saakashvili provoke this outburst? Well, number one, he was elected. The Russians don't like uppity democratic types who talk about "individual liberties" and the "power of free markets." They prefer good old Soviet-style-strongman-President-for-life types who keep their democratic movements brutally repressed. They continue to view these former satellite republics as their property, or in their Treaty-of-Versailles-speak, as their “near abroad”. In other words, how dare our subjects in Ukraine and Georgia act independently of their puppet-master, dear Mother Russia!

Number two is more strategic, geopolitically speaking. Georgia is the site of a very important oil and gas pipeline to Europe. By installing one of their puppets in Saakashvili's place, Russia has a near monopoly on energy supplies going to Europe. Notice they never sought to "liberate" South Ossetia and Abkhazia when their old chum Eduard Shevardnadze was president of Georgia.

I am not a Chicken-Little type by any means, but if Russia will so easily cross the line (literally) and invade a neighbor when this neighbor behaves in a manner contrary to Russia’s espoused authoritarian values, doesn't this set a dangerous precedent in a neighborhood that has come so far since the days of its repressive Communist chokehold? Who’s next? Ukraine and its “Orange Revolution”? EU/NATO Members like Poland (always a victim of the Russian bully’s proverbial wedgie)? As the T-72’s were rolling into Georgia, you could almost hear the former Eastern Bloc’s collective teeth chattering.

So, Godspeed to Georgia and the rest of Russia’s neighbors, whose misfortune it is to occupy territory adjacent to such a wretched country and people. And to the American left, please don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees.