August 13, 2008 04:46 PM
Speaking to reporters about the situation in Georgia, Sen. John McCain denounced the aggressive posture of Russia by claiming that:"in the 21st century nations don't invade other nations."
It was the type of foreign policy rhetorical blunder that has regularly plagued the McCain campaign and could have diplomatic ripples as well. Certainly the comment was meant in innocence. But for those predisposed to the notion that the U.S. is an increasingly arrogant international actor, the suggestion by a presidential candidate that, in this day and age, countries don't invade one another -- when the U.S. is occupying two foreign nations -- does little to alleviate that negative perception.
There is another, less controversial undertone to McCain's remark. Since the Georgia-Russia hostilities have commenced, parallels have been drawn to U.S. intervention in Iraq. The two scenarios are highly different in all intents and purposes, both due to regional significance and the longstanding territorial disputes. But some still would dispute the idea, as McCain seemed to imply, that America's involvement in Iraq is any less an invasion than Russia's involvement in Georgia.
Later in his press conference, McCain was asked to address how the Georgian crisis -- which has ceded to a tenuous ceasefire -- was amplified on the campaign trail. The presumptive Republican nominee demurred from attempts to get him to engage with Barack Obama.
"This isn't a time for partisanship and sniping between campaigns," he said. "This is about hundreds of thousand of individuals whose lives are being taken... Maybe later on in the campaign let's have a back and forth about whose comments and statements... but now lets devote all our efforts to resolving a situation that is fraught with tragedy."
A subsequent questioner asked McCain whether this non-partisan window applied to Sen. Joseph Lieberman as well, who, at a townhall on Tuesday, suggested that Barack Obama had not always "put his country first." McCain's answer was classically evasive.
"Let me respond by just saying that I think that whatever we think at the moment that we can all reserve that for a future time. And I think that judgments will be made about how we handled this situation and approached the situation in Iraq and how much experience knowledge and background means in selecting who should be the next commander in chief, all I can say is there will be plenty of time for that and we can move forward. "
- Sam Stein
14 Comments
IrishmanDescribed in today's Guardian newspaper (UK) as "an outpouring of the most nauseating hypocrisy from western politicians and their captive media." in a piece lovingly entitled
"This is a tale of US expansion not Russian aggression"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/russia.georgia
chilaxeIrishman, it's an injustice to the complexity of the situation to continually describe one side of this conflict as 100% correct.
It's easy to say from a distance that it'd be fine to live under the domination of a larger military power, but the countries that actually have to do that feel quite differently, which is why Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine have all rallied behind Georgia.
Military conflicts are always stupid.
rougyThat's true, it's rare that one side is 100% correct.
It's also true that the USA has become the most militarily aggressive country in the world today, in terms both overt and covert.
It's also true that the country of Georgia was under the guidance of the USA both politically and militarily.
Given those truths, I don't think it's very hard to deduce who was mostly in the right and who was mostly in the wrong.
The really frustrating thing is that it's neigh impossible for an American to find out what the hell is really going on over there, thanks to our right-wing disinformative "news" corporations.
EDDrougy, you should try living in Russia and drawing info from Russian media for a change. here's a suggestion - instead you could try poking your eyes out and piercing your eardrums - the effect on the amount of accurate and honest information you'd receive would be pretty much the same.
While it's true that it is in US interests to support Georgia and so it has thus far, neither the States nor Georgia benefited from this war one bit except with hypothetical political sentiment leaning towards them and against Russia. And those thousands of civilians dead and the whole country upturned and marauded is a bit too high a price to pay for a tiny ounce of political leverage, no?
thinker247This isn't just a political blunder. If some random guy on the street said nations don't invade nations anymore, we'd stare at him and chuckle. McCain has truly lost his damn mind.
chilaxeHis sentiment is probably meant to be 'democracies don't invade democracies,' which doesn't contradict the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but he deserves all the criticism he'll get because his careless wording is just reinforcing the picture of US foreign policy as hypocritical and unreflective.
Octopussyhttp://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/08/12/georgia.jpg
rougy>> ^EDD:
And those thousands of civilians dead and the whole country upturned and marauded is a bit too high a price to pay for a tiny ounce of political leverage, no?
Are you familiar with something known as the Bush/Cheney administration?
You should spend a little time looking into their activities regarding 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, John Kerry Swiftboaters, and Katrina, for starters, then get back to me about political leverage.
Maybe provoking Russia into attacking Georgia provided a little "leverage" for the Poles to host the USA's missile shield, no?
MINK>> ^chilaxe:
Irishman, it's an injustice to the complexity of the situation to continually describe one side of this conflict as 100% correct.
It's easy to say from a distance that it'd be fine to live under the domination of a larger military power, but the countries that actually have to do that feel quite differently, which is why Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine have all rallied behind Georgia.
Military conflicts are always stupid.
Hear hear. Always stupid.
But I am in Lithuania, I can tell you the "support for georgia" is almost entirely an opportunity to express anti-russian anger and vengeance, rather than a call for peace. After a "peace" demonstration they sang old traditional lithuanian war hymns about "get on your horse and go to battle". wtf.
The connection between "russkies go home" and "yankees go home" is entirely lost on the majority people here. They are blinded by the opportunity to go on and on about russian aggression, while their own troops are in Iraq "installing democracy" with the USA.
The delivery of a tiny amount of aid to georgia by the us administration was CHEERED here. No irony detected. And support seems to be for the flag and state of georgia, not so much her people. Forget the fact that the government of georgia is fucked up, let's support it because it's not russia!!
And in my city, the town hall has a plaque on it quoting GWB from his speech in Lithuania: "Anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy, has made an enemy of the United States".
The clever thing about the "new empires" is they just stopped using the word "empire" and now everyone's fucking happy.
AbductedIt doesn't count! Russia and Georgia aren't true democracies. If anyone is allowed to waltz into lesser democracies in the middle east, then why wouldn't the same hold true here?
>> ^MINK:
And in my city, the town hall has a plaque on it quoting GWB from his speech in Lithuania: "Anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy, has made an enemy of the United States".
National identity: SOLD, to that fat guy in the back!
jwrayLOL, hypocrisy
blahpookOld man's gone senile again...
MINK>> ^Abducted:
It doesn't count! Russia and Georgia aren't true democracies. If anyone is allowed to waltz into lesser democracies in the middle east, then why wouldn't the same hold true here?
go and read about what "true democracy" is.
>> ^MINK:
And in my city, the town hall has a plaque on it quoting GWB from his speech in Lithuania: "Anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy, has made an enemy of the United States".
>>>>>National identity: SOLD, to that fat guy in the back!
it's called NATO, (not the NA Empire, obviously) and the Lithuanian politicians are clamouring for more of it, because of russia's "imperial aggression". It's twisted.
Here's a photo from a music festival this weekend, which is itself a propaganda action against belarussia, being subverted into a progeorgian demonstration by the liberal dishing out of free georgian flags to kids who don't know their history.
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc18/kineticdreams/16082008191.jpg
very sad state of affairs to be experiencing perverted nationalism in europe.
fortunately many people are sick of it, as i am.
8189"Nations don't invade other nations." Really? So I guess a sizeable portion of the US military has been on "vacation" in Iraq for the last 5 years?
McCain needs to go take his meds and have a nap.
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.