ninme

First, cribbing from CDR Salamander:

From The Corner, I quote VDH in whole; Patience…

We are a little more than a week into the crisis, and already Russia has already gotten itself more than just fights with Georgia—but also issued creepy threats to Poland over missiles, and to the Ukraine over naval bases. Putin has galvanized into panic most of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, prompted a radical change of policy in the United States, and embarrassed its once sure support from the appeasement bloc of the European Union. What will next week bring? A Georgian insurgency, replete with stingers, anti-tank guns, and ieds? Increased arms sales to the former republics? Tougher talk from Obama?

Meanwhile who can figure out the politics here at home? Bush—who inherited (and continued a policy) from Clinton of expanding NATO to the east, integrating the former Soviet republics into the West, and isolating Serbia—is to be criticized both for doing too much in poking the Russian Bear while, being mesmerized by Putin’s eyes, not doing enough to help Georgia?

Once again for the Left, if it is a question of supporting Democratic states and those in them from tyrants—or finding new creative ways of blaming the United States first—well, the answer is a no-brainer.

And from paleos one expected a sort of ‘Georgia’s bigmouth stuck his neck in a noose, so let him hang’ , but the near gleeful admiration for the way ‘ole Putin ‘took care of business’ in his backyard was over the top even for them.

Obama initially sounded like the therapeutic high-school principal and his ‘zero-tolerance’ doctrine of moral equivalence ias he expels both the victim and the bully; but his calls for UN solutions, talks with equally at fault parties, and apparent trust in the wisdom of the EU and the power of NATO may not just scare Eastern Europeans but even those 200,000 who deified him at Berlin. (But in fairness, they were warned when Obama lectured them that the “world” had saved Berlin during the airlift rather than the US Air Force.) Nothing is scarier for a Western European than to be praised for his sophisticated dipomacy as a prelude to being asked to lead on his own in times of crises.

Nuff said, but you need to add this tidbit from the Ukrainians over the weekend.

Ukraine inflamed mounting East-West tensions yesterday by offering up a Soviet-built satellite facility as part of the European missile defence system. …

Ukraine said it was ready to give both Europe and America access to its missile warning systems after Russia earlier annulled a 1992 cooperation agreement involving two satellite tracking stations. Previously, the stations were part of Russia’s early-warning system for missiles coming from Europe.

“The fact that Ukraine is no longer a party to the 1992 agreement allows it to launch active cooperation with European countries to integrate its information,” a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

It follows a declaration earlier this week from Ukraine’s pro-Western president, Viktor Yushchenko, that the Russian naval lease of the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sebastopol would be scrapped if any vessels joined the conflict in Georgia.

History; alive and kicking.

So, uh:

Ten days before Russian tanks and infantry invaded the democratic and pro-Western Republic of Georgia, the federal government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) terminated all Voice of America (VoA) radio broadcasts to Russia, The Washington Examiner has learned. This means that throughout the still unfolding international crisis, a key communications tool that helped win the Cold War for the United States has been mute.

So… Has anyone noticed besides The Washington Examiner? Voice of America, for instance?

The Sunday Times - A world role for Britain slips away, by Michael Portillo

Another August, another unforeseen international crisis. Certainly Britain was caught napping. As the seriousness of Russia’s subjugation of Georgia became apparent, President Sarkozy zoomed around the capitals and brought about a ceasefire. While the United States was powerless to prevent the humiliation of its ally, President Bush issued threats against Moscow, Condoleezza Rice headed for Tbilisi and America poured aid into the devastated areas. Britain was invisible.

David Miliband, the foreign secretary, once remarked, when Tony Blair was still prime minister, that we would miss him once he had been replaced by Gordon Brown. Well, I certainly do. If Blair were still in office the United Kingdom would have been more evident and effective during this crisis. Somehow he would have ignored the fact that France holds the presidency of the European Union and would have discovered a role for himself and his country.

Blair’s detractors will say that was precisely his problem. He could not resist embroiling us in foreign policy adventures, cutting a dash way beyond what Britain merited or could sustain. For the majority in his own party, Iraq was the ultimate demonstration of Blair’s hubris and it brought him down.

That hostile analysis of Blair leaves out important points. The Iraq war was disastrous during his premiership, but it did not stop him winning the 2005 election with a good majority. The war became unpopular, but Blair’s conduct of it left us in no doubt that he was a leader. He knew what he wanted and stuck to it courageously.

Ah hah!