I am no expert in Russia-Georgia politics, but the talk coming out of that part of the world over the past few days reminded me of something I wrote about four years ago.,,
When talk of invading Iraq first started heating up, my first reaction was that it was just wrong. Not because I knew a lot about Iraq, but it just didn't fit with my "Let's set a good example" policy. By invading with no direct provocation, we were telling the world "if you don't like something, it's ok to do something about it." And we've had been fighting that rationale for decades.
Well, looks like Putin and friends are now using the Bush-McCain doctrine to their advantage. More.
With the "Iraq War Resolution" in 2002 and the subsequent invasion of Iraq, it seemed that after 227 years of prudence and restraint, the new criteria for starting an all-out war boiled down to two points:
- We don’t like you and you may one day pose a threat
- We can kick your ass
So it would seem, in reading Russian’s rationale in today’s Guardian:
Zalid Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the UN, asked his Russian counterpart Vitali Churkin: "Is the goal of the Russian Federation to change the leadership of Georgia?" Churkin replied: "There are leaders who become an obstacle. Sometimes those leaders need to contemplate how useful they have become to their people."
While Russia may not have started this conflict, they are increasingly stretching their military muscles at the expense of innocent lives. But you ask, is it fair to link the Bush-McCain Doctrine with the current events? It seems the connection is pretty obvious to Putin, as quoted in HuffPo:
"Of course, Saddam Hussein ought to have been hanged for destroying several Shiite villages," Putin said in Moscow. "And the incumbent Georgian leaders who razed 10 Ossetian villages at once, who ran elderly people and children with tanks, who burned civilian alive in their sheds -- these leaders must be taken under protection."
Perhaps every country has used military strength to overreach their natural destiny at some point or another. But super powers should be playing by a separate set of rules. Without a higher moral standing, you become nothing more than a school yard bully.
Since becoming a true super power, the United States has certainly been involved in military conflicts around the world. But we didn’t start WWI. We didn’t start WWII. We didn’t start the Korean War. Vietnam. Or Operation Desert Storm. In some cases, we took one on the chin rather than strike pre-emptively.
But that all changed with the Bush-McCain doctrine. We authorized a whole new set of standards. And Russia was more than happy to take us up in this invitation.
UPDATE: made a few tweaks to title/text based on feedback. Tx.