Biden's trip this past week to Georgia at the request of the very unstable Georgian President Saakashvili, who apparently eats his own ties, must now been updated with added emphasis after being selected as a running mate for Barack Obama.
If you remember, Biden's statements on returning from his meeting were this:
"I left the country convinced that Russia's invasion of Georgia may be the one of the most significant event to occur in Europe since the end of communism.
Which mirrored McCain's heavily criticized sentiments a few days earlier:
My friends, we have reached a crisis, the first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War. This is an act of aggression.
So apparently in this situation, the added foreign policy experience of Senater Joe "cutting off funding means you don’t support the troops" Biden is basically a status-quo pick in terms of foreign policy.
Although McCain has an excuse for supporting Georgia in this conflict since his Chief Foreign Policy Advisor was a lobbyist for the Georgian government, why do we see such a slanted view from Biden?
It would seem that Biden's stance exactly mirrors that of a paid Georgian lobbyist.
Yes, for many who pay attention to such things, this will come as no surprise. The differences in foreign policy between the mainstream right and left are barely worth mentioning.
However what is more disturbing is that Biden has plenty of condemnation for Russia, but has little sympathy for the thousands of people of South Ossetia who were massacred by Georgia, who were responsible for starting the aggression.
In his statements from August 12th, Biden had this to say:
It is too soon to know with certainty who was responsible for the initial outbreak of violence in South Ossetia, but the war that began there is no longer about Georgia’s breakaway regions or Russian peacekeepers.
Four days after the initial attack on South Ossetia, and Joe still hadn't figured it out? Really? Most of us kossacks knew by then that Georgia was responsible, so why hadn't he caught on?
Well after returning from Georgia, Biden had this to say:
The claims of Georgian atrocities that provided the pretext for Russia's invasion are rapidly being disproved by international observers...
Well Joe, how about this 12 year-old 'international observer'? Does she count?
There are many kossacks who can speak much better than I can regarding the importance of this region to the West, and I do recommend this diary for a good overview.
The long and short is this: This does not bode well for future U.S. foreign policy.