I usually, of a morning, scan the headlines on the Washington Post online, including the opinion section on the upper left of the front page. And usually, when I see Charles Krauthammer has some new chum for wingnutfish flung there, I shake my head and move on - why should I burden my brain with the rantings of a sociopathic psychiatrist?
Today, however, when I saw this headline: "How to Stop Putin" I cruised over to see the bait.
What I found was an indicator of just how bankrupt American foreign policy has become under the Bush-Cheney Republicans.
Like a number of analysts, Krauthammer not unreasonably sees the late Russian actions in the Caucasus in the context of a wider movement to bring back the lost influence of Russia over its near neighbors. And to bring the Cold War analogy home to those who just don't get it he says:
The real objective is the Finlandization of Georgia through the removal of President Mikheil Saakashvili and his replacement by a Russian puppet.
Such a reading of the situation is not unreasonable - I have thought pretty much the same thing myself in viewing this mess. It is, after all, what great powers do, historically: secure their borders as best they can by assuring pliant neighboring regimes - by hook or by crook, with carrot and stick.
We may not like how Russia has commenced to do this; I certainly reject and denounce attacks on civilian population by anyone for whatever reason; these are crimes against humanity no matter how one explains or justifies them.
Of course, what Russia has achieved, according to this article in this morning's New York Times, is a fait accompli: Russia troops will remain in Georgia proper - beyond the borders of Ossetia and Abkhazia - as long as they please. The Georgians, at the urging of French President Sarkozy, have signed up for this (or else, as the saying goes).
And moreover, whines Krauthammer, the Russians are gonna have all our Central Asia oil! Waaah!
So now, as Lenin famously asked, "What is to be done."
In short, here is Kraumhammer's bold strategy for success in the face of Putin's Georgian challenge:
- Suspend the NATO-Russia Council established in 2002 to help bring Russia closer to the West. Make clear that dissolution will follow suspension. The council gives Russia a seat at the NATO table. Message: Invading neighboring democracies forfeits the seat.
- Bar Russian entry to the World Trade Organization.
- Dissolve the G-8. Putin's dictatorship long made Russia's presence in this group of industrial democracies a farce, but no one wanted to upset the bear by expelling it. No need to. The seven democracies simply withdraw. (And if Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, who has been sympathetic to Putin's Georgia adventure, wants to stay, he can have an annual G-2 dinner with Putin.) Then immediately announce the reconstitution of the original G-7.
- Announce a U.S.-European boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi. To do otherwise would be obscene. Sochi is 15 miles from Abkhazia, the other Georgian province just invaded by Russia. The Games will become a riveting contest between the Russian, Belarusan and Jamaican bobsled teams.
In other words, America should: stop talking to the Russkies; deny them entry to a failed capitalist-imperialist conspiracy against the working people of the world; take our (deflated) economic football and go home; and hold our cultural breath until the Russians turn blue.
Oh, as an addendum, Krauthammer suggests that
President Bush could cash in on his close personal relationship with Putin by sending him a copy of the highly entertaining (and highly fictionalized) film "Charlie Wilson's War" to remind Vlad of our capacity to make Russia bleed. Putin would need no reminders of the Georgians' capacity and long history of doing likewise to invaders.
In other words, Bush should threaten to sic the fierce Georgians, plus Osama bin Laden and our staunch Islamic allies, on bad old Pooty Poot. That 'll teach 'em.
Note what Krauthammer does not advise: Admit Georgia to NATO, ASAP.
Again, I think Krauthammer's lame response here as good and honest (ahem) an indicator as we might see from the neocons regarding the hole Bush-Cheney Republican have dug for the influence of America and the West in the opening decade of the 21st Century.