Georgia will be an ongoing test for the Obama administration in how it stands up to Russia and defends budding democracies threatened by despots:
Georgia's security model banked on eventual NATO membership. Rather than preparing its armed forces for territorial defense, Saakashvili used U.S. trainers to drill them for NATO missions in places such as Iraq. Now Russia has proved that territorial invasion as a real threat, while the war has prompted already-reluctant Europeans to dismiss further discussion of NATO. So should Georgia now buy anti-tank missiles and other defensive weapons? Seek a bilateral security guarantee from the United States? Trust that Western diplomacy will deter Russia from another intervention? No one in Tbilisi has yet formulated an answer.
That's largely because the Georgians are waiting to see how much Obama will be willing to do to save a small country on the Black Sea coast that for most of the past two centuries has been a Russian vassal. "We are in a weak and vulnerable situation right now, but we feel this can be changed by a new era of American leadership," Saakashvili told me. "The United States has never been in a better position to lead than it is now. The whole world is waiting for Obama."
Georgia needs our help to turn their military from a peacekeeping force into an army that can make the price of conquering Georgia too high for Russia to pay lightly.
And don't worry about this offending Russia or making them think we are out to get them. Those demographically blighted lunatics are clinically paranoid. And one of the inmates who is in charge of the Russian nuclear missiles needs state-of-the-art therapy more than weaponry:
Solovtsov also reportedly said the military will commission new RS-24 missiles equipped with state-of-the-art systems to help penetrate a missile shield. He did not specify that Moscow intended to penetrate a U.S. missile shield, but the Kremlin has fiercely opposed the U.S. plan to deploy a battery of 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a related radar in the Czech Republic.
Russia has criticized U.S. plans for space-based weapons, saying they could trigger a new arms race. Washington has resisted efforts by Russia and China to negotiate a global ban on weapons in space.
Reflecting Russia's suspicions about U.S. intentions, Solovtsov alleged Monday that the U.S. is considering the scenario of a first nuclear strike that would destroy most Russian missiles. A few surviving Russian weapons launched in retaliation could then be destroyed by the U.S. missile defense system.
How can we think that any action we take or don't take with regard to Russia won't be interpreted byt Moscow as plotting against them?
Good grief man, why would we bother nuking your backwar, vodka-addled country? We just don't care nearly enough to do that. You're non nukeworthy, for Pete's sake!
I hoped that Russia would eventually come to their senses and join the West. I'd welcome them if they did so. But I'm beginning to think that these guys are just sick at the DNA level and all we can do is step warily around them and hope their final implosion isn't too dangerous for the rest of the world.
Support Georgia. It's the right thing to do and it won't cause Russia to be hostile. They're doing just fine on that score all on their own.
