Prodding Putin

Wow, Cheney’s really going at it, isn’t he? Let’s look at the Vice President’s week in the spotlight:

1. First he calls out Russia for trying to reclaim Soviet land.
2. Then he strongly reaffirms U.S. support for Georgia, unilaterally committing the entire American people to subsidizing Georgia’s economic and military recovery and giving the Georgians more (false?) hope for eventually joining NATO.
3. Then he makes more promises to Ukraine.
4. Now he’s accusing the Kremlin of “reverting to old tactics of intimidation and using ‘brute force.’ “

What’s next? Is he going to take off his shoe and start banging it on the table? Is he trying to deliberately provoke Russia? Maybe he’s the one living in 1989. I don’t excuse Russia’s behavior towards Georgia, but this counteraggression from the veep is probably crossing some sort of line. Keep it up, and he might just get the Russians angr—wait a minute….

Georgia deserves half the blame

Vice President Dick Cheney today became the latest American official to condemn Russia’s invasion of Georgia, calling the move an “illegitimate, unilateral attempt” to bully a smaller, democratic nation into submission and reclaim old Soviet territory. Cheney joins a host of other top leaders from around the globe who have denounced Russia’s aggressive response to Georgia’s own military actions against domestic secessionists.

With all the outcry over Russia’s wrongdoing, have people forgotten who started it all? The Georgians were the first to precipitate conflict, assuming from the start that they would receive heavy U.S. backing. If Tblisi was actually under threat, a pre-emptive strike against S. Ossetia and Abkhazia might have been justified. As it turned out, however, Saakashvili’s bid to regain control of the breakaway provinces was itself a premeditated act of unnecessary aggression. If anything, the U.S. should be scolding Georgia for taking American support for granted and starting a war that didn’t have to happen.