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.
Posted by Brian Fung 
