Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

BY TAYLOR MARSH

What would happen if people in power actually woke up and admitted we can’t
stop Medyedev and Putin, so all this blathering is just that, blathering; political
posturing in a presidential year that gets us nowhere. It’s not about America
looking “weak.” It’s about realism and what we can actually do in our current situation. Because no rational, studied national security person believes we can do anything about the current crisis that wouldn’t make it worse. Instead, screaming
about “Nazi Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia” is seen
as “wise.” Or as Joe Klein puts it, It’s
Raining Nazis:

When a column starts off like this: The details of who did what to precipitate Russia’s war against Georgia are not very important. Do you recall the precise details of the Sudeten Crisis that led to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia? Of course not, because that morally ambiguous dispute is rightly remembered as a minor part of a much bigger drama. The events of the past week will be remembered that way, too. …the author has got to be a neoconservative pushing for the next war.

But when you have a presidential candidate lifting whole passages of his Georgian
rhetoric from Wikipedia, I’d say the knee jerk response to always rattle sabers
is so ingrained that nobody even questions where someone gets their talking
points or if where this vaunted veteran wants to lead the U.S. is anywhere we should follow. Who bothers to wonder what would happen if the U.S., instead of verbally
stepping in something as a precursor to military nation building, an oxymoron
at best, we simply said, as Obama did, to the U.N.? As for
McCain, this is ridiculously embarrassing.

From
the Wikipedia editor:

First instance: one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion (Wikipedia) vs. one of the world’s first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion (McCain) Second instance: After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia had a brief period of independence as a Democratic Republic (1918-1921), which was terminated by the Red Army invasion of Georgia. Georgia became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 and regained its independence in 1991. Early post-Soviet years was marked by a civil unrest and economic crisis. (Wikipedia) vs. After a brief period of independence following the Russian revolution, the Red Army forced Georgia to join the Soviet Union in 1922. As the Soviet Union crumbled at the end of the Cold War, Georgia regained its independence in 1991, but its early years were marked by instability, corruption, and economic crises. (McCain)

Did he or didn’t he? You slog it out. Either way, what McCain is advocating
is Bush policies pushed forward, Wilsonian foreign policy yet again, which didn’t work out so well
the first time, if you’ve checked your history, recent or otherwise.