from today's Star-Tribune:
August 13, 2008
Last week, the Russians invaded an established, pro-Western democracy in a strategically vital region. This week, the Russians have continued driving their infantry columns deeper into Georgia, they have bombed civilian areas, and they have wrought all of this carnage without any U.N. approval.
This is truly earth-shattering news.
Americans should be appalled at the lack of attention paid to the major international security crisis in Georgia by the media, by our government and by the world community.
We should have expected that the broadcast media would interrupt Olympic coverage and that cable news would begin a series of stories on the background and analysis of the Georgian war, not place Olympic biographies and stories about the John Edwards affair as lead news items.
We should have expected that any major political party's presidential candidate would return from vacation to Washington in order to jointly denounce the Russians' actions in Georgia, not issue spineless statements on the moral equivalency of the Russian and Georgian positions from a Hawaiian golf course.
We should have expected that any major political party's presidential candidate would return from vacation to Washington in order to jointly denounce the Russians' actions in Georgia, not issue spineless statements on the moral equivalency of the Russian and Georgian positions from a Hawaiian golf course.
We should have expected that through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, we would begin a major initiative to deter any further Russian military aggression by working publicly and jointly to add what remains of Georgia and Ukraine fully into the treaty, not continue a now-moot academic debate on whether publicly backing Ukraine and Georgia might "provoke" Russian bullying.
Academic analysis of our national-security situation since 9/11 has been built largely on discussions of a "unipolar" world or a "multipolar" world. Each of these theories stands on the cornerstone assumption that the possibility of major military conflict between superpowers or blocks of nations is not on the table. The Russian invasion of Georgia should leave us all considerably less certain of such an assumption. Our analyses have been overcome by real-world events. It is time to reassess the global security situation.
Russia should now be castigated by the free-world community. Just as it did during the Cold War, it must feel the economic pain of isolation from world trade, development and exchange until it withdraws from Georgia and vows to respect the sovereignty of its neighboring states.
Sadly, today's Europe is so dependent on Russian oil that it may be a bridge too far to wait for the European Union to rally against Russian aggression. America is no longer in a position to lead such a charge, as our own infantry, tactical air assets and national-security apparatus are largely tied up in Iraq, Afghanistan and across the globe seeking Al-Qaida. Therefore, it is us, the people, who need to serve as the impetus for our governments to take more stern action toward Russia.
We have a responsibility as citizens and as free-market consumers to voice our concerns. We have a responsibility to demand adequate media coverage of the Georgian situation, to compel our governments to action, to become a united backbone of support for other democracies.
The Russians are making it very clear that they have no fear whatsoever of the West or of any United Nations reprisal. Perhaps we are largely ignoring this catastrophic crisis of international law and Russian violation of the peace because we simply don't want to acknowledge that it could signal the onset of a much larger and far more devastating conflict on the world stage. Paradoxically, for the world to sit idly by now, in Georgia's moment of need, could be far more terrifying.
Although the media and the allied governments didn't recognize it at the time, World War II began when Hitler's Nazis invaded a neighboring region without international approval, supposedly to liberate an oppressed German population. Russia now claims it has invaded Georgia to protect an oppressed Russian population. If a possible world war were to come knocking at today's American doors, would we prepare to answer, or hide under the covers?
Andrew Borene is an attorney, a university lecturer in foreign policy and a former U.S. Marine officer.
© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
