Due to continued operations under the “anything to win” and “no one else in the world matters” modes of thinking, President Mikheil Saakashvili’s dubious democratic credentials and Georgia’s supposed innocence in the South Ossetian conflict are being injected into the 2008 Elections, with the usual obfuscation and dishonesty.
Mark Ames of Exiled Online and The Nation, discusses the use of Georgia in the current election cycle by the Republican ticket, and their ties to Georgia through the oil industry and through McCain’s presidential advisor/lobbyist for Georgia, Randy Scheunemann.
There are plenty of examples of this, but the following are a couple just to cover all the bases.
“In her first interview with the media since being picked as Republican John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin said that Georgia should join NATO and war might be necessary if Russia invaded the country again.”
John McCain: “I know I speak for every American when I say to him [Sakaashvili]: Today, we are all Georgians”
No ambiguity there. Russia is phrased as an aggressor; Georgia as a NATO nation (a “brave little nation”, at that); and that America (and the rest of the world that would be dragged in) would be justified TO START WAR AGAINST RUSSIA in defense of Georgia.
And this is all done, in my opinion, to look tough and corral votes. By running to the firmest position without thinking (or perhaps allowing paid lobbyist to do the thinking for them), they one-up any similar attempts by Democrats. As cynical as I am, even I don’t believe Palin or McCain believes that a war with Russia would be in America’s (or anyone’s) best interests. A war between America and Russia would likely only benefit whatever bacteria and insects that survive the armageddon that would result.
For the sake of looking tough enough to be Commander-in-Chief (or Commmander-in-Chief-in-Waiting), we are going to overlook Georgia’s likely significant role in precipitation of this conflict, their waning democracy, and the increasingly authoritarian leanings of the Saakashvili presidency. A nation of five million must continue to lose their few hard fought for freedoms because John McCain and Sarah Palin want to run the country. And Americans need to be impressed.
… and the cow goes moo
I hope no one reading this thinks this is an isolated incident.
And if this sort of behaviour is news to you, let me assure you, it is not news to those of us living outside the USA. Americans have an image of being FAMOUS for this shit. This is yet another half-assed intervention in another people’s dire matters, where personal largess or aggrandizement comes first, and a few million lives comes a distant second.
… the metacow
Interesting perspective. It worries me that people elsewhere in the world might think this is how to run elections – and run a country. I know many good and concerned Americans who care about their communities, do care about people in the rest of the world, take in refugees from conflict elsewhere, and send a great deal of money to support development work elsewhere (much more than the US sends in official development assistance). So it puzzles me greatly that US politics often seems so profoundly insular. The Aga Khan says democracy is as fragile as any other political system; he’s right.
Thanks, outsider.
That’s certainly a valid point as well: We always act as if we’re the paragon of democracy. I have to hope others don’t buy into that claim as much as we do and take our lead in conduct of their own.
But people are the same, roughly, in America as in any other nation (for better or for worse). Sadly, I’d expect macho posturing has a similar effect there as here.
I don’t expect voters to become experts overnight on South Ossetia, or to stop wanting to feel protected by their leaders. I do wish that something so heinous as using the prospects of an ill thought up war, or glossing over a leader’s democratic bona fides, would be called out by every journalist who should know better (ie. all of them).
… the metacow
[...] apparently he reads my blog (what other explanation could there be?) as he bitches a bit about John McCain’s “We [...]
[...] briefly on the impact of America’s portrayal on the health of Georgia’s democracy here. I posted at greater length on the odd shift in framing of the start of the conflict on the [...]
[...] August) and many Democrats been equally supportive of Georgia as McCain (though far less succint: “Today we are all Georgians”), but the New York Times and others in the mainstream print media have been vociferously [...]