Graham and Lieberman on Georgia
Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, two devoted McCainiacs--and possible VPs?--got together to write a WSJ op-ed on Georgia and Russia. Needless to say, Putin Derangement Syndrome was out in force:
The pair opens the essay expressing relief that Moscow was “deterred from marching on Tbilisi and militarily overthrowing the democratically elected government there..."--talk about fighting wars in your imagination!
It’s get worse from there:
Also needed, immediately, is a joint commitment by the U.S. and the European Union to fund a large-scale, comprehensive reconstruction plan—developed by the Georgian government, in consultation with the World Bank, IMF and other international authorities—and for the U.S. Congress to support this plan as soon as it returns to session in September.
I’m sensing that Georgia is going to become the next great sinkhole in which we toss our increasingly devalued currency, all under the auspices of the “international community.”
The recent missile-defense agreement between Poland and the U.S., for instance, is not aimed at Russia. But this has not stopped senior Russian officials from speaking openly about military retaliation against Warsaw.
“Why, we wouldn’t even think about threatening Russia with a missile system in its backyard, but...”
In the long run, a Russia that tries to define its greatness in terms of spheres of influence, client states and forced fealty to Moscow will fail—impoverishing its citizens in the process.
I’ll refrain from commenting on the hypocrisy of that one.
[T]he watchword of the West must be solidarity: solidarity with the people of Georgia and its democratically elected government, solidarity with our allies throughout the region, and above all, solidarity with the values that have given meaning to our trans-Atlantic community of democracies and our vision of a European continent that is whole, free and at peace.
Whenever you hear people talking about having solidarity with “values,” it probably means they’re dreaming up some really unnecessary and expensive military commitment.
Yglesias makes the important point that the whole missile defense system we’re not threatening Russia with might not even be operational:
From the beginning, the main international issue with the missile defense program has been that Russia views it as a means of undermining the credibility of their nuclear deterrent and rendering them available to American nuclear first strike. At the same time, the technology doesn’t work! And critics have long argued that it makes little sense to proceed with unworkable technology that promises to badly damage our relationship with Russia. And yet the missile defense proponents pressed on and now are shocked — shocked! — that Russia isn’t playing nice. At which point Poland, clearly as a move sponsored by a desire to spit at Russia because of Moscow’s bad behavior, signs on to the missile plan. So Russia gets mad. And this is further evidence of Russian perfidy.
Comments
I guess it will be a big my bad from the neo-cons if a missile gets launched and their fake multi-billion welfare project fails to launch. But we spent billions on the fighter jock wet dream air force that was no where to be seen on Sept 11 and no one gave a damn or even bothered to ask where the hell the airplanes at Andrews AFB were hiding.
We would have been just as well served by a Piper Cub and a boy scout.
Bush appears to be massing 5 carrier attack groups in the Gulf. The October surprise is either going to be an attack on Iran or an oil embargo. Maybe November supply since $10 a gallon gas and a economic crash might tip things Obama’s way.
Naw, McCain is a sho in and we’re toast.
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Great piece! In today’s Financial Times, the Russian president points out that Georgia refused Russia’s request that both countries sign an agreement renouncing any use of force in South Ossetia. Apparently the US blocked Russia’s effort to get the UN Security Council to put out an emergency resolution denouncing any use of military force in South Ossetia.
The US and Israel armed and trained the Georgian army, knowing that Mikheil Saakashvili was determined to bring the separatists to heel. Russia sees this as throwing gasoline on the fire. Who can fault them for that point of view?
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Talk, talk, talk. The US can do nothing about the Caucasus situation and it will do nothing,
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”Whenever you hear people talking about having solidarity with “values,” it probably means they’re dreaming up some really unnecessary and expensive military commitment.”
I agree with Richard’s statement (above). The following might be of interest to some…
August 26, 2008: “Bipartisan Peas In The Neocon Pod”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/022506.html
It seems as if the dynamic duo (Graham and Lieberman) have plans to enrich themselves and their friends at our expense...again!
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The military-industrial complex that so rattled President Eisenhower was constructed around defense against the Big Threat – a nuclear-powered, militant rival capable of turning the earth into a battlefield with the same proficiency as could we. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, our deathware industries have lacked that kind of chronic foe with which to hammer the hapless American taxpayer. The Mideast and its endless wars have provided quick cash for the bullets-and-bombs shops, especially now that we’ve burrowed ourselves into the relentlessly blood-drenched region since the first Gulf War in 1991 (oddly, the same year the USSR fell… or perhaps not so oddly). But that’s chickenfeed compared to the wasteful expenditures of the Cold War, where Star Wars-type fiascos sucked up tax money like four-year-olds drain chocolate malts. These obscenely expensive “weapons systems” didn’t have to work – merely endure as budget items. Those were fat times for American science and industry. Renewed enmity with Russia would bring it all back.
This ridiculous lock-step championing of a country few this side of the Caucasus give a damn about has nothing to do with justice and democracy. We’ve been trying to kick start conflict with Russia for a long time; this little flap is the Tonkin Gulf of that stratagem. A good indication of just who’s pushing this neo-Cold War is on display in Randy Scheunemann’s http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1347.html “ ]resume[/url]: classic neoconservative tendency of mixing personal enrichment with perverse politics and hard-wire connections to the military-industrial complex. He’s John McCain’s foreign-policy advisor and as such guaranteed to be high in the State Department or Pentagon apparatus of any GOP Administration, 2008-2012.
The one new wrinkle is that this time around, we’re busting off a piece of the action for Israel’s burgeoning arms industries. Seems wherever we go, our parasitic li’l ally is sure to tag along. Other than that, we’ve got a perfect recreation of the immediate postwar era, a 50-year regression needing for completion only backyard bomb shelters and Ike-era martini abuse.
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Couldn’t swing the HTML links program: Scheunemann’s resumer on RightWeb is at:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1347.html
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Why are we seeing so little about Randall Scheunemann and his lobbyshop in the major US newspapers? Scheunemann was paid $900,000 by Georgia to present Saakashvili to the US and the world as the champion of freedom and democracy. Just what this country needs: a virulent neocon helping to run the US war machine!
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Joe Lieberman should spend less time shilling for the military Industrial complex or Israel and more time in the festering decay of Bridgeport , Hartford, New Haven , Norwalk, Stamford, New London et etc etc. .
These people are no longer representatives of their constituency or a State, they’re full time Federal Lobbyists for a Crypto-Fascist Security State that thinks it does not have to worry that the currency is shot to hell or the citizenry is losing jobs. So much for securitization.
Compared to these charlatans, Hamilton was a genuine Jeffersonian. Compared to these guys, the average thief is a public servant....if only because they do not do so much damage.
I for one hope McCain picks Lieberman as his running mate. It would be a fitting climax to the lobotomy of the debauched and witless GOP.
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What’s the harm in getting paid to lobby, standing alone, when Sibel Edmonds’ story isn’t considered newsworthy by US media.
Let’s give Rupert Murdoch his due—without the Times’ coverage, this would be basically an internet, American Conservative and Dallas Morning News exclusive in the Anglosphere.
Not that I know the rights and wrongs of her story, but for Pete’s sake you’d think it would be NEWS by any measure.
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Hey, Taki, your software wouldn’t let me through with the Times’ links . . . wait, could it be that Taki is part of the global nuclear smuggling conspiracy? We know he has some international smuggling experience, but nothing to suggest that he’s any good at it (as opposed to tennis/polo/judo/writing & the social arts.)
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