McCain's War On Russia

His age is showing and not in a good way. McCain is nostalgic for the Cold War, when Russia was an enemy the U.S. loved to hate.

Politico: Obama, Bush and others made their shifts in tone as the brutal, disproportional nature of Russia’s response began to become clear. But McCain’s confrontational stance on the Caucasus crisis stems from a long, personal skepticism of Russian intentions, one that dates back to the Cold War and which eased only briefly in the early 1990s.

Indeed, McCain, who publicly confronted Putin in Munich last year, may be the most visible — and now potentially influential — American antagonist of Russia. What remains to be seen is whether the endgame to the Georgia crisis makes McCain seem prophetic or headstrong and whether his muscular rhetoric plays a role in defining for voters the kind of commander in chief he would be.

What is not in doubt is McCain’s view of Russia. His belief that Moscow harbors dangerous aspirations goes back a long way, as does his fervent view that the only way to quiet the Russian bear is through tough talk and threat of real consequences — and certainly not through accommodation.
McCain has suggested he sees Russia’s danger to its neighbors through a long historical lens. As far back as 1996, when Russia was near economic ruin and governed by an erratic Boris Yeltsin, he warned of the danger of “Russian nostalgia for empire.”

That belief has not changed. “I think it’s very clear that Russian ambitions are to restore the old Russian empire," McCain told local reporters on his bus in Pennsylvania on Monday. "Not the Soviet Union, but the Russian empire."

Even if he is right and Russia has sinister ambitions, McCain shouldn't be poking and prodding because it makes the situation worse. It's Bush all over. Axis of evil. 

“This is a guy who grew up in the Cold War, was a military person and an honorable man, but has not changed his ways of thinking about Russia,” said Jonathan Elkind, a Democrat who served on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council. The U.S. should be “explaining with precision what we don't like about their behavior, rather than saying he ‘looked into Putin’s eyes and saw KGB.’ That has an adolescent quality that gets us exactly nowhere.”

"Speaking directly to the Russians as opposed to in some pugnacious Cold War-fashion is what this modern challenge needs," said Mark Brzezinski, an informal foreign policy adviser to the Obama campaign. "What Russia needs to know is that it will be globally ostracized — and Barack Obama's global approach is different from the state-to-state balance of power approach that is visible in the McCain talking points."

McCain is not alone, pundits are out in force talking about the conflict.
Here's a sampling:
Russia on the march
Russia was right
Russia heading for a fall
The great game

McCain Says We're All Georgians

Update: Sarkozy appears to have been successful in getting both sides to halt the use of military force. 

McCain, by the way, has been butchering the Georgian president's name for days. More Bush! 

McCain apparently held a town hall today and used the conflict to boost his war credentials. To me, all of this illustrates the need for diplomatic relations, not war. Pitting good against evil is too black and white and ignorant if you ask me. But what do I know. Here's someone who says McCain is clueless.

MSNBC: Using the Georgian president's nickname -- although mispronouncing his last name -- McCain said he spoke with President "Misha" Saakashvili today and reassured him that "the thoughts and the prayers and support of the American people are with that brave little nation as they struggle for their freedom and independence."

"And he wanted me to say thank you to you, to give you his heartfelt thanks for the support of the American people for this tiny little democracy far away from the United States of America," McCain said of his conversation with Saakashvili. "And I told him that I know I speak for every American when I say to him, 'Today we are all Georgians.'"

There is so much conflicting information out about who started what but McCain just can't stop himself. While he finds it easy to poke at Russia, people die. It's a good thing France's president Nicolas Sarkozy has taken the lead on this:

AFP: Efforts to find a diplomatic way out of the crisis were led Tuesday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who travelled to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart about a European proposed peace plan.

Sarkozy told Medvedev his announced ceasefire was "good news" but that it had to be implemented.

Russia and France agreed on the need for international talks on the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as one of six principles for ending the conflict, Medvedev said after his talks with Sarkozy, who is now in Tbilisi to meet with the Georgian side.

A story in Newsweek says the West can share blame:

There is no excusing Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion of Georgia (yes, it was Putin; Dmitri Medvedev has been the president since May, but it was now-Prime Minister Putin who flew to a border staging area to confer with Russian generals). Still, we ought to try to understand what is motivating Putin and his fellow Russian revanchists. And, as the West confronts its own weakness in response—Putin well knows that NATO is bogged down in Afghanistan, America is stretched thin in Iraq and Europe depends on his energy lifeline—we should acknowledge that at least some of the blame lies, as it does so often, with our own hubris. Since the cold war ended, the United States has been pushing the buttons of Russian frustration and paranoia by moving ever further into Moscow's former sphere of influence. And we have rarely stopped to consider whether we were overreaching, even as evidence mounted that the patience of a wealthier and more assertive Russia was wearing very thin.

McCain Ready To Start War With Russia

In this video, Rachel Maddow talks about the differences between Obama and McCain's approach to foreign policy, using the conflict in Georgia as an example. 

The main difference: McCain is threatening Russia, poking them, which pleases many voters who think that America's military can solve any problem.

Obama recognizes the complexity of the problem and advocates solving the conflict by methods other than force. The problem is, America has lost its standing and respect in the world. Nobody listens to George Bush when he calls for cease fire. Nobody listens to Bush when he calls for diplomacy. I think that was apparent on Obama's overseas visit. 



Obama's response