Georgia Lauds McCain as Hero

Remember when McCain said we're all Georgians now, inserting himself into the Georgian/Russian conflict, trying to score points during the election.

Obama and Joe Talk to Saakashvili and Others

Today Obama talked to:

President-elect Barack Obama today returned phone calls to three world leaders and expressed his appreciation for their congratulations on his election. President-elect Obama spoke with:

President Saakashvili of Georgia;
President Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines; and
President Gul of Turkey

Joe was chatting up some world leaders as well:

Today, Vice President-elect Joe Biden spoke with the following foreign leaders via telephone:

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe
European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Yesterday, Obama talked to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to get updates on the fires.

Sarkozy Uses Bush to Score a Point with Putin

By way of Think Progress:

Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged “by the balls” — a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Élysée Palace.

The Russian Prime Minister had revealed his plans for disposing of Mr Saakashvili when Mr Sarkozy was in Moscow in August to broker a ceasefire in Georgia.

Jean-David Levitte, Mr Sarkozy’s chief diplomatic adviser, reported the exchange in a news magazine before an EU-Russia summit today. The meeting will be chaired by the French leader and President Medvedev.

With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

BBC Asks Saakashvili About McCain Money

You've spent at least $900,000 with a lobbyist firm of Randy Schuenemann, who works for McCain, is that true?

Bush and Clinton's Failed Russia Policy

Thomas Friedman weighs in on the Russia Georgia conflict. In summary: Bush and Clinton foreign policy both failed in Russian relations. But now, U.S. must support Georgia, he says.

NYT: If the conflict in Georgia were an Olympic event, the gold medal for brutish stupidity would go to the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin. The silver medal for bone-headed recklessness would go to Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and the bronze medal for rank short-sightedness would go to the Clinton and Bush foreign policy teams.

Let’s start with us. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, I was among the group — led by George Kennan, the father of “containment” theory, Senator Sam Nunn and the foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum — that argued against expanding NATO, at that time.

It seemed to us that since we had finally brought down Soviet communism and seen the birth of democracy in Russia the most important thing to do was to help Russian democracy take root and integrate Russia into Europe. Wasn’t that why we fought the cold war — to give young Russians the same chance at freedom and integration with the West as young Czechs, Georgians and Poles? Wasn’t consolidating a democratic Russia more important than bringing the Czech Navy into NATO?

All of this was especially true because, we argued, there was no big problem on the world stage that we could effectively address without Russia — particularly Iran or Iraq. Russia wasn’t about to reinvade Europe. And the Eastern Europeans would be integrated into the West via membership in the European Union.

No, said the Clinton foreign policy team, we’re going to cram NATO expansion down the Russians’ throats, because Moscow is weak and, by the way, they’ll get used to it. Message to Russians: We expect you to behave like Western democrats, but we’re going to treat you like you’re still the Soviet Union. The cold war is over for you, but not for us. Read More

How the Russian Georgian Conflict Turned Messy

Apparently, Russia is now taking missiles into South Osettia.
Some excellent reporting by the NYT that shows there's plenty of blame to be spread around.
Georgia was led to believe that the US was going to engage militarily. Bush got too chummy with Georgian president Mikeil Saakashvili. Disagreements within the Bush administration on how to deal with Russia: Hawks and doves. I bet you can guess who they are. Russia pounces to get at the U.S. and Georgia. 
A failed administration, once again. Can't wait until Sen. Joe Biden, who's in Georgia now, at the request of Saakashvili, gives us the lowdown. Meanwhile, sadly, innocent people die. What an outrage. 

The story of how a 16-year, low-grade conflict over who should rule two small, mountainous regions in the Caucasus erupted into the most serious post-cold-war showdown between the United States and Russia is one of miscalculation, missed signals and overreaching, according to interviews with diplomats and senior officials in the United States, the European Union, Russia and Georgia. In many cases, the officials would speak only on the condition of anonymity.

It is also the story of how both Democrats and Republicans have misread Russia’s determination to dominate its traditional sphere of influence.

As with many foreign policy issues, this one highlighted a continuing fight within the administration. Vice President Dick Cheney and his aides and allies, who saw Georgia as a role model for their democracy promotion campaign, pushed to sell Georgia more arms, including Stinger antiaircraft missiles, so that it could defend itself against possible Russian aggression.

On the other side, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley and William J. Burns, the new under secretary of state for political affairs, argued that such a sale would provoke Russia, which would see it as arrogant meddling in its turf, the officials and diplomats said.

They describe three leaders on a collision course. Mr. Bush, rewarding Georgia for its robust troop contribution to Iraq — at 2,000, the third highest, behind the United States and Britain — promised NATO membership and its accompanying umbrella of American military support. Mr. Putin, angry at what he saw as American infringement right in his backyard, decided that Georgia was the line in the sand that the West would not be allowed to cross. And Mr. Saakashvili, unabashedly pro-American, was determined to show, once and for all, that Georgia was no longer a vassal of Russia.

With a vastly more confident Russia, flush with oil money, a booming economy and a rebuilt military no longer bogged down in Chechnya, the stars were aligned for a confrontation in which Russia could, with a quick show of force, teach a lesson to the United States, Georgia and all of the former Soviet satellites and republics seeking closer ties with the West.

“We have probably failed to understand that the Russians are really quite serious when they say, ‘We have interests and we’re going to defend them,’ ” said James Collins, United States ambassador to Russia from 1997 to 2001. “Russia does have interests, and at some point they’re going to stand up and draw lines that are not simply to be ignored.” This is a must read story

Biden Heads to Georgia

Sen. Joe Biden, considered an Obama vice president short lister, is headed to Georgia at the request of its president.

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and thought to be on Barack Obama’s short list for vice president, is headed to Georgia Saturday night.

His spokesman, Elizabeth Alexander said, “At the request of Georgian president (Mikhail) Saakashvilli, Chairman Biden is heading to Georgia this weekend. He is leaving this evening and will be there Sunday.”

No other Senators are traveling with him.

Countdown's Keith Olbermann is saying Biden is likely to be Obama's vice president.

McCain's League of Democracies

Just heard on "The World" John McCain wants to start a League of Democracies that would divide the world into those countries that are our friends (democracies) and those that are not. How arrogant and divisive and what a stupid idea.

That's just more George Bush: Us vs. Them and we're better. Look how far that's gotten us. Bush's foreign policy has diminished the U.S. That's why the world was so receptive to Obama. They're tired of the U.S. acting like it knows what's best for everyone.

McCain gets this idea from McCain adviser and neoconservative author Robert Kagan. I don't think people realize who's behind McCain: McCain's war cabinet

McCain also used an interesting choice of words to describe Russia recently. Seems to me McCain is getting more and more presumptuous.

The World: John McCain uses the word, revanchist to describe Russia. My go-to source on such matters (i.e. words I don’t know the meaning of) is dictionary.com:

re·vanch·ist [ruh-van-chist, -vahn-shist]
1. an advocate or supporter of a political policy of revanche, esp. in order to seek vengeance for a previous military defeat.

McCain says we are all Georgians but Georgia is clearly playing the U.S. If someone is our ally does that mean they can do no wrong and we support them no matter what?

WaPo: When it comes to apportioning blame for the latest flareup in the Caucasus, there's plenty to go around. The Russians were clearly itching for a fight, but the behavior of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has been erratic and provocative. The United States may have stoked the conflict by encouraging Saakashvili to believe that he enjoyed American protection, when the West's ability to impose its will in this part of the world is actually quite limited. Read the rest of the story for a good background on the conflict.

Presumptuous McCain

Obama gets slammed for a genuine, overwhelming reception overseas but no one cares that McCain is running his mouth on Georgia, how much he talks to the Georgian president, how long he's known the president, how many times he's been to Georgia, what the U.S. should do and that "We are all Georgians." That seems presumptuous to me.

Seems like political pandering, too. One of McCain's advisers was a paid lobbyist for Georgia. McCain looks like he's taking over for George, who's off to his ranch for vacation, rather than acting like a senator and a presidential candidate. Presumptuous?

It also seems to me that Russia is attacking Georgia to get at the U.S. and Georgia is playing the U.S. to get what it wants and the U.S. is in the middle without clout, thanks to you know who.

WaPo: Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: "If I may be so bold, there was another president . . ."

He caught himself and started again: "At one time, there was a president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America's advocacy for democracy and freedom."

With his Democratic opponent on vacation in Hawaii, the senator from Arizona has been doing all he can in recent days to look like President McCain, particularly when it comes to the ongoing international crisis in Georgia.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili says he talks to McCain, a personal friend, several times a day. McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for Georgia's government. McCain also announced this week that two of his closest allies, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), would travel to Georgia's capital of Tbilisi on his behalf, after a similar journey by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Georgia Playing the U.S.?

The Georgian president is probably taking advantage of the fact that there is a lot of bluster coming out of the U.S. A serious conflict has been made political and everyone is trying to figure out how this conflict can best work to their advantage -- including Georgia. Meanwhile, innocent people die.

This is largely because the U.S. lacks leadership and any kind of overarching foreign policy. Up until a day ago, Bush was enjoying himself at the Olympics.

MSNBC: TBILISI, Georgia - President Mikhail Saakashvili told his people Wednesday that the U.S. military will take control of the ex-Soviet state's seaports and airports as part of a humanitarian aid mission amid Georgia's battle with Russia, but the Pentagon quickly shot down the claim.

Bush announced the U.S. humanitarian effort prior to Saakashvili's comments, which came in a televised address to his nation. Bush said the mission had already begun and involved U.S. aircraft as well as naval forces.

Saakashvili then told Georgians: "You have heard the statement by the U.S. president that the United States is starting a military-humanitarian operation in Georgia. It means that Georgian ports and airports will be taken under the control of the U.S. defense ministry in order to conduct humanitarian and other missions. This is a very important statement for easing tension."

Georgian President Calls McCain On His Pandering

Doh! McCain caught exploiting the Georgia Russian conflict for votes, and not doing a very good job at it.

Yesterday he said: "We are all Georgians." I feel for them but that was a stupid thing to say, especially since it looks like blame can be spread around.

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili called on McCain to take action but what else can McCain do but bluster? George Bush, fresh back from his romp at the Olympics, says he's taking action. 

The president, who's calling for an international peacekeeping force, also likely heard McCain butcher his name several times. Why is pronouncing someone's name important? It shows respect. 

CNN:
“Yesterday, I heard Sen. McCain say, ‘We are all Georgians now,’” Saakashvili said on CNN’s American Morning. “Well, very nice, you know, very cheering for us to hear that, but OK, it’s time to pass from this. From words to deeds.”

McCain told a crowd in Pennsylvania yesterday that he had called Saakashvili to express solidarity with the people of Georgia, saying: “Today, we are all Georgians.”

McCain’s foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann told reporters on the campaign plane Tuesday that McCain’s remark “obviously meant a lot to Saakashvili personally, but more importantly the message it conveyed to the Georgian people in this really, time of unprecedented national emergency.” Scheunemann said McCain and Saakashvili are friends who have speaking daily throughout the crisis.

But Saakashvili said action is more important than rhetoric in the face of “brutal” and “deliberate” Russian violence. He urged the United States to take the lead in installing an international peacekeeping force.

“We should realize what is at stake here for Americans,” he said. “America is losing the whole region.”

NPR's interview with McCain on Russia