Stuck in the middle
Tough talk on Russia helped to spark new conflict
DUNCAN LAFORTUNE
Issue date: 9/9/08 Section: Opinion
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He got the idea by listening to John McCain. McCain regularly threatens to kick Russia out of the Group of Eight, and said in March, "Rather than tolerate Russia's nuclear blackmail or cyber attacks, Western nations should make clear that the solidarity of NATO, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, is indivisible." McCain's major foreign policy speech given March of this year advocated isolating Russia to such a degree that a second Cold War would certainly result. And while the Georgian President was listening to McCain, McCain had been listening to Randy Scheunemann, former employee of the Georgia government as well as McCain's chief foreign policy advisor. Until March of this year, Scheunemann, a McCain confidant of many years, was paid regular sums to influence the U.S. and other allies to come to Georgia's aid in battles similar to the one that rages between Russia and Georgia today. It is quite ironic that America views McCain as better at foreign policy than Obama. McCain has no foreign policy other than to do what his lobbyists tell him to do.
It must be noted that a harder line against Russia is probably a good idea, probably inevitable, but such a path must be pursued cautiously, and is too serious a policy judgment to be treated as campaign fodder. Anti-Russia rhetoric has become a staple in McCain's stump speech, an attempt to draw a distinction between him and Obama. I'm not sure if American voters were paying much attention, but the President of Georgia certainly was. President Saakashvili's foolish taunts serve to remind us the real consequences of McCain's "get tough" talk.
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