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Cheney Threatens Russia…and They Don’t Give a Fuck |
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Dick Cheney is far from Minnesota today, the better for McCain and Palin to try and pretend the Bush administration doesn’t exist.
Where is he? In eastern Europe, threatening Russia but achieving little. Like John McCain, the Bush administration’s bullying tactics only work against countries who can’t push back. In the big leagues, we see Republicans running out of ideas.
Cheney is in Georgia and Ukraine pushing NATO membership for Georgia, talking up the $1bn we’re sending to Georgia (can we afford that?), and trying to reassure a nervous Ukrainian leadership.
But our actions are mostly symbolic, and they’re not scaring Russia.
The aid package announced on Wednesday is limited to helping resettle refugees and rebuild Georgia’s infrastructure, and the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says it remains unclear how far the US and its Nato allies are prepared to go in re-arming its military.
On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also announced that Georgia was to receive a $750m (£422m) loan.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused the US of helping Tbilisi build up its military, and criticised its decision to send humanitarian aid to Georgia aboard military ships.
Faced with a chorus of international calls for Russia’s isolation as a result of the war, Mr Medvedev said Moscow did not fear being expelled from the G8 group of rich nations, nor did it fear Nato cutting ties with his country.
Early this week, EU leaders agreed to suspend talks on a new partnership agreement with Moscow until Russian troops had withdrawn from Georgia, but they did not threaten sanctions.
So what happens when the bluffs and the threats fail? You need ideas - and that’s why Obama will be a better president than Bush or McCain. Russia dropped its military ties with NATO without blinking. NATO and the administration are both frozen on this, and the tough talk doesn’t fool me.
You want American Idol politics? Then cast your vote between the Hockey Mom and the Suave Urbanite. You want problems solved? Choose between cowardly ideologues and Barack Obama, soon to be one of the great statesmen of our times.
Not surprising. If America’s bellicose rhetoric was seen as hollow before Iraq, now it most certainly is completely impotent. Mission accomplished?