Putin Shows Who's In Charge

I have purposely held off writing anything about the Russians until things in Georgia developed a little more. From all the reports I've seen, Russian forces continue their aggression even though a cease fire accord was signed after negotiations with the French.

You'll have to excuse me for reflecting back on Poland in 1939. The duplicitous Russians had signed a secret agreement, along with the Non-Aggression Pact with Germany, which gave them half of Poland as theirs once Germany attacked. The reason that war was declared within days was due to the fact that England and France had signed an agreement with Poland to treat an attack on Poland as an attack on them as well.

Georgia has applied for membership in NATO, as has Ukraine. If they had already been approved as members, we would be at war now.

Instead, we are doing everything we can to try and resolve the matter diplomatically. Meanwhile, Russian forces have basically cut the small country in half, and their forces are 20 miles outside Tbilisi, the capitol of Georgia. Diplomacy is the correct course, but for how much longer?

The disputed regions have a majority of people who are Russian - just like there were so many Germans in the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia and Poland. The Georgian President's movement of forces into the area last week, albeit an action of questionable judgement, was a movement of a country's forces within their own borders. Nonetheless, it was the pretext the Russian's used for their entry.

In May of 2007, in a post entitled "What's Your Guess?", I made the observation that it appeared that Russia's experiment with democracy was over. If anyone has any doubts about who's really making the calls in Russia these days, then you haven't been paying attention. Mr. Putin is the man in charge; an ultra-nationalist who is seeking to rebuild the old Soviet Union.

I suspect that all of the threats and sanctions mean very little to Putin, because he has the power of immense reserves of oil and gas at his command. Not only does he have the ability to put Europe through an extremely cold winter, but his actions would have a dramatic economic impact worldwide. I don't think that means a lot to him either.

So what are we going to do?

The first thing we have to do is make sure we act in unison with the Europeans. Sending Secretary Rice to France and Georgia, and sending humanitarian supplies are good first steps. We have to ascertain if the Europeans are willing to commit forces if it comes to that. We are in no position to take on the Russians by ourselves, but we can do a lot of other things to isolate Russia from the international community with the cooperation of our European allies.

Dismissal from the G8 should be immediate.

If Russia refuses to remove it's forces from Georgia, we should immediately grant NATO membership to Poland, Ukraine, and any other former members of the soviet block who want to join. I don't know if NATO membership would have kept the Russian's out of Georgia, but if they don't leave, we have to draw a clear line in the sand that alerts Putin to the fact that the world will not tolerate any further aggression. We prefer discussion and negotiation, but if they chose otherwise, they will learn that the forces of democracy cannot be overcome.

The Georgian forces may have over-reacted; they may have been driven to action by KGB provocateurs - how it began will take some investigation, but there is no doubt that Russia's actions have gone far beyond their stated goals. If we fail to unite and act as the forces of democracy, it does not bode well for the growth of freedom around the world.

If a cowardly bully is never faced down, they continue their domineering behavior. Sometimes a show of force is sufficient, sometimes it isn't. We have to be ready to react to either situation.