ENOUGH with the demonizing of Russia!!

Say what you will about the Russian government. I am not personally a fan of Putin, though the new president, Medvedev, has had some good zingers when McCain tried to posture and call Russia out on some hypocritical BS, saying Russia should not be allowed to participate in the G8 due to their human rights record... Hello Gitmo? Oh, that's right, they don't matter, they're all terrorists.

At any rate, I am sick and tired of people (the current government, the McCain campaign, Palin in today's ABC interview) pointing fingers at Russia and the situation in Georgia and using it as a rationale for starting a whole new course of aggression (because we have the means to do that right now...) This is dangerous territory, and needs to be closely examined.

The fact of the matter is that this whole thing started as a situation between South Ossetia, a region of Georgia considered autonomous since the mid 90s, and Georgia. Each side blamed the other. It escalated into Georgia attempting to forcefully bring South Ossetia into the Georgian fold. Russia, in the meantime, appealed to the UN for support of South Ossetian civilians caught up in the mess. They ultimately came to the aid, through force, of the South Ossetians.

You can read about the initial attack between Georgia and South Ossetia here. I concur that, ultimately, Russia reacted in an overly-forcefully, unilateral manner, but the issue is not as cut-and-dry as the media and as the McCain campaign would like us to believe. And it is certainly not a reason for the US to call for Putin's head and set itself on a course for disaster.

Palin, in her ABC interview today, engaged in the following dialogue:

PALIN: And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep...
GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.
PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there.

Here is the Republican party line on the matter. Two things blatantly stand out.

1.) As is examined above, Russia was not unprovoked. Russia has for ages been an outspoken supporter of the pro-Russian South Ossetia. They were protecting the civilians from Georgian shelling. Again, the scale of that protection may have been out of balance, but not unprovoked. Our aggression towards them is, however, unprovoked, no matter how close the potential future president (excuse me while take a second to vomit) lives to Russia.

2.) I do enjoy the blatant hypocrisy of Palin's first statement (minus the democratic part). If she wants to have a dialogue about invading a smaller country unprovoked, I suggest she check out Waiting for an Ordinary Day by Farnaz Fassihi, in order to best understand what that means from a civilian perspective.

At any rate, enough posturing on my part. I will leave you with this tidbit, again from today's ABC interview:

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

Brilliant.