War? What war?

Tigerhawk and Lileks both note that "peace" groups have, so far, maintained radio silence on the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Nothing from the Canadian Peace Alliance yet, either. Once the left figures out whether the war was caused by Bush provoking Russia or the Georgians trying to help McCain, then I suspect the ANSWERs and CODEPINKs will have more to say.

The WSWS article does raise the interesting question about how the Balkans conlict - particularly, Kosovo's declaration of inedependence - affects what is happening in the Caucsus today. More here and here. Meanwhile, Max Boot calls for an aggressive defence of democratic, pro-Western Georgia - while Andrew Sullivan wonders what, if anything, Bush's America can do.

Damian P.

Update: Captain Ed explains the West's dilemma:

...In [the former Yugoslavia], we recognized the independence of ethnic enclaves to secede from their internationally-recognized countries without the general consent of their neighbors. This is especially true in Kosovo, which had been part of Serbia for centuries.

The Russian military attack on Georgia does have parallels to NATO attacks on Serbia in the 1990s, if one accepts the notion that Tbilisi oppressed its ethnic enclaves. Moscow can make those charges and claim just as much moral responsibility to protect Abkhazians and Ossetians from Tbilisi as we did for the breakaway republics in the Balkans, and if necessary they can fake a few atrocities to give it some PR value. We unleashed this diplomatic game, and Georgia gets to pay the price.

That doesn’t mean we can just throw up our hands and leave the Georgians to the tender mercies of Vladimir Putin. Even forgetting the strategic value of Georgia, the nation supported us in Iraq when most nations couldn’t be bothered, and we owe them our support now. The flights delivering their troops back to Georgia send a message to Moscow that we will not stand idly by while it rebuilds its empire in the Caucasus. We need to find other ways to sting Putin, especially economically, for his adventure.

But we shouldn’t pretend to be shocked at Russia’s convenient support of nationalism in the Caucasus after our own convenient support of it in the Balkans.

Update II: Michael Moynihan:

The bumbling of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is a stunning sight to behold. This much seems clear: Putin and his surrogates in South Ossetia set a trap and the Georgians ambled into it, naively expecting his allies in the West to come to his rescue. And it is too early to tell just where the blame lies, though convincing arguments can be made for both camps. Georgia argues that it was responding to an attempted annexation of South Ossetia and consistent provocations from the Russian military; Russia claims it is merely defending the Russian passport holders of Ossetia from Georgia's all-out attack on Tshkhinvali, the regional capital. Both sides are engaged in heated, overblown rhetoric; both are making shocking and unverifiable claims. ...

[...]

That said, the Russians have made it abundantly clear that they desire to overthrow the democratically elected Georgian government. So the question of proportionality is not just one of force, but of end results. If the Russians only desire to expel Georgian forces from South Ossetia and reestablish "peace keeping" forces in the region (it is, of course, a bit odd to have one of two interested parties acting as "peacekeepers"), why attempt to bomb oil pipelines? Why send Russian troops into the contested region Abkhazia? Why bomb the Kodori Gorge—a stronghold of ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia? Or military bases bordering Abkhazia? Or the airport in Tbilisi? Or send troops into the town of Senaki, deep into Georgian territory? According to this breaking story from CNN, the Russian military currently controls half of the country.

If Russia and Georgia are merely fighting over a disputed region, this is just another confusing historical mess that no one outside the Caucasus really understands. But if Putin - sorry, Medvedev - is trying to overthrow a democratically elected government, then he may get the world against him.

Update III: Britain's Stop the War Coalition leaps into action, issuing a statement demanding that Russia...um, demanding that the US and NATO not intervene in the conflict.

Posted by damian at August 11, 2008 01:05 PM