Better Late Than Never
President Bush took some justified criticism for not laying down the law sooner with regards to Russia’s invasion of Georgia. Yesterday, he upped the ante by announcing SecDef Gates’ putting together humanitarian relief missions to Georgia. He also said that he was sending Condi Rice to Georgia after first stopping in France to meet with President Sarkozy. This morning, he recommitted the United States to the other countries bordering Russia and to the existing Georgian administration:
US President George W. Bush assured leaders of Ukraine and Lithuania on Thursday that he remains fully committed to “a sovereign, free Georgia and its territorial integrity,” the White House said.
In his conversations with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Bush stressed US “solidarity” with Georgia in its conflict with Russia, according to spokeswoman Dana Perino.
“All the leaders stressed the importance of standing by a sovereign, free Georgia and its territorial integrity, and agreed on the need for Russia to stop the violence, abide by the ceasefire and withdraw its forces,” she said.
This is a classic case of better late than never. This is a rarity; President Bush was very sure-footed almost from the get-go after the terrorist attacks. I was surprised that it took him this long to face down Putin’s totalitarian ambitions and his brutal attack of a fledgling democracy. The President Bush of 2004 would’ve been critical of this almost instantly.
With that said, President Bush’s response, accomplanied by John McCain’s stern initial warning, is having an effect on Russia’s actions. It’s also time to start pushing for Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and other countries facing similar problems with Russia for NATO membership. It’s time Putin understood that we won’t tolerate his actions.
More importantly, it’s important that Georgia and other former Soviet satellites to know that we stand steadfast with them. This isn’t a time for them to doubt our reliability. This is the time for things to be straightforward and steadfast.
Technorati Tags: Georgia, President Bush, Ukraine, Sarkozy, John McCain, Democracy, NATO, Putin, Russia, Invasion
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
August 14th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
It’s absolutely having no effect on Russia’s actions and why should it? The US has no moral authority on this issue and little to no real course of action.