John Nichols: Georgia's First Mistake: Taking McCain Seriously

Georgia's First Mistake: Taking McCain Seriously
posted by John Nichols on 08/14/2008 @ 5:14pm


What was Mikheil Saakashvili thinking when he started poking at Russia in a manner that Mikhail Gorbachev correctly observes has "turned out to be a time bomb for Georgia's territorial integrity."?

That question is easily answered.

The Georgian president whose ties to the U.S. run through John McCain's campaign headquarters was thinking that McCain was a man of stature in the U.S. foreign policy heirachy, a "player" whose words could be counted on as having at least a measure of meaning.

Bad mistake.

It is true that few serious observers in the United States would take any particular pronouncement by McCain all that seriously, especially when if it involved foreign policy. After all, this is the fellow who could not make the Shia-Sunni distinction or place Afghanistan on a map.

But the rest of the world assumes that the governing party of the United States -- the Republican Party not just of the generally-discredited George Herbert Walker Bush but also of Condoleezza Rice, George Walker Bush, Chuck Hagel Richard Lugar and a number of other variously well-regarded figures on the international stage -- would nominate a successor to Bush who would simply spout random notions with regard to global affairs.

The assumption is -- or, perhaps it might be more appropriate to say, was -- that when John McCain speaks, he does so from a place of knowledge, that he is an informed and engaged participant in a foreign-policy continuity that has meaning.

So when McCain devoted a substantial portion of his March foreign-policy address at the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles to hailing "the solidarity of NATO, from the Baltic to the Black Sea...," Saakashvili and the Georgians undoubtedly assumed that a signal of some consequence was being sent.

It would be too simplistic to suggest that the Georgians acted solely in response to McCain's statement. But it would be equally simplistic to suggest that they fully recognized the senator from Arizona was speaking solely for himself.

more...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/345250

And getting into bed with the Bushites. Being one of the US' enemies seems to offer better chances for success and longevity than being one of our friends.