The Wall Street Journal editors offer sage advice on the Bush administration’s options in wake of the cease-fire in Georgia:
But there are forceful diplomatic and economic responses at its disposal. Expelling Russia from the G-8 group of democracies, as John McCain has suggested, is one. Barring Russia’s long desired entry into the World Trade Organization is another. Russian leaders should also be told that their financial assets held abroad aren’t off limits to sanction. And Moscow should know that the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi on the Black Sea are in jeopardy. A country that starts a war on the weekend the Beijing Olympics began doesn’t deserve such an honor.
The Georgian people also deserve U.S. support. One way to demonstrate that would be a “Tbilisi airlift,” ferrying military and humanitarian supplies to the Georgian capital, which is currently cut off by Russian troops from its Black Sea port. Secretary of State Rice or Defense Secretary Robert Gates should be in one of the first planes. After the fighting ends, the U.S. can lead the recovery effort. And since the Russians are demanding his ouster, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili deserves U.S. support too. Moscow wants a puppet leader in Tbilisi, and U.S. officials are playing into Valdimir Putin’s hands with their media whispers that this is all Mr. Saakashvili’s fault.
The Bush administration has not covered itself in glory to date, but time remains, as the Journal’s editors put it, to avoid a “Carter-esque” conclusion to this episode and the Bush presidency as a whole.
Still, this administration is leaving one way or another in a matter of months. Just as the American people assessed the relative abilities, judgment and proposals of the candidates in 1980 as the Russians then exercised their territorial ambitions (really, if you hang around long enough everything repeats itself), the voters now should size up this year’s two presidential candidates. If Iraq, Iran, and North Korea were not enough, a resurgent Russia will be waiting for the next president. It behooves the voters to figure out which one is up for the job.
And that brings us to a final point: can you imagine the press reaction if a Republican president (or even a candidate) hid from direct questioning from the media for five days during an acute international crisis? The media is still too enamored of The One to mention it, but Obama’s reclusiveness is odd in the extreme and deeply troubling. Isn’t he capable of directly engaging the American people except via a stream of ever-migrating written statements prepared by his gang of 300 advisors? It really is time for Barack Obama to step out from behind the palm trees and start answering tough questions (e.g. Why did you equate victim and victimizer as your first reaction? What precisely would you do now?). It is not becoming of a presidential nominee to go to the movies while war erupts and our international credibility teeters on the brink of utter collapse. It’s certainly not inspiring confidence in his ability to navigate during an international crisis. Voters should take note.
