Some feel this Georgia situation is a big help to McCain, and they may well be right, but his belligerence towards Russia is unsettling to me. It points up one of his big flaws, at least in my opinion. He still seems to be reliving the Cold War and never misses an opportunity to posture as some sort of latter-day Ronald Reagan, staring defiantly into the face of the Russian bear. To me, this fundamentally misses where we are as a country. Why it is in our interests to go out of our way to alienate the Russians is beyond me. They can make life miserable for us by supplying Iran and Venezuela with advanced weapons and protecting them and other rogue states in the UN. What can we do in return? Get them kicked out of the G8? Even if we did, so what? They are one of the world's biggest energy producers now. They control the flow of natural gas to europe. They can thumb their noses at us and europe. The thing about McCain is he either doesn't seem to appreciate any of this or, if he does, it makes him even angrier and more likely to resort to force. It's not a matter of right and wrong. Were the Russinas wrong? No doubt, but I don't see much to distinguish this situation from the Kosovo-Serbia clash that Clinton and NATO intervened in. Why was it right for us to bomb Serbian civilian targets to force independence for Kosovo but it is wrong for the Russians to respond to a Georgian attack on a breakaway province with many Russians? Obama is naive and inexperienced and will expose us to far greater risk of terrorist attack than McCain. I could see McCain starting WW III however. What a choice.
All true; and consider this: The Soviet Union collapsed because it was bankrupt; today Russia is making a major comeback and probably wants to recover the empire it lost when it went broke. Everything's in Russia's favor right now and they know it. The U.S.'s professional forces are stretched to the limit and it's unlikely America can reinstitute the draft w/o there being a direct threat to the homeland. An angry McCain can do nothing to discourage what might be a resurgence of Russian imperialism w/o the support of Europe and that's unlikely. Hmm.. What will China do? Probably stay out of it. China won't revive its old partnership with the Russians; they have nothing to gain and a lot to lose (tradewise). China might even surprise us by backing the U.S. position ( a longshot ). No WW3 unless Putin invades Europe. There are major pockets of Russians throughout the former Soviet republics so Putin has pretext to do lots of liberating of other countries' territories. McCain and Obama may talk but nothing will come of it as long as Putin confines his activities to the non-European limits of the old Soviet Union. Putin won't support sabotage in the States - much, much too risky; he'll just push his little neighbours around until he perceives a real danger to Russia in what he's doing.
Macains temper and belief that he will strart WWIII is the reason i'm voting for Obama Any social changes Obama makes can be reversed,The damages of war is far more detrimental McCain will continue the war in iraq throughout his presidency at a cost of thousands of lives and injuries and 100's of billions of dollars I give mccain a 75 % chance of starting a war with Iran at a cost of a military draft,thousands of lives lost,and hundreds of billions of dollars.its so funny when when mccain says he will balance the budget without counting war costs I give McCain a 50% chance of starting WWIII If mccain were president during the cuban missile crises the US and Russia would have been raining nuclear bombs over each other.we could could have another russian standoff in the years to come ,its scary to think of mccain being the president during such a standoff <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MEc2ot3QGB4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MEc2ot3QGB4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Well put. McCain may be trying to play to the right wing of his party by being confrontational with Russia, but I think he has a lot to lose if he begins to appear overly bellicose. Soccer moms and older women aren't exactly flocking to Obama, but they certainly are not going to vote for a guy who wants to restart the Cold War. A significant percentage of conservatives feel the same way.
Another difference is that McCain talks the "unilateral" talk in the Georgia conflict and towards Russia. Obama talks the "united allies" talk with better foreign relations. I think Obama gives a better world economic climate, while McCain extends the Realpolitik of not caring about the "world political ambient".
Obama started the week waffling around, but finished the week much in agreement with McCain. McCain isn't champing at the bit to resume the Cold War, but he plainly sees that Putin is. Now that the Russians are back on their feet they're ready to make a try at taking back the empire they lost when they went broke. It would take more than a war with Iran to bring back the draft ("Hell no, we won't go!"); that's why there won't be a war with Iran. McCain can't start a war with Russia; he'd have to get congressional approval for that one and that's extremely unlikely.
I thought the serb's were very much russian allies; and that would basically explain the action in georgia i suspect.
Certainly the Kennedy solution only set up the problems of today. Kennedy established the concept that if a country installs nuclear missiles you can trade the removal of those missiles for guarantee against American attack. You think North Korea was playing the same game, same with Iran, and Libya.....All asked for immunity from attack. This is the easiest way for a dictator to keep power for many years.
You don't offer Castro blanket immunity and guarantee from attack for eternity. If you have to , at least put conditions on it. such as, no Cuban interference in other countries. Kennedy already gave in on the missiles in Turkey. Kennedy should have at least maintained autonomy of the hemisphere. But Kennedy panicked and gave too much