Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Georgia War

Where it stands.

"Iraq" is the unspoken name in much of the public diplomacy -- which of course is not diplomacy at all but jockeying for world opinion. Bush framed his objection thus:

"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century."

Key words being "neighboring" and "democratic." It's a nice try but he's clearly got a weaker hand here than he would have without the global ire over Iraq.

Meanwhile, in the first-linked piece, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says: "We have no plans to depose anyone, this is in general not in our political culture and not in the arsenal of our foreign policy. We do not depose, and we do not bring to the throne. Others do such things—as we know…"

No kewpie doll for figuring out which "others" he means there.