As I write this, Russia has signed a cease-fire with Georgia. Most Americans could care less about this with the Olympics going on, gas prices showing signs of dropping and the country clearly headed for a recession. While all of these things are important to some degree, none are more important than what has transpired in Georgia over the last seven days. Georgia matters, not as a test of the Truman Doctrine as some have said, but as a real test of the Kennedy Doctrine.
Georgia, once a Soviet satellite, has a democratically elected government and has sought and has been offered NATO membership (which is currently sidetracked by Germany). It has even provided substantial troop numbers to support our efforts in Iraq. In other words, it has done everything we as a nation could ask of an ally. As recently as last month, Secretary of State Rice told Georgia President Saakashvili in Tbilisi of our gratitude for his friendship and support, which sadly he seemed to interpret as consent for him to try to take by force the breakaway region of South Ossetia which wants to be part of Russia.
Russia’s response to the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia was massive, brutal and overwhelming. It was a rout. There was nothing to stop the Russians from advancing to the Georgian capital…except us.
To their credit, President Bush and Senator McCain understood this immediately (McCain did before Bush did). Senator Obama didn’t seem to get it at first, but eventually said the right things. Echoing the intent and purpose of the Marshall Plan, on 13 August, President Bush ordered an airlift of supplies into the Georgian capital.
Real purpose?
To let the Russians know that we are established in Tbilisi and at the airport and that an attack there is an attack upon the United States. Senator McCain echoed John Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” when he said “We are all Georgians.” The Russians got the message.
It was President Kennedy who said, “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” That is what we are doing and why we are in Tbilisi.
Yes, the Georgian President screwed up and we ought to take him to a corner and beat the snot out of him, but what we did on August 13th saved lives and kept a democratically elected government in power. That’s why Georgia matters.