Nothing has changed in power politics
by The Observer
Brzezinski knows better than what he writes. He's just ganging up on the Russians because it seems to be the popular thing to do when the U.S. cluelessly as usual suffered a grave embarrassing setback. In the international practice of power politics, the U.S. and EU just got skunked by the Russians and there's very little they can do about it. Unfortunately power politics has been, still is, and will continue to be the norm of international politics for a very long time to come. Big powers by and large predominate and lesser powers more or less have to accommodate themselves to that fact if they wish to survive and prosper. The U.S. and Europe have established some important yardsticks about how far great powers can throw their weight around. NATO bombed Serbia when Serbia refused to grant Kosovo its independence. The U.S. waged preemptive war on Iraq under false premises, with thousands of casualties. Relative to the events in Georgia, it seems that all the players were engaging in a dangerous game of poker. The U.S. in courting Georgia and sponsoring Georgian membership in NATO was trying to extend U.S. influence to an area of vital interest to Russia. The fact that Georgians expected the U.S. to come to their aid militarily against the Russians tends to suggest that the Bush administration might have mislead them into making the miscalculation that they could indeed attack South Ossetia without drawing in the Russians. That was a rash calculation that a small power near a competing great power should never make. Georgia has to learn how to live in the backyard of Russia and survive.
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by The Observer
Brzezinski knows better than what he writes. He's just ganging up on the Russians because it seems to be the popular thing to do when the U.S. cluelessly as usual suffered a grave embarrassing setback. In the international practice of power politics, the U.S. and EU just got skunked by the Russians and there's very little they can do about it. Unfortunately power politics has been, still is, and will continue to be the norm of international politics for a very long time to come. Big powers by and large predominate and lesser powers more or less have to accommodate themselves to that fact if they wish to survive and prosper. The U.S. and Europe have established some important yardsticks about how far great powers can throw their weight around. NATO bombed Serbia when Serbia refused to grant Kosovo its independence. The U.S. waged preemptive war on Iraq under false premises, with thousands of casualties. Relative to the events in Georgia, it seems that all the players were engaging in a dangerous game of poker. The U.S. in courting Georgia and sponsoring Georgian membership in NATO was trying to extend U.S. influence to an area of vital interest to Russia. The fact that Georgians expected the U.S. to come to their aid militarily against the Russians tends to suggest that the Bush administration might have mislead them into making the miscalculation that they could indeed attack South Ossetia without drawing in the Russians. That was a rash calculation that a small power near a competing great power should never make. Georgia has to learn how to live in the backyard of Russia and survive.
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