Flashback to the Cold War
August 15th, 2008The Georgian government signed a cease-fire today and the Russians are expected to sign it tomorrow. Condoleezza Rice stood with the President of Georgia at a press conference after the fact and it might just be the most painful moment of the Bush Presidency.
As the secretary of state spoke in Tbilisi, Russian forces remained camped out just 25 miles away.
Associated Press reporters had seen a convoy of some 50 Russian army trucks and armored personnel carriers roar without warning southeast from the city of Gori on Wednesday, some shouting they were heading to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. But they veered into a field outside the town of Igoeti and set up camp conspicuously within sight of the road. The Russians were still visible there Friday.
Even as Rice stood with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in a show of solidarity, he asked, “Who invited the trouble here? Who invited this arrogance here? Who invited these innocent deaths here?”
Shaky and near tears following a difficult, nearly five-hour meeting with her, Saakashvili answered his own question: “Not only those people who perpetrate them are responsible, but also those people who failed to stop it.”
Rice let that pass, focusing instead on the demand that Moscow immediately withdraw its forces.
“With this signature by Georgia, this must take place and take place now,” she declared.
But the truth is that we have let the Georgian people and their government down by not forcefully warning them about the dangers of provoking Russia before this whole crisis erupted, and we failed them by not carrying through with our commitments to protect them. Now we are reaping a storm that I still believe to be limited in terms of impact on international relations but I fear that it will last forever for families that will grow up hating Russians for the deaths of their loved ones and mistrusting America for our inability to assist them overtly in this conflict. They should be bitter toward us. I just hope that we are better prepared to aid our friends in the future, especially since Russia is now threatening Poland. I think it’s just Cold War-era rhetoric with little else behind it but you never know what you’re going to get from the Russians.