The Sunshine Empire

The situation between Georgia and Russia is spiraling out of control. Russian warplanes are now bombing Tbilisi and are blockading Georgian ports and most in the international community are calling the Russian response to Georgia trying to reassert control over it’s own territory grossly overdone. Russia’s reasoning of trying to protect it’s citizens in South Ossetia stinks of the Maine and the Gulf of Tonkin.

Now this morning has brought news that Ukraine reserves the right to refuse re-entry to Russian navy ships that are now blockading Georgia. Russia still has a major naval base in Ukraine as a leftover of the old Soviet Union, and Ukraine and Georgia have been making great efforts to break away from the old Russian umbrella and integrate with the west. This risks getting Ukraine involved in this conflict, and this means it has little to with South Ossetia and more to do with NATO, and missile defense. The autocratic Putin regime, as “President” Dmitry Medvedev is a puppet figurehead, will not tolerate two former Soviet Republics joining the American military alliance. The United States will find itself in a precarious position in any wider Soviet civil war. I’m happy to see Ukraine standing up for Georgia, but the situation is troublesome.

The politics of the matter are even more bizarre domestically. On This Week the two presidential campaigns are arguing about who’s right on the situation. Exorcist Bobby Jindal turned the discussion into a pro Iraq war surge point.