Democracy is under attack...and we are able/willing to do NOTHING. Here we are, fighting for Deomcracy in Iraq...at least the third different reason for the war...a country that is, at the very best, hesitant to embrace democracy; all the while, a friend and ally, whom have already fully embraced and allowed Democracy to thrive, sits...waiting...under attack...hoping for help.
You may not know much about the current Russian invasion of Georgia, but you will want to pay attention. Russia is sending a message...it is loud and clear...We Are A Superpower...and We Aren't Afraid of the United States.
While President Bush has been gazing into Vladamir Putin's eyes, seeing a friend, former President Putin has been creating a superpower of energy out of Russia. Now Prime Minister, Vladamir Putin despises Deomcracy...he always has...and is picking on former USSR Republic, Georgia.
The current situation is, according to Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili, that Russian tanks began rolling into Georgia territory, unprovoked. Once they were 100 miles into Georgia, Georgia opened fire against the hostile action. Then, by some miracle, hundreds more Russian tanks quickly appeared and began their attack on Georgia. They have taken over Georgia's ports, bombed their towns, taken over airport(s)...all in less than a week.
Folks, it doesn't take a genius to realize that this was a planned attack, weeks, if not months, in the making. Hundreds of tanks don't just suddenly show up at the first sign of fire, without them being ready to do so.
Why is Russia doing this? Because Georgia is a thriving democracy, and because they allowed a oil pipeline to be built through their country, connecting the Caspian See and the Black Sea. This is a non-Russian controlled pipeline, which Russia opposes, because as I mentioned before, they want to control all the energy in Europe.
So Russia Invaded Georgia.
Georgian citizens have been quoted as saying, "Where's help from the United States?" "Why aren't they coming to help us?" "Why are we helping them in Iraq if they won't help us when we need it?"
So why aren't we helping out Georgia? We can't. It's that simple. Our troops are already overextended, thanks to simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even if we did have troops to lend, I'm not sure we could. You see, Russia and China are closer allies than China and the US are. If China sided with Russia, China could merely threaten us economically, and we'd HAVE to back down. They could more than cripple our economy...they'd devidtate it. All they would have to do is cash in all their US Treasury Bonds they own.
For those not fully aware, US Treasury Bonds are Debt owed by the US Government. China owns LOTS of our outstanding US Treasury Bonds. If they decided to cash them in/sell them...someone would have to buy them. That someone would likely be the US treasury, because no investor would likely buy them. Of course, the US Treasury doesn't have enough money to buy them all, so they'd have to print money to buy them, which would further devalue our Dollar. Devaluation of our dollar would lead to further inflation...probably massive inflation...which this economy can't handle.
So while the US has been pandering and keeping a short-sighted view by bailing out Bear Stearns and reckless home buyers, China and Russia have kept their eye on the horizion...knowing that they could one day use their fiscal standing to control the US's actions by threatening to crush our economy.
They know that the US is not suited for this World Economy that we preach about. We owe too much, and we run deficits year after year, putting us further into debt.
If we decided not to heed China's threats...it would be World War III. A true War for Oil/energy.
I don't know what we can do...all I know is that we, as Citizens, need to demand better from our Government. We need to demand that they take a long-term view. Would it be nice to insure everyone in the United States? Absolutely. Would it be the best thing for the country? Definitely not! We can't afford it!! And "taxing the rich" isn't going to cut it, folks. It's only going to prompt "the rich" to work less. Why would all kinds of small business owners work hard on their own business, only to get half of it, or more, taken away?? Would you??
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3 comments:
Man--I'm really freaked out now. Times are even scarier than what I'm reading on CNN. I know that you are right--I agree. It seems our materialistic view on "I want it here and now" is really affecting us in every area.
I know Marel. It is pretty scary. It seems as though our approach, since we can't go in and all out protect Georgia, is to call on "the world community"(man I don't like that term).
The problem is...the bad guys, and or guys not sympathetic to the United States, such as The Middle East, China, North Korea...they have no stake in Georgia being protected and have no real stake in Democracy being protected. Europe is largely afraid of Russia, since they control most of the energy going to Europe.
That leads us back to...heavy-handed words with no real ability to back them up.
One thing I've decided about the Bush Administration. History will tell if his actions in Iraq were the right move...but I'm pretty sure History will say that his economy policies were a failure. No one can see it now, because the economy WAS motoring along. Now, everyone is too focused on the present dilemmas (The Housing Crisis, or The Mortgate Crisis, or The Oil Crisis), but down the road, when someone looks back and sees the big picture (since no one looks past the present day now), they will see how Bush's policy of keeping a weak Dollar really hurt our nation.
Great post, your right on. Here we are in a situation where we invaded a sopveriegn country (Iraq) and now we can not support a true ally who was invaded by Russia.
What is really interesting to think about is what IF we were not in Iraq, would we try to stop Russia physically? Wow, that would be one hell of a decision.
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