The Reflector

Russia has issued an ultimatum to the West. Recently the Kremlin stated that any military assistance by "the West" (meaning us) would be viewed as a declaration of war. What began as a small intrastate conflict in the small former Soviet republic of Georgia now has two major military powers and one treaty organization at the precipice of what could easily turn out to be a major military conflict.

It is important to remember that even though the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, made up of democratic countries in western Europe and North America, is a democratic organization, but its intent has never been to shore up fledgling democracies like Georgia and take part in nation building. Even though our current administration has us riding around the world like a cavalry troop in a John Wayne movie saving "damsels" in distress, dragging a true-to-life military treaty organization into this conflict in Georgia is incredulous.

NATO was designed to ally democratic countries, mainly those in western Europe, to be able to protect themselves against the threat of then-Soviet aggression in Europe. Basically NATO is like a street gang. If you attack one member, you get the rest as well. Of course, the former Soviet Union had its own answer to NATO, the Warsaw Pact, but that since has dissolved.

So little Georgia over in Russia's backyard has been having a little trouble with this breakaway region of Ossetia, which would prefer to be associated with Russia. Well, Russia rides with their military to Ossetia and drives out the Georgian troops that have been trying to quell the rebellion in the area. The U.S. doesn't like this since Georgia's president has been trying to garner his country membership in NATO for the past few years and has a pro-U.S. stance tantamount to hiding behind your big brother when you're being picked on.

This is what really galls me about the whole thing: Georgia is in what you could refer to as Russia's sphere of influence. Russia is somewhat the "big brother" for that region. Let them sort this mess out. Can you imagine what would happen if a country near the U.S. was having internal strife, and as we were trying to sort things out with the country, a foreign power half a world away intervened? The U.S. would be infuriated. Oh, wait, that's happened.

Remember learning in history class about the Cuban Missile Crisis that nearly brought on a nuclear war? Back then, Cuba had fairly recently been overthrown by Fidel Castro's guerrillas and was now being run by a socialist. We embargoed Cuba and took other steps to distance ourselves from the communist country. The U.S. didn't like the fact of a socialist/communist friendly country basically on our doorstep. Even more trying was when Russia tried to park a few medium range ballistic missiles 90 miles off of our coast where these missiles were fairly capable of hitting nearly every major U.S. city in the continental U.S., you know, just for "protecting" Cuba.

Fast forward to today.

Georgia, which has just recently been overtaken by a democratic government, is setting itself up as a democratic, pro-U.S. country on Russia's doorstep (the two countries share a border). The U.S. has placed ballistic missile interceptors, air bases and who knows what else in border states around Russia. Places like Uzbekistan, Poland and Turkey all have some form of U.S. military capability placed within their countries. So basically the U.S. has encircled the western border of Russia with military equipment. Oh, not to mention the handy little airbases we have in Iraq and Afghanistan, quite conveniently on both sides of Iran and just a hop and a skip to Russia. The placement of U.S. Coast Guard cutters in Georgian ports is also just a way of saying, "Hi, neighbor," as well as redirecting a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier group to the region. I wonder why the Russians are mad?

U.S. military intervention has been the hallmark of the latter 20th century. We've sent troops, planes and ships to Panama, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Somalia. We've been quietly operating bases in Africa to "provide humanitarian assistance," which is a noble cause, but we're just being buddies with Africa to counteract China's new relationships with African nations as we compete with China for natural resources.

The point I'm trying to make is that Georgia is a European problem, so let them sort it out. If we are not careful, and by careful I mean extremely careful, we can very easily drag ourselves into a fray that we can't get out of.

The implications of involving NATO in this Georgian conflict are titanic. One false move, one small mistake can engulf that entire region in war. If the U.S. does not carefully weigh its options and act tactfully and diplomatically it would not bode well for any involved. We would not tolerate a foreign country intervening in the affairs of one of our neighbors, so why should we be guilty of the same?

The U.S. needs to start walking a lot more softly and quit using our "big stick" so much. We are going to soon find ourselves relegated to the role of the schoolyard bully in the global playground. The days of our unilateral global dominance are over. We can go ahead and start getting used to the idea that we aren't going to be the only superpower anymore. Either we can build relationships with emerging countries and be a congenial ally or we can be viewed as a self-centered bully with only our interests in mind.

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