What Was McCain’s Advice to Saakashvili?
Mark Kleiman wonders: “If McCain has really been talking to Saakashvili “daily,” what advice has McCain been giving him? Did he reinforce the urgent advice of the State Department and the White House that Saakashvili avoid allowing himself to be provoked into giving the Russians a pretext for invasion, or was McCain encouraging the imprudence that handed Putin the victory we and the Georgians are now trying to recover from?”
McCain should answer this question directly, but his record strongly suggests the possibility that he was encouraging imprudence. And why shouldn’t he? Most pundits seem to think that foreign crises provoked by bad conservative policies are politically beneficial to conservative politicians and, certainly, the McCain campaign sees things that way and is trying to milk the crisis for all it’s worth politically. Under the circumstances, doing what he can to promote international instability seems canny.
35 Responses to “What Was McCain’s Advice to Saakashvili?”
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August 14th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Magoo is in lockstep with Liebermania. Of course, they’ve been whispering rash nothings in Saakashvili’s ear. It was a win-win strategy. They don’t care that Iraq turned out badly. They wouldn’t care if a premptive attack on Iran provoked untold horrors here and in Israel. It’s all good in the zood.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
So to recap, giving a speech in a foreign country is presumptuous. But setting up your own red phone system with a foreign leader is not presumptuous.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Encouraging a Gilbert & Sullivan comic-opera Cold war coda for electoral gain? Oh, the humanity!
August 14th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I don’t think it’s just politically cynical. Worse still, McCain genuinely PREFERS unnecessarily extreme levels of hostility.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
dj moonbat,
No, no, it is with an extremely heavy heart that McCain pushes for escalating conflict in every possible case.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
or was McCain encouraging the imprudence that handed Putin the victory we and the Georgians are now trying to recover from?”
Saakshvili is stupid if he thinks McCain is going to be the next President 6 months from now.
I do think he saw Russia’s creeping annexation of the two disputed provinces and saw that the West was going to do nothing about it, so he made a desperate, stupid gamble which cost civilian lives. Since Georgia is democratic – unlike, say Belarus – it remains to be seen if the Georgians will dump him after the crisis has passed. That’s what the Russians hope.
Now that Bush has made the ballsy move of delivering humanitarian aid to Georgia with U.S. soldiers, if I were Obama, I’d wait a bit to comment on it more than the usual platitutes.
I think it remains to be seen if this was a victory for Putin beyond the short term.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
He told him not to give up the Sudetenland.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
He told him to start a rumor that your political rival is a degenerate faggot who hates Georgia and is anti-Christian, then pretend to disown the rumor. It’s a win-win! Also, to be more mavericky!
August 14th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
So to recap, giving a speech in a foreign country is presumptuous. But setting up your own red phone system with a foreign leader is not presumptuous.
No. Giving a public speech to one of your closest European allies is presumptuous. Privately counseling some podunk backwater country to go to war with a heavily armed nuclear power is bold and mavericky.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Hmm, let’s go to the tape:
Took George Bush’s statement of support at face value? Check.
Started a war with a much larger, more heavily-armed nation that is known to covet his nation’s territory? Check.
Expected the United States to respond with a large enough military force to deter or defeat the Russians, despite our military’s situation in 2008? Check.
You know what? I don’t think you need that “if” in there.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
So, when Nancy Pelosi goes to Syria with a State Dept-approved message and a coterie of Republican Congressmen, it’s time to scream “NANCY PELOSI! SYRIA! LOGAN ACT! UNDERCUTTING OUR PREZNIT!!!”
But when John McCain has a paid lobbyist for Georgia running his campaign and may have helped encourage a disastrous f***ing war among two major nations in a dangerous enough region, it’s “SSSSHHHH!!! BUH JOHN MCCAIN IZ A MAVRICK FARN POLSEE EXPURT!!! YAY!!! RUSSIA WAR!!!”
August 14th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Saakshvili is stupid if he thinks [that he is helping] McCain is going to become the next President 6 months from now.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Isn’t McCain’s insistence on maintaining his own channels and interactions with Saakshvili in parallel to the official US diplomatic channels and interactions an example of him not putting the country first, and pursuing his own interests at what may be the expense of the country’s interests?
August 14th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Sigh, I’m reminded of the wise words of Albert Einstein:
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
August 14th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Re El Cid
Don’t forget that Rethuglican Congressman Frank Wolf visited Syria the week before Congresswoman Pelosi did and Rethuglican Congressman Darrell Issa visited there a few days after. Somehow, this never gets reported in the Mainstream Media.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Saakshvili is stupid if he thinks he is going to be president six months from now.
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