RUSH: You know, ladies and gentlemen, several of my 35 Undeniable Truths of Life apply to events today, one of them in particular. Undeniable Truth of Life: ‘Ours is a world governed by the aggressive use of force.’ It is. There is no alternative. There’s no mistaking it. It is totally true. You know, world citizen Barack Obama can sit there and talk all he wants and blame America and think it’s going to shape the world up and stop these kinds of things, but he’s dead wrong. Interestingly, the UK Guardian — which is a very leftist publication — has an entirely different take on what happened with Russia and Georgia and who bears some responsibility for it. Everybody plays blame games in situations like this. For example, Obama and the Democrats blame Bush. Some of them blame McCain for starting this war to help his election campaign. I’m not kidding you.
But it’s all our fault. It’s America’s fault. Really if it’s anybody’s fault, it’s Russia’s. Or as Dimitri Simes says, there are no good guys here; both of these parties behaved in provocative ways, and of course Georgia being the smaller is going to take it on the chin. But the UK Guardian has another take on this. Let’s go back to the April 3rd edition of the New York Times. Dateline, Bucharest, Romania: ‘President Bush threw the NATO summit meeting here off-script on Wednesday by lobbying hard to extend membership to Ukraine and Georgia, but he failed to rally support for the move among key allies. Mr. Bush’s position — that Ukraine and Georgia should be welcomed into a Membership Action Plan, or MAP, that prepares nations for NATO membership — directly contradicted German and French government positions stated earlier this week.’ So Bush went out on a limb and said we need to get these people started down the path toward membership in NATO, speaking of Ukraine and Georgia.
Now, the Guardian yesterday, Michael Williams the story: ‘In April this year, an embattled American president went to the NATO summit in Bucharest and asked NATO allies to offer Ukraine and Georgia a membership action plan (MAP). Bush had been warned that European allies would not agree to the proposal, but he tried anyway. Back in Washington, European rejection of the MAP was greeted with disgust. As one left-wing foreign policy expert told me the fact that France was talking about a ‘balance of power with eastern Europe’ illustrated that the organisation was becoming a joke. The Europeans, he said, ‘have not woken up to the realities of the world’. He was livid, to say the least, about the refusal to offer a MAP to either country. And he, like myself,’ writes Mr. Michael Williams, ‘was a Democrat.’ I’ll summarize the story for you in the Guardian.
It is the very countries that Acting President Barack Obama wants us to give veto power over our decisions, as they vetoed Georgia’s NATO membership — and the UK Guardian proffers the point that this encouraged Putin and the Russians that they could attack Georgia with impunity. The point of the UK Guardian story is that ”old’ Europe’ has a hand in this, too. So there’s a lot of different analyses of all this going on, but no matter. When you get down to the bottom line, the Russians are behaving as the Russians always have, and they’re the ones taking the action. This is a world governed by the aggressive use force. Now, let’s go back to audiotape from yesterday on the Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, Gretchen Carlson talking to ‘The Eyebrow,’ the governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine. She asked him, ‘How would you be advising Obama if in fact you were his pick as VP with this international crisis? Do you think his response was the right one?’
KAINE: It was a bad crisis for the world, it required tough words but also a smart approach to call on the international community to step in, and I’m very, very happy that the senator’s request for a ceasefire has been complied with.
RUSH: Somebody needs to tell The Eyebrow that there may have been a ceasefire, but it’s not been upheld. The Russians are continuing on to move, and they’ve surrounded — last I heard, have surrounded — the town of Gori. Which, is that not aptly named, given what’s going on? So they haven’t stopped. They didn’t listen to Obama. So it’s time for Obama to either tell ’em again to stop — you know, once he gets off the surfboard out there in Hawaii. Tell ’em again to stop, ’cause they apparently didn’t listen the first time. Here’s McCain yesterday speaking with reporters.
MCCAIN: I know from speaking this morning to the president of Georgia, Misha Saakashvili, who I have known for many years, that he knows that the thoughts and the prayers and support of the American people are with that brave little nation as they struggle today for their freedom and independence. I know I speak for every American when I say to him, ‘Today, we are all Georgians.’
RUSH: All right. All right. Now, that did not sit well. That didn’t sit well with members of the left. Tim Kaine, nobody is talking about Obama’s diplomacy in Georgia now. Nobody’s talking about it except you. Let’s go to the audiotape late yesterday. The president of Georgia, Misha Saakashvili said this.
SAAKASHVILI: John McCain said that Americans are supporting Georgia. McCain said, ‘We are Georgians today,’ everybody are Georgians today.
RUSH: Misha Saakashvili did not quote Obama, Tim Kaine. The Eyebrow needs to revisit this. Misha Saakashvili quoted McCain, not Obama. Now, Saakashvili made his appearances on American television today. He was on CNN’s American Morning today, and he had this to say about what America should do.
SAAKASHVILI: What America should do now first of all, clearly make known their intentions and we know that they’re considering all kind of different options — then clearly send peacekeepers on the ground. Secure lifeline at least for the capital at this stage and push very hard to overcome the situation. Who else can stand up for liberty in the world?
RUSH: Whewwwww. That, folks, is the question of the day, and it is a question the American left does not want to hear. They don’t want the responsibility. ‘Who else can stand up for liberty in the world?’ No one else but us. Europeans aren’t going to do it. NATO isn’t going to do it. And if you listen to the Democrats and their presidential candidate, you don’t don’t get any confidence they’re going to do anything but give those kinds of people veto power over whatever decisions we might make. Then, Misha Saakashvili said this about the Russians.
SAAKASHVILI: Well, the implications are that the Russians are encroaching upon the capital. They’re making a circle, and they are rushing in, you know, because their plan was always to take over the whole Georgia. Their plan was to establish their own government in Tbilisi, and their plan was to kill our democracy. They’re in the process of coldblooded murder, and the world seems to just be watching it, you know, and not doing anything about it.
RUSH: Pretty much the case. Nobody’s doing much of anything about it. Nobody’s done much about any of the wanton acts of violence of the Putin regime from the murdering of KGB agents in London who go off-path, to journalists that are being murdered and assassinated and poisoned. Nobody’s doing anything. What do you expect Putin to do? He’s getting away with all of these things with impunity. He knows while the Olympics are going on, he knows we’re in the middle of a presidential campaign, he knows we’re fighting a war in Afghanistan that there’s not a whole lot we can do militarily — or he doesn’t think that we will. I’ll tell you, Bush spoke again today. And it sounded to me like Bush was throwing down the gauntlet. I want you to listen to a couple of sound bites we have of the president from the Rose Garden this morning.
THE PRESIDENT: The United States of America stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia. We insist that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected. Russia has stated that changing the government of Georgia is not its goal. The United States and the world expect Russia to honor that commitment. Russia has also stated that it has halted military operations and agreed to a provisional ceasefire. Unfortunately, we are receiving reports of Russian actions that are inconsistent with these statements.
RUSH: And the president continued…
THE PRESIDENT: I’m sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to France where she will confer with President Sarkozy. She will then travel to Tbilisi where she will personally convey America’s unwavering support for Georgia’s democratic government. On this trip she will continue our efforts to rally the free world in the defense of a free Georgia. I’ve also directed Secretary of Defense Bob Gates to begin a humanitarian mission to the people of Georgia headed by the United States Military. This mission will be vigorous and ongoing.
RUSH: You see why it sounds to me like he’s throwing down the gauntlet. We’re going to use the military ostensibly here for Meals on Wheels. We’re sending in food and relief efforts, medical supplies and this sort of thing. There have been significant civilian casualties and deaths in Georgia and the neighboring environs, and so the US military, we’re flying C-17s in there. We’ve told the Russians, ‘We’re coming, and you better not do anything about it.’ But the Russians are going to say, ‘Wait a minute! You’re sending military in? There are going to be uniformed military from the United States here flying in here on Meals on Wheels?’ Now, I know the Russians, and the Russians aren’t going to buy this Meals on Wheels thing. They’re not. (laughing) I guarantee you. They don’t use their military that way, and they don’t think we’ll use ours that way against them.