Call it confirmation bias or whatever. I have been looking for a way to not get too excited about this whole Georgian thing. Spengler gives me ammo:
Forget the Kosovo Albanians, the South Ossetians, the Abkhazians, Saakashvili and the Dalai Lama. These are relics of an older world that might deserve their own theme park, but not their own state. Precisely what are 3.8 million freedom-loving Georgians supposed to contribute to American strategic interests with its US$2 billion a year of exports consisting (according to the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook) of "scrap metal, wine, mineral water, ores, vehicles, fruits and nuts"? Georgia's hope was to lever its geographical position on the Russia border by making itself useful to the American military.
From a purely moral perspective, there is something to be said about Putin's aggression. But something kept itching me about Beslan. Wasn't it those pesky Ossetians that started that whole mess back in the day? I found myself in the dubious position of not wanting to be Putin, but wanting to give them the smackdown. And now Georgia plays a fledgling democracy hand, but clearly the EU wanted nothing to do with them. Further, we know we really wouldn't have gone ballistic for Georgia. So we didn't need them in NATO either. For chrissake they can't even field a two man volleyball team without Brazil.
So I am rather content to just think about as much of Georgia as I had previously, which is not much at all.
Recent Comments