Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Vlad the Invader

The following piece by the editors of National Review explains why the Russian incursion into Georgia must be met with stronger disapproval from the White House and the rest of the Atlantic Alliance than has been forthcoming: resurgent Russian nationalism fronted by a KGB kleptocracy flush with oil wealth is as dire a threat as the old Soviet empire, the rebuilding of which is Putin's fondest dream.
The invasion of Georgia serves to show the importance of true worldliness in a president, a quality that is quite different from the pseudo-cosmopolitanism of Barack Obama and the international left as a whole. Barack Obama, still in short pants geo-politically speaking, pitted against a Putin or any of the other maximally criminal leaders in the world, is truly frightening. John McCain has his head screwed on right in this respect.
The tagging of an Obama presidency as Carter II has its most dangerous implication here. The Russians invaded Afghanistan on Carter's watch; the Iranians invaded our embassy in Tehran and held hostages for 444 days under Carter's watchful eye; and the Chinese took over the Panama Canal under his masterful performance in the world's most powerful office. The totalitarian and authoritarian jackals of the world have Western liberals' number, and they are salivating at the prospect of another weak liberal at the helm of this country.
Chrystia Freeland's piece in the Financial Times speaks to why weakness now in American leadership could be a disastrous historical turning point for the world.
And George Will reminds that it is events, and a true leader's ability to discern the right response to those events, that characterizes a nation under strong leadership, not the gauzy, limp-wristed oratory of a left-leaning demagogue.

1 comment:

David C. Innes said...

It really isn't very difficult to find a scary picture of Putin. With the exception of Gorby, those Soviet/Russian leaders don't put much stock in smiles. Of course, there's a reason for that.