Attention Mr. Kristol, Russia != Iraq

In case any of you are confused by the title, the "!=" is a how some computer programming languages say that two things are not equal to each other.  So Russia "is not equal to" Iraq.  There, you all learned some programming.  :)

Now, for the purpose of this blog post.  I'm sure some of you have read or heard about the conflict between Georgia (the country, not the state) and Russia.  Well, Bill Kristol penned this article in the New York Times about it yesterday.  An excerpt:

But Georgia, a nation of about 4.6 million, has had the third-largest military presence — about 2,000 troops — fighting along with U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq. For this reason alone, we owe Georgia a serious effort to defend its sovereignty. Surely we cannot simply stand by as an autocratic aggressor gobbles up part of — and perhaps destabilizes all of — a friendly democratic nation that we were sponsoring for NATO membership a few months ago.

For that matter, consider the implications of our turning away from Georgia for other aspiring pro-Western governments in the neighborhood, like Ukraine’s. Shouldn’t we therefore now insist that normal relations with Russia are impossible as long as the aggression continues, strongly reiterate our commitment to the territorial integrity of Georgia and Ukraine, and offer emergency military aid to Georgia?

Ok, now I'm sure some of you have guessed by my support of Ron Paul's candidacy a few months ago that my perspective on foreign policy may have changed somewhat.  While that is definitely true and very likely something I should blog about at some point, I don't think the things I am about to say would have been any different before my perspective changed.

So let's just get it out....

WE CANNOT GET INVOLVED IN THIS CONFLICT

And restate the title...

BECAUSE RUSSIA != IRAQ

Attacking Iraq in 2004 or helping Kuwait fight Iraq off in the early 90s is completely different than helping Georgia in this situation.  No one doubted we could defeat Iraq.  But no one knows what would happen if we got into a major conflict with Russia, which to me is reason enough to STAY OUT OF this conflict.  Our military should not get involved in this.  We should not send military aid.  If Russia wants to attack Georgia, we should condemn it just as we are now, but that is it.

We are spread thin enough militarily as it is.  Messing around with a super-power like Russia (who might I mention probably could assembly some pretty darn powerful allies on its side) would get us into a conflict that would not be worth the time, money, and lives lost.

I feel bad for the people of Georgia, and yes I think Russia is probably being overly aggressive here.  But it's NOT OUR BUSINESS.  It's time to stop policing the world.  Starting now.