Georgia: American Taken Prisoner

Ace of Spades HQ comments on news reports that suggest an American has been taken prisoner by Russian forces in South Ossetia. The blog also notes the impotence of the West in response to what now appears to be an invasion by Russia.

Let it not be said western leaders have been totally feckless in their abandonment of the nominal allies in Georgia. No, many of them have taken the bold step of urging the Russians to stop and play nice. That should do the trick.

I understand that discussions are underway to determine which western Foreign Minister will be dispatched to Moscow to get Comrade Brezhnev’s Putin’s signature on a piece of paper declaring peace in our time.

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What I think is essential, though unlikely to happen, is that we face up to what this means.

Russia has been billed as a quasi-friend and budding ally over the last 15 or so years. There have been plenty of warnings, there always are that we in the west are mistaken about this, but it’s too hard and to uncomfortable to deal with that unpleasant reality. So instead of hearing leaders admit they got the drop on us this time but now we’re in the game, we’ll hear talk about diplomatic efforts to get things back to where they were before this ‘unfortunate incident’. Russia will still get invited to G8 summits, even though it’s not really a free country as we understand the term. We’ll probably slow the expansion of NATO and it will be harder to get bases in eastern Europe for our missile defense shield. In short, Russia aggression will be rewarded and emboldened and that is not a good thing.