Ted Galen Carpenter

Avoiding Foreign Quarrels

I’ve grown accustomed to the steady stream of foreign policy drivel coming from America’s political leaders, but the reaction of both Barack Obama and John McCain to the war between Russia and Georgia reaches a whole new level.  There is a difference, though.  Obama is bad on the issue, but McCain is dreadful.  

Both political luminaries think that it is a dandy idea to admit Georgia to the NATO alliance.  That is a horrible idea.  Just imagine how much worse the current crisis would be if that country were a member of the alliance.  Under article 5 of the treaty, the United States would have to consider Russian military action in Georgia as equivalent to an attack on America, and we would be obligated to help Georgia in its fight.  In other words, we would be going eyeball to eyeball with a nuclear-armed Russia over the status of two secessionist regions in a tiny country on Russia’s border.  There might be situations in the world that are less relevant to the security and liberty of the American people, but it would take a concerted search to find them. 

Unfortunately, McCain goes well beyond favoring NATO membership for Georgia.  In response to the murky conflict that erupted last week, the gentleman from Arizona stated: “I know that I speak for every American when I say to [Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili], today we are all Georgians.”

His comment encapsulates a pervasive attitude among America’s political and policy elites.  They repeatedly act as though the interests of various small client states (e.g., Georgia, Estonia, Israel, Taiwan, Kuwait) are identical to America’s interests.  Even worse, they are perfectly willing to endanger America to advance the interests of those client states.

Whatever happened to the principle expressed so well by George Washington that America should avoid either strong antipathy or passionate attachment to any other country?  I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, though.  Given the transition from the caliber of Washington and Jefferson to the likes of Bush and McCain, it becomes clear that, when it comes to politics, Charles Darwin got the theory of evolution backwards.