The Northern Agrarian

Whether it’s Hussein, Milosevic, Ahmadinejad, or, now Putin/Medvedev, to the internationalist neocon it is always 1939, the time for choosing is always now, the danger always immediate and mortal.

A timeline is important. A section of Georgia wants to be independent, and had Russia’s backing (ex: Taiwan or a host of other groups around the world that we support “freedom” for). Georgia looked to militarily dominate them and bring them back into the fold. So the Russians militarily entered Georgia to repel Georgian forces. Neither Russia nor Georgia is totally in the right (or wrong) for this.

Frankly, this type of aggression has been provoked by the United States and our NATO allies. NATO, founded to apply pressure on the Soviet Union, shouldn’t even exist anymore. But when the Soviet Union broke away and tried to become a part of the west, America refused to allow it. Instead, nearly every eastern-bloc former Soviet state has been entered into NATO, basically surrounding Russia with proxy military outposts. If a rival world power was spreading a military alliance originally formed in order to isolate and destroy the US and was strategically placing outposts around our homeland, Americans would be upset, too.

It is no coincidence that Georgia was next on the US’s list of countries to join NATO. America has been pushing for such a presence in NATO recently. Was Russia right to invade? No. But the idea that Russia is some mad totalitarian evildoer and not a nation making thought-out decisions based on their own regional interests is stupid and ridiculous. We’ve been provoking Russia for years, and now when it comes back to hurt one of our surrogates, we wax poetic on freedom and totalitarianism and the invasions of the past.

I am not an isolationist (whatever that is supposed to mean). Or, to qualify, I am about as isolationist as John Quincy Adams was, when he said:

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will [America's] heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

It has been suggested that there is a morally superior side, that of the Georgians, and that are probably correct. But it matters little. There were transgressions on both sides. America has no interest in going to war over Georgia (or any other country, for that matter). Just because the Georgian cause may be lofty and righteous does not mean we are obligated to run to their aid.

I oppose rigid ideology in any manner. This modern American appetite that has us sending men all over the world for an abstract ideal such as “freedom” or “democracy”… I just do not understand it. It is built out of utopian desires. The modern Left (internationalists) has developed this appetite, as has the modern Right (neoconservatives). If something bad happens, somewhere around the world, America should be there. We should send other men to fight and die for Georgia (since intellectual chickenhawks are too busy getting their M.B.A. – J.D.s) and they can will feel their hearts stir when they hear the national anthem from their box seats at a Nationals game.

My heart stirs for the Old Republic, not some NATO empire. Every foreign conflict has some sense to it. There are distinct interests involved. And sometimes our interests are not involved. What is more noble, to partake in an act of war and send men to Georgia to possibly die and possibly further provoke Russian aggression, or to allow foreign nations to determine their own fates, while we trade and peacefully mediate and negotiate? I’d suggest the latter.

There is an unspoken middle ground. Well, almost unspoken. Dan Flynn sums up the debate:

The same jingoes who smile at the thought of General William Sherman’s scorched earth campaign through Georgia beat war drums at Vladimir Putin’s ruthless campaign through Georgia. The same doves who loudly condemned George W. Bush for invading a sovereign nation tell everyone to shut up when we condemn Vladimir Putin for invading a sovereign nation. The same Putin who violently suppressed separatists in the Russian province of Chechnya now violently aids separatists in the Georgian province of South Ossetia. The same Americans who declared Kosovo a republic independent from Serbia decry Russians who declare South Ossetia a rebublic independent from Georgia. “The first casualty when war comes is truth,” noted Senator Hiram Johnson in 1918. Hypocrisy, on the other hand, emerges unscathed.

We’ve spent years poking the Russian Bear. And now he is awake. Come home, America! The bear won’t follow.