United Liberty

by Michael Powell Over the weekend Russia launched an invasion of the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The conflict has escalated out of a dispute over the South Ossetia region, in northern Georgia, which has sought independence from Georgia. Attacks from Georgia on South Ossetian seperatists led to Russian intervention.

In contrast with the pseudo-fascist state in Russia, Georgia has stood out as a growing democracy in the region. As part of his pro-democracy agenda, President Bush has praised the country. When he visited Tbilisi, he was met with 150,000 people eager to see him. This is reflected in a very striking picture of a bombed out house with a poster of President Bush and the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili hanging off the walls: Believing that Bush, the United States and the West were at their side, some Georgians are understandably angry at what has happened. From the New York Times:

One soldier, his face a mask of exhaustion, cradled a Kalashnikov. “We killed as many of them as we could,” he said. “But where are our friends?”

It was the question of the day. As Russian forces massed Sunday on two fronts, Georgians were heading south with whatever they could carry. When they met Western journalists, they all said the same thing: Where is the United States? When is NATO coming?

Calls are already being made for intervention. Descriptions of the Bush Administration in the Times seem to describe a group of leaders desperate to do something. An official in the Georgian Interior Ministry, Shota Utiashvili, is calling for both guns and butter (emphasis mine):

Mr. Utiashvili said that if they tried to occupy Georgia, “there will probably be guerrilla warfare all over the country.” He said: “We need large supplies of humanitarian aid, because we have thousands of wounded. And weapons. We need weapons.”

The knee-jerk reaction of Westerners, and especially Americans, is to do something when this sort of thing happens. It’s hard to justify standing by and watching countries tear each other apart. However, it is necessary to strongly urge anyone reading this to think of the unintended consequences that could come as a result of getting involved in another foreign skirmish. If we smuggle weapons to Georgians with the best of intentions, a violently inclined Ossetian separatist may see it differently and take out his frustration on American civilians. We may anger the Russians and escalate already deteriorating relations with Russia into another Cold War. It’s called blowback. Take into account the words of Pyotr Bezhov, who told the Times the following:

Pyotr Bezhov, who fled the violence with his daughter Oksana on Sunday, stood by a dusty dirt road. “The biggest problem here is you, your country,” he said. “You said that the Soviets were an evil empire, but it’s you that are the empire.

If what he said is true, getting involved in another foreign entanglement won’t make us any less of an empire.