Not To Worry, All Is Well
There, that got everyone's attention. Diluting China's current place on the world stage. Invasion of a sovereign country is an attention-getter. It's a more rare occasion than the staging of the International Olympic Games, after all.In its own inimitable way a more riveting form of entertainment for those not under the gun of the aggressor than vying for athletic-perfection recognition. The challenges bear certain similarities. Its also a cautionary tale, is it not?
If you cannot trust your friends not to rain on your parade,then who can you trust? Who indeed, former enemies become cautious allies; former allies because incautious enemies.
While China grits her teeth with abandoned irritation against Russia's impetuous drive through Georgia, the world watches in horrified fascination - and helpless inaction - as the Georgian army is routed, its planes are smashed, its ships sunk in its harbour, its citizens' homes are bombed.
Peace-keeping is, after all, a serious commitment, and the country so single-mindedly intent on pursuing peace and protecting its people from "genocidal" intent by their own country's politicians is of singular interest to other nations. Russia takes itself and its initiatives, whatever they happen to be at any given time, seriously.
Can't blame Russia, they're only doing what every responsible country is pledged to do; protect their own. No mind that Russia's "citizens" are in fact, citizens of quite another country, even if it's a country that Russia enjoys blisteringly hostile relations with.
That simply makes the tale more interesting. That Russia, with no malice aforethought whatever, has taken an interest in the welfare of the South Ossetians and the Abkhazians. Selflessly stationing its peace-keepers in the region. And while they're there, encouraging internal dissent, training and equipping dissenters. Oops.
How very high-minded of Russia. And how perfectly unfair for the onlooking world to gasp in dread and wring its collectively helpless hands. Well, Moscow is reasonable, Dmitri Medvedev feels Russian troops have adequately punished Georgia for its intransigence in insisting that its interior affairs are its own, and resisting Russia's interference.
Perhaps he hadn't, at that point, adequately consulted with Vladimir Putin, before making that statement.
Yes, a French-and-Finnish-sponsored agreement for cessation of hostilities has been signed by both parties - with a few notable alterations by Moscow. Isn't it quite wonderful that France's foreign minister has been shuttling about desperately attempting to persuade the aroused bear to calm down?
Mr. Kouchner knows bloody violence when he sees it; he is himself a spectacular world-class upholder of human rights, and we have confidence in him. He is familiar with the kind of diplomacy required in these touchy situations.
Unlike President G.W. Bush and his world-class scold who are both fulminating with white-hot outrage over Russia's reversion to Soviet-style brutality. President Bush, who quite recognized the "goodness" in then-President Putin's wan smile and warmer eyes, wonders where the humanity he invested in that figure has disappeared to.
He might ask himself whether it's always present at times of white-hot anger. There was, let's see, Grenada, a helpless little island that just got on the wrong side of a powerfully annoyed superpower. And of course, more recent events. Serbia comes to mind and support for Kosovo. And, there's always Iraq....
An accord for peaceful resolution is on, hurrah! Oops, it's off; unaccountably, Russian tanks are still advancing....
Labels: Social-Cultural Deviations, Traditions, Troublespots, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, August 13, 2008
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