"Georgia's territorial integrity and borders must command the same respect as every other nation's, including Russia's," Bush said in a statement from his vacation home in Texas
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The whole things is just a steaming pile of hypocrisy. Kosovo is one thing (although to be fair, Bush did kind of inherit that one from the Clinton administration....and his dad....), but to make those kind of statements after what the US has done in Iraq? America has lost its moral high ground in SO many ways. You can't act one way and then expect other countries to do the exact opposite, especially when we're talking about a powerful country like Russia. It's just a crock. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pleased about the Russian invasion, but I'm also not surprised. Next we'll have the US government recognizing Chechnya and see what sort of a fun party THAT will lead to. What a mess.
It is very difficult to sell the U.S. as an example when we flip 180 degrees like this on territorial issues based on arbitrary factors like whether or not the country in question likes us or likes/doesn't like Russia. And Chechnya is a mess. Argh.
I don't know how much moral high ground we ever really had in the eyes of other nations though: when I lived overseas people liked Americans as individuals but never stopped bitching about the United States as a country unless and until we were attacked by terrorists, and that only earned us a brief reprieve.
And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if this resulted in brutal crackdowns on separatist elements in Spain, Ireland, The Phillipines, Indonesia, and a lot of other places. China ... can China get more brutal? I see them taking Taiwan back if Taiwan doesn't go voluntarily (which is a strong possibility). Our stance on Kosovo emboldened secessionist movements, and our stance on Georgia will embolden sovereign governments to repress these movements.
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I don't know how much moral high ground we ever really had in the eyes of other nations though: when I lived overseas people liked Americans as individuals but never stopped bitching about the United States as a country unless and until we were attacked by terrorists, and that only earned us a brief reprieve.
And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if this resulted in brutal crackdowns on separatist elements in Spain, Ireland, The Phillipines, Indonesia, and a lot of other places. China ... can China get more brutal? I see them taking Taiwan back if Taiwan doesn't go voluntarily (which is a strong possibility). Our stance on Kosovo emboldened secessionist movements, and our stance on Georgia will embolden sovereign governments to repress these movements.
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