Publius Pundit: Three Cheers for the Washington Post! Archive

Filed under: Russia

Three cheers for the Washington Post! Over the past few years, as we have seen a malignant dictatorship rise in Russia eerily reminiscent of its Soviet predecessor, the Post has been an international leader among major media institutions in recognizing the threat and providing sage counsel on how to deal with it. Today the paper continues this trend with a brilliant editorial succinctly stating what the world's position ought to be on the recent Russian missile attack against Georgia. We reprint it in full:

Late Monday night, a missile crashed into the ground near the village of Tsitelubani in Georgia. The weapon failed to detonate, but the event has nevertheless sparked new tensions between the small, democratic country and Russia, its former overlord to the north.

Details are still emerging, but the Georgian government says that radar records prove that a Russian Su-24 jet entered Georgian airspace from the northeast, dropped the missile and then returned to Russia. Georgian officials also claim that the recovered weapon was a Russian anti-radar missile designed for use with the Su-24, an aircraft not in Georgia's arsenal. There is speculation that the target was a nearby Georgian radar installation. The Russians, for their part, have insisted that the Georgians attacked themselves, a Kremlin defense that has become unsettlingly familiar and no more convincing. A U.S. official familiar with the case says that the Georgians' evidence is credible and that there is no evidence to support the Russians' story. The missile incident disturbingly resembles a March incident in which a missile was fired at a government building in Abkhazia, a Georgian territory that is home to pro-Russian rebels. Then, too, the evidence pointed to Russian aggression, but a United Nations report stopped short of blaming Russia -- probably because the Russians had to sign off on the document.

By violating Georgian sovereignty, Moscow may hope to bait Georgia into responding with force of its own near an already tense border. Added conflict in the region could make Western governments nervous about Georgia's suitability to join NATO, membership being a key goal of pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili. So far, however, the Georgians have wisely limited themselves to releasing information and lodging diplomatic protests.

The United States and Europe should help Georgia bring the issue before the U.N. Security Council. And if, after a full vetting of the facts, it remains clear that the Russians are at fault, Georgia's aspirations for NATO membership should not be hampered. Indeed, stemming this sort of aggression is what NATO was set up to do.

Just as was the case with the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, the crazed "government" of Russia is claiming that Georgia attacked itself, refusing to acknowledge even the remotest possibility that even rogue forces associated with Russia could have been involved. Just as was the case with Litvinenko, and just as in Soviet times, Russia prefers to spin a web of paranoia, claiming the world is out to frame an innocent country out of anti-Slavic animosity, rather than cooperate in the investigation like a civilized state. Russian television, the primary source of news for Russian people, is not reporting the basic facts to the people of the country (just as in Soviet times) and state-sponsored Russia Today English TV is attempting to propagandize the events in the Kremlin's favor.

The world has seen this all before, and in the past has waited too long before taking action. Let this be the moment when we turn over a new leaf and avoid writing a period of history of which we must be ashamed before our children and theirs. Georgia has requested international support, through the UN, to defend itself from the threat its faces. The US and its NATO allies must stand foursquare behind this effort. It has requested NATO membership. Speedy admission must be granted. It's the only way to slow the neo-Soviet onslaught.

Let's do the right thing and rise to Georgia's defense. In doing so, all we'll really be doing is defending ourselves. And in the long run we'll be defending the people of Russia too, because this same crazy, self-destructive behavior is what obliterated the USSR, and will of course ultimately do the same to Russia. The people of Russia are seemingly unable, or perhaps simply unwilling, to reign in their own rogue regime.

So we must do it for them, before Russia victimizes a neighbor in an irreparable manner and sends the world back down the path to global conflict. The U.S. Congress should pass a resolution of support backing Georgia to the hilt. The President should back away from the "trustworthy" eyes of dictator Vladimir Putin, and lead NATO to extend its protection to Georgia immediately. Russia must be sent an unmistakable, unified signal by the Western world that it must back away from Georgia, and do it now. This is President Bush's last best chance to do the right thing where Russia is concerned, before his presidency ends in infamy, condemned by the judgment of history.

And if our leaders fail to do so, we should call them to account for jeopardizing our children's futures.

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