Sunday, August 24, 2008
Opinion

Russia and the U.S.: Vastly different invasions

There are always those who say, if it walks like a duck, it’s a duck...

By Stephanie Ramage

There are always those who say, if it walks like a duck, it’s a duck, but my first grade teacher walked exactly like a duck and she was not a duck. Her name, by the way, was Mrs. Bird, although she was not a bird. Even we first graders weren’t fooled by such things.

It’s only the most facile reasoning that adjudges something to be the same as something else because it shares superficial similarities and bears the same name. To simpletons, a snake is a snake, a meal is a meal, and an invasion is an invasion.

For thinkers, there are many kinds of snakes. The rat snake is clearly a harmless benefit to property owners who want to control the rodent population, while the rattlesnake presents a deadly bite hazard. It’s mistaking the two, or thinking that all snakes are dangerous and should be killed, that knocks the ecological balance off-kilter.

For thinkers, there is an endless assortment of meals; a watercress salad and a Big Mac are not the same. One is loaded with vitamins and takes no toll on the planet, while the other is a heart attack on a bun that requires a lot of energy to produce.

For thinkers, there is the American invasion of Iraq, a liberation operation that has succeeded beyond any shadow of a doubt—Saddam Hussein, who was recognized around the world as a despot, having been deposed and killed—and then there’s the Russian invasion of Georgia, a mafia-supported tyrant’s invasion of a much smaller sovereign nation without concern for global opinion or consequences.

    Here are a few other obvious differences between our invasion of Iraq and Russia’s invasion of Georgia:

1. There were nearly two dozen United Nations resolutions aimed at Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein from 1990 until we’d had enough of making empty threats and invaded in March 2003. There has never been any U.N. resolution or ultimatum aimed at Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

2. The U.N.’s member countries almost unanimously condemned Saddam’s policies of genocide and “ethnic cleansing.” Georgia and Saakashvili have never engaged in genocide or ethnic cleansing. 

3. The entire world, not just the U.S., was alarmed by Saddam’s ongoing and well-documented attempts to procure components for a nuclear weapon. Georgia’s Saakashvili has never sought to obtain nuclear weapons.

4. Unlike Russia in its attack on Georgia, we did not stand alone against Iraq. When we invaded, we did so in the company of other countries’ troops, including those from the United Kingdom, South Korea, Poland, Australia, Romania, Denmark, Japan, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Armenia, Slovakia and Georgia, as well as others.

It’s hard to miss how many former Soviet states were willing to help us. Russia, which used to govern those states when it was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, unilaterally attacked Georgia. Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who still runs Russia from behind the polished façade of his protégé Dmitry Medvedev, did not seek, and does not feel that he needs, the world’s permission to invade. I believe that Georgia is a litmus test for him. If he succeeds there, he will press on.

Our invasion of Iraq was justified. Russia’s invasion of Georgia is not. You and I may differ over what the United States should do to help Georgia, but let’s throw out this garbage about how Russia’s invasion of Georgia is no different from the American invasion of Iraq. And if you are mentally incapable of discerning the difference, grab a bag of bread crumbs, and I’ll introduce you to Mrs. Bird. SP
Stephanie Ramage is news editor of The Sunday Paper.