U.S. fails to lead on conflict in Georgia
The reaction of the U.S. Congress and administration, as well as the leading international government organizations to the South Ossetia conflict between Georgia and Russia-backed separatists is disturbingly slow and disastrously lacking.
Despite U.N. and the international community being tasked with conflict resolution and prevention since the cease-fire in South Ossetia (1992) and Abkhazia (1993), the two breakaway regions of Georgia, no lasting peace based on Georgia's territorial integrity has been implemented.
Today, when the war reignited there, hundreds, possibly thousands of people have died, scores wounded, hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure damage and tens of thousands of displaced, we are seeing the results of this indifference and "not a priority" approach.
The international community and the U.S. have been weak on the "frozen conflicts" of the former USSR, adopting watered down toothless resolutions that are barely worth the paper they are printed on and being ignorant of the Kosovo precedent, which has emboldened the separatists who interpreted the message in the only logical way - that territorial integrity of a state is in the eyes of US and EU less important than "self-determination" - even if the latter is achieved only by violent, sometimes terrorist, means.
Frankly, the double standards and weak leadership even within the US is striking. On Aug. 8, Sen. Obama made a weak statement that ignored basic facts: "Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint and to avoid an escalation to full-scale war. Georgia's territorial integrity must be respected."
Despite a very feeble statement, at least it pays lip service to territorial integrity of Georgia, a strategic U.S. ally.
In his Jan. 19 reference to another strategic U.S. ally, Azerbaijan and its Armenia-occupied region of NK, Sen. Obama stated that as president, he will be "working for a lasting and durable settlement of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict based upon America's founding commitment to the principles of democracy and self determination."
And after this, we want U.S. to have more friends and allies, more respect and to have more peace and fewer wars in the world?
Ruslan Aliyev
Evanston