Bush and Georgia

August 13, 2008

[From today's Wall Street Journal; commentary to follow.]

On June 13, 1948, the day after the Soviet Union took the first step in its blockade of Berlin, U.S. General Lucius Clay sent a cable to Washington making the case for standing up to the Soviets. "We are convinced that our remaining in Berlin is essential to our prestige in Germany and in Europe. Whether for good or bad, it has become a symbol of the American intent." The Berlin Airlift began 13 days later.

Sixty years on, U.S. credibility is again on the line as the Bush Administration stumbles to respond to the Russian invasion of Georgia. So far the Administration has been missing in action, to put it mildly. The strategic objective is twofold: to prevent Moscow from going further to topple Georgia's democratic government in the coming days, and to deter future Russian aggression.
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President Bush finally condemned Russia's actions on Monday after a weekend of Olympics tourism in Beijing while Georgia burned. Meanwhile, the State Department dispatched a mid-level official to Tbilisi, and unnamed Administration officials carped to the press that Washington had warned Georgia not to provoke Moscow. That's hardly a show of solidarity with a Eurasian democracy that has supported the U.S. in Iraq with 2,000 troops.

Compared to this August U.S. lethargy, the French look like Winston Churchill. In Moscow yesterday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, acting as president of the European Union, got Russia to agree to a provisional cease-fire that could return both parties' troops to their positions before the conflict started. His next stop was Tbilisi, on the heels of a visit from Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

If both sides agree to a cease-fire, Mr. Sarkozy promises that Europe will consider sending peacekeepers to enforce it. We trust he will find volunteers from the former Soviet republics, which see the writing on the wall if Russian aggression in Georgia is left unchallenged. The leaders of Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia flew to Tbilisi this week in a show of solidarity.

NATO also met yesterday and denounced the invasion, while stopping short of promising military aid to Georgia. Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the allies "condemned and deplored [Russia's] excessive, disproportionate use of force," and demanded a return to the status quo ante.

The NATO leader also said Georgia's potential membership remains "very much alive" and that it would be a member of NATO one day. Georgia and Ukraine's applications come up again in December, and perhaps even Germany, which blocked their membership bids earlier this year, will now rethink its objections given that its refusal may have encouraged Russia to assume it could reassert control over its "near abroad."

Much as it respects and owes Georgia, the U.S. is not going to war with Russia over a non-NATO ally. But there are forceful diplomatic and economic responses at its disposal. Expelling Russia from the G-8 group of democracies, as John McCain has suggested, is one. Barring Russia's long desired entry into the World Trade Organization is another. Russian leaders should also be told that their financial assets held abroad aren't off limits to sanction. And Moscow should know that the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi on the Black Sea are in jeopardy. A country that starts a war on the weekend the Beijing Olympics began doesn't deserve such an honor.

The Georgian people also deserve U.S. support. One way to demonstrate that would be a "Tbilisi airlift," ferrying military and humanitarian supplies to the Georgian capital, which is currently cut off by Russian troops from its Black Sea port. Secretary of State Rice or Defense Secretary Robert Gates should be in one of the first planes. After the fighting ends, the U.S. can lead the recovery effort. And since the Russians are demanding his ouster, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili deserves U.S. support too. Moscow wants a puppet leader in Tbilisi, and U.S. officials are playing into Valdimir Putin's hands with their media whispers that this is all Mr. Saakashvili's fault.

Reshaping U.S. policy toward Russia will take longer than the months between now and January 20, when a new President takes office. But Mr. Bush can at least atone for his earlier misjudgments about Mr. Putin and steer policy in a new direction that his successor would have to deal with. If that successor is Barack Obama, this is an opportunity to shape a crucial foreign policy issue for a novice who could very well go in the wrong direction.
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The alternative is ending Mr. Bush's tenure on a Carter-esque note of weakness. To paraphrase General Clay: Whether for good or bad, how the U.S. responds to Russia's aggression in Georgia has become a symbol of American credibility. By trying to Finlandize if not destroy Georgia, Moscow is sending a message that, in its part of the world, being close to Washington can be fatal. If Mr. Bush doesn't revisit his Russian failures, the rout of Georgia will stand as the embarrassing coda to his Presidency.

To write or not to write (a book) + How an Anti-Doping Control was Defeated

Several times it's been suggested to me by everyone from friends to members of the mainstream media (and friends in the mainstream media) that I should write a book about my "life story." The saga of Yuliet's escape from Cuba and flight across Europe before being kidnapped and forcibly repatriated is terrible - but compelling - and my insights into the dark world of doping in sport (ie., what really goes on and how it happens) are two segments of what could be an engaging (if short) read. Think an American version of "Breaking the Chain", except not just about doping (and with a better cover)!

Love, betrayal, international intrigue, Apache gunships, juvenille humor (for that I'd consult Burt Hoovis), crime, punishment, redemption, confusing sentence structures, gratuitous use of foreign words...it would be a classic in our time!

Until then, I thought I'd provide you all with an anecdote about one way in which I saw an anti-doping control defeated...BUT - I'll have to get back to this later as I have a meeting in Robinson in 45min.

Spanish Word of the Day - anteojos

anteojos, noun
glasses, spectacles

Spanish spoken in Latin America often differs in vocabulary from Spanish in Spain, just as American and British English differ. Some basic and useful words are different in the two areas, such as the Latin American word for glasses, los anteojos.

Usaba anteojos de carey.
He wore tortoiseshell glasses.

anteojos de sol
sunglasses

anteojos oscuros
sunglasses, dark glasses

In Spain the word anteojos has a quaint, old-fashioned ring to it. The standard term there is las gafas.

La mujer hermosas lleva las gafas de sol.
The beautiful woman [in the photo above] is wearing sunglasses.

Llevaba unas grandes gafas de diseñador.
She was wearing large designer glasses.

El abogado se quitó las gafas.
The lawyer took off his glasses.

Content By
© HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2006. All rights reserved.

Obžínky

Made the trek to Ohio yesterday for Obžínky. Despite missing the parade after leaving late, and getting rained on, I'm glad I went - though I wish I'd had more time there to catch up with my Uncle Frank (my mom's brother) and my other relatives on my mom's (Czech) side of the family.

I would definitely characterize the day as "bittersweet." It wasn't sad to return to Taborville, so much as it was poignant and a reminder that time waits for no man. Everything was smaller than I remembered it, there were no familiar faces apart from my family's and those captured in fading pictures tacked up on the "DTJ Historical Archives" board in front of the hall.

I did finally get to order a beer on my own at the lower bar in the hall (instead of stealing swigs from my uncle's) and of course I chose a Pilsner Urquell. Could it have been anything but?

Standing in front of my Babi's dilapidated cottage was heart-breaking, but to experience that emotion is only possible because of all the wonderful memories I have from the time I spent there growing up. I miss my father and my grandmother dreadfully, and I can't ignore how old my mom is getting, but my life is made up of a rich tapestry of experiences that I'll always treasure. Loss - and by that I don't just mean death - will always be part of living, and the challenge is to push through the sadness and fight to get back to a state of balance.

Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. -- 2 Corinthians 4:16

Cuba, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Boston, Bellevue Borough, China, Italy and Bethel Park. Just a few compass points on this map that I'm unfurling. I wish I'd done a better job of appreciating some of the stops along the way, but there is no going back, and only hope for the future.

In the meantime, check out my Obžínky photos here.

And to avoid being totally morose, I'll admit that something funny did happen yesterday (though it was painful as hell): a wasp stung me just under my right eye when I was about 30 seconds away from the safety of being inside the Audi after we'd decided to jet. Holy smokes - that hurt, but I'm glad it made PJ laugh...

I'm reprinting a post from 2006 which explains a bit about DTJ Taborville:

Sunday, November 05, 2006
DTJ Taborville

For those of you who don't know what DTJ is, I'd like to take a moment to give you a brief explanation.

The initials DTJ stand for "Delnicke Telocvicne Jednoty" or "Workers' Gymnastic Union". DTJ as an organization is a part of the great Labor Movement as the translation implies. It is an International organization, whose program consists of training the youth of the world to enable it to take part in the great movement for a better and more just organization of human society.

A Little History

The DTJ organization was formed by a group of tailors in Prague, 1897. The group was sympathetic towards the Social Democratic movement of that period. Gym work was started immediately, classes being held wherever room could be found, mostly at the Inns.

The first DTJ group to be formed in America was founded in Cleveland, Ohio by members of the Lassalle Senior Club in 1909. Soon after another group was organized in Chicago, Illinois. An organization affiliated with the DTJ is the American Sokol of New York. Although the D.A.S. has a sick and death benefit provision in its program, there is possibility that it will come in closer contact with the DTJ of the future.

Berlin in Our Times

For another perspective on the 2008 Olympics, consider the writings of Manuel A.Tellechea:

"The kindest way to describe what is going on in China today is global amnesia. In a nation where "prosperity" hinges on the enforcement of the genocidal "One Child Policy," famines rage unnoticed in the countryside and workers are exploited by plutocrats more powerful than the robber barons because they do not have to contend with ballot boxes or assuage public opinion, the world has converged -- ostensibly in the name of sport -- to celebrate the debasement of man by the State. It has happened before and will likely happen again. It is a pleasing fiction that sport promotes harmony among nations. Sport, in itself, is neither nobler nor more inspiring than any other human pursuit. It is the purposes to which sport is put that can be noble or inspiring, or, as in the case of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, base and despicable..."

That is the post I would have written if I was as accomplished an author as MaT, but since I'm not, I reproduce his words here.

Tumi, Tape, Priceless

Tumi bag at a discount: $200.

Your bag as a prop in your friend's sex tape: Classic.

Having your name called out: Priceless.