[IWE] obama and foreign policy

[William Oxley]

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=3D13564
apparently it is whatever it takes just like the other guy

On another vitally important issue, the renewal of the Cold War with =20
Russia =96 a project dear to the hearts of neocons everywhere =96 Obama =20=

is hardly distinguishable from John McCain. Indeed, as I pointed out =20
in my analysis of the last debate, the two of them seemed to be =20
competing to see who could be more warlike and provocative when it =20
came to the issue of the Caucasus. Particularly disturbing is Obama's =20=

complete denial of what happened in Tskhinvali, the Ossetian capital =20
city, when the Georgians went in and slaughtered hundreds of innocent =20=

civilians. The candidate echoed the War Party's bizarre inversion of =20
the established facts, insisting that Russia had invaded Georgia, =20
instead of Georgia invading Ossetia and Abkhazia.

This is no small point: Obama deliberately overlooked the very real =20
human cost of President Mikheil Saakashvili's Napoleonic ambitions in =20=

the region, because there can be no doubt he knows better. As McCain =20
gleefully pointed out during the first debate, the Obama campaign =20
initially took a very different position, decrying violence on both =20
sides and calling for a cease-fire. In McCain's view, giving the =20
thousands of Ossetians slaughtered by Saakashvili any acknowledgment =20
at all is inexcusable. Outside of that, however, McCain is right: =20
Obama did indeed change his position, perhaps after due consultation =20
with his advisers. This is strong circumstantial evidence that he did =20=

have at least some idea of what really went on in Ossetia, and =20
subsequently chose to ignore it.

This is not just an obscure foreign policy point with major moral =20
implications =96 it is a huge issue, having to do not only with the =20
regional secessionist movements that beleaguer Russia's "near =20
abroad," but also with the much larger question of whether we are =20
going to face off with the Kremlin in a replay of the Cold War years.=20=