Let's Take on Russia Too

As I'm sure all of you are aware, Russian forces have invaded Georgia and are wreaking quite a lot of havoc in the process. As they make their way towards central Georgia, there's a lot of speculation going on as to what the Kremlin's end goal is with this exercise.

For some folks like Billy Kristol, the end goal should involve our going over there to kick Russia's ass:

But Georgia, a nation of about 4.6 million, has had the third-largest military presence — about 2,000 troops — fighting along with U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq. For this reason alone, we owe Georgia a serious effort to defend its sovereignty. Surely we cannot simply stand by as an autocratic aggressor gobbles up part of — and perhaps destabilizes all of — a friendly democratic nation that we were sponsoring for NATO membership a few months ago.

For that matter, consider the implications of our turning away from Georgia for other aspiring pro-Western governments in the neighborhood, like Ukraine’s. Shouldn’t we therefore now insist that normal relations with Russia are impossible as long as the aggression continues, strongly reiterate our commitment to the territorial integrity of Georgia and Ukraine, and offer emergency military aid to Georgia?

Regardless of whether or not sending our troops to Georgia would be justified, exactly how would you pull this off, Billy? See, we have this pesky little military operation going on Iraq and Afghanistan that's using up all of our resources, including our own National Guard. I guess it couldn't hurt to go into MORE debt to help fund that operation too, right? After all, it's not like we're actively paying for any of this. But where will all of these volunteer fighters come from? Should we turn the draft back on so we can get a good-sized force to take on our old arch-enemy? Yeah, that would go over big with Billy's biggest fans as they try to flee to the north.

The bottom line is that Billy's wet dream simply cannot be achieved. With barely any public support left for Iraq, Russia would be a really tough sell. Oh sure, we can still do that political posturing that we're known for; all of that finger wagging and scolding to pass a resolution that Russia's been a bad boy. Beyond that, however, there's not much left in terms of influence. With tapped resources and an irrelevant leader (along with an impotent Congress), the most we'll be doing is watching to see what happens.

And don't forget to join us next week when Billy Kristol has our troops flying to Darfur.

[H/T to ThinkProgress]