Out in Right Field

by Julius Ponds

The Bear went down to Georgia, he was looking for some land to steal. He was in a bind 'cos nations paid him no mind: he was willin' to bring ‘em to heel.

It is a true shame that a young budding Democracy was assaulted as it was by a larger, authoritarian neighbor. My fear is that in the future, people will be less likely to throw off the shackles of oppression in Rose Revolutions, Orange Revolutions and Tulip Revolutions. We do not want those people to resign themselves to living in the darkness and in the shadow of Russian autocracy, but rather embrace the light of political freedom.

Saakashvili’s rosin up his bow and play his fiddle hard. 'Cos hells broke loose in Georgia and the Bear deals it hard.

In a previous edition of the GOPyr newsletter, I advocated a Girondist theory of foreign policy for the United States. I continue to advocate that we need to acknowledge the effect and impact of our great American experiment in human freedom on foreign peoples. We should neither turn our back on the world, nor coddle repressive regimes out of fear of appearing arrogant. In practical applications, we should have stood more firmly behind a country like Georgia – as a newer democracy – and as a staunch ally in the war on terror.

Wouldn’t it have been better for humanity if the story had ended like this?

The Bear bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat. He laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Saakashvili’s feet.

I am not confident in the incoming foreign policy team of Obama, Biden and Clinton. I would hope they see the positive value America brings to the world, but fear they share the Left’s convictions that America is a corrupting and malevolent influence on the world stage.