You Go, Russia!

As the only American who truly believes the Russian Federation has been wholly justified in its intervention in Georgia over the course of the past few days, it appears I am also the only one who has not taken the reporting of the media hook, line and sinker. I do this thing, usually on the internet - I read. To those who think that the big bad Soviet Empire is once again rearing its evil head to challenge the benevolent world hegemony of the United States, this post is for you.

Russia is completely justified in their actions in Georgia because they were attacked. It is as simple as that. Here's a brief, layman's history of the conflict in Georgia

Following the fall of the Soviet Union in the beginning of the 1990s, Georgia became its own independent nation. The Russian Federation, in an explicit deal with the United States, agreed to respect the national sovereignty of the states formerly within its sphere of influence, as long as the U.S. and NATO did not attempt to influence these states.

In 1992, the predominantly-Russian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (who's North Ossetia counterpart is part of greater Russia) passed referendum to secede from Georgia and rejoin their Russian bretheren. This referendum was wholly unrecognized by the international community, and South Ossetia and Abkhazia became autonomous regions of Georgia, though technically still within its borders.

With tensions flaring throughout the '90s, a joint peacekeeping effort was set up between South Ossetia, Georgia, and Russia, where all three stationed peacekeeping troops in an attempt to maintain a balance that would enable the stability of the entire region.

Flash foward to the 21st century - NATO membership has been all but promised to Georgia, millions of dollars worth of aid has been siphoned its way, and Georgia has become an active member of the "Coalition of the Willing" by stationing a few thousand troops in Iraq. The United States' promise to Russia, to keep its fingers out of its former sphere of influence, had been broken.

Last week, in response to South Ossetian separatist actions, the Georgian military, using rockets provided to it by the United States, launched indiscriminate missile attacks upon the capital of South Ossetia, killing, amongst many others, ten Russian peacekeepers.

Let us now discuss a hypothetical. A resurgence, against promised actions, of Russian training and arming of the Cuban military, followed by the Cuban army, using rocket launchers provided by Russian, killing ten American peacekeepers stationed...somewhere. Ten dead Americans at the hands of Russian rockets launched by the Cuban military. Our tanks would have rolled into Havana within 48 hours.

Yet the United States has reacted with moral indignation to the actions of Russia, hypocritically claiming that it had violated the national sovereignty of its tiny neighbor. While it is true that without a doubt Russia is pursuing other interests, namely energy interests, in its conflict with Georgia, the base issue here is that the Georgians started a war, hoping for U.S. intervention on their side, and the Russians ended it. The Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, should be thankful that Putin and Medvedev let him remain in office and didn't wipe Tbilisi off the face of the Earth.