Vice President Joe Biden, who is becoming an ad hoc Obama envy for trips to areas of US interest, has moved to Eastern Europe. Speaking to Georgia’s officials almost a year after the Russian-Georgian war, he offered rhetorical reassurances of American support. He referred to American economic assistance — “Georgia today is one of the highest per-capita recipients of U.S. aid in the entire world” — and pledged that the US would not recognise the independence of the autonomous regions of Abkhazia and South Georgia.
However, the speech also set limits on US backing of Georgia. Biden did not directly criticise Russia, and his words on NATO membership for Georgia were carefully framed to offer general support but no prospect of immediate action: “We understand that Georgia aspires to join NATO. We fully support that aspiration….We will work to help you meet the standards of NATO membership.”
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Thank you. (Applause.) Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament, distinguished leaders, friends all, I thank you for this great honor. I do consider it an honor to be given the floor in your Parliament.
I speak not only on behalf of myself as Vice President, but I speak for my President, President Obama, as well as my country. I come here on behalf of the United States with a simple, straightforward message: We, the United States, stand by you on your journey to a secure, free and democratic, and once again united, Georgia. (Applause.) Read the rest of this entry »
I’m not sure Scheffer appreciates that European leaders thinking the military-first initiative in Afghanistan, as a dubious if not losing cause, will drain the alliance rather than bolster it. German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid lip service to the military effort but did not commit to additional deployment, especially in southern and central Afghanistan, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for all his warm talk of security “from Vancouver to Vladivostok”, did not mention Afghanistan at all.
3 p.m. Hope in Somalia? The new President, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has arrived in Mogadishu for the first time since his election. He will be holding talks with politicians, tribal elders, and Islamic resistance groups to try to establishing a functioning government.
1:40 p.m. Reason Number 452 why the Obama Plan for Iraq Withdrawal Should be Set Aside: Collapsing Oil Prices.
The latest effort from the US military to rationalise a long-term stay comes from Lieutenant General Frank Helmick, the commander of the training of Iraqi forces. Because of diminished revenues, Helmick says, “They are not going to be able to grow as fast as they want to grow.”
12:15 p.m. Biden’s speech is over. He finally got to the one to watch in next weeks, calling on NATO to support US efforts in Afghanistan.
12:05 p.m. Biden offers two important confirmations: “American will not torture” and “American will act aggressively against climate change”.
There are also signs of an emerging and important relationship: after Nicolas Sarkozy’s call this morning for a new security arrangement “from Vancouver to Vladivostok”, Biden has pointedly praised France’s new cooperative relationship with NATO.
And there’s a jab at Russia: “”We will not recognize any nation having a sphere of influence”. Specifically, US will not join Moscow in recognising the independence of South Ossetia.
Stuart Levey, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, stated that PEJAK is a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is battling Turkey has been struggling. (Ali Yenidunya)
8:20 a.m. And there’s a separate entry on the continuing battle between President Obama and the military over the build-up of US troops in Afghanistan.
8:10 a.m. We’ve just posted a separate entry on a possible State Department initiative, using Twitter, to support engagement with Iran.
Morning Update (7:45 a.m. GMT; 2:45 a.m. Washington): The Kyrgyzstan Government is not backing down on its decision to close the US Manas airbase. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said that “all due procedures” were being pursued for a speedy conclusion.
The Government is claiming that it receives too little payment for the base. In support of its case, and to ensure public support, it is also citing ecological concerns and highlighting the case of a Kyrgyz citizen killed by a US serviceman.
North Korea, offering a contrast to its hard-line rhetoric in recent days about relations with South Korea and its missile programme, has signalled to a former senior US diplomat that it is willing to discuss nuclear disarmament if its requests for aid are met.
Journalist Mark Ames offers observations and analysis of the Russian-Georgian conflict which are provocative (“America deftly organized and orchestrated the so-called Rose Revolution” in Georgia in 2003), revealing (“foreign-desk editors back home have been demanding proof of Russian evil, after largely ignoring Georgia’s war crimes in South Ossetia”), and illuminating (“after years in which Russia rebuilt itself on the back of soaring commodity prices (today it’s the world’s largest producer of oil), our advantages in global power politics have started to tilt Putin’s way”).
It is his conclusion, however, that deserves most attention:
Russia…is as high as a Hollywood speedballer from its victory. Putting the two together in the same room — speedballing Russia and violently bad-tripping America — is a recipe for serious disaster. If we’re lucky, we’ll survive the humiliating decline and settle into the new reality without causing too much damage to ourselves or the rest of the world. But when that awful moment arrives where the cognitive dissonance snaps hard, it will be an epic struggle to come to our senses in time to prevent the William Kristols, Max Boots and Robert Kagans from leading us into a nuclear holocaust which, they will assure us, we can win against Russia, thanks to our technological superiority.
Vice President Joe Biden, who is becoming an ad hoc Obama envy for trips to areas of US interest, has moved to Eastern Europe. Speaking to Georgia’s officials almost a year after the Russian-Georgian war, he offered rhetorical reassurances of American support. He referred to American economic assistance — “Georgia today is one of the highest per-capita recipients of U.S. aid in the entire world” — and pledged that the US would not recognise the independence of the autonomous regions of Abkhazia and South Georgia.
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