The Krauthammer Solution

Charles says that we have the cards, and we need to play them.

1. Suspend the NATO-Russia Council established in 2002 to help bring Russia closer to the West. Make clear that dissolution will follow suspension. The council gives Russia a seat at the NATO table. Message: Invading neighboring democracies forfeits the seat.

2. Bar Russian entry to the World Trade Organization.

3. Dissolve the G-8. Putin’s dictatorial presence long made it a farce but no one wanted to upset the bear by expelling it. No need to. The seven democracies simply withdraw. Then immediately announce the reconstitution of the original G-7.

4. Announce a U.S.-European boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi. To do otherwise would be obscene. Sochi is 15 miles from Abkhazia, the other Georgian province just invaded by Russia. The Games will become a riveting contest between the Russian, Belarusian and Jamaican bobsled teams.

The boycott of Sochi in 2014 is an idea I’ve not heard thrown around.  Though I’ve always thought that the boycotts in ’80 and ’84 accomplished nothing, it’s interesting that the idea would seriously be considered.  I mean, Krauthammers a serious cat, right?  A more stark realization is that, when you start talking about Olympic boycotts, you know another Cold War is just around the corner.

The First Galactic Russian Empire is Here…

Ed Morrissey explains Putin’s true motivations…

The game plan has been revealed, for those who still hadn’t realized Russia’s larger plan. Putin doesn’t want Western-friendly governments in the former Soviet republics; he wants puppet governments answerable to Moscow.  He supported the separatists in the Caucasus in order to deliberately provoke a incident he could exploit to depose the freely-elected government in Tbilisi and impose Russian rule through a proxy government imposed by force.

The demand for Saakashvili to resign should offend every free nation on Earth.  Saakashvili represents Georgia, not the newly-birthed Russian Empire, and Moscow has no right to demand that a freely-elected president resign under force of arms.  Free nations should also look toward Ukraine and recognize the next victim on Putin’s list.

For those who call this a peace, it is no such thing.  The Russians have their boot on Georgia’s throat, and have only paused to get a surrender.

And here I thought all those imperialist Commies were dead…