Thoughts on the South Ossetian Conflict...

(1) The western community is reaping the consequences of supporting Kosovo’s movement from de facto to formal independence in ’07. Russia specifically made it clear were the West to grant Kosovo independence, Russia would support the independence movements of its choice in its backyard. South Ossetia is, then, simply one of the costs of Kosovo’s independence.

(2) The double standards of the western community—supporting independence in Kosovo while refusing to support other similar movements—have essentially thawed the previously frozen conflicts of the Black Sea microstates (South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transdniestra). What’s more, it’s not as if Russia doesn’t have its own double standards, too. The Kremlin has veraciously denied the independence movements in Chechnya and Kosovo while supporting those movements congruent with Russian national interests. What a surprise!? Foreign policy is a maximalist mindset, which brings me to my point: many of the independence movements that make the most sense aren’t supported because they challenge the interests of powerful nations. Kurds, for example, are the biggest ethnic group without its own nation. And yet, despite systematic abuses in all three countries in which they reside—Iraq, Turkey, Iran—the international community chooses to unequivocally oppose their attempts at self-determination. The reasoning? A justifiably independent Kurdistan would only work contrary to other states interests, including the US. The Kurdish regions are rich in natural resources, and the US refuses to risk their strong alliance and basing rights in Turkey.

(3) Two years ago I wrote an EU policy paper and passed it along to one of the EU foreign advisers. In it, I advised that the EU strengthen GUAM—the regional alliance between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova—in order to present a stronger defense against Russian influence. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Today it seems like, well, a really good idea.

(4) Georgian President Saakashvili made the same mistake Milosevic did in Kosovo: he allowed himself to respond to violent secession attempts with disproportionate force. Viewed as human rights violations, Russia found justification to intervene, destroy Georgia’s military infrastructure, and further solidify the de facto independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Now it seems wholly unlikely South Ossetia and Abkhazia will ever agree to full autonomy within Georgia; Especially upoon considering Georgia destroyed much of the moral ground for retaining South Ossetia's by the use of excessive force.

(5) Russia has to somehow be reprimanded by western institutions for granting Russian citizenship to tens of thousands of South Ossetians who technically are Georgian citizens. It was a crude attempt to justify intervention, and must be in violation of some international law.

(6) Russia was wrong to advanced ground troops to Georgia proper. Russia can argue well that its intervention into South Ossetia was justifiable.

(7) The West has done an awful job restraining the regional ambitions of Russia. The US has spread its military resources far too thin, and thus is unable to even implicitly impose a counter threat to Russian military operations with which it disagrees. Likewise, European reliance on Russian energy prevents them from doing anything more than nominally calling for a ceasefire.

(8) Russia dropped cluster bombs!?! Cluster bombs are among the vilest of weapons that don’t belong in arsenals of countries that claim to espouse even the simplest respect for human life. This bombs are specifically used to assimilate landmines, target non-combatants, and to prevent post-ethnic cleansing reintegration. Unfortunately, the US is the foremost culprit in both the use and exportation of these vile devices. Its time we take a stand and outlaw them via both domestic and international means.

(9) Yes, that's a picture of me behind Georgian President Saakashvili. I was a daydreaming if you must know.