With Hurricane Ike headed directly for Houston, Obama might have to cancel his SNL appearance since it would be “inappropriate for the senator to do if it looks in any way like it’s going to be a tragedy.” Had Georgie-boy handled Hurricane Katrina propery, each and every storm to approach the US wouldn’t have to now be treated like an all encompassing vortex. [Politico]
Yesterday, ABC’s “Charlie” Gibson interviewed Alaskan cleric Sarah Palin and asked her how she would respond IF Georgia was granted NATO-nation status and was invaded by the Russians again. The pre-programmed governor said the US would be obligated to protect a member nation, which is technically a correct answer, since under article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, an attack on one is considered an attack on all—though she could still use some fine tuning in her diplomatic skills when threatening an all out imaginary war with Russia. And while the pundits will give her credit for just being able to actually answer a reporter’s questions—even if she doesn’t have any idea what the Bush Doctrine is—the belief that the United States is automatically bound to war (even if it is willed by Jesus himself) is absurd and in the hypothetical case of Georgia, fundamentally wrong!
While the United States does indeed have a duty to protect and honor its agreement with NATO allies, should it not also have the absolute right to challenge that clause if said nation is the instigator in the first place? With some evidence suggesting the Georgians being partly responsible for provoking the conflict with a murderous incursion of their own into South Ossetia, it does beg the question about how far the US should go in honoring an agreement that could end up undermining our and Europe’s collective security more than improving it. Would Georgia’s stream of nationalism be worth American streams of blood in an all out conflict with Russia? God willing or not, the answer is no and a great reason why that country has no place securing a spot in NATO in the first place—no matter how many lobbyists in the McCain camp champion otherwise.
Maybe it’s the accents but American politics sound so funny when the Brits discuss them. Reporting on the presidential elections, a BBC World News journalist noted how Obama has had a rough week after the “unfortunate incident of discussing lipstick on a pig.”
IRS spam from the Department of the Trcasury.
“Guam is at the center of the political universe.” -Wolf Blitzer, Situation Room, Friday, May 2nd.
