What right does the US have to tell Russia to stop invading Georgia when we are guitly of it as well in Iraq?

Question

George Bush says Russia will "face consequences" if it does not pull out of Georgia. My question is, what right do we, the US, have to say that when we are guilty of doing the exact same thing in Iraq?

Answer 1

bush must take georgia back now,  3000 dead as we speak

Answer 2

Fundamentally, Georgia is a democracy that did not provoke Russia. It has no history of committing hostile acts against its neighbors. Iraq under Hussein attacked its neighbors, refused to follow directives from the international community, and it was not a democracy.

Answer 3

Well, everyone has an opinion. There's no world law saying you can't condemn a country for voicing their opinions, is there? I hope not! Maybe Bush wants to talk down Russia to try and defend U.S interests, who knows? However, even if Bush DID say they would "face consequences", what's he going to do, send aid, even though we're in huge debt, send troops, even though we're fighting multiple fronts in the Middle East? There's no benefit to be won from it, plus it's downright foolish and hella-risky.

Answer 4

ummm.. i wudnt really agree tht u chose the right case to compare with, its more like wht u did in kosovo lol

tho yeah the iraq war is the sht, but not really the sam

2davidscheid424: oh yeah, i remember tht discussion.. it was like france, germany and russia were against it but oh h**l who cares, right, it was still a discussion? :)

Answer 5

Did you ask the same question when russia was saying the same thing about Iraq? Are you just another American hater?

What right we have is the same as russia we can say what ever the heck we want to. If they don't do what we wants them to do we will do something about it.  Just like russiaor any other country does Every day.

Answer 6

We're doing the exact same thing?!?  Where did you get that?  I'd like to see some sources of how the US is doing the same thing as Russia in this situation.

Conspiracy theories don't count.

Answer 7

Preeminence.  We're talking realpolitik here, ones "authority in rightness" is in direct proportion to ones ability to project its authority.  The geopolitical puzzle is changing (I asked a question tonight if we might be seeing the beginning of bipolarity), but the US is still the preeminent power in the world.

Morality and consistency's role in this are only applicable to the extent that the issue resonates with the mob.  Whichever side is able to frame the issue with greater resonance in the "street(s)" will be seen as the "moral" side.  Again, with preeminent power comes a significant advantage in crafting the perception of morality.

But if politicians consider "right" and "wrong" in making decisions, they are not doing their job, which is to leverage their power to advance their states interest.  State leaders are not elected to save the world, but to enhance the position of their state.

All the morality and flowery language is added post hoc for the (passionate) mob... shhh.

Answer 8

Any country can speak up on any subject.  Any country can ignore those that speak up.  I hope that answered your question.

Answer 9

I think you're looking at two very different scenarios.

Georgia moved its military into an autonomous region, which caused Russia to react the way that Russia does.  They crushed the Georgian military.

Georgia has been a key ally in Iraq, a main oil pipeline runs through their country, they've wanted to be part of NATO for awhile now (which Russia is not comfortable with), and there are concerns that Russia may annex the country after it rolls into Tbilisi in a couple days.

Iraq, however, had a very different government than Georgia; international intelligence led us to believe they had WMDs which put the US and our allies, mainly Israel in danger.  Given said intelligence was wrong, but hindsight is always 20/20.

We're not disputing that Russia has a right to go to war to defend its interests, but the level of violence they've used to achieve whatever their interests is clearly disproportionate to the transgression on the part of the Georgian government.

Answer 10

The h**l if I know we need to make friends with Russia not p**s them off. If we got into another cold war I'm afraid we would lose this time and that wouldn't be pretty, Russia has a ton of oil if we p**s them off our economy could become even worse imagine that.  

Answer 11

The hypocracy of America is why the world does not respect us.  Only the brainwashed people here in America feel as if everything the government tells them and does is in their best interest.

Answer 12

We hardly did the same thing.

We did invade Iraq, but under very different circumstances and for very different reasons.

Answer 13

Don't worry, All george bush can do is talk, but he can't do nothing.