European Union Forums

[TovarischZhivago]

(Aug. 27, 2008 – Moscow)
WAR IN OSSETIA – REPLY LIMITED – THE WEAK LINK

There’s been a lot of talk in the West about the West being limited
in its response to Russia’s conduct in Ossetia, etc.

To me, the limitations lie in the ethics, in the West's own culture -
not in politics or economics or military power.

It’s not even about the precedents and embarrassments such as Kosovo
or Iraq, where the West was/is debasing the values it claims to profess.

In the Ossetian war, the limitations came the moment everyone thought
that Georgia’s president could be right after all, might not be a totally
bad idea to use multiple-rockets on a city of 10 000, we just didn’t
expect Russia to reply, it came as a surprise.

The rest – ‘the bear is back!’, ‘say no to Russia, we won the cold war
and we will move on!’ – were variations on the theme, compensatory
reactions and Freudian slips, the West struggling with itself rather
than Russia.

The limitations multiplied when it was said, oh it looks like just a
handful of civilians were killed in Ossetia, how good that Russians
can’t prove anything.

It’s not to say that the West is evil and that there’s one single ‘West’.

To me, there’s a crisis of meaning, a sense of identity gone wrong –
it affects judgment and cuts at the moral base. You can’t bring together
a country or a group of countries based on consumer satisfaction and
military power alone, you’ll keep having problems with that.

Moscow
Russia

[Terry]

what do you suggest to do then?

[TovarischZhivago]

WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST TO DO THEN?

(Aug. 29, 2008 – Moscow)

Thanks for the question, Terry.

I don’t know. Maybe some homework / soul-searching after the dust settles. Quiet and relaxed, no statements, TV invws, etc. This is something that intellectuals could do – not politicians, these are very limited in what they can say.

Moscow
Russia

[Nicholas]

I think the EU countries, and may I say all countries are limited to a response in such situation because everybody is afraid of a new World War. The history already told us what can happen if more countries are involved in one conflict.