I'm not a fuckin' Georgian.

Yet according to John McCain, who claims to speaks for all Americans, we are all Georgians. There are so many things wrong with his assertions that it's hard to decide where to begin. First of all, John McCain is not the President of the United States, and one can only hope that by the grace of God or Gaia or the Flying Spaghetti Monster that he never will be.

Even if he were, he would not be able to speak for "all Americans", because being an old rich white man living in Arizona and too computer illiterate to do even 5 minutes of research, his demographic is too small to speak on behalf of the rest of the country. George W. Bush is the President of the United States, and even he doesn't speak for me. In as much contempt as I have held him throughout his Presidency, and being a man who has generated a whole slew of quotables known as "Bushisms", even he as best as I can recall, was not ever stupid enough to speak for all Americans.

Beyond the obvious audacity of McCain's words, there are numerous other problems. First is that I'd wager that most Americans don't even know where Georgia is, and at least a few, upon catching wind of the conflict, were concerned that Russia had invaded the United States. For those that do know that Georgia is a country that splintered off from the former Soviet Union, even less of care about what's going on there. For those - apparently unlike John McCain - who care enough to actually do a little investigation into the conflict, they know that it is far more complex than some "brave little nation" in a "struggle for freedom and independence".

Now I will not pretend to understand all of the complexities underlying this conflict, but from what I've gathered, it has absolutely nothing to do with Georgian independence. Georgia became independent in 1992, shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed, and their independence has been recognized by the "global community", and uncontested by the Russians. What this conflict was actually about was South Ossetia, a territory within Georgia occupied mostly by an Indo-Iranian ethnic minority who by and large regard themselves as Russians and indeed have Russian citizenship. While not officially recognized as an independent state, they have been de facto independent almost as long as Georgia has. This conflict began when the primary Georgian government invaded South Ossetia.

You read that correctly. Georgia started it. Under the pretext of either "reuniting" the country, or in response to alleged attacks by dissidents in South Ossetia, they invaded the territory. What the real objective was, only the people involved know for sure. Now where does Russia come in? Since the South Ossetians are Russian citizens, the Russian army was deployed not to invade Georgia, but to protect the South Ossetians. Now I am not so naive as to not suspect that Russia might have had ulterior motives, but given that the South Ossetians welcome Russian intervention on their behalf, we can at least be sure that it was not so black and white as "Russia invaded Georgia" in some attempt to steal their independence. If, as McCain seems to think, Russia was attempting to re-establish the Russian Empire of old, they would probably be a little more subtle than engaging in an all-out invasion.

Also, let's be clear. If Russia did really choose to invade Georgia, we would not be talking about the "implications" of their move, because Georgia would already be fully annexed. The difference in military might between Russia and Georgia is like the difference between a bear and an ant. Perhaps in that situation Americans' "thoughts and prayers and support" would be with the Georgian people.

Maybe.

But then again, these are the same people who care more about Michael Phelps winning a fifth gold medal than they are about the fact that the host country (China) provided some of the very weapons that the Sudanese government used to slaughter its own people in Darfur.

McCain's idiotic statements indicate one of two things - neither of which is ideal. The first is that he is a buffoon who has not bothered to learn about a conflict before he speaks on it, dragging all Americans into the mud behind him as he makes a fool of himself on the world stage. The second possibility - this one more likely and with even graver implications - is that McCain's thinking hearkens back to Cold War Red Scare sensibilities. He did, after all, suggest that Russia was trying to re-establish the Russian Empire.

McCain's statements don't only smack of ignorance, aren't only irresponsible, but are dangerous in that they further contribute to the world's misinterpretation that "all Americans" are so ignorant and irresponsible. I will close with this random appeal I found written by someone in South Ossetia, which shows just how ugly America appears through the lenses of the rest of the world. Thanks to the continued efforts of imperialist douchebags like John McCain.




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