Professor Elam

On reader asked that I post some comments on the situation in Georgia, okay let's do that.

Basically this calls into question, exactly what is the role of the US foreign policy  or military policy (we have been in Iraq longer than we were in WW II)

What is the role of NATO

How do we best respond to get what we would like in a nuclear world and in theaters separated a world away by two oceans

My thoughts are straightforward. Putin is a KGB trained Politburo thinker. He is not a capitalist unless you count moving oil gains into his bank account.  He dreams of the Russia that never was but might be if it controls  all the energy supplies of Europe.   Pthreaten GeoUtin invaded as much to secure a pipeline as to  threaten Gerogia.

Yet we ring Russia with missles and dare Putin to lose face, he is not going to do that, Europe in a French led 'peace agreement' did nor threatened to do anything to Russia.  We are not going to war or at least I hope not over things we cannot control a world away on Russia's doorstep.

ONe might step back here and contemplate what Tom Sowell has been discussing in several recent columns (tomsowell.org or townhall.com)  Sowell notes that France become virulently anit war after WW I, a fact that did not escape Mr. Hitler.  Hitler studied French society and what it was saying and doing rather than its supposed Maginot Line. When the French did nothing as Hitler occupied the No Man's Sudetenland, Hitler became bolder.  For that matter the Americans and Brits did nothing in the same fashion.  It was probably no surprise to Mr. Hitler that France fell in a mater of weeks.

The drumbeat of voices agsint Iraq, whatever one thinks of Iraq, has surely given Mr. Putin the same sort of courage to move unchecked.  And so he planned an 'invasion' during the Olympics when in fact he would be seated next to Mr. Bush.  Check. With a tepid response from the West, it is nearly checkmate in terms of moving these small countries back to the Soviet orbit.   It was foolish to include small states like Latvia in NATO, if indeed NATO is not coming to their rescue which in fact it cannot do. Does the left really think we can reason Putin out of Georgia?  Do they care? 

So what can we do? What should we do?  Clearly Russia is not the new glasnost Gorbachev let's raise a glass of Stoli Russia but the same old Bear. I have mentioned in class and posted link to the diagram of Napoleon's invasion.  After Hitler's attack Russia is rightly terrified of a Western Invasion.   Never fight the other man's fight, take the high ground that we can hold. I would suggest the following.

Get serious about an energy policy here, nuclear power now for generating electricity,it works in France and Japan. Russia must not think we will do nothing to help ourselves. The policy of not drilling in ANWAR or off Florida as Brazil discovers oil in the Gulf of Mexico is absurd.

Get serious about duplicating the same high speed trains in France and Japan between major centers like Houston, DFW, SA Austin and around the rest of the country. Instead we build footbball and baseball stadiums, what message does that send?

Get serious about allowing alternate transportation ih urban areas, govts use Kawasaki Mules on the street, why not ordinary citizens, a two ton empty pickup going to the grocery store is ridiculous.

The world is internet connected, like Teddy Roosevelt, use the bully pulpit. NO favored trade status for Russia, no membership in the G 8.  IF they are not part of the world that elects gtovernments let them try the Warsaw Pact again.

Come to think of it, let's ditch's  the UN. Let's start another, membership only to capitalst coutnries with elected governments, you know the kind with two parties Vlad.  It should be pretty clear pretty fast which outpaces the other. This idea of letting dicators in Sudan and Venezuela use the UN as a sprfingboard is riduculous also.

Challenge the Russians to finally become a consumer economy.  What is it that they have to offer the Georgians or anyone else?  Seventy years after WW II, there is not a single market in which the Russians are competitive other than natural resourcess like oil. Why not?  The answer is that their system does not work. This would be a great chance to make this point in South America by the way.

Get our fiscal house in order. The dollar continues to sink.  Stop spending federal money to rescue any and eveyrone be it Bear Stearsn or GM.  Balance the budget.  Tighten the belt. Stop promising to be the nanny state to the world or those with $200 running shoes here that claim to be in poverty.

Get ourselves back in the manufacturing business.  The anti green anti people policies of China et al doe not deserve out business. The actions of China and Russia demonstrate just how dangerous such outsourcing can be.

Yes we can but not by taxing the proudcers in this country,

I could go on but we need to make it clear that Russia is the bully they are and will not be allowed to play in the capitalist sandbox as a result. No Goldman Sachs going to Russia, no Moscow becoming an intl finance center.

But that would take resolve and ending all the promises we are making like that $50 B loan we are making to Ford and GM. Is there a politican or an electorate tough enough to do that, I doubt it…