Aug. 11, 2008 – Updated 7:33 p.m.
Congress added its voice Monday to the growing chorus of U.S. leaders and politicians condemning the Russian invasion of neighboring Georgia, warning of legislative action against Moscow if it does not accept an immediate cease-fire and withdraw its troops.
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee suggested that lawmakers could take serious action against Russia when they reconvene in September.
“Without getting into any specifics, there are issues involving our relations with Russia that come before the Congress,” said
Russia’s actions may have imperiled a civilian nuclear treaty now pending before Congress. Berman had supported the deal on the condition that Moscow cut its aid to Iran. He said Monday that despite the U.S. need for Russian help to stop Iran’s nuclear program, the situation in Georgia cannot be ignored.
“Russian cooperation on Iran has been of overwhelming importance,” Berman said. “So far that cooperation has been fitful at best.” But Berman warned: “Even that priority can’t lead us to just overlooking and sweeping under the rug a massive overreaction by Russia that constitutes an invasion of a neighbor.”
He said it was too soon to predict the fate of the nuclear deal.
Another of Russia’s global goals — entry into the World Trade Organization — may be in trouble. And any push to revise U.S.-Russia trade relations in the near future probably will meet stiff resistance. Stephen Sestanovich, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said “nobody in the U.S. Congress” would support normalizing trade relations with Moscow.
Berman’s remarks echoed the criticisms of the two presidential candidates.
Republican presidential hopeful
“We should move ahead with the resolution despite Russian veto threats, and submit Russia to the court of world public opinion,” said McCain, R-Ariz., at an event in Erie, Pa.
By the end of the day, presumptive Democratic nominee
“There is no possible justification for these attacks,” Obama said. “I reiterate my call for Russia to stop its bombing campaign, to stop flights of Russian aircraft in Georgian airspace, and to withdraw its ground forces from Georgia.”
President Bush, in a Rose Garden statement just after 5 p.m., said the invasion was “unacceptable.”
“There is evidence that Russian forces may soon begin bombing the civilian airport in the capital city. If these reports are accurate, these Russian actions would represent a dramatic and brutal escalation of the conflict in Georgia,” Bush said.
A senior U.S. official reiterated Bush’s words in stronger terms, calling the attacks a “full” and “aggressive” invasion — and drawing parallels to previous Soviet invasions of Georgia, Afghanistan and Czechoslovakia.
“Clearly the Russians had planned this for some time,” the official said. “The Russian charges that they are simply responding to Georgian aggression are somewhere between noncredible and risible, laughable.”
The Russian offensive continued Monday, with forces capturing the city of Gori, about 60 miles west of Tblisi, the Georgian capital, and the major port of Poti, threatening to split the country in two. The invasion began Aug. 7, when Georgian forces moved on South Ossetia, a pro-Russian breakaway region.
As the crisis mounted over the weekend, Democrats initially had issued more temperate statements, stressing a multilateral approach.
“We cannot just go out alone on this and talk and act unilaterally,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman
Both McCain and Obama called for an international peacekeeping force to South Ossetia. Obama stressed that Georgia should “refrain from using force” in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway province, and both emphasized the need for humanitarian and economic assistance for Georgia.
McCain said Secretary of State
“Our united purpose should be to persuade the Russian government to cease its attacks, withdraw its troops, and enter into negotiations with Georgia,” he said. “It is the responsibility of the leading nations of the world to ensure that history continues to be a record of humanity’s progress toward respecting the values and security of free people.”
McCain’s tough talk appeared aimed at demonstrating his foreign policy experience, one key area where polls show the public favoring him over Obama. McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for the government of Georgia, and the McCain campaign released a statement Sunday to advertise his bona fides on the issues facing the Caucasus region.
Obama had not been silent on the situation. On July 23, he issued a long statement saying that Russia bears the most responsibility for the tensions and expressing support for Georgia’s “right” to pursue NATO membership.
The Bush administration is continuing to call for a cease-fire and return to the “status quo” of Aug. 6, before the latest hostilities began.
In a briefing on Sunday, Deputy National Security Adviser Jim Jeffrey dismissed a question about sending military help to Georgia and expressed some optimism about action through the U.N. Security Council.
“It’s not a dead end,” he said. “We’ve had two meetings behind closed doors on this. We have agreed with the other members of the Security Council, which, of course, includes Russia, on some elements of a way forward, but we do not have final agreement,” Jeffrey said. “But as you know from following this in a dozen other contexts, including the Iranian one, day one, we’re still debating and disagreeing; day two or day three, we often can come together on some final — a compromise position. And that’s what we’re working towards.”
First posted Aug. 11, 2008 1:47 p.m.