As someone who has no time for airy theories of self-determination, I don’t support South Ossetian independence and I doubt they had any legal right to break away from Georgia, but I also understand that their incorporation into Georgia SSR was one of those artificial games that the Soviets played with ethnic groups to divide and conquer their subjects. South Ossetia has been de facto out of Georgian control for 17 years or so, so what was the urgency in restoring it now? Reportedly over a thousand people have died in the first day of hostilities, so it’s not clear to me that Saakashvili is in the right by launching this strike even if South Ossetia does belong to Georgia.
The status quo was that Georgia could not exercise sovereignty over South Ossetia, whose people hate Georgians for what they did to them in the last century, so Russia filled the vacuum and is maintaining, more or less, the status quo against Georgia’s efforts to establish control over this region. Georgia had some legitimate claim to this territory, but as a practical matter using force was the worst way to take control over something that should legally be theirs. It was already difficult to resolve this matter through negotiation, and now it will be nearly impossible. Saakashvili’s haste and recklessness have made sure that his country’s legitimate rights are undermined.
“I guest [sic] non-interventionism and sovereignty are just codewords for reflexive support for the enemies of the US or of our friends.”
This isn’t true, and I suspect that the commenter knows it isn’t true. At the very least, had the U.S. ever demonstrated respect for state sovereignty in international affairs over the last 20 years Washington would at least be in the position to take issue with violations of Georgian sovereignty, such as they are. In reality, what Moscow has done is a misdemeanor in comparison to the felonies Washington has committed. That doesn’t mean that Moscow should be able to do what it has been doing, but it does mean that Moscow will be able to do it without any real consequences. That is the world that the interventionists made, just as non-interventionists warned time after time. Ultimately, we can only be responsible for what our government does and we must be concerned first and foremost with whether our government respects the sovereignty of other states. Once we have accomplished that, then we might be able to dwell on the violations of others.
