Russia vs. Georgia: Implications for the U.S.

Economists know that the total cost of a decision can only be truly measured when its “opportunity cost” is considered: this “opportunity cost” is the loss of ability to make other choices given the resources consumed in implementing the original decision.

Simply, if I buy guns, I can’t buy butter because I’ve already spent my money.

Political decisions also can only be properly evaluated in terms of their opportunity cost. Whatever one may think about the USA’s war in the middle east, it has huge opportunity cost. Russia’s action in Georgia shows that this cost includes the inability of the United States to stand up for its principles where it once sought to apply those principles with much fervor.

Yes, Russia’s action was provoked and did not happen in a vacuum, as this piece in a British Paper by Nobel Peace Prize Winner and the last President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, indicated, but Russia has acted now crossed a rather simple red line drawn by America – which with treasure spent and lives elsewhere – has done nothing in defense of its ideals of democracy and sovereignty.

As is evident to readers of Watching America.com, the site that translates foreign news about the U.S., the global media sees in the current events in Georgia reveals much that is important about the U.S.

To list the Russian content first;

U.S. Shows Meanness as Russia Mourns Victims of Genocide

LA Times: Classic Example of Disinformation

and a kind of public letter to Bush, entitled Bush: Why Don’t You Shut Up?

Georgia has also been watching America, of course…

Bush Warns Russia Over Georgia

… but the most interesting analysis comes from the rest of the world:

The Uncommonly Soft Hardness of the U.S. (Poland)

A Tale of U.S. Expansion – Not Russian Aggression (U.K.)

Washington Gave Georgia the Green Light (Germany)

Russia Teaches U.S. A Lesson (Israel)

Russia won, Georgia lost, and US was resoundingly defeated

Putin’s Pique (Israel)

Bush Rebuking Russia? Putin Must be Splitting His Sides (U.K.)

America in No-Man’s Land (Germany)

In a different vein, but speaking directly to the opportunity cost of American political, and specifically, military, choices, came this cutting analysis of American society and values today from the Italians, For America, War is Like Breathing

H/T Watching America.com