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Bush Doctrine Enabled Putin's Georgia War

Iraq action opened Pandora's box of unilateralism

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 14, 2008 1:48 PM CDT
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(Newser) – President Bush's "howls of outrage" at Russia's unilateral action and calls for regime change in the Caucasus ring more than a little hollow to Juan Cole of Salon, who remembers all too well a similar situation not long ago. "Vladimir Putin's invoking Bush's Iraq adventure points directly to the way in which Bush has enabled other world powers to act impulsively," Cole writes.

The Bush administration's defiance of international law was "implicitly predicated on the notion that all challengers would be weaker than the United States throughout the 21st century," Cole writes. With Russia and China in the ascendancy, he contends, Bush and Dick Cheney are "getting a glimpse of a multipolar world in which other powers can adopt their modus operandi with impunity."

Smoke from burning houses is seen as a Russian armored vehicle passes by the village of Kikhva, in the breakaway province of South Ossetia, Georgia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008.
Smoke from burning houses is seen as a Russian armored vehicle passes by the village of Kikhva, in the breakaway province of South Ossetia, Georgia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008.   (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Demonstrators with Georgian flags and placards walk during a rally outside the Russian embassy in Berlin on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008.
Demonstrators with Georgian flags and placards walk during a rally outside the Russian embassy in Berlin on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008.   (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
President Bush makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 30, 2008, following a Cabinet meeting. At left is Vice President Dick Cheney.
President Bush makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 30, 2008, following a Cabinet meeting. At left is Vice President Dick Cheney.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Vladimir Putin, right, gestures as he speaks with George W. Bush, left, during their meeting in Beijing, China, Friday, Aug. 8, 2008.
Vladimir Putin, right, gestures as he speaks with George W. Bush, left, during their meeting in Beijing, China, Friday, Aug. 8, 2008.   (AP Photo/Anatoly Maltsev, Pool)
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Russia • Vladimir Putin • Georgia • unilateralism • George W. Bush • UN Security Council • South Ossetia

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