Monday, August 11, 2008

Georgia part II

So, Georgia. Again.

DC in the comments said that condemning Russia was hypocritical because that's what the West did with Kosovo. Well, not really. We weren't trying to make Kosovo the next county on from Kent. Russia wants South Ossetia to be part of the Russian Federation.
If we look again at the UN Charter it says:

Article 2
3.All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
4.All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

Which Russia hasn't done.

Yes, the UK and the US have damaged their reputation on these matters by ignoring International Law in 2003 and going to war in Iraq when we had no right or reason to. But that was in the past and we can't let someone else do a bad thing because we fucked up ourselves.

It's about time the United Nations prove whether they are a legitimate organisation actually striving for combating illegal warfare or whether they are just a toothless talking shop.

Russia has gone above and beyond their official statement of protecting their peacekeeping operations and protecting civilians by expanding their military operations into other parts of Georgia and, as far as the UN should be concerned, it's not their place to unilaterally decide what is lawful and not lawful.
If we pop back to the UN Charter
Article 39
The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.

Which didn't happen.

In this case, I would argue that article 41 is not going to be any use and the Security Council should invoke article 42 and demand that Russian troops withdraw.

But to be honest, I can't see the UN doing much. I can see America getting involved but the UN will probably be as useful in sorting this out as they were in stopping the US and the UK invading Iraq on a lie.

So we'll go back to self appointed world police. Lovely.

3 comments:

malpas said...

Nobody wants to go up against russian armoured divisions.
Nobody.

so what is your point?

russia is big , russia has political leverage. russia will still be russia after November of this year. And Bush won't.

Trixy said...

It should be perfectly obvious.

Letters From A Tory said...

From what I read, South Ossetia wants to be part of Russia in any case - which is why Georgia tried to crush the separatists in the first place.