by Bay Fang
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, back from her vacation, is finally injecting herself visibly into the conflict over Georgia and South Ossetia. On the president's orders, she will be leaving at midnight tonight for Paris, the South of France, and Tbilisi.
The hastily arranged trip will not include the press corps with whom she normally travels. Apparently, she is stuck with a smaller plane for her diplomatic mission, since Vice President Cheney took the larger plane to go to a fundraiser.
The former Soviet scholar also will not be going to Moscow itself, preferring to let the French take the lead in ongoing mediation efforts between the Russians and the Georgians. In a press briefing just before leaving she did add, a tad defensively, that she spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this morning, and that the administration has many channels of communication open with the Russian leadership.
Rice also added this warning to Moscow: "This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten a neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it," Rice said. "Things have changed."
But some say the administration's tough diplomatic moves of the past few days are too little, too late. While the foreign ministers of France and Finland traveled to Tbilisi the day after hostilities began, Rice waited a couple of days before sending in special envoy Matthew Bryza, a deputy assistant secretary who deals with the region.
"All of a sudden, the administration is showing this firm resolve, but it started out so weak," said Jim Townsend, Director of the International Security Program at the Atlantic Council. "Sarkozy and Kouchner are filling the role that the US used to take in the past."
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Comments
Was there any post Olympic hangover nookie (can you play that bit where he stumbles in the bleachers again?) before she went off to save the 'world'?
Posted by: inquiring minds gotta know | August 13, 2008 7:39 PM
"Unfortunately, Putin is putting Russia on a course that is ominously similar to Stalin's and Hitler's in the late 1930s."
- Zbigniew Brzezinski
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/brzezinski-russias-invasi_b_118029.html
Posted by: MJ | August 13, 2008 7:46 PM
What a bunch of democrat garbage. If I want political shilling,I will try the editorial pages. Do you really call yourself a "reporter"?
Posted by: dan | August 13, 2008 7:47 PM
Don't get excited Condi, its just a regeime change. See George for details. whiteagle38
Posted by: Whiteagle38 | August 13, 2008 10:18 PM
Yep, Dan, this article is more journalism garbage from the King Of Journalism Garbage, the Chicago Tribune. A "newspaper" full of far left shills and not journalists.
Posted by: John D | August 13, 2008 10:21 PM
I think Obama sheep are out ahead of him on this one, they need to wait and see what he might do, he's the most unpredictable one of them all.
They might be fighting the usual LEFT ideas, but that's the problem they'll always have with him, until he gets his poll results and sees which way the wind is blowing (Clinton style) you won't know where to go with the fight, you don't want to embarrass yourselves taking the lead.
That's why I support McCain, while he's a Maverick, he has a basic set of ideas that you can depend on. Safety for our country being one of them.
Posted by: here's another thought | August 14, 2008 5:07 AM
Here's Another Thought,
Well stated.
Obama can't platitude the plainly obvious option because there isn't one.
Why are the Liberals not promoting one of their favorite organizations, - the U.N. Where are the Time-Machine people? They always have the best post-threat advice.
Can not see Obama playing any serious ball in this league. That picture does not come into focus.
Posted by: Django S. - Houston Tx | August 14, 2008 10:23 AM
Oh, heaven forbid that she cut her vacation short because one country invades another.
Did you all hear about Dubya whining about Congress vacationing during August, while he flies down to his Crawford ranch to build on his unprecedented number of days on vacation for a US president?
What a hypocrite!
Posted by: BC | August 14, 2008 12:00 PM
If there's any more of a mess to be made, you can bet Condoleezza will manage it.
Posted by: JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO | August 14, 2008 12:42 PM
Where did Secretary Rice go for her vacation???
Posted by: sani | August 24, 2008 8:32 PM