McCain and Obama speak out on Georgia crisis
Republican presidential candidate John McCain
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said that as president he would not send American military forces into the conflict in Georgia, the former Soviet republic invaded by Russia late last week.
But, he said, Russia must be made to understand that it will pay a heavy price for the military incursion, which has been condemned both by him and his Democratic opponent Barack Obama.
The candidates have both tried to used the conflict in Georgia as a vehicle to convince voters they would offer a steady hand on the helm of US foreign and security policy.
Also, payments for lobbying work made by Georgia to Mr McCain’s chief foreign policy officer raised ethical questions about the intersection of his personal financial interests and his advice to Mr McCain as the Republican seized on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue.
Mr McCain, a four-term Arizona senator who routinely questions Mr Obama’s readiness to serve as president, again blasted the Russian invasion of Georgia, but said he was not concerned relations would return to the kind of dangerous nuclear standoff between the West and Russia that marked the second half of the last century.
“I don’t think we are going to re-ignite the Cold War,” Mr McCain said during a news conference in Michigan.
Mr McCain spoke after President George Bush said he was dispatching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Paris and on to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.
He also said he ordered Defence Secretary Robert Gates to undertake a military airlift to move needed humanitarian relief to the Georgians.
Mr Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii, his birth state, said he welcomed “President Bush’s decision to send aid to the people of Georgia, and Americans stand united in support of the men and women who will carry out this humanitarian mission”.
He again said Russia “must back up its commitment to stop its violence and violation of Georgia’s sovereignty with actions – not just words.”
The Kremlin said it was ending its military operation in Georgia, which it said had been sufficiently “punished” for its attempt to re-establish control over South Ossetia, a Georgian region that broke away shortly after the Caucasus country gained independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
But it appeared Russia had broken a truce that was organised by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Both Mr Obama and Mr McCain are calling for a strong diplomatic response, with both candidates calling for a reexamination of the US relationship with Moscow.
Mr Obama declared “the United States and Europe must review our multilateral and bilateral arrangements with Russia in light of its actions” and Mr McCain told reporters that the US “will now need to review the full range of our relations” with the country.
He added that there should be heightened security relations for Ukraine, the Baltic states and Poland, but offered no specifics.
Mr McCain again said he felt Russia should be expelled from the Group of Eight, the world’s major economic powers known as the G8.
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