US presidential candidates confront Russia
Americans and leaders around the world were given an insight into how the next US president will handle US foreign policy today as the two key candidates confronted Russia over its actions against Georgia.
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain was the first to seize on Russia’s invasion of its former Georgian republic at the weekend when he called for a muscular series of US-led countermeasures.
His Democratic rival Barack Obama, who is on holiday with his family in Hawaii, was initially more cautious, but then issued a statement that condemned Russia and said there was “no possible justification for these attacks”.
Mr Obama is frequently criticised by the McCain campaign for his lack of foreign policy experience.
Today, in his latest statement on the crisis, the 47-year-old Illinois senator said: “Now is the time for action – not just words.
“It is past time for the Russian government to immediately sign and implement a ceasefire.
“Russia must halt its violation of Georgian airspace and withdraw its ground forces from Georgia, with international monitors to verify that these obligations are met.”
And on the campaign trail at a town hall meeting in York, Pennsylvania, Mr McCain said Georgia was a “remote, obscure place” but “history is often made in remote, obscure places and it’s being made in Georgia today”.
The 71-year-old Arizona senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war highlighted that he had visited Georgia “several times” and that its “very existence” was being threatened by Russia.
“The impact of Russian actions goes beyond their threat to a democratic Georgia,” Mr McCain said.
“Russia has used violence against Georgia to send a signal to any country that chooses to associate with the West and aspire to our shared political and economic values.
“My friends, we learned at great cost the price of allowing aggression against free nations to go unchecked.
“With our allies, we must stand in united purpose to persuade the Russian government to withdraw its troops from Georgia.”
Mr McCain went on: “There must be an independent international peace-keeping force in the separatist regions and we should ensure that humanitarian aid can be airlifted to Georgia’s capital and stand ready to help our Georgian partners put their country back together.
“And we must make clear to Russia’s leaders that the benefit they enjoy from being part of the civilised world requires their respect for the values, stability and peace of that world.”
He said he knew he spoke for all America when he said: “Today, we are all Georgians.”
Mr McCain has taken a strong stance against Russia from the start of the conflict last week and has warned Russia that its air, ground and sea offensive was a “clear violation of international law” that has “no place in 21st Century Europe”.
Mr Obama was less confrontational initially, and said the US wanted “co-operative engagement” with a Russian leadership that acts “as a force for progress in this new century, not regression to the conflicts of the past”.
Perhaps the most controversial of proposals by both Mr McCain and Mr Obama were calls for Nato to consider putting Georgia on a faster track for alliance membership, which gives any signatory the promise of protection by all Nato nations in case of attack.
Such a move in the case of Georgia would, in theory, have meant Nato military action against Russia.
