Natan Sharansky in Sunday's Washington Post:
The situation in Georgia is the culmination of a failed post-Cold War policy toward Russia. Central to this failure has been ignoring the inherent connection between internal freedom and external aggression. As democracy was rolled back within Russia, the world abandoned an approach that had been so effective during the later stages of the Cold War, when relations with the Kremlin were linked to the expansion of freedom inside the Soviet Union.... leaders such as Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a Democrat, and Reagan, a Republican .... correctly understood that regimes that do not respect the rights of their own people do not respect the rights of their neighbors.
[....]
The threat to Georgia, Russia's other democratic neighbors and America ultimately arises from a lack of democracy within Russia. Changing that should be the focus of statecraft today -- if we want to ensure that the Kremlin poses no threat to peace tomorrow.
Warning: If you follow that "statecraft" link, it takes you to Condoleeza Rice's recent remarks at the State Department's Ramadan Dinner.
In closing, Rice dubbed Islam not just a "religion of peace," but
"a religion of peace and love."
Here's some of the Latest Offerings from the Religion of Peace and love:
9/13/2008 (New Delhi, India) - Islamists detonate bombs at five marketplaces withing a 30-minute span, massacring dozens of innocent people explicitly in the name of Allah.9/13/2008 (Yitzhar, Israel) - A Palestinian terrorist stabs a 9-year-old Israeli boy five times, then throws him from a balcony.
9/13/2008 (Logar, Afghanistan) - The Taliban murder a local governor with a bomb attack on his vehicle.
9/12/2008 (Dujail, Iraq) - Over thirty Shias are blown to Allah by bombs detonated by radical Sunnis at a marketplace.
9/12/2008 (Sinjar, Iraq) - Sunnis bomb a Shia mosque, killing three attendees.
9/12/2008 (Farah, Afghanistan) - Eight people are blasted to death at point-blank range with automatic weapons during a Taliban ambush.
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