Russian aggression against Georgia shows NATO's feebleness

The Russian aggression against Georgia in August 2008 confirms NATO's feebleness and feuding that seem to serve as massive encouragement for any group or country: Al Qaeda, Iran, North Korea, a columnist of the International Herald Tribune writes in a review of a book by Ronald D. Asmus "A Little War That Shook the World".

This is a "good new book about Russia's invasion of Georgia", says reviewer Jon Vinocur, but it might well have been more naggingly and intriguingly titled "A Little War That Should Have Shaken the World but Didn't". "This formulation comes closer to reality", he stated in his article.

Materials in the book demonstrate NATO's feebleness, the author says. He believes, the Russian aggression against Georgia in August 2008 was possible in a large extent because the United States, NATO and the European Union simply closed their eyes on it.

"Russia maximized its capacity to exercise a veto over the West's security interests, while the West, divided and without clear leadership, sought to minimize the obvious importance of the event", said in the article. "A country that has a close partner of the United States and a candidate country for NATO was invaded, and neither Washington nor the Atlantic Alliance did much to come to its assistance", Vinocur cited Asmus.

Russia trashed the basic post-Cold War rule that borders in Europe would never again be changed by force; and, it asserted it is prepared to use force again against its neighbors, the author affirmed. The book's evidence documenting the Atlantic Alliance's feebleness and feuding in the face of Russia's threats against Georgia would seem to serve as massive encouragement to any group or country - "Al Qaeda", Iran, North Korea - thinking the West's rivalries can make it compliant", Vinocur wrote.

According to the author, Putin has taken note in red ink that the administration of President George W. Bush failed to win a Membership Action Plan (MAP), or official status as a NATO candidate, for Georgia or Ukraine - Germany has opposed. "In terms of Putin's view of Russia's self-interest, NATO's wobble was an invitation to a short, effective war whose memory the West has done its best to suppress", Vinocur wrote.

The current events continue to demonstrate that Asmus was right, the book reviewer says. Thus, the French started negotiations with the Russian Navy about selling to Russia modern helicopter-carrying assault vessels, and Germany tripled its funding for the Nord Stream.