Events in Georgia have some speculating that we may be slipping into a new Cold War. Let’s hope such talk is exaggeration. A generation has come of age that only knows the Cold War from the history books, or from the stories told by their parents and grandparents. But the Cold War was a dangerous, cruel reality for a billion or more of the planet’s inhabitants. If you are a religious person, pray to your God that the world’s leaders have the wisdom, strength, and courage to do whatever needs to be done to prevent that from happening again.
Lest we forget, the pictures below are a small reminder of what a Cold War is. These were taken in mid-August, 1961. On August 13, the citizens of Berlin awoke to find their city cut in two with barbed wire. On August 15, cement slabs and cinder blocks began to replace the barbed wire. As the wall went up 47 years ago today, there was no doubt that the Cold War had entered a new and tragic phase.
An East German border guard jumps the wire on Aug. 13, defecting to the West.
August 15, the wire is replaced with cement slabs and cinder blocks.
American tanks at Checkpoint Charlie.
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Travelight32
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I am not sure that we are set for a full blown cold war, because there's no internationalist, nominally ideological motivation for the Russians - just good old fashioned geopolitical maneuvering. Given the rhetoric coming out of Russia about the US and its "interference" with boundary states that Russia wants at a minimum to be compliant with their foreign policy, I don't see how we won't be in for a period of diplomatic and political awkwardness.
But that doesn't translate into a cold war in itself - the Russians have no need to focus anywhere other than their western and southern boundaries, and they can't do more than beat up on Georgia (and any other neighbor that doesn't merit a fight from the US and NATO) to make a point and jockey for position against their former satellites.
This isn't getting across quite what I mean, but it will have to do until I can think of something more crisp.
Still, even without the ideological underpinnings, it is not impossible that something akin to the 1970's (one hopes not the more dangerous 1960's or '50's) could reassert itself if Georgia proves not to be an isolated case.