The candidates' take on Russian offensive.

The following are articles I read which may shed light on the two candidates' opinions of the Russia/Georgia fiasco. Read them. Form your own conclusions.

Obama: "No Possible Justification" for Russian Offensive

By Shailagh Murray
Sen. Barack Obama delivered a statement from Hawaii about the worsening crisis in Georgia, declaring of Russia's aggression in the former Soviet republic, "There is no possible justification for these attacks."

The Illinois senator interrupted a family vacation to address the conflict and said he had spoken to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to convey "my deep regret over the loss of life, and the suffering of the people of Georgia."

Like Sen. John McCain, Obama called for "active international engagement" to address the dispute, "including a high-level and neutral international mediator, and a genuine international peacekeeping force -- not simply Russian troops."

Russia, Obama continued, must stop its bombing campaign and flights in Georgian airspace, and withdraw ground forces from Georgia. "The Georgian government has proposed a cease-fire and the Russian government should accept it. There is also an urgent need for humanitarian assistance to reach the people of Georgia, and casualties on both sides." He urged the United Nations to send a mediator to join a French and Finnish delegation in Georgia.

"We should also convene other international forums to condemn this aggression, to call for an immediate halt to the violence, and to review multilateral and bilateral arrangements with Russia -- including Russia's interest in joining the World Trade Organization," Obama said.

McCain calls for stepped up diplomacy in Georgia

By Thomas Fitzgerald

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

ERIE – Republican presidential candidate John McCain this morning called for a renewed diplomatic effort to force Russia to withdraw from Georgia, warning that Moscow risked alienating itself from the rest of the world.

Appearing briefly before reporters here, McCain said that Russia appears to be intent on toppling the Georgian government rather than restoring the status quo to the pro-Moscow province of South Ossetia, which was seeking to break away from Georgia.

"NATO's North Atlantic Council should convene in emergency session to demand a ceasefire and begin discussions on both the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to South Ossetia and the implications for NATO's future relationship with Russia," McCain said. He also urged NATO to reconsider its decision to withhold steps to membership in the security organization for Georgia, saying that refusal "might have been viewed as a green light by Russia for its attacks on Georgia."

McCain began a two-day tour of Pennsylvania with hometown hero and former Gov. Tom Ridge, often mentioned as a dark-horse candidate to be McCain's vice-presidential running mate. The two men are close and Ridge has both congressional and executive experience, but his pro-choice views on abortion are anathema to the powerful conservative wing of the GOP.

The two visited GE Transportation, a plant here that employs more than 5,000 workers building railroad locomotives, including a hybrid that dramatically reduces fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions. The locomotive division does about 50 percent of its business abroad, which McCain cited as one of the upsides to global trade.

"Americans are hurting," McCain said. "We've got to keep taxes low, we have to encourage innovation and we obviously need energy independence."

McCain, Obama say Russia faces fallout over Georgia

By Alister Bull and Jeff Mason

ERIE, Pa./HONOLULU (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama warned Russia on Monday of severe, long-term consequences from its conflict with Georgia.

McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona who has made international issues the centerpiece of his campaign for the November 4 election, offered a lengthy discourse on the crisis in the Caucasus for reporters and cameras.

Obama later made a brief appearance in Hawaii, where he is on a family holiday, to caution Russia that its future ties were at stake.

Georgia is a close ally of the United States and has relied on military aid and training from Washington, which has pushed hard for Georgia to become a member of NATO despite strong opposition from Russia.

McCain said Russia appeared intent on toppling Georgia's pro-Western government rather than returning to the status quo in South Ossetia, which Tbilisi is trying to keep from breaking away.

He called on U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to travel to Europe "to establish a common Euro-Atlantic position aimed at ending the war and supporting the independence of Georgia."

"Russian President (Dmitry) Medvedev and Prime Minister (Vladimir) Putin must understand the severe, long-term negative consequences that their government's actions will have for Russia's relationship with the U.S. and Europe," McCain said.

He urged NATO's North Atlantic Council to convene an emergency session to demand a ceasefire and begin discussions on both the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to South Ossetia and the implications for NATO's future relationship with Russia.

Obama repeated his call for Russia to withdraw and said its efforts to join the World Trade Organization should be reviewed.

"We should ... convene other international forums to condemn this aggression, to call for an immediate halt to the violence, and to review multilateral and bilateral arrangements with Russia -- including Russia's interest in joining the World Trade Organization," he told reporters.

"The relationship between Russia and the West is long and complicated. There have been many turning points, for good and for ill. This is another turning point."

AUGUST VACATIONING

McCain opened his remarks with what might be seen as a subtle dig at Obama for being on holiday.

"Americans wishing to spend August vacationing with their families or watching the Olympics may wonder why their newspapers and television screens are filled with images of war in the small country of Georgia," he said before launching into a lengthy explanation of Georgia's recent history.

Both McCain and Obama have said they were in contact with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Obama ratcheted up his criticism of Russia in a written statement from Hawaii on Saturday. On Monday, a statement delivered on the driveway of the beach house he is renting was sharper.

"No matter how this conflict started, Russia has escalated it well beyond the dispute over South Ossetia and has now violated the space of another country," he said. "There is no possible justification for these attacks."

Russia and Georgia came into direct conflict over South Ossetia last week after Tbilisi launched an offensive to regain control over the breakaway separatist region.

McCain instantly took a tougher line against Russia than either President George W. Bush or Obama. McCain has charged that the first-term Illinois senator is too naive and inexperienced to be commander-in-chief.

Obama counters that his judgment on major issues like the Iraq war is superior to McCain's and says a win by the Arizona senator would be the same as a third Bush term.

McCain And Obama Both Get Russia Totally Wrong, Experts Charge

The FINANCIAL -- Michael has headed up the German editorial team of DW-WORLD.DE since 2004. Previously, he worked as a reporter for the English service of Deutsche Welle Radio, as well as for various news agencies.

Michael is an alumni of young professional programs with the Aspen Institute Berlin and the American Council on Germany and he was a Media Fellow at Duke University in 2006. He studied in Germany and the U.S. and holds a Master's degree in American Studies. Michael is based in Bonn, Germany.

A few months back, I wrote about the fact that Russia doesn't really play a role in the U.S. presidential election campaign. Nothing much has changed since then. Interestingly enough, despite soaring energy prices, the question of how to frame future relations with the world's largest gas and second largest oil exporter is pretty much absent from the presidential race.

Probably Paul J. Saunders and Brooke Leonard regret the omission of Russia as a campaign topic as much as anybody else. Why? Because in an article for The National Interest, a foreign policy publication with a realist bent, they argue that both Barack Obama and John McCain have an overly simplistic and unrealistic perception of Russia.

As an example of how Obama is wrong on Russia, Saunders points to the Democratic candidate's take on the tensions between Russia and Georgia. Saunders agrees with Obama that only a political settlement can end the conflicts in the region. But he calls the rest of the Obama campaign's statement on the issue "a confused combination of superficial and misleading analysis with unrealistic goals, framed by tired liberal sloganeering."

Saunders especially takes issue with Obama's characterization of Georgia. According to Saunders, Obama in his statement implies that Georgia is a "helpless victim of someone else's war plans. On the contrary, on several occasions it has been precisely Tbilisi that has threatened armed reintegration of the two territories (and likewise intimidated leaders of another renegade province, Adjara, in 2004)."

Saunders also criticizes Obama for his repetition of "tired liberal calls for the 'international community” to become 'more active.'" He asks: "But what is the 'international community' and why should it be unduly concerned about events in Georgia?" Saunders answers his own question by saying that aside from Georgia's neighbors and possibly the EU, no other countries have a reason to get involved.

Finally Saunders calls Obama's reasoning that Russia can't be a mediator in the conflicts over Abkhazia and South Ossetia because it is part of the problem naive. Saunders points to the Middle East where the U.S. is a mediator and also an ally of one of the parties namely Israel. And by eliminating Russia as a meditator, Saunders asks, "does he think that any settlement could work without MOSCOW ? This weak analysis betrays the senator’s lack of international experience — and poor advice from his foreign-policy team."

Saunders advice for Obama: Temper your hope and your calls for change with a big dose of reality.

John McCain, the perceived foreign policy expert, doesn't fare any better in his knowledge and analysis of Russia according to Saunders's colleague Brooke Leonard. To prove this point, Leonard looks at some recent statements McCain made about Russia.

McCain's most famous remark on Russia is perhaps his threat to throw the country out of the G8. That, writes Leonard, is an idle threat that no other country supports and Russia doesn't take seriously.

Leonard also takes issue with the Republican candidate's statement that Russia is blocking action against Iran in the UN Security Council: "Russia’s record on Iran in the UN Security Council is far more complex than McCain suggests. MOSCOW has blocked some measures against its longtime partner, but has supported others. The Russians clearly do not want to see a nuclear-armed Iran, and have taken a variety of steps to negotiate with the Iranians outside of the Security Council as well."

Finally, Leonard thinks McCain gets the leadership situation in Russia wrong by stating that he is confident that former president Vladimir Putin is still in charge. According to Leonard, most Russia experts agree that some sort of powersharing agreement exists between President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin. McCain, however, sounds quite certain that he knows something that even the Russians themselves do not, quipps Leonard.

So what's Leonard's overall assessment of John McCain's expertise on Russia? "His overly simplistic answers seem to show, in the words of the Senator himself, 'a fundamental lack of understanding.'"

While the Saunders and Leonard bash Obama and McCain for what the authors think are unrealistic perceptions of Russia, unfortunately, they don't tell us, which of the two candidates they view as the lesser evil concerning Russia. I guess, they want to leave that up to the readers and voters.