Palin DOES understand international relations

And she even knows that "Georgia" is next to Russia, not Alabama!

Over at NW Republican there is a post about Palin's upcoming interview with Gibson.  Apparently, there will be a question about Georgia and NATO.  Palin takes a realist approach.  The left is sure to try twisting it into a "call for war" with Russia.  But the real gist of what she says is this:

IF Georgia joined NATO, and then IF Russia continued military action against Georgia, THEN it would be up to other NATO members to defend Georgia, militarily if necessary.

Of course, those are big ifs.  But what isn't said, at least not in the pre-show releases, is that the idea isn't to START a war with Russia, but to PREVENT a war between Russia and Georgia.  If Russia saw a NATO presence ready to react, it would be far less likely to proceed with hostile actions.  That's why, for example, we never saw Russia invade West Germany or any other NATO nation during the Cold War.

But the left will screw up.  They are so eager to attack Palin, they won't stop and think about what they are actually saying or what it might mean to our allies.  The left will now say that America should NOT be forced into a war, even if Georgia IS a member of NATO.  This will have the adverse effect of telling our allies that America is no longer willing to honor its defense treaties.  That is, if Obama is elected...

So, listen up, Germany.  Listen up, United Kingdom.  The message from the American left, and therefore from Obama's core supporters, will be this:

Elect Obama, and then the United States of America will no longer have to honor its NATO obligations.

Are you SURE that's the message you want to send?

Comments

[DirtCrashr]

ABC is in the tank, they edited key parts of the interview to make Palin look dumb, inexperienced, and hawkish.
See: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/09/13/abc-news-edited-out-key-parts-sarah-palin-interview

[Mario DiPietro]

An example of Palin being right on the money:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP6NzBOS7_8