BECAUSE, AFTER ALL, GEORGIA IS VERY DIFFERENT THAN LEBANON...:

The domino theory (Geov Parrish, 3/02/05, WorkingForChange.com)

Years ago, as Cold Warriors went about justifying America's war in Southeast Asia, a common train of logic was known as the Domino Theory. This held that the Communists could not be allowed to seize Laos, or Cambodia, or South Vietnam, else they would then go on through the power of ideology, example, and arms to seize Thailand, and the Philippines, and eventually all of Southeast Asia.

It was lunacy, of course -- excepting that Cambodia was so destroyed by war that it became easy pickings for the Khmer Rouge -- but that has not stopped neoconservatives, 40 years later, from espousing a similar sort of domino theory of how the world works. This time it is democracy, not communism, that is to be on the rise, and (according to the Bush Administration and its ideologues) establishing a beachhead of democracy in Iraq will force the rest of the despotic Middle East to mend its authoritarian ways.

The world didn't work that way 40 years ago, and it doesn't today. The problem with this theory -- OK, one of many problems with this theory -- is that it ignores the fact that the region in question is comprised of many different nations with distinct histories, cultures, and political processes.

With Eye on Lebanon, Georgia Also Wants to Speed Up Pullout of Foreign Troops (Sergei Blagov, March 17, 2005, CNSNews.com)

Inspired by developments in Lebanon, where Syrian troops have begun a phased withdrawal under pressure, Georgia is stepping up efforts to get Russia to pull out troops from two remaining bases it maintains in the former Soviet republic.

The U.S. has also been urging Moscow for years to make good on a 1999 commitment and withdraw its last 3,000 troops, and on March 8, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called again for a Russian withdrawal from Georgia.

Russia agreed this week to hold talks with Georgian officials on the issue on March 23-24.

Okay, so the Realists have explained to us unwashed shlubs many a time that the domino theory doesn't hold. But here's our question: if it did, how would it look any different than what's happening now, when the lunatics are trying it again?

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 17, 2005 8:58 PM