“I have condemned Russian aggression, and today I reiterate my demand that Russia abide by the cease-fire. Russia must know that its actions will have consequences. They will imperil the Civil Nuclear Agreement, and Russia’s standing in the international community – including the NATO-Russia Council, and Russia’s desire to participate in organizations like the WTO and the OECD.”

–Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), in a speech Tuesday at the convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised that if he is elected, he will provide “young democracies” like Georgia with “support and solidarity.” He spoke to the convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) on Monday. McCain also said he would create a Veterans’ Care Access Card to “provide those without timely access to VA facilities the option of using high-quality health-care providers near their homes.”

Sen. Barack Obama (AP) (D-IL) will speak to the VFW on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib compares the responses of McCain and Obama to the crisis in Georgia and says it reveals compellingly different diplomatic styles.

Fighting between Russia and Georgia received more U.S. media coverage than the presidential campaign last week, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The study of news storylines between August 11 and 17 shows 26 percent of all news coverage focused on the conflict, while the presidential campaign received 21 percent of the coverage. This marks the first time in nine months that the campaign has not been the top news story. The conflict between Russia and Georgia also dominated campaign news itself, as candidates detailed their own views on how to handle the situation. According to the Pew report, 14 percent of campaign coverage last week was related to the crisis.

This chart illustrates the top campaign storylines of the week:

In response to CFR.org’s recent Daily Analysis Brief, In Russia-Georgia Conflict, Balkan Shadows, reader Christian Kim writes:

You assert that “[t]he challenge for Washington and European Capitals…is what tack to take to restrain Moscow.” This statement assumes, as does the Holbrooke article, that Europe and the United States can formulate a uniform Russian strategy in the Caucuses and Caspian region. In light of Europe’s dependence on Russian energy, which Russia has deftly used to drive a small wedge between Europe and the United States, this assumption cannot stand. America has little leverage against Russia in the region, and Europe almost none. There is no trans-Atlantic tack to restrain Moscow.

NATO’s impotence in coming to Georgia’s defense, a country once tabbed for membership, arises from a divergence of interests between Washington and Europe. Europe’s Faustian bargain with Russia means it must eventually recognize its need to pursue a diplomatic strategy independent from American concerns. The notion of peak oil and concerns arising from the reality of finite energy resources did not factor in the ideologically-driven Cold War, and in a geopolitical climate where regions must compete to secure energy demands, NATO seems an anachronistic remnant of a bipolar world. Europe may be forced to exchange certain elements of its friendship with the United States for Russian energy, which accounts
for a quarter of Europe’s oil supply and half of its gas.

As for the United States, the time has come to accept Russia’s re-emergence as a great power– an OPEC competitor with the globe’s second-largest nuclear arsenal. Georgia is important insofar as protecting Western interests in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. America should cut its losses on Georgia’s ill-considered gamble and concede that Russia can do what it wants with South Ossetia and Abkhazia. This type of concession does not mean Russia will be emboldened to retake Eastern Europe. Its conventional military is still a mess, and the West should have no fear of Russian offensives in the near future. The best the United States can do is to make sure Russia understands where the red lines are: Ukrainian and Georgian sovereignty, and the BTC pipeline.

–Christian Kim

Both presidential candidates participated in a weekend forum hosted by an evangelical Christian leader over the weekend. Asked in the forum to name the most “gut-wrenching” decision he ever had to make, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said deciding to oppose the war in Iraq was “as tough a decision that I’ve had to make, not only because there were political consequences but also because Saddam Hussein was a bad person and there was no doubt he meant America ill.” Speaking on energy policy issues, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) repeated his call for offshore drilling. “We’ve got to drill now, and we’ve got to drill here (SFChron), and we’ve got to be independent of foreign oil,” he said.

McCain said he welcomed the U.S.-Poland missile defense pact. In a statement late Friday, he called the deal an “important step forward in protecting European nations from a growing threat — missile attacks from states like Iran.”