Countries and Kids

When kids play sports with their friends in the streets or parks there are always various roles they have. One of them is the umpire, always assigned to the least sportive kids. Even though they call the plays in good faith nobody in the game really cares about their judgment. They let the umpire “call it” only in case they feel satisfied with the call. Otherwise, they just ignore him. This is the same role the UN appears to play in the world—especially after the Iraq War begun. And the US is, of course, the big, though kid in the game. If the UN decides to send help to US’s headache Iraq, the US will become a UN supporter. If the UN doesn’t want the US to invade some country (like Iraq 5 years ago), the US will just ignore it.

NATO is like that bunch of kids that hover around the big, tough kid. They usually hate the big, tough kid because he messes with them all the time. But they very well know that it’s better for them to be beside him in order to be under his protection and so to be able to mess with the other kids gratuitously. The big kid, on the other hand, also needs them since his self-esteem depends on having smaller kids around who submit to him. So the followers united have some negotiation power. This is what they used today in Bucharest against the US-supported integration proposal of Ukraine and Georgia. But the smaller kids’ negotiation power can push only so far against the big kid. The US still managed to get more military support from NATO for its Iraqi haphazard adventure.

Finally Russia celebrated Ukraine and Georgia’s failure to enter NATO. Russia is like the second biggest kid who enjoys tormenting the kids that the biggest and toughest kid can’t fit in his schedule. After the proposal was rejected, Russia was relieved to know that it can continue to mess with Ukraine and Georgia for at least a couple of years before they manage to get friendly with the big kid and his gang.