McCain and Obama unite to condemn Russia

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has seized on Russia’s invasion of Georgia to call for a muscular series of US-led countermeasures in an apparent bid to underline for American voters his experience in foreign policy and security issues.

Mr McCain’s Democratic opponent Barack Obama – who has been criticised by Mr McCain as being inexperienced in foreign policy matters – joined the debate, interrupting his Hawaiian vacation to issue a statement that said there was “no possible justification for these attacks” by Russia.

The Illinois senator declared the crisis could have been avoided had the world listened to his calls for “active international engagement to peacefully address the disputes over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, including a high-level and neutral international mediator, and a genuine international peacekeeping force not simply Russian troops”.

Abkhazia is another Georgian region that has broken away under Russian protection.

Both have operated on a virtually autonomous basis since shortly after Georgia achieved independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Russia has what it calls “peacekeeping” forces in both regions.

The McCain statement on the crisis warned Russia that its air, ground and sea offensive was a “clear violation of international law” that has “no place in 21st century Europe”.

Mr Obama said the United States wanted “cooperative engagement” with a Russian leadership that acts “as a force for progress in this new century, not regression to the conflicts of the past”.

Perhaps the most controversial of proposals by both Mr McCain and Mr Obama were calls for Nato to consider putting Georgia on a faster track for alliance membership, which gives any signatory the promise of protection by all Nato nations in case of attack. Such a move in the case of Georgia would, in theory, have meant Nato military action against Russia.

“Nato’s decision to withhold a Membership Action Plan for Georgia might have been viewed as a green light by Russia for its attacks on Georgia, and I urge the Nato allies to revisit the decision,” Mr McCain said.

Mr Obama said: “I have consistently called for deepening relations between Georgia and trans-Atlantic institutions, including a Membership Action Plan for Nato, and we must continue to press for that deeper relationship.”

Mr McCain loses no opportunity to contrast his background – that includes five and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and four terms as senator from Arizona – to that of Mr Obama, a first-term senator.

Earlier Monday, Mr Obama’s campaign manager sent e-mails to supporters offering them the chance “to be the first to know his choice” of a vice presidential running mate.

The e-mail, distributed in the name of David Plouffe, says the Illinois senator “is about to make one of the most important decisions of this campaign - choosing a running mate.

“You have helped build this movement from the bottom up, and Barack wants you to be the first to know his choice.”