The White Warrior Princess speaks

The White Princess, being an expert on Russia and all because, you know, Alaska is kind of close to Russia, is talking tough on South Ossetia and Abkhasia. Not that she necessarily knows where either of those places are exactly. Because they're on the other side of Russia from where Alaska is.

But here what she told Charlie Gibson in their softball interview, from the partial transcript from David Kurtz at TPM in Palin Foreign Policy: War with Russia 09/11/08 (see below on why I think that is poorly headlined):

GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn't we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?

PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.

But NATO, I think, should include Ukraine, definitely, at this point and I think that we need to -- especially with new leadership coming in on January 20, being sworn on, on either ticket, we have got to make sure that we strengthen our allies, our ties with each one of those NATO members.

We have got to make sure that that is the group that can be counted upon to defend one another in a very dangerous world today.

GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.

PALIN: What I think is that smaller democratic countries that are invaded by a larger power is something for us to be vigilant against. We have got to be cognizant of what the consequences are if a larger power is able to take over smaller democratic countries.

And we have got to be vigilant. We have got to show the support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to.

It doesn't have to lead to war and it doesn't have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help us do that in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia and Putin and some of his desire to control and to control much more than smaller democratic countries.

His mission, if it is to control energy supplies, also, coming from and through Russia, that's a dangerous position for our world to be in, if we were to allow that to happen. [my emphasis]

This is not a good sign in more ways than one. It's not at all clear that she understands jack about the situation with Russia and Georgia. But Gibson's questions quoted there were pretty softball, and focused on the kind of dumb "gotcha" approaches so beloved of our wealthy and soft-headed Big Pundits.

But whoever did the TPM headline was being sensationalist. I'm perfectly willing to believe that our Third Wave Pentecostalist Christian Zionist Republican Vice Presidential candidate adheres to a militarist way of thinking. I would be astonished, actually, if it were otherwise.

But that excerpted transcript doesn't say that she and her war-loving running mate are ready to immediately go to war with Russia. In fact, she easily side-stepped the lightweight questions there. It is American policy right now to put Georgia on a track to become a NATO member, a position which Obama and Biden also support.

The real question to be asked is about where the rubber meets the road with that policy (if the media and the Republicans haven't declared that metaphor to be Patriotically Incorrect in the last couple of hours). The question a real reporter would as is whether the United States should accept Georgia as a NATO member when it doesn't have actual control of the territory it claims as part of its country (South Ossetia and Abkhasia).

The Maverick and his White Princess might be goofy enough to be willing to sign up for that. But most of the NATO members are not going to be willing to. As a practical matter, it's darn near impossible.

But she seems to have stuck to the script in that excerpt.

Tags: georgia, russia, sarah palin