Shall We Play A Game?

In the cult classic film War Games, a young Matthew Broderick plays a 1980s-era high-school hacker who unwittingly hacks into a connection to an artificially intelligent computer controlling the United States nuclear arsenal.

Broderick's character thinks he's just connected to some sort of game server, and when offered a variety of games starting with tic-tac-toe, he decides he'll pick

>PLAY GLOBAL-THERMONUCLEAR-WAR

which starts a sequence of events that very nearly starts the real thing and incinerates the planet.

I was reminded of that story of a bright person foolishly steering the world toward disaster when I read about this part of Charlie Gibson's interview with GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin:

GIBSON: Would you favor putting Georgia and Ukraine in NATO?

PALIN: Ukraine, definitely, yes. Yes, and Georgia.

GIBSON: Because Putin has said he would not tolerate NATO incursion into the Caucasus.

PALIN: Well, you know, the Rose Revolution, the Orange Revolution, those actions have showed us that those democratic nations, I believe, deserve to be in NATO.

Putin thinks otherwise. Obviously, he thinks otherwise, but...

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.

So, Palin starts by saying that Ukraine and Georgia should be admitted to NATO, even though Russia won't like it, and then, because they are in NATO, we'll have to defend them, because that's what NATO is all about.

Sweet, huh?

And what would it take to defend our new, barely democratic allies against the world's second-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons? Hmmm?

"Shall we play a game?"

To be fair, Palin herself seems to blink at the prospect, and hurried to add

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.

So, somehow, economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure would do the job, as long as our allies helped us in 'keeping our eye' on Russia? That's what NATO is for? Economic sanctions?

Still, Palin is up to speed on the real reason for including Ukraine and Georgia in NATO. That talk about emergent democracy is all very nice, but let's be clear on the real Russian threat:

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.

Yup, it's all about the oil. Well, and the natural gas.

Isn't it special, knowing that we have another whole region to get mired down in fighting oil wars? (That Obama energy Apollo project is looking better all time.)

So, here it is, September 11, bin Laden is still on the loose, the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, McCain's 'successful' surge still hasn't managed to get the Shiites to reconcile with the Sunnis. Yet Governor Palin has us signing up for oil wars with Russia already.

I guess they really do want to bring about change!

Do Ukraine and Georgia deserve to be in NATO? I don't know, but it does seem like the sort of thing that might deserve some debate by the American people. Personally, I think 'one oil war at a time' might be a good rule-of-thumb. Whatever.

Since the end of the Soviet Union, we've pretty much been assuming that NATO isn't really that important. It's like that wacky EU, but with guns, or something. Though it comes in handy when we want some troops where it's inconvenient for us, like Afghanistan, I'd guess most Americans haven't given any thought to the ramifications of NATO expansion, and whether, in our heart of hearts, we really want to be committing to defend former Soviet republics from Russia.

And if letting Ukraine and Georgia join NATO is going to be seen as picking a fight in Moscow? Where they are already more than a bit peeved about all those missiles we insist on deploying? Do we really want to be picking fights there right now?

Putin's not a nice guy, I admit, but we are a little busy right now, and he does still have those nukes? Mightn't there be a smarter play, here?

This, like so many complex issues, are just the sort of thing we as a nation should be discussing as we decide on our next president.

Instead, we're offered faux outrage at 'lipstick on a pig', a soap opera disguised as a Governor, appointed as a VP candidate, and daily repetitions of lies that have been debunked by every major news organization.

That's leadership, John McCain-style.

By the way, in War Games, the planet is saved when the computer, having finally run through every conceivable scenario, only to discover them all ending in disaster, decides that the "only winning move is not to play."

I'm hoping the American electorate comes to the same conclusion about John McCain.

Update: As an exercise in understanding how Russia might feel about having American military advisers in Georgia, and NATO discussing membership for Ukraine and Georgia, notice how it makes you feel to read this.

And we don't even share a border with them.

Update 2: Say it loud, say it proud: Shed not one drop of American blood for Sevastopol!