Russia: Miliband backs Georgia and widens Nato split

The failure of New Labour is in it's propensity to out-Tory the Tories, it's seemingly boundless contempt for it's own supporters, and it's belief that "Guardian readers" - as Tony Blair loved to call us - would have no other choice come election day than to back them, no matter how far to the right they had swung.

David Cameron recently visited Georgia and announced that the west has to show solidarity with Georgia. He was saying this at the very moment that the west was making it perfectly clear that it was not willing to risk WWIII for Georgia.

But whatever the Tories do, no matter how stupid, New Labour have to outdo them in spades.

Yesterday, David Miliband announced that Georgia was well on the way to Nato membership, "raising eyebrows in Brussels and contradicting the western alliance's secretary-general."

In a response to Russian occupation of Georgia, Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday agreed to form a Nato-Georgia commission to entrench western support for the Black Sea state.

US and European diplomats in Brussels said it was too early to say what impact the new structure would have on Georgia's Nato ambitions and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the alliance's secretary general, said that the meeting had not even discussed Georgian membership.

Miliband, however, argued that Tuesday's decision meant that "the formal process" leading to Georgian membership of Nato had "kicked off", and that the commission represented a "route map" for gaining membership.

Diplomats and officials at Nato headquarters in Brussels were wary of endorsing that view. "It's an important signal, but there is also important substance to it," Miliband said. "In practical terms, Nato is offering close cooperation with the Georgian government and the Georgian military."

In Brussels, however, diplomats said any decision to admit Georgia was essentially political, and that deep reservations remained among some member states.

I have stated too many times why I think that this is a very bad idea, and I am appalled that Miliband is proposing such nonsense even as some member states express "deep reservations"; which is diplomatic talk for "not in my lifetime".

The west has found itself in a bind over Georgia, not wanting to be seen to bow to Russia, and yet unwilling to go to war. Miliband and others are arguing that Georgia should be allowed to join Nato, which is an explicit promise that, should this situation occur again, we would be willing to go to war over it.

My question is very simple. If there is some great principle at stake here, why aren't we willing to go to war now? Why do we believe that membership of Nato would stop any future Russian response to Georgian aggression? And why should Russia buy this silly illogical premise?

The truth is that we would not start WWIII for Georgia and now we all know it, including Russia. Talk of Nato membership now is simply locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. And all this foolish talk won't deter future Russian actions, but it does threaten to tear Nato apart. We are engaging in the worst kind of posturing. It's actually embarrassing.

I have voted Labour my entire life, but I honestly will have great difficulty entering a voting booth and giving my vote to this bunch of tossers.

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