Bush camp battles critics on Georgia response

As the conflict in Georgia unfolded over the past week and a half, the Bush administration has found itself battling a familiar charge — that its response to a major crisis was slow and uncertain.

The president’s hesitance to roundly and immediately condemn Russia’s Aug. 8 invasion stood in contrast to the response of the two major presidential candidates. Some observers said Mr. Bush was unassertive when he needed to be bold.

White House aides have dismissed criticisms publicly and privately, arguing that Mr. Bush and his top national security officials have been dealing with events from the start and that a president must speak carefully during international crises until reports can be verified. They noted that the president sharpened his words last week as the invasion continued.

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Now Mr. Bush faces decisions on how to punish the Kremlin in concert with European allies. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Brussels for a meeting Tuesday with representatives from NATO and the European Union.

Proposed responses include removing Russia from the Group of Eight coalition, blocking it from World Trade Organization membership, boycotting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and suspending or dissolving a NATO-Russia council.

Although Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has talked about “consequences” for the Kremlin, he said the administration does not want to be hasty.

“There is no need to rush into everything. … I think we need to work with our allies and other countries around the world, but I think there needs to be a strong, unified response to Russia,” Mr. Gates said Sunday on CNN.

The administration will be assessed in the coming weeks on how it achieves a common approach to Russia’s aggression and the strength of any reaction. But opinions of the White House’s initial reaction to the Georgia war have been negative in some quarters that usually support the president.

Others talking

In the days immediately after the invasion, Mr. Bush lagged both major-party presidential contenders in citing Russia as the aggressor.

Even as the president emboldened his language against the Kremlin, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama already were calling for specific consequences against Russia. Mr. McCain was four days ahead of the president in explaining to the American people why war in the Caucasus matters.

“My sense is that initially there was a lot of silence [from the White House], and then there was a lot of talk,” said Sarah E. Mendelson, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“There’s this sense — it may be incorrect — that it’s not until midweek, after the cease-fire occurred, that you begin to see President Bush and Secretary Rice making speeches,” Miss Mendelson said.

The president first denounced Russia’s actions on Aug. 11 in an interview with NBC’s Bob Costas during the Beijing Olympics. For the first time, he described Russia’s invasion of Georgia as a “disproportionate” response to hostilities in the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia.

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