It seems Russia is flexing its muscles and ignoring the international community as Russia takes back something that was once theirs. As a quick aside doesn’t ignoring the international community have a familiar ring. Georgia has the only oil pipeline in that part of the world not controlled by Russia. Hmm finding a pretext for a war when what you’re really after is oil. Wow now there a sense of deja vu all over again.
But seriously folks.
This is something to be concerned about. The questions does have to raised is this the first step by Mr. Putin (the realy power in Russia not Dmitry Medvedev the “president” of Russia) in reassembling the Soviet Union. But of course Mr. Bush has looked into his soul and could trust Putin. Here’s the latest on the Russian offensive.
This is a great quote:
Zbigniew Brzezinski tells Nathan Gardels of Huffingtonpost.com: “The United States, particularly, shoulders the major burden of mobilizing an collective international response. This invasion of Georgia by Russia is a very sad commentary on eight years of self-delusion in the White House regarding Putin and his regime. Two memorable comments stand out. First, when Bush first met Putin and said he looked into his soul and could trust him. Second, not long ago, Condi Rice claimed that American relations with Russia have never been better in history!”
What can the U.S. do? Not all that much. There’s very little pressure that we can put on Russia. Bush is trying:
But words are about all the Bush can use against Russia. If Russia wants to take Georgia there's very little that can be done to stop them. Bush once promised the people of Georgia:
“I am deeply concerned by reports that Russian troops have moved beyond the zone of conflict,” Bush said. “It now appears that an effort may be underway to depose Georgia’s duly elected government.”
Bush also said recent actions by the Russian military, including a drive into civilian areas and alleged plans to bomb the airport in Tbilisi, “would be inconsistent with assurances that we have received from Russia that its objectives were limited.’’
I'm sure the people of Georgia are wondering when America will stand with them.
The path of freedom you have chosen is not easy, but you will not travel it alone. Americans respect your courageous choice for liberty. And as you build a free and democratic Georgia, the American people will stand with you.
1 comment:
Interesting thing about this is that there's a very different perspective on it outside the US. For example, British news showed scenes of the Georgian president "surveying the war he started," while American news had much the same shots, but spoke only of Russia's invasion.
What's clear is that Georgia did start the war by over-reacting in South Ossetia, then the Russians grossly overreacted by invading. But the American media simply parrots the White House line about it being purely Russian aggression.
That said, Russia did go too far and it seems likely to me that they did it, in part, to show Washington who's boss (since Georgia is a US/NATA ally). I think they were looking for an excuse to invade and seized the small provocation that Georgia handed them.
But instead of the allusion you make, it reminds me of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand more than 80 years ago: One action led to a gross overreaction which led to world war. I'm hoping this time more reasonable heads prevail.
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