Posted on 08/27/2007 4:13:07 AM PDT by Renfield
And there you have it.
The big question is what do we, the US, do about it?
The Russian military is a shell of its former self. No amount of bluster will change that.
As to what do we do? We move forward with our plans to add Georgia to NATO and any other country that is eligible and can meet the standards. Screw Russia.
Three years ago, Mr. Saakashvili famously fired 15,000 traffic policemen and dissolved the pervasive bribery ethos in one stroke. The country is booming: Everywhere new hotels, factories and well-lit roads proclaim the changes. Even the old Soviet tower blocks look festive and newly painted. Foreign investment flows in from every quarter: Kazakhstan to the east, Turkey to the south, Europe and the U.S., the Gulf States, even from Russia, despite all of Mr. Putin's embargoes -- and despite the shadow of two secessionist "black holes" inside Georgia backed by Russian arms and money: Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Mr. Saakashvili points out a little town in the distance, Tskhinvali, the disputed heart of South Ossetia, nothing more than a sprinkling of houses on a rise of farmland deep inside Georgian territory. "We've offered them everything they want . . . language rights, their own political structures, cross-border rights to their fellow Ossetians. … They probably would agree if they were free to do so."
He also speaks about Russia's domestic anti-Georgian campaign. "It wasn't working very effectively until they actually went to all the schools and asked for a list of all the children with Georgian names. Suddenly, the parents realized this was serious. That and the endless corruption of the Russian system became unbearable for them -- so now we have tens of thousands of qualified Georgians . . . coming back and repatriating their money to Georgia." There is a general sense in Georgia that the U.S. could be more supportive but badly needs Russian help over such critical areas as Iran, North Korea and the fight against terror. Does Mr. Saakashvili think that the U.S. could do more? "All we ask for is moral support," he answers. "It's all about shared values. You can see that the U.S. has a lot of moral authority here. We have a historic sympathy for the U.S. and the West. America should know how strong it still is and keep up the pressure at the highest levels. It should help enhance stability and serve as a deterrent to Russian adventurism."
"In return," he continues, "we are doing our utmost to stay engaged in the international community and to fulfill our obligations. Georgia has 2,000 troops in Iraq now deploying to the Iran border . . . to interdict arms smuggling across the border and we have told them not to be passive -- [instead] to be active and get results. Before now they were in the Green Zone but now they will be acting as part of the surge, going wherever US troops can go. . . . failure in Iraq will be a disaster for everyone. "For us it's also a matter of national pride. Georgian soldiers have always been famous for their courage but they've never fought as Georgians -- they've always fought in others' armies. We've had generals in Mameluke, Russian and Soviet armies -- even top U.S. generals. Now they will be serving in our name and for our country. In the 1920s Georgian officers fought for Polish independence to keep out the Bolsheviks (Retired U.S. Gen. John Shalikashvili's father was one.) Poland has just put up a monument to those officers (to the chagrin of Mr. Putin)." - LINK
Did they learn that one from the Clintons, or Vice-Versa?
Clinton and Clark Bar also screwed the pooch over Belgrade. How stupid we were. Messing up our relationship with Nuclear Armed Russia for some KLA Terrorist Thugs. Hard to imagine what other future bonehead moves the Socio-Globalists have planned.
The only Georgians I remember was Rett Butler and Stalin.
If we hadn’t moved NATO forward by accepting the membership of nations fearing a revival of Russian aggression, those states would now be getting the full force of Russian bullying to fall back into the sphere of Russian dominance.
Ask the Poles and Hungarians if they desire to face the Russians alone.
Oooops, make that NATO.
. . . and ask the Serbs if they want to face America alone.
Georgia has the same issue: an ethnic minority in a country that is an ethnic majority in a region of that country that wants to be independent.
The US and the Bush administration have maintained the Clintonista policy towards Kosovo, to the utter and complete shame of our country.
Russia is quite rightly asking why ethnic *Russians* should be less important to Russia than ethnic Albanians to America.
Let’s go ahead and look for a *real* reason to be upset with Russia. Russia is applying the same standard to its own people in Georgia that the US is applying to a group of Albanians in Kosovo. I just don’t see how that can possibly be a surprise to anyone.
Russia is not supporting ethnic Russians in Georgia. They extended Russian citizenship to non-Russian ethnic separatists. The Butcher of Beslan, Shamil Basayev and his Chechen jihadists helped Russia exterminate thousands of Christian Georgians in Abkhazia and ethnically cleansed the territory of hundreds of thousands more. Then Russia was surprised when the animal they created turned on them. Russia acts against its own interest in Georgia, and in the interests of the mohammedan terrorists. Even the Turks support the Abkhaz.
Sorry, the Russians support these guys against their own interests and we support jihadists and butchers like Agim Ceku, responsible for killing Serb Christians in Krajina.
If the US is mad at Russia for Georgia, it still sounds like the pot calling the kettle black. After all, we bombed the snot out of Vojvodina, full of ethnic Slovaks, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Ruthenians, etc.
"Ethnic" anyone who lives in a different country is a citizen of that country, not the one their forefathers were born in.
Would you have Spain protecting Mexicans that have come to the United States? Sounds very tribal to me.
. . . and ask the Serbs if they want to face America alone.
The Serbs sure don't want Russian troops quartered in there country. If they wanted a defensive alliance with Russia, they would have one.
But you would have everyone believe that the Russians are planting flags under the ice, helping Iran, and arming China because we are in Kosovo? Not buying it.
The same thing we always do: nothing. Until the monster is actively consuming us, we will pay it no attention.
The USA shouldn’t support separatists in the Balkans and Russia shouldn’t support them in the Caucasus. What is so hard to understand about that? If you condemn the US but defend Russia when they do the same thing, then you are nothing but a hypocrite.
Fourth. The missile was fired with the warhead un-armed.....but it had the desired reaction.
I read about the russian airshow recently that they grounded their su-24s after a recent crash due to a technical problem. Maybe that technical problem was a SAM in the ass of that aircraft.
bfl
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