1. "right or wrong"? So rightness/wrongness has nothing to do with moral authority? Bizarre. What does 'morality' mean then?
2. This region was never "part of Russia". It was part of the USSR which was an empire controlled by Russia (and of course part of prior Russian empires led by czars). What relevance that has to whether it's ok for modern-day Russia to meddle and take over pieces of this region now is beyond me. One would think if anything it would go even more against Russia that she used to helm an empire which possessed this region - especially to a self-proclaimed libertarian.
3 current wars, one of them global, and all three apparently never-ending, is three too many for me.
What 3 "wars" are you talking about? Which one is "global"? And why is it "too many" for you - because of how much it's affecting you? How is that, precisely?
Also, what does that have to do with anything, with whether Russia is right or wrong here? Whether Russia is right or wrong is a separate matter from whether the U.S. should participate in warfare on the matter (if that's what you're fearing).
If you have to have another one [war],
Nobody even said this. What are you talking about?
Besides, whether there's a war re: Russia/Georgia isn't even open to debate. There is, whether we like it or not. Right? We can't make there not be a war there by nobly refusing to pass judgment on the participants. That's not how it works.
how about all you keyboard warriors making this one a private one - as in get on a plane, fly over there and take on the Russians yourselves.
What 'keyboard warriors'? I haven't seen anyone in this thread propose military action against Russia. Again, what are you talking about?
How about you 'keyboard complainers' consider whether you have standing to do your complaining in the first place.
Leave me and my wallet out of it.
Nobody was proposing otherwise. You're almost as paranoid as Russia.
It means something different than "moral authority", which is the term I used.
This region was never "part of Russia"
OK - part of the Russian Empire, part of the Persian Empire and part of the Soviet Union... happy? Also, for very brief periods over the last thousand years or so, it's actually been an independent country.
What 3 "wars" are you talking about? Which one is "global"? And why is it "too many" for you - because of how much it's affecting you? How is that, precisely?
GWOT, Iraq, Afghanistan (duh)... because any war, even when it's necessary, is too many (duh)... because each one makes me poorer and less safe (duh)
Also, what does that have to do with anything, with whether Russia is right or wrong here? Whether Russia is right or wrong is a separate matter from whether the U.S. should participate in warfare on the matter (if that's what you're fearing).
The US is militarily involved in Georgia, that's what. Advisors, military aid and the idiotic notion of admitting Georgia into NATO. The three current wars might slightly impact a fourth one, if we get involved in one there.
Nobody even said this. What are you talking about?
You're right... having our military forces in an area (on Russia's border) where active fighting is taking place could never draw us into conflict, could it? I mean, wars never start accidentally, do they?
We can't make there not be a war there by nobly refusing to pass judgment on the participants. That's not how it works.
Must have really been putting in extra-credit hours at school (what grade?) to have missed the news, but yes - there's a war on and yes - the good old USofA has taken sides (wrong one) on a matter that's none of it's business and in an area outside our traditional sphere of interest.
What 'keyboard warriors'? I haven't seen anyone in this thread propose military action against Russia. Again, what are you talking about
Anyone advocating any US interference in this conflict is advocating potential conflict with Russia.
How about you 'keyboard complainers' consider whether you have standing to do your complaining in the first place
I've served in the armed forces of this nation, I'm a citizen of this nation, and I pay a very large amount of taxes... I say I have as much right to express my opinion on this matter as anyone else does.
You're almost as paranoid as Russia
Yep, just as I was paranoid about backing the wrong side in Kosovo, paranoid about Iraq not being a cakewalk that pays for itself, paranoid about the dangers of occupying Afghanistan instead of just going after terrorists there, etc.
Maybe not on this thread, but when this nonsense started over in S.Ossetia there were a bunch of FReepers (including some I respected) who were talking about the need for the US military to rapidly dispatch A-10 Warthogs and B-2 Stealth Bombers into the region. That was within minutes of the start of the conflagration, before anyone really knew much of what was going on. Already calls for tank-busters and stealth bombers were up.
A couple of hours after that the real FReaks started coming out of the woodwork. It began with some calling for a naval group or two (meaning aircraft carriers) to head for the region, which was followed by a number of FReepers asking for nuclear missiles to be given to Georgia by the US. Then the craziest post of all came out, when a certain FReeper (name withheld, but if he is reading this it is still the most ridiculous post I've ever seen) started saying that we should give 'suit care nukes' to Chechen terrorists (the layers of stupidity in that post are too intricate to fully elaborate on, but let it suffice to say that the Chechen terrorists are part of the Al Queda umbrella, and any nuke given to them would more probably be used against the US than against Russia).
Thus, the FReaks may not be out on THIS thread, but they sure were out for over a week saying how they would tackle the situation if they were president. Fortunately, no matter what one may think of our president and how conservative or not he is, he is definitely magnitudes more intelligent than the sum total of those FReaks. Some posts (like the nukes to the Muslim queda-connected Chechens) were actually a level below typical DU stupidity.
Anyways, this thread may be free of calls to take the fight nuclear, but for over a week there were threads filled with 100-Star armchair Generals giving a step-by-step POV of how they would take the fight nuclear, and how Russia would just stand there and do nothing as Moscow gets nuked.
With that said, my thoughts: i) Georgia got played by the Russians. ii) Russia had no intention of saving the Ossetians .....simply wanted to punch the Georgians in the nose and show that NATO was nothing more than a paper tiger. iii) There is no 'good side' in this fight ....the Russians were in the wrong, but the Georgians are not the saints people were making them out to be. iv) Georgia has lost S.Oss and Akhz. Georgia's sovereignity is intact, but it's integrity is busted. v) It seems that Putin really is the KGB monster some always said he was. vi) People expecting the US to take an Iraq-style approach towards Russia will be sadly disappointed. We only attack weak nations ...if we cannot do jack against Iran and N.Korea, people expecting A-10s to riddle Russian tanks are going to be waiting a long while. vii) With that said, we need a president who can at least pretend very well and act tough. That is not BHO.