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We helped in Iraq - now help us, beg Georgians
Times Online (U.K.) ^ | August 10, 2008 | by Tony Halpin

Posted on 08/10/2008 2:39:43 PM PDT by library user

As a Russian jet bombed fields around his village, Djimali Avago, a Georgian farmer, asked me: “Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?”

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: allies; allygeorgia; geopolitics; georgia; iraq; ossetia; russia; southossetia; troops
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To: F-117A

Russia is not talking about autonomy for either South Ossetia or Abkhazi.


101 posted on 08/10/2008 5:22:57 PM PDT by flyfree
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To: Tramonto

Thanks, great video. Thanks very much.


102 posted on 08/10/2008 5:25:54 PM PDT by MarMema (Tavisuplebas dideba!)
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To: F-117A
So what do you make of the data in post #45 of this thread?

For years Russia has been issuing passports to Abkhaz and South Ossetia residents, etc..

I haven't researched this yet for myself. But if this is true, this has the earmarks of an operation, by Russia, against Georgia.

103 posted on 08/10/2008 5:26:31 PM PDT by Alia
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To: Nik Naym
He is right. We owe them. I am ashamed of how we are (are not) handling this.

It just started, give us a break ok? One doesn't automatically start launching B-1's, nukes or sending in massive land troops in this type of situation........Sheesh!

104 posted on 08/10/2008 5:26:57 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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To: F-117A
Not at all. South Ossetia and Abkhazi had autonomy under Soviet rule. Georgia's attempt to take that away in the early nineties lead to the defeat of Georgian forces and de-facto independence of those two regions. Georgia's decision to attack South Ossetia has forced Russia's hand. I suspect that South Ossetia and Abkhazi will now get their independence from Georgia and Russian troops will guarantee it.

Abkhazi is already at war with Georgia.

Finally a sane and tempered assessment without the usual diatribes and calls for war against Russia. The reality of South Ossetian and Abkhazian independence is now only coming to the press. Before both regions assertion of independence in the 90s had little air play particularly the Georgian ass whipping it received the last time they tried to put down the Abkhazian independence. Georgia over played its hand yet again but now the consequences may just solidify the complete sovereignty of these regions once and for all.

105 posted on 08/10/2008 5:31:50 PM PDT by Lent
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To: library user
Damn, just damn.,., it is definatley NOT the time for an Obamanation
106 posted on 08/10/2008 5:37:38 PM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: All

I find it hilarious that Russia is helping to defend S Ossetia, yet didn’t lift a finger to help Serbia. Serbians are just cannon fodder proxies for the Russians and don’t even realize it.

If you do simple history checks on these “pro Russian” propaganda speeches on FR, totally touting the Pravda/Putin Party line....7 of 10 are Serbs.
Check it out Freepers.


107 posted on 08/10/2008 5:39:16 PM PDT by rbmillerjr ("bigger government means constricting freedom"....................RWR)
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To: flyfree
And, according to my archives, the following article is no longer active as a hyperlink:

From the Anchorage Daily News, March 29, 2004:

Russia boasts weapon to overcome U.S. Star Wars OW (March 29, 5:17 am AST) - Russia has designed a "revolutionary" weapon that would make the prospective U.S. missile defense useless, Russian news agencies reported Monday, quoting a senior Defense Ministry official.

The official, who was not identified by name, said tests conducted during last month's military maneuvers would dramatically change the philosophy behind development of Russia's nuclear forces, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported.

If deployed, the new weapon would take the value of any U.S. missile shield to "zero," the news agencies quoted the official as saying.

The official said the new weapon would be inexpensive, providing an "asymmetric answer" to U.S. missile defenses, which are proving extremely costly to develop. Russia, meanwhile, also has continued research in prospective missile defenses and has an edge in some areas compared to other nations, the official said.

108 posted on 08/10/2008 5:40:15 PM PDT by Alia
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To: library user

What could these effin Russians be thinking? Frankly it is a good question the Georgian asks.


109 posted on 08/10/2008 5:42:04 PM PDT by Texas Songwriter
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To: rbmillerjr
The really funny thing is that some of the goosestepping Milosevkniks here actually think that Kosovo is next and that once Georgia is crushed, Putin will ride in and liberate Kosovo on his white horse. When he doesn't lift a finger to help them they will still worship him completely.

Message to Milosvikniks and Putinistas: Putin is the one who pulled out the Russian troops Yeltsin sent to Kosovo and he refuses to send them back. Kosovo is not worth a drop of Russian blood. Putin supports the Serbs less even than the man who appointed him as his chosen successor.

110 posted on 08/10/2008 5:45:21 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Jeff Head

The Russians have a number of ships laid up in Sevastopol in various states of repair (or disrepair). The Ukrainians need to take control of those vessels and either absorb them into their navy or hand them over to the Georgians to replace the Georgian warships sunk in this war.


111 posted on 08/10/2008 5:46:16 PM PDT by Stonewall Jackson (Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory. - George Patton)
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To: Lent
Newsflash: Russia does not support Abkhazian nor South Ossetian independence and never will, That is because Abkhazia and South Ossetia are not independent nations, they are Russian conquests.
112 posted on 08/10/2008 5:47:21 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Alia
More:

From www.worldthreats.com, April, 2004:

----

National Security and the Americas. Antero Leitzinger is a writer for the Eurasian Politician and he is interviewed here by Ryan Mauro of worldthreats.com.

"WRM: Haitian activists have claimed that Artistide was overthrown with US support. They claim that rebels were trained in the Dominican Republic, with US assistance, and then crossed over and overthrew Aristide, again with US assistance. The Russian press also has claimed this, saying we did so to make Haiti an “aircraft carrier” between Cuba and Venezuela. What is your take on these accusations?

AL: Whenever a left-wing regime is toppled somewhere in the world, certain people accuse the US for masterminding it. They know very little of history. The Haitians are perfectly capable to oust their own rulers. Russians believe these claims because that is exactly what they would have done in their neighborhood."

113 posted on 08/10/2008 5:48:25 PM PDT by Alia
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To: F-117A
South Ossetia and Abkhazi Kosovo had autonomy under Soviet Yugoslav rule. Georgia's Serbia's attempt to take that away in the early nineties lead to the defeat of Georgian Serb forces and de-facto independence...
114 posted on 08/10/2008 5:50:46 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe

How right you are. Russia won’t lift a finger for Serbia. Putin considers them mere cannon fodder for proxy actions in the area.

...if it wasn’t funny it would be sad.
The enemy of my enemy (Russia) is my friend.
Russia has started a New Cold War and Russia and Serbia are now my enemy.


115 posted on 08/10/2008 5:53:00 PM PDT by rbmillerjr ("bigger government means constricting freedom"....................RWR)
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To: Alia
April 3, 2004, Washington Post:

Chirac Arrives for Talks With Putin

MOSCOW (AP) -- French President Jacques Chirac became the first western leader to visit Russia's top secret Titov space control center, touring the site Saturday as part of Russian efforts to court the lucrative European satellite-launching business.

... Russia's cash-strapped space program has worked closely with the European Space Agency in recent years, launching ESA satellites and carrying ESA astronauts on research missions to the International Space Station. The Titov space control center is in Krasnoznamensk, about 25 miles southwest of Moscow.

In February, the ESA reached an agreement with Russia to launch Russian Soyuz rockets from France's Kourou launch pad in French Guyana. The launches are expected to begin in about three years.
...
Putin and Chirac are also expected to discuss European Union expansion that will include eight countries that were either part of or allied with the Soviet Union.

The continuing violence in the Middle East and the international fight against terrorism are also likely to be on the agenda. The Kremlin said that Putin would also raise the issue of making it easier for Russians to receive visas to travel to France and other EU member states

116 posted on 08/10/2008 5:53:32 PM PDT by Alia
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To: fish hawk
Yes they are a strong country but they know beyond a doubt they could never out due the greatest country in the world.

And what dues would those be, specifically?

117 posted on 08/10/2008 5:54:44 PM PDT by humblegunner (I'm voting for McCain because he's white.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Trifling with words. Heres another news flash: Russia’s tacit if not open support for Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence, declared unilaterally in the 90’s by those provinces is as legitimate as the US’, recognition of the new Muslim state of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence (and Croatia’s and Bosnia, etc.). Secondly, conquests make nation-states - that’s the stuff of world history. And if Georgia can’t put a lid on a genie it let out of the bottle (by it’s own independence) then give it up and stop trying to start nuclear winter by sucking the West into their internecine struggle.


118 posted on 08/10/2008 5:56:01 PM PDT by Lent
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To: Lent

My point stands. The US recognized Kosovo’s independence. Russia does not recognize South Ossetia’s nor Abkhazia’s independence nor will they because they want these territories to be Russian territories, not independent nations. Therefore, Russia has no moral justification for their actions. They are not supporting an ally’s independence, they are waging a war of conquest against their neighbor.


119 posted on 08/10/2008 6:01:56 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Alia
For another trip down memory lane...

OIL FOR PALACES, NY Post, April 2, 2004:

(hyperlink no longer valid):

ALMOST a year after the fall of Baghdad, everybody knows that Saddam Hussein stole billions from the Iraqi people. What is now emerging is that the United Nations was his partner in crime - aiding and abetting him during the eight-year Oil-for-Food program
...
Uday, the older son, even got U.N. funds for his Iraqi National Olympic Committee. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed on June 13, 2002 to hand over $20 million to build an Iraqi Olympic arena, part of Uday's absurd bid for the 2012 Olympics. A renowned rapist, Uday used to torture Iraqi athletes if they failed to win international competitions.

His father? Saddam built new palaces throughout the eight years of the program. Gen. Tommy Franks got it right when he reached Baghdad in April 2003: The Iraqi dictator's rule was an "Oil for Palace" program.
...
Although the United Nations supposedly kept an eye on the price at which Saddam sold Iraqi oil, in reality the Iraqi strongman set the prices and forced his customers to pay him kickbacks. The Iraqi regime then used this money to bribe and buy influence abroad.

One recipient of that largesse was Shakir al-Khafaji, a Detroit businessman who stumped up $400,000 for former U.N. arms inspector Scott Ritter to make "In Shifting Sands," an anti-sanctions film. Meanwhile, back in Iraq, Saddam's secret police punished hundreds of thousands of Shi'a Iraqis by taking away their U.N. ration cards, forcing them into the very poverty from which the U.N. program was supposed to protect them.

... Difficulties arose almost from the first day because of the way that Annan organized the program. Rejecting advice from experienced U.N. staff, he decided against having one U.N. agency oversee the whole scheme. Instead, Annan created an Oil-for-Food program office in New York to oversee the work of nine U.N. agencies which in turn dealt with the Iraqis, introducing a pointless and costly layer of bureaucracy.
...
The Iraqi government was quick to exploit this bias for its own political ends. The Cairo office of the U.N.'s World Health Organization managed to stall the building of a new general hospital for the Kurdish city of Sulaimani, even though the funds were available in 1998.

Over the life of Oil-for-Food, the Kurds barely got half of the $8.4 billion allocated to them - they are still owed some $4 billion. Who owes it to them? Well, the United Nations was supposed to pay them, out of accounts entrusted to it. But the status of any funds remaining in those accounts is in dispute - and the U.N. is balking at efforts to clarify things. It won't even let anyone else examine its books.

Saddam didn't just use Oil-for-Food to give preferential treatment to Iraqis: He rewarded foreign friends, too. He favored Russian and French contractors, even insisting that all Iraqi oil earnings be paid into just one bank, BNP Paribas in Paris.

One of the largest shareholders in the bank as of 2000 was Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi Sunni who was involved in Saddam's 1959 assassination attempt on Iraq's then head of state, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Qassem.
...
After Saddam and his cronies, the main beneficiary of Oil-for-Food was the U.N. payroll. To make the program self-financing, the United Nations took its cut off the top - 2.2 percent of Iraqi oil sales for its administrative costs, plus 0.8 percent to pay for weapons inspections (in four of Oil-for-Food's eight years), allowing the United Nations to walk away with $1.9 billion of Iraqi oil money. U.N. staff employed by the Oil-for-Food program ballooned to 3,000, the largest single U.N. program in the world.

No wonder that when Kofi Annan met Saddam Hussein in February 1998, he said that the Iraqi dictator was a man that "I can do business with."

Andrew Apostolou is director of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He has just returned from Iraq.

120 posted on 08/10/2008 6:03:35 PM PDT by Alia
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