This thread discusses the Content article: Georgia says Russia bombed after order to halt war

From an op-ed in Harper's:

"For Georgians, the choice was simple. America stood for the ideals of an open society and a free market. It offered the promise of transformation. And America was the paramount military power on earth, a power they could depend upon. But Georgia's confidence in America, and specifically the Bush Administration, may well prove tragically misplaced.

"The Georgian leadership, and indeed a whole generation of Georgians, tethered their hopes to George W. Bush and the hollow promises of his administration. Now at the moment of truth, Bush will almost certainly let them down. Vice President Cheney, whose bellicose rhetoric has done much to provoke the problems now bubbling in the Caucasus, says that the Russian acts of aggression in Georgia "must not go unanswered." But thanks to the serial strategic misadventures that make up Bush-Cheney foreign policy, there is little prospect of Russia's actions being answered by a flex of military muscle of the United States or of NATO. Putin's calculation is that an America bogged down in two conflicts in the Middle East will let him give the Georgians a whipping. Putin is probably right.

Another Bush foreign policy failure.

I wonder what Bush & Putin said to each other at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, with Russia having just launched their offensive against Georgia? I can imagine Putin's answer to whatever Bush said:

"Bring it on."

RogerWilco wrote:
This thread discusses the Content article: Georgia says Russia bombed after order to halt war

From an op-ed in Harper's:

"For Georgians, the choice was simple. America stood for the ideals of an open society and a free market. It offered the promise of transformation. And America was the paramount military power on earth, a power they could depend upon. But Georgia's confidence in America, and specifically the Bush Administration, may well prove tragically misplaced.

"The Georgian leadership, and indeed a whole generation of Georgians, tethered their hopes to George W. Bush and the hollow promises of his administration. Now at the moment of truth, Bush will almost certainly let them down. Vice President Cheney, whose bellicose rhetoric has done much to provoke the problems now bubbling in the Caucasus, says that the Russian acts of aggression in Georgia "must not go unanswered." But thanks to the serial strategic misadventures that make up Bush-Cheney foreign policy, there is little prospect of Russia's actions being answered by a flex of military muscle of the United States or of NATO. Putin's calculation is that an America bogged down in two conflicts in the Middle East will let him give the Georgians a whipping. Putin is probably right.

Another Bush foreign policy failure.

I wonder what Bush & Putin said to each other at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, with Russia having just launched their offensive against Georgia? I can imagine Putin's answer to whatever Bush said:

"Bring it on."

You are forgetting to factor into this why Russia invaded Georgia in the first place - Georgia moved to subjugate South Ossetia (spelling?) without, to my knowledge, running that past any of their allies first. As South Ossetia (again, pardon my spelling) is under Russian protection, as it were, the move by Russia to retaliate in their interests is no surprise. What is a shock is the amount of force they used to get the job done.

More force isn't the solution to this.

RogerWilco wrote:
This thread discusses the Content article: Georgia says Russia bombed after order to halt war

From an op-ed in Harper's:

"For Georgians, the choice was simple. America stood for the ideals of an open society and a free market. It offered the promise of transformation. And America was the paramount military power on earth, a power they could depend upon. But Georgia's confidence in America, and specifically the Bush Administration, may well prove tragically misplaced.

"The Georgian leadership, and indeed a whole generation of Georgians, tethered their hopes to George W. Bush and the hollow promises of his administration. Now at the moment of truth, Bush will almost certainly let them down. Vice President Cheney, whose bellicose rhetoric has done much to provoke the problems now bubbling in the Caucasus, says that the Russian acts of aggression in Georgia "must not go unanswered." But thanks to the serial strategic misadventures that make up Bush-Cheney foreign policy, there is little prospect of Russia's actions being answered by a flex of military muscle of the United States or of NATO. Putin's calculation is that an America bogged down in two conflicts in the Middle East will let him give the Georgians a whipping. Putin is probably right.

Another Bush foreign policy failure.

I wonder what Bush & Putin said to each other at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, with Russia having just launched their offensive against Georgia? I can imagine Putin's answer to whatever Bush said:

"Bring it on."

Georgia is not a member of NATO, I'm not sure what you think the US can do. Seems to me, Europe is the one that needs to get involved. Why is it only OUR responsibility?

JLD wrote:
RogerWilco wrote:
This thread discusses the Content article: Georgia says Russia bombed after order to halt war

From an op-ed in Harper's:

"For Georgians, the choice was simple. America stood for the ideals of an open society and a free market. It offered the promise of transformation. And America was the paramount military power on earth, a power they could depend upon. But Georgia's confidence in America, and specifically the Bush Administration, may well prove tragically misplaced.

"The Georgian leadership, and indeed a whole generation of Georgians, tethered their hopes to George W. Bush and the hollow promises of his administration. Now at the moment of truth, Bush will almost certainly let them down. Vice President Cheney, whose bellicose rhetoric has done much to provoke the problems now bubbling in the Caucasus, says that the Russian acts of aggression in Georgia "must not go unanswered." But thanks to the serial strategic misadventures that make up Bush-Cheney foreign policy, there is little prospect of Russia's actions being answered by a flex of military muscle of the United States or of NATO. Putin's calculation is that an America bogged down in two conflicts in the Middle East will let him give the Georgians a whipping. Putin is probably right.

Another Bush foreign policy failure.

I wonder what Bush & Putin said to each other at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, with Russia having just launched their offensive against Georgia? I can imagine Putin's answer to whatever Bush said:

"Bring it on."

You are forgetting to factor into this why Russia invaded Georgia in the first place - Georgia moved to subjugate South Ossetia (spelling?) without, to my knowledge, running that past any of their allies first. As South Ossetia (again, pardon my spelling) is under Russian protection, as it were, the move by Russia to retaliate in their interests is no surprise. What is a shock is the amount of force they used to get the job done.

More force isn't the solution to this.

Well said.

CNN (Communist Network News) is airing misleading footage of the war between Georgia and Russia, skewing public opinion in favor of the Georgians, according to a Russia Today cameraman interviewed this morning.

The Russian cameraman charged that CNN had used his footage of Georgian forces attacking Russian civilians in Tskhinvali, the provincial capital of South Ossetia, but then claimed it showed Russians attacking Georgians in the Georgian town of Gori.

The Georgian assault on Tskhinvali, described as an act of genocide and a war crime by Russian officials and other eyewitnesses, led to the slaughter of at least 2,000 civilians. The fact that Georgia, backed by the U.S. and Israel, were responsible for the provocation that led to the Russian response, has been buried by the majority of western corporate media.

Aleksandr Zhukov, from the Russiya Al-Yaum channel, said: "When we arrived and news came that Gori was being shelled, I saw my footage. I said: that's not Gori! That's Tskhinvali. Having crawled through the length and breadth of Tskhinvali, I don't need much to tell from which point this or that footage was recorded. I can swear in front of any tribunal. I can point at this location on the map of the town, because I and the cameraman of the Rossiya channel videotaped that."

JLD wrote:
RogerWilco wrote:
This thread discusses the Content article: Georgia says Russia bombed after order to halt war

From an op-ed in Harper's:

"For Georgians, the choice was simple. America stood for the ideals of an open society and a free market. It offered the promise of transformation. And America was the paramount military power on earth, a power they could depend upon. But Georgia's confidence in America, and specifically the Bush Administration, may well prove tragically misplaced.

"The Georgian leadership, and indeed a whole generation of Georgians, tethered their hopes to George W. Bush and the hollow promises of his administration. Now at the moment of truth, Bush will almost certainly let them down. Vice President Cheney, whose bellicose rhetoric has done much to provoke the problems now bubbling in the Caucasus, says that the Russian acts of aggression in Georgia "must not go unanswered." But thanks to the serial strategic misadventures that make up Bush-Cheney foreign policy, there is little prospect of Russia's actions being answered by a flex of military muscle of the United States or of NATO. Putin's calculation is that an America bogged down in two conflicts in the Middle East will let him give the Georgians a whipping. Putin is probably right.

Another Bush foreign policy failure.

I wonder what Bush & Putin said to each other at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, with Russia having just launched their offensive against Georgia? I can imagine Putin's answer to whatever Bush said:

"Bring it on."

You are forgetting to factor into this why Russia invaded Georgia in the first place - Georgia moved to subjugate South Ossetia (spelling?) without, to my knowledge, running that past any of their allies first. As South Ossetia (again, pardon my spelling) is under Russian protection, as it were, the move by Russia to retaliate in their interests is no surprise. What is a shock is the amount of force they used to get the job done.

More force isn't the solution to this.

I'm not advocating more force. I'm merely pointing out that Bush and Cheney told Saakashvili and Georgia that they would support them but have not done so. If they didn't intend to offer military support then they should not have given Saakashvili the encouragement to take on Russia.