What can be learned from Russia's robust response to Georgia's move into South Ossetia is that Russian military power has not collapsed, and that our relationship with the oil rich European power will only get more complicated in the future. The United States can do very little except fume when Russia, now under the command of a resentful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin funded by oil money, decides to exercise its territorial prerogatives. McBush's comical attempt at cold war sabre rattling, intended for domestic political consumption, must be filling the Kremlin halls with derisive laughter. Any attempt to intervene militarily on Georgia's behalf now that a cease fire has been established in principle would be simply lunatic on our part. (Since declaration, Russian tanks have occupied Gori, severed the east-west highway to Tiblisi, and there are reports of revenge by Ossentian separatists allied with Russia). Georgian President Saakashvili called the Western response to Russia's counter-attack inadequate. "I feel that they are partly to blame," he said. "Not only those who commit atrocities are responsible...but so are those who fail to react." Someone should tell him that he overplayed his hand and is suffering the consequences.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Russian Backyard
What can be learned from Russia's robust response to Georgia's move into South Ossetia is that Russian military power has not collapsed, and that our relationship with the oil rich European power will only get more complicated in the future. The United States can do very little except fume when Russia, now under the command of a resentful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin funded by oil money, decides to exercise its territorial prerogatives. McBush's comical attempt at cold war sabre rattling, intended for domestic political consumption, must be filling the Kremlin halls with derisive laughter. Any attempt to intervene militarily on Georgia's behalf now that a cease fire has been established in principle would be simply lunatic on our part. (Since declaration, Russian tanks have occupied Gori, severed the east-west highway to Tiblisi, and there are reports of revenge by Ossentian separatists allied with Russia). Georgian President Saakashvili called the Western response to Russia's counter-attack inadequate. "I feel that they are partly to blame," he said. "Not only those who commit atrocities are responsible...but so are those who fail to react." Someone should tell him that he overplayed his hand and is suffering the consequences.