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POPSHow to Start War with Russia--101 (Lesson from the Neoconservatives)
Bush Implements Neocon Lesson: Have Condi go to all the satellite states and sign missile placement deals about 100 miles from Russia, then sit back and watch Russia "invade or attack its neighbor" to disarm the threat. Meanwhile, this is precisely what the US was provoked by from Russia in the Cuban Missile Crisis! Purpose? This is part of the neoconservative plan for "global hegemony" which Bush is now implementing just prior to leaving office, ensuring sparked conflict into the next presidency (which would also help McCain, although Obama is a CFR shill too), setting a continuation of the neocon agenda for another four to eight years. Early in his pResidency Bush met with Putin in blue jeans at his Texas ranch. Now he will stab him in the back as he leaves office. This is normal if one reviews US foreign policy since the 20th century and sets the stage for WWIII based upon dangerous absolute Alliances, as Condi refers to with Poland "as much as if it was a US territory"
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POPSResurgent Taliban in Afghanistan Another result of "successful" troop surge in Iraq? As forces that could be used in Afghanistan continue to be diverted to Iraq the failure of the US/NATO Afghan war becomes even clearer.
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POPSRussia's Ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin Brands Saakashvili a "Nazi" The ministry cited new operations by Russia, including the re-occupation of a military base in Senaki in the west of the country where explosions were heard by AFP. US officials said Russia had moved short-range SS-21 missile launchers into South Ossetia since fighting there halted last week, and has yet to give any sign of a significant pullback of its troops from Georgia. Instead, there were indications that Russia was adding troops and equipment to its force in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, strengthening its hold over the breakaway Georgian regions, the officials said. Russia denies deploying the SS-21s. The withdrawal will not be implemented "very swiftly", a defence ministry official was quoted as saying Tuesday in the Russian daily Kommersant. "Nobody is planning to withdraw the Russian contingent very swiftly, as there is no such necessity," he said.
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POPSReport From a Forgotten War: Second in a Series
Taliban leaders also provided a haven for Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda to launch the 9/11 attack. In November 2001, when they were deposed by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance, many of the Taliban fled south to Pakistan and east into Iran. This spring, they came back, intent on overthrowing the democratically elected government of President Hamid Karzi. That's when the Marines of TF 2/7 arrived "in country" to train and mentor Afghan Army and police forces. It's been a challenging assignment for the 1300 Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen of TF 2/7. The unit's Area of Operations (A/O) is more than 28,000 square kilometers — roughly the size of Vermont. There is only one paved highway. Overland transport to some of the fifteen forward bases and combat outposts where TF 2/7 operates often takes more than 24 hours of continuous day and night movement. Until this week — when four CH-53 transport helos and four Cobra gunships arrived, the task force had to rely on NATO aircraft...
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POPSMore of the Same, Packaged as Change Barack Obama and Afghanistan Try reading the article to see how insane the Democrats really are (not to mention Replundercans)...More war, more death, more billions wasted....When will they learn that unless they nuke Afghanistan (God forbid but they might!) there is no way to win a war in that rugged (both terrain and people) country. What are they gonna do with all the poppies grown for heroin...are we gonna finance a complete re-planting of hemp or something? Jeebus, this insanity will never stop!
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POPSHey Congress! Georgia Attacked South Ossetia First! Let Congress know who is being overlooked in the US-Russia-Georgia conflict--the people of South Ossetia who want and prefer Russian rule since their declaration of independence from Georgia years ago--whom Georgia attacked and invaded, killing civilians! Russia responded. Congress needs to stop listening to White House propagandists and see the real story, before they start a new Iraq conflict, with Russia, and even towards world war (i.e. NATO versus Russia and allies)! And Congress needs informed people to help wake them up to these documented facts: The Ossetians, a divided people with one section living within Russia on the north side of the Caucasus mountains, and the other in Georgia, generally felt more comfortable with Russian rule than as part of the new, post-Soviet Georgian state. A small and nasty war with Tbilisi in 1990-92 led to a declaration of independence Is it not the Ossetians that have the stake in all this, who will govern and rule them?
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POPSGerman Chancellor Says That Georgia Can Join NATO Any Time It Wants Pounding Georgia, with a small military that isn’t set up for battle with a larger adversary, into submission is one thing. Trying to bluff NATO with a second rate military (and despite its size, it’s not a top shelf force) won’t be so easy. The Russians, of course, were steaming over Georgia’s desire to join NATO in the first place: Moscow is furious at Georgia’s attempt to join NATO. The Western military alliance is divided over how fast to accept Georgia, but has indicated that membership is a matter of when, not if. Hoo, boy, are they gonna hit the roof over this one.
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POPS Obama Takes Experience Lead Over McCain -- Again - there’s only one serious candidate in the race. Sister Toldjah McCain is demonstrating that when it comes to criticial foreign policy issues, his near 30 years in the Senate dealing with foreign issues as well as domestic, along with his long career in the Navy...... Hot Air Now, the media has awakened to truly historical events in the Caucasus, and McCain has commanded their attention with his leadership — while Obama hides in Hawaii. Macsmind You would think with 300 advisers THE ONE would have some words of wisdom from his Mount Olympus. The silence is more than telling and quite possibly a view into how Obama would actually handle such events as President. Surfs Up Dude! The New Republic McCain has had a prominent and strong presence in the news while Obama has been fairly invisible. Obama deserved a vacation but the timing–I assume his team figured the Olympics would drown out any other story.
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POPSInvading Georgia Was Easy, Mr. Putin Will Pay A Political Price The Russians said their General Prosecutor's Office would undertake a "genocide probe" in South Ossetia, and they called for putting President Saakashvili on trial at the Hague for "war crimes." As it happens, Chapter 1, Article II of the U.N. Charter, signed amid the smashed borders of World War II, forbids Members from the "use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state." The U.S. and France should force Mr. Putin's U.N. ambassador to veto a Security Council resolution describing his week-long mockery of those words. Additionally, a genuinely independent prosecutor investigating war crimes might examine the Russian bombing runs over Georgia and the looting of Georgian villages by Ossetian militias. An intriguing article by Pavel Felgengauer in Novaya Gazeta, the Russian newspaper, argues that an examination of the movement of the ground equipment and ships used in the strike against Georgia required planning that predated August
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POPSRussia vs. Georgia or US Proxy War with Russia? THE COLD WAR IS BACK ON. Putin is ticked at Bush. Russia conducted it appears, a pre-emptive strike. Let's compare US and Russia media sources to see each side of the story. Russia's government says this looks like Iraq (Bush's war) and Kosovo (Clinton's war, condemned by republicans) all over again! Americans should play the skeptic and consider domestic media as propaganda (as usual). Pravda: "The further the situation unfolds, the more the world will understand that Georgia would never be able to do all this without America. South Ossetian defense officials used to make statements about imminent aggression from Georgia , but the latter denied everything, whereas the US Department of State released no comments on the matter. In essence, they have prepared the force, which destroys everything in South Ossetia, attacks civilians and hospitals. They are responsible for this. The world community will learn about it,” /quote]
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POPSPolish President Criticizes France, Germany For Being Too Soft On Moscow President Kaczynski accused them of being too soft on Moscow due to their commercial ties with Russia. The statement on the president's Web site also said Kaczynski assured Saakashvili that he would continue to "support Georgia's integration in Euro-Atlantic structures" — a reference to Georgia's NATO aspirations. Poland and the ex-Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia , all new EU members, have sharply condemned Russia for its military incursion into Georgia amid the conflict in South Ossetia. After the fighting broke out, the presidents of the four countries issued a joint statement calling Russia's policy "imperialist and revisionist" and urging NATO and the European Union to stand up to Moscow. Leaders from those four nations followed that up with a trip in recent days to Tbilisi, joined by Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, to show their support to Georgia. Germany and France have been less critical of Russia. Sarkozy holds the EU's rotating preside
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POPSeisenhower on military industrial complex how much money needs to be spent? USA defense spending 2007 $545,328,000,000 Source: http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/nato-releases-2007-defense-spending-figures-04680/ "Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes...known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." - James Madison, Political Observations, 1795
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POPSAfter Russia's Invasion Of Georgia, What's Next? – and in precarious regions such as the Middle East – will remain. Obviously, not all former Soviet states are as critical to Nato as Ukraine, because of its size and strategic location, or Georgia, because of its importance to our access to the Caspian Basin’s oil and natural gas reserves. By its actions in Georgia, Russia has made clear that its long-range objective is to fill that “gap” if we do not. Accordingly, we should have a foreign-minister-level meeting of Nato to reverse the spring capitulation at Bucharest, and to decide that Georgia and Ukraine will be Nato’s next members. Second, the United States needs some straight talk with our friends in Europe, which ideally should have taken place long before the assault on Georgia. To be sure, American inaction gave French President Sarkozy and the EU the chance to seize the diplomatic initiative. However, Russia did not invade Georgia with diplomats or roubles, but with tanks.
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POPSHow To Stop Putin What we can do is alter Putin's cost-benefit calculations. We are not without resources. There are a range of measures to be deployed if Russia does not live up to its cease-fire commitments: 1. Suspend the NATO-Russia Council established in 2002 2. Bar Russian entry to the World Trade Organization. 3. Dissolve the G-8. Putin's dictatorship long made Russia's presence in this group of industrial democracies a farce, but no one wanted to upset the bear by expelling it. No need to. The seven democracies simply withdraw. (And if Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, who has been sympathetic to Putin's Georgia adventure, wants to stay, he can have an annual G-2 dinner with Putin.) Then immediately announce the reconstitution of the original G-7. 4. Announce a U.S.-European boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi. The most crucial and unconditional measure, however, is this: Reaffirm support for the Saakashvili government:
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POPSChutzpah, With a Capital "CH" Can you believe the audacity of McCain? First he manipulates Obama into taking his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, which also resulted in a successful European tour. When that worked out too well for Obama, McCain declared that his opponent was being presumptuous, and acting as if was already president of the United States. Now that Russia has stormed into Georgia, McCain decides to send Lieberman and Graham to Tblisi to try to work something out. On what authority will the traitor Lieberman, and Howdy Doody Graham discuss anything of substance, with any officials in Georgia? On top of which, Condie Rice, Madam Secretary herself, is on her way to Georgia to assess the situation. She, at the very least, speaks for the president. For whom do these two McCain puppets speak?
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POPSRussia's response to Georgia was right Georgia made the first act of aggression knowing that Russian peacekeepers were present in Ossetia. Western media is misrepresenting Georgia as the poor innocent victim. Georgia is trying to use the U.S. as a pawn in order to get into NATO. President Mikheil Saakashvili is a contemptible and opportunistic toad and we need to distance ourselves from him immediately.
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POPSMcCain is Rapidly Emerging as the 3 A.M. President In contrast, Barack Obama was all over the map, first equivocating Georgia and Russia as equally at fault and calling like a tired parent for all sides to just stop,making no moral distinction between an invader state and a nation invaded. "Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint and avoid escalation into a full scale war," he said. It was a call for peace at any price, and implied that if Georgia should take exception to a foreign invasion, its self-defense was culpable. Jimmy Carter would be so proud. Obama then lazily called on the U.N. to take care of the problem, which ignores the U.N.'s long record of inaction. All the same, turning it over to the U.N. conveniently extricates the U.S. from any responsibility to an ally and shields Obama from peace lobby criticism. Obviously, one candidate has a superior sense of America's strategic interests and the emerging threats over the other, and Russia's invasion of Georgia has laid it out starkly.
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POPSWelcome Back to the 19th Century Apologists for Russia can point to lots of mitigating circumstances, starting with the biggest one of Christmas Day 1991, when the hammer-and-sickle flag over the Kremlin went down for the last time, and up went the Russian tricolor. Poof, and a whole empire from the Baltic to Kazakhstan was suddenly gone. Yes, that chilled the Russian soul, and so did Georgia's love affair with the United States. How dare Georgia, the birthplace of Stalin, sidle up to the EU and NATO? In the greater scheme of things, though, Georgia's geopolitical crimes pale against a simple historical truth: 8/8 is payback for 12/25, when the Soviet Empire expired. That, as Mr. Putin has told us, was the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century," and ever since he was anointed neo-czar in 2000, he has been working hard, and as time went by ever more ham-handedly, to reverse the verdict of the Cold War -- to regain what Russia had lost. By JOSEF JOFFE WSJ Europe
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POPSIsrael Backs Georgia in Caspian Oil Pipeline Battle with Russia until a "durable peace" is reached. "As soon as a durable peace takes hold we need to move forward with dialogue and peaceful negotiations." DEBKAfile’s geopolitical experts note that on the surface level, the Russians are backing the separatists of S. Ossetia and neighboring Abkhazia as payback for the strengthening of American influence in tiny Georgia and its 4.5 million inhabitants. However, more immediately, the conflict has been sparked by the race for control over the pipelines carrying oil and gas out of the Caspian region. The Russians may just bear with the pro-US Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambition to bring his country into NATO. But they draw a heavy line against his plans and those of Western oil companies, including Israeli firms, to route the oil routes from Azerbaijan and the gas lines from Turkmenistan, which transit Georgia, through Turkey instead of hooking them up to Russian pipelines.
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POPSThe Israeli-Georgia Connection, $1 Billion and Oil "A new pipeline is being built to bypass Russia". The news about Russia's attacks on Georgia highlighted that oil pipelines were targetted. Could this be the real reason Bush is speaking out against Russia? I was thinking how hypocritical of Bush (although I do not disagree necessarily with the conclusion) that Russia's military action was "disproportionate" (over the top) against Georgia, when he was silent on Israel's destroying of Lebanon (for capturing soldiers). Just whose or what principle interest is Bush really defending in criticizing Russia?
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POPSRussia-Georgia: Russia vs. USA on Grand Chessboard A worthwhile read to see the bigger picture, and how Georgia attacked! under cover of the Olympics, then Putin immediately responded (not how it is being presented to you). Yes, Georgia was the aggressor, Russia responded (whereas my clips said they conducted a pre-emptive attack because of evidence Georgia would attack South Ossetia). From the day that the Russian tank brigade raced through the tunnel into South Ossetia, Russia has not made one wrong move. Mr Bush's remarks yesterday notwithstanding, In five days it turned an overreaching blunder by a Western-backed opponent into a devastating exposure of Western impotence, dithering and double standards on respecting national sovereignty (viz Iraq). The attack was short, sharp and deadly - enough to send the Georgians fleeing in humiliating panic, their rout captured by global television.
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POPSRussia's Power Play McCain, who has called upon Russia "to immediately and unconditionally . . . withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory," favors expelling Russia from the Group of Eight, and organizing a league of democracies to act where the United Nations is impotent, which is whenever the subject is important. But Georgia, whose desire for NATO membership had U.S. support, is not in NATO because some prospective members of McCain's league of democracies, e.g., Germany, thought that starting membership talks with Georgia would complicate the project of propitiating Russia. NATO is scheduled to review the question of Georgia's membership in December. Where now do Obama and McCain stand?
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POPSPutin Makes His Move Putin's aggression against Georgia should not be traced only to its NATO aspirations or his pique at Kosovo's independence. It is primarily a response to the "color revolutions" in Ukraine and Georgia in 2003 and 2004, when pro-Western governments replaced pro-Russian ones. Ever since, Putin has been determined to stop and, if possible, reverse the pro-Western trend on his borders. He seeks not only to prevent Georgia and Ukraine from joining NATO but also to bring them under Russian control. He seeks to carve out a zone of influence within NATO, with a lesser security status for countries along Russia's strategic flanks. That is the primary motive behind Moscow's opposition to U.S. missile defense programs in Poland and the Czech Republic. His war against Georgia is part of this grand strategy. Putin cares no more about a few thousand South Ossetians than he does about Kosovo's Serbs.
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POPSRussian Tanks And Troops Move Into South Ossetia Georgian interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said last night Georgian troops would observe a three-hour ceasefire beginning at 3pm local time (9pm AEST) to allow civilians to leave Tskhinvali. The International Committee of the Red Cross appealed for a safe passage for the wounded. The European Union, US, NATO and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe called for a halt to the fighting in South Ossetia, which broke away from Tbilisi's control in the early 1990s. Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili said: ``Most of South Ossetia's territory is liberated and is controlled by Georgia.'' Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin condemned Georgia's ``aggressive actions'' and said his country would have to retaliate.
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POPSGeorgian, Russian Leaders Heat Up Rhetoric: Fighting Rages On Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said he hoped the United States would help to convince Georgia to sign a legally binding agreement not to use force, while Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitri Rogozin, said that, until Georgian troops resume their pre-offensive positions, a cease-fire would not occur. Leaders from around the world have called on both sides to stand down, issuing statements deploring the fighting, and sending members of a delegation of high-level diplomats who hope to serve as a catalyst for a cease-fire. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called for an immediate cease-fire Saturday, saying the current violence is not in Russia or Georgia's interest. Saakashvili asked President Medvedev to stop what he described as "this madness" and charged Russia with attempting to destroy Georgian freedom. He said that while the country should not show it is afraid - for Georgia, "This is all very hard."
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POPSPlucky little Georgia? No, the cold war reading won't wash All is not what is what it looks like.... Cont: Devoted to achieving Nato entry for Georgia, Saakashvili has sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan - and so clearly felt he had American backing. The streets of the Georgian capital are plastered with posters of George W Bush alongside his Georgian protege. George W Bush avenue leads to Tbilisi airport. But he has ignored Kissinger's dictum: "Great powers don't commit suicide for their allies." Perhaps his neoconservative allies in Washington have forgotten it, too. Let's hope not.
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POPSSaakashvili Orders Full Mobilization Against Rebel Region At least 15 people, primarily civilians, were killed in heavy shelling and airstrikes of the capital Tskhinvali, news agency Interfax cited South Ossetian officials as saying. Georgia accused three Russian Sukoi SU-24 aircrafts of bombing Georgian villages, and a short time later, sent out five of the same jet to carry out attacks on South Ossetia. Russia denied it had sent out bombers Friday. 'A full-scale military aggression has been launched against Georgia,' Saakashvili said in his speech, calling on Russia to 'immediately stop bombardment of the Georgian towns.' But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin blamed Georgia with initiating the 'aggressive action' in televised comments from Beijing and said that Russia would be compelled to retaliate. But the United States is a close ally of the pro-Western Saakashvili, and it is its backing of Georgia's bid to join NATO in April that is seen to have escalated tension in the region.
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POPSGeneral Barry McCaffrey (ret) Says More Troops Aren't The Answer In Afghanistan More ominously, the general says, we can expect a Taliban drive to erase Afghanistan's border with Pakistan in the wild frontier provinces of Pakistan that have provided sanctuary for Taliban and al Qaida leaders and fighters since Osama bin Laden escaped there in 2001. Military means, he writes, won't be enough to counter terror created by resurgent Taliban forces; we can't win with a war of attrition; and the economic and political support from the international community is inadequate. The battle will only be won, McCaffrey says, when there's a real Afghan police presence in all of the country's 34 provinces and 398 districts; when the Afghan National Army is expanded from 80,000 troops today to 200,000 troops; when we deploy five U.S. combat engineer battalions with a brigade of Army Stryker forces for security to begin a five-year road building program that also trains Afghan Army engineer units and employs Afghan contractors and workers.
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