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POPSSeeing the Afghan Forest Not the Trees William Pfaff wrote on September 17, 2001: "Clearly, the United States needs to deal with Mr. bin Laden's terrorist organization, but that is essentially a police and intelligence problem. Long-term United States interests cannot afford a "war" that risks toppling Saudi Arabia and other conservative Islamic regimes into alliance with the radical movements already powerful in Iran, Sudan, Algeria, and influential in Egypt, Pakistan, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. That, though, is the risk." Now, Pakistan threatens to come unglued and the President is being advised to send in 40,000 troops. What he needs to do is read this article below.
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POPSThose Who Ignore History... History didn't listen to us," said Tabeyev, who's now 81. "All our efforts to restore peace in the country . . . this was a flop in the end." The fundamental problem in Afghanistan is that it isn't a country in the way the West thinks of countries, said retired Lt. Gen. Ruslan Aushev, who did two tours there and left as a regimental commander. "There has never been any real centralized state in Afghanistan. There is no such nation as Afghanistan," said Aushev, who's a former president of the Russian Caucasus republic of Ingushetia and now heads a veterans group in Moscow. "There are (ethnic groups of) Pashtuns, Uzbeks and Tajiks, and they all have different tribal policies." As a result, any occupation force will spend much of its time propping up a government that has little relevance outside Kabul and trying to corral disparate ethnic groups and tribes into a national army that's often unwilling to fight, Aushev said.
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POPSGeorgia - Trekking in Caucasus The Tusheti region offers excellent trekking high in the Caucasus, passing through villages studded with ancient watchtowers to guard against invaders. If you are looking for a wild and beautiful destination for a rewarding travel experience, Georgia comes highly recommended.
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POPSIn A Land Of Thugs Sometimes I wonder how many of us would & do look the other way; myself included. What makes someone like Natalya tick?
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POPSNatalya Estemirova Murder Reveals Russia's "Terror Campaign": Activists The killing, which activists quickly blamed on Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, underscored the persistent crime and violence in the regions surrounding Chechnya. Rights groups said it also showed that Russia remains a place where political murders are committed with impunity. "A terror campaign is being conducted in Russia – terror against people who dare say things that are uncomfortable and unpleasant for the authorities, who talk about the crimes of those in power," Orlov said.
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POPS Doubting Der Spiegel " is a direct echo of Russian rationalization to go into Chechnya," says Goltz. "But it is also the basis of virtually any country's decision to re-establish control over breakaway pieces of real estate and mafia dens, ranging from the U.S. South in 1861 to Italian efforts to trim the mob in Sicily." Goltz also has concerns about the article's information quality, including what he called the "burying" of Russia's distribution of passports to separatists halfway into the story, which served as the immediate cassus belli for Russian intervention. He also notes that the cell phone intercepts which point to Russian military movement well before originally acknowledged went unmentioned. The leak itself might also be reason for pause.
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POPSKefir and Kefir Grains I just love this stuff called Kefir. Ever since i started eating it, i just feel better and better. I found this blog post here, so i thought i'd share it and spread the good word about it and kefir.
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POPSAfghanistan Made Easy
Years of reporting from combat zones in Bosnia, Uganda, the Sudan, Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Eritrea have convinced Kaplan (Balkan Ghosts, The Coming Anarchy) that Thucydides and Sun-Tzu are still right on the money when they wrote that war is not an aberration and that civilization can repress barbarism but cannot eradicate it. Reminding readers that “The greater the disregard of history, the greater the delusions regarding the future,” Kaplan conducts a brisk tour through the works of Machiavelli, Malthus and Hobbes, among others, to support his advocacy of foreign policy based on the morality of results rather than good intentions. From those classics, he extracts historical models and rationales for exploiting military might, stealth, cunning and what he dubs “anxious foresight” (which some may regard as pessimism based on disasters past) in order to lead, fight and bring adversaries to their knees should they challenge the prevailing balance of power.
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POPSTurkey takes go slow approach to former Soviet states It’s unlikely that Turkey would ever be in position to become a strategic partner of Russia’s due to Ankara’s desire to gain influence in the Caucasus and Central Asia, Erdem said. But, he added, that fact doesn’t preclude expanded commercial ties with the Kremlin. Russia recently became Turkey’s largest trading partner, he pointed out. Erdem voiced understanding for Russia’s position on the potential expansion of NATO into Georgia and Ukraine, as well as for Moscow’s concern over US plans to build missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.
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POPSEU seeks to increase influence in former Soviet areas Beyond the signal that the EU wants to reinforce its presence in the Caucasus and Black Sea regions, the success of the initiative depends on concrete achievements. "The ground is prepared, but a lot depends on what happens in tangible terms,"
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POPSTime's Top 10 News Stories of 2008 If you did not find the time to read news lately, this is a fair chance to catch up... :-) (Though I believe the real news happen in entirely different places)
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POPSThe Russians Are Coming The energy resources of Central Asia are also attractive to Russia "Where their energy comes from Central Asia, then I think that you will find that they will be moving to secure that because that is what they are using to fuel their resurgence." "Recently, we see the politics of China also, which does not have a military base but which is gradually and persistently advancing its influence in this region and in many other regions," After the Russia-Georgia conflict in the Caucasus, Russia has found the grounds to expand its presence in Central Asia
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POPS‘Israel of the Caucasus’ and just as warlike!!! The list of Israeli personnel involved in either supplying arms to Georgia or training elite Georgian military units speaks volumes for the extent of Israeli involvement in a country to which it feels close psychological attachment. Kezerashvili's ties to Israel have been well known since his father told the biggest-selling Tel Aviv daily, Yediot Ahronot, a year ago: "He has a lot of friends to this day in Israel, and he has maintained good relations with them." Recently, his pro-Israeli sympathies have been fortified by Saakashvili's typically over-the-top description of his country's role in the face of Russian aggression as the "Israel of the Caucasus"
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POPSGeorgia closes air space to Russia "If Georgia doesn’t provide an air corridor, Russia will find alternative ways of supplying its military base here," Aghabekian told EurasiaNet. "After all, Russia is bound by an agreement with Armenia that commits it to keeping the base combat-ready and on high alert. Russia will resort to any method to honor that obligation."
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POPSMoscow calls for anti-U.S. alliance While Russia has insisted it was not intending to supplant NATO, Mr Medvedev made it clear that the US-dominated alliance was partly responsible for the war in the Caucasus by its failure to rein in Georgian "aggression". This is the result of the U.S. throwing its weight around the world for far too long. It is human nature that if one person is constantly directing policy onto everyone else then that person is going to be knocked down for being perceived as a bully. The time has come for the U.S. to relax its role as self appointed world police and let other nations handle their own affairs or we will be “uninvited to the party”. Hopefully, future U.S. presidents will bury this old school ‘might is right’ mentality that Bush/Cheney revitalized when they took office.
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POPSTajikistan asks Russia to extradite activist Tajik officials have long been interested in muzzling Atovullo, but Moscow had not been receptive to the idea of shipping him back to Dushanbe - at least until very recently. Conditions have changed dramatically in the weeks following Russia’s incursion into Georgia, the Vremya Novostei article suggested. Seeking as much diplomatic support as possible for its diplomatic positions in the Caucasus and Central Asia, Russia now seems much more interested in making sure Rahmon is happy. Observers in Moscow have noted that, to date, the Tajik government has remained silent on Russia’s decision to recognize the independence of the separatist territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Dushanbe’s reticence could be a ploy to extract maximum political and economic benefits from the Kremlin
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POPSIsrael closes arms deal with Azerbaijan Rumblings of Shi'ite political Islam have been particularly noticeable in the more conservative regions that border Iran, and the secular government has displayed concern over Iranian influence. Foreign news outlets have reported that the two countries maintain intelligence and security contacts.
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POPSThree major points from Russian-Georgian war
The West appears to have underestimated the strength of the Kremlin’s negative reaction toward NATO’s eastward expansion. Russia’s reluctant acquiescence to the Baltic states’ joining the Atlantic alliance was clearly misleading: Moscow did make some noise, but it was in no position to take any active measures of resistance, as Russia back then was still relatively weak. For the Kremlin, the establishment of a NATO foothold in Georgia would be an intolerable development that could spark a domino effect across the Caucasus. It would start with the internationalization of peace process in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, causing Russia to lose its monopoly on "peacekeeping" operations, and culminate with Moscow losing control over the South Caucasus - with the grave consequences for stability in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus autonomous republics. To prevent this from happening, the Kremlin "preempted" the Western move and, in a risky gambit, radically changed the situation on the ground.
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POPSRussia Not Immune to American Influence Perhaps to undermine the Russian Bear and China, this crisis will benefit some of the architects of doom. If the energy market of Russia and China's relentless expansion are threatening American interest, ie, oil, so why not create a crisis that takes most down and rewards the few we all know?
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POPSCaucasian Realpolitik The recent Caucasian conflict shows that among the great powers, Realpolitik still trumps principles and morality.
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