One has to wonder what the Russian plan is here. Are they going to annex South Ossetia? Or are they going to go further and just annex the whole of Georgia? Either way, this doesn't serve Russia's long-term interests. It will only encourage other former Soviet republics to join NATO and will encourage the Baltics to ask the United States to base its anti-ballistic missile system in their countries.
Georgia has apparently announced they are removing the 1,000 troops they have serving in Iraq and redeploying them at home.
Looks like the Russians aren't pulling any punches. It's getting serious real quick. I wonder if this is a message to the other "independent" republics?
Seriously, does Georgia even stand a chance here? What are they trying to accomplish? Did they think that Russia will let them take South Ossetia?
Meanwhile I'm watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games and there's Bush sitting next to Vladimer Putin and just being good old pals with him.
He should knife him. Or snub him like Obama did Hillary. That would give everyone another reason to ***** how they're embarrassed he's our president.
So does this make Georgia and Ukraine's NATO aspirations more or less likely? If I'm Ukraine this is just another data point that Russia cannot be trusted. If I'm Germany I want those pipelines going through Turkey so I'm not dependent on Russia for my energy needs. If I'm Germany I also want that buffer of Ukraine just in case.
Who knows what the hell is really happening there now. If I were Ivan, I'd secure the South Ossetian perimeter and rough up a 10km buffer zone. At some point South Ossetia will petition to join the Russian Federation and that will be that. Europe gets Kosovo and Russia gets South Ossetia. If I were the EU, I'd offer a 100,000 Euros to each of the 70,000 people to South Ossetia to move north, offer to buy gas from the Russian pipeline exclusively for a 10 year period and in exchange Russia lets Georgia have South Ossetia for another decade. After feeling good about making the offer, then I'd be stingy as hell and just opt for plan Ivan above.
"Meanwhile I'm watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games and there's Bush sitting next to Vladimer Putin and just being good old pals with him." Ive stated it on another thread, but this kind of dilpomacy, while smart politically, is bad PR in reality. As Bush derides China and Russia for their record, he meets with them and "respects" them, while simultaneously making political statements about bringing freedom and democracy to the middle east through the removal of their dictators. How he can respect Putin and China but not respect Saddam doesnt make sense. No one can possibly say that Saddam was worse, especially when we supported Saddam during his war with Iran.