Posted on 08/11/2008 8:59:22 AM PDT by Fred
On October 3, 1938, Adolf Hitler’s armies marched into Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. Germany said it was responding to separatist demands from the large German population that lived there and that she was merely honoring their desire for reunion with Germany. Hitler’s tanks took over a vital part of an independent country that had largely rejected his overtures and allied itself with the West. Neither Britain nor France nor the United States did a thing to stop him.
On August 7, 2008, Vladimir Putin’s armies marched into South Ossetia, a part of Georgia. Russia said it was responding to separatist demands from the large Russian population that lived there and that she was merely honoring their desire for reunion with Russia. Putin’s tanks took over a vital part of an independent country that had largely rejected his overtures and allied itself with the West. Neither Britain nor France nor the United States did a thing to stop him.
Encouraged by his occupation of Sudetenland, Hitler continued his designs on Czechoslovakia itself and invaded the rest of the nation a few months later.
Will history continue to repeat itself?
Georgia is one of the two countries that have split off from the old Soviet Union and most firmly reached out to the West. Now Putin is testing whether the west will respond to an overt Russian military attack on a part of Georgia, doubtless paving the way for a full scale invasion, perhaps in the coming days. One immediate Russian move would be to use its new found military leverage to force Georgia to give up Abkhazia, another province with a large Russian population.
Russia has encouraged migration by ethnic Russians into its satellite empire ever since Stalin’s days and now is using the provinces with large Russian populations to foment discord in nations that lean to the West.
The United States and the European Union must not turn away at this crucial moment in history. The U.S. should take visible steps to bolster Georgia, including the dispatch of supplies, materials, and other manifestations of our determination not to let this nation be invaded.
Russia’s goal in this imperialism is to intimidate any nation on its borders into rejecting overtures from the west and to try to prove that the west will offer no real protection against Russian military designs.
NATO should speed consideration of Georgia’s application for admission and should extend its security umbrella to include the struggling democracy.
If the United States appeases Russia now, it will pay the same price British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain paid in the 1930s. This invasion must not be allowed to stand or, at the very least, it must be contained to South Ossetia and not allowed to lap over into the rest of Georgia.
Typical Dick Morris over the top rhetoric.
Today I am not so sure, perhaps this is a signal from Russia for the US to NOT deal with Iran.
Will Turkey mobilize as a threat?
Has that moron Obama made any statements on any of this, or is he too busy raising campaign funds and visiting his typical white grandmother who lives under the bus?
His moronic response, in which he basically waffles on the issue:
I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war. Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected. All sides should enter into direct talks on behalf of stability in Georgia, and the United States, the United Nations Security Council, and the international community should fully support a peaceful resolution to this crisis.
He is shaking the dust off his red pom-poms, and looking in the mirror to see how his Che cap looks.
The deal is that South Ossitia is full of Russians. Just one of those little border anomalies not taken care of at the time the breakup of the USSR.
Again the Russian Army demonstrated it ain't what it used to be (if it ever was) by going in and blowing up the Russians first.
Too late Dicky, NATO is not going to expand it's charter to a nation all ready attacked. However, it might do to expand NATO to cover the rest of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. If NATO had quit dragging it's feet out of fear of Russia, Georgia would all ready be in NATO and this would never of happened.
Springtime for Putin and Russia, winter for Georgia.
Would that also explain Russia now moving beyond South Ossitia into Georgia?
Too late.
Typical crap from an anti-McCain guy, too.
Putin has never forgiven us for what we did to them in Afghanistan. We can look on this as the continuation of Charlie Wilson's War.
There is no way that Russia trades Georgia for Iran. Iran is their most important proxy army in the middle-east and they have invested billions into that criminal empire.
Over the top?? He’s right on target in this column.
Now that Putin has consolidated his power in such a way that
guarantees he can keep it as long as he wants it , he is now
setting his sights on his grand plans for the world.
Georgia is a test. Ukraine will be next and then it’s on
to probally Israel.
I also believe he and Iran has a nasty little plan for the U.S.
Now is the time to act. Bush the republican may become the chamberlain of our time if he appeases him as I believe he will ..
Obama is golfing in Hawaii and posing for the paparazzi.
Bush takes a weekend in another country;
Putin takes a country in a weekend.
I knew that someday, Russia was going to want payback for that humiliation.
And even worse, when we went into Afganistan a few years ago, we wiped out the taliban in a couple of months, and did what Russia couldn’t achieve in all the years they were there. Talk about embarrassing.
Now its a different situation because Russia was trying to permenantly occuy and annex Afganistan into the USSR, and we tried to keep them an independant country which makes things easier, but from Russia’s viewpoint, the US kicked in them in the national pride nads twice.
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