Posted on 08/11/2008 2:11:08 PM PDT by kristinn
According to the Agence France-Press, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has not interrupted her vacation to deal with the most serious foreign policy crisis faced by the Bush administration since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has also been noticeably absent on the diplomatic scene, having failed to interrupt her holidays to fly to Tbilisi in support of the Georgian government.
Instead senior State Department official, Matthew Bryza, who oversees the Caucasus region was sent, two days later than planned, to join a joint EU-US mediation effort to win a ceasefire.
Rice has been working the telephones, however.
How is this America’s crisis?
Give her a break. I hear she has cancelled two shuffleboard classes so far to deal with this crisis, and once even walked away from a good blackjack hand.
Had she come back early, the MSM would have said it was proof that the U.S. was orchestrating everything.
The same way the Germans invading the Sudetenland was America's crisis.
It’s our ally. It’s our old nemesis. It needs a response and someone should figure out what that response needs to be.
It is not fair to imply Bush is out of touch when he is on his ranch in Crawford, and similarly, it is not fair to say Condi is unavailable when she takes a few days off.
I therefore see this article as nothing more than another MSM hit piece.
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the president of Georgia “must go,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the Security Council.” (Reuters)
Thank you for this breathless report.
Czechoslovakia didn’t invade the Sudetenland and flatten its towns.
A State Dept spokeswoman was on CNN two hours ago and stated that Rice has made over 90 calls so far.
It’s her background too...She is one of our “Red” experts...
Hey, President Bush spoke face to face with Putin on the night it all started to come down. I hate to say it, but this is only gonna get uglier. Putin is a former (closet) KGB agent and ruthless. He’s in there to put COmunism back in charge and take back the regions that got away during the democratic experiment. Unless we commit troops today, Georgia will be a lost land and Russia will put the hammer and sickle back up on her flag tomorrow!
Dumbest comment of the week (and this was a pretty bad week). For a start take a map of the Caucasus, have a close look at the region, think a bit about geopolitics and history and then decide whether this is America's crisis or not.
For the Obama campaign?
"...or panicked."
Germany at the time was up and coming.
Russia is a toothless tiger.
I take it back. Not completely toothless...Russia has a couple of molars left in the mouth but her prime as an Empire is now in the past.
So what do you want to do, Kristinn - nuke Moscow!
Would that make you happy? Because the UN, NATO, and Europe aren’t going to do squat. The whole world cowers and lets the Americans do all the heavy lifting and bleeding.
I think it is high time we invaded Iran, you know, strike the Mullahs while Russia is involved elsewhere. Why not, huh? Just brings us all a little bit closer to WWIII, don’t ‘cha know!
You are so cute. How can a country invade it's own territory!? Also there was a Sudeten-German insurgency against the Czechs.
That's fine with me. The sooner Russia becomes fully communist again, the sooner their economy will go into the doldrums. Then, if China goes back to a fully communist configuration, they'll both soon be economic basket cases, and the upward pressure on world oil prices will diminsh.
If they want to go communist, the US position should be "have a good drown" (in the words of Pink Floyd).
there were not German ‘peacekeepers’ in that area enabling sepretest to shell other parts of the czek republic either..
*******************
Let me think about that.
No, I want this administration to deal with this with the seriousness it deserves. All hands should be on deck.
Yep.
Bush said nuthin.
Has anyone bothered to ask Mr. Bush lately what he thinks of Vladimir Putin’s soul?
This is American tradition. What should Condi do, run around like a chicken without its head? Even Bush continued reading after 9/11 hit.
She can work the phones from an airplane while she gets her ass back to the nation’s capital.
If the invasion of an ally doesn’t appear important enough for her to return to her office, what would?
Another Barney Fife administratiion second rater.
Get wise......
Russia’s main goal worldwide is to have control of the world’s oil supplies. This is the main and ONLY true objective of what they are doing right now. They want control of the Caspian pipeline that supplies all of Western Europe with oil and nat. gas. This is also why they are becoming fast friends with, Iran and the likes of Chavez. The loony left in this country that are holding us back from drilling are going to kill our economy, this country and it’s people!!!!!! Russia is looking, once again, for world domination but this time through oil!! If they can not take us on militarily, they will try to crush us economicaly. And it looks the left in this country will be more than happy to help them. Whoever controls the world's oil, controls the world.
READ ‘EPICENTER’ BY JOEL ROSENBERG!!! You will be enlightened on what Russia is up to!!!!
Ninety very effective phone calls, evidently. The Russians have watched the lacksadaisical response by the administration and are plowing ahead with no fear.
I know enough that Dr. Rice has been caught unawares on the job before.
RUSSIA,GAS,OIL,IRAN,ISRAEL,MIDDLE-EAST...Are these words shining a light for you?
Don’t know where you live but how are Ron PAUL and OUSBAMA?
We have got to learn to come to terms with our uncomfortable role of World Cop, or it's going to bring about our demise. Liberals have reached the saturation point in our nation and it's one of their bedrock beliefs that force is never necessary and if the world hates us it's because of how we behave. They are wrong on both counts, but they are rapidly approaching the point where they will be able to decide elections. How else could an empty and vacuous suit like Barrack Obama reach the point of being only a single step from the oval office.
We have lots of ways we could make Russia stop its aggression on Georgia, but it would require us to use weapons that are considered off-limits by the Left. And I mean economic weapons, not nuclear weapons.
Same for Iran. We could bring Iran's ruling mullah's to their knees in a matter of weeks, but we lack the political will to do so. Instead we run the risk of having to wage war against them. Until we find the political will to make them begin paying a price, a real and painful price, for their terrorist ways it's only going to get worse.
Report: Congress still on vacation during Gas Crisis
It is too soon for Cat-Woman to appear on the scene.
At the moment, there are only limited options, and the presence of Dr. Rice would be a distraction from what has to be done in the back rooms and under cover first. Be assured, however, that there is a minute-by-minute reporting of the actual happenings by whomever can get in closest to the center of things.
There shall be no one returning clutching a piece of paper and waving to cheering crowds. This is WAY more serious than that.
“Working the telephones” sounds like “interrupting her holidays” to me. No need for her to jump into the midst of the crossfire.
So "the deck" must necessarily be in Washington all the time? And all US officials must dance to Moscow's tune?
Better to see how this shakes out over the next couple of days IMO. How much of this is Putin strutting his stuff and how much of it will really have a long term effect other than the "Tiannamen Square Effect" where the whole world was turned off by China's brutality.
Maybe Rice will think it more necessary to get on a plane to Europe or Central Asia in the next few days rather than DC. I say she's doing fine making her 90+ phone calls from wherever she is for now.
Thank you for pointing that out.
I agree with you completely.
I find it ludicrous when folks think Dr. Rice, President Bush, or whomever should have to jump on a flight and go hold hands with heads of state of another country whenever anything comes up.
Dr. Rice is exceedingly capable of performing the job she was asked to do.
I’m with you.
This is just another MSM hit piece.
She does everything short of magic, and yet some people just are not satisfied.
I am very satisfied with her performance, her knowledge and her results.
No matter what Bush does - ignore the situation, provide military/material support, or goes in with guns blazing - it will just be fodder for the MSM.
We shouldn’t be getting involved in other nation’s squabbles, whether internal or external.
This knee-jerk reaction, we “must” do something, is the reaction that entangles us unnecessarily in other nation’s troubles.
Did you know that John Doe #2, the driver of that Ryder truck filled with explosives that blew up the Murrah Bldg. in OK City, was a Commander in Iraq’s Republican Guard by the name of Hussein al-Husseini? There were Arabs involved in that terrorist attack, Bill Clinton knew that, and did nothing about it. That was a time when we should have moved against Saddam Hussein, but didn’t. That is because the MSM is no longer doing its job - investigative journalism. They aren’t doing it anymore because reporters have been killed doing investigative work and that damps the enthusiasm, don’t you know.
Unless the American people and the MSM are supporting 100% a full-scale military operation, we’re not going to help Georgia. It will take an attack, like Pearl Harbor or 9/11 to wrench Americans out of their complacency.
God help us if we end up with an Obama or Clinton as President.
No need to head up to the U.N. and stare down the Russian delegation and consult with our allies face to face.
Nope, just dialing the phone is good enough, eh?
In diplomacy, appearances matter. That President Bush stayed at the Olympics while Putin jetted off to oversee the war and with Condi staying on vacation we sent a signal that we weren't going to do anything serious to stop Russia from taking over Georgia.
No need to head up to the U.N. and stare down the Russian delegation and consult with our allies face to face.
Nope, just dialing the phone is good enough, eh?
In diplomacy, appearances matter. That President Bush stayed at the Olympics while Putin jetted off to oversee the war and with Condi staying on vacation we sent a signal that we weren't going to do anything serious to stop Russia from taking over Georgia.
*******************
You're right. It also gives the impression that we are cowed by Russia's strength, which is dangerous when one is dealing with someone like Putin.
“The same way the Germans invading the Sudetenland was America’s crisis.”
What is most annoying is that the EU, in whose backyard all this is taking place, sits there with their finger up their ass expecting the US to do the fighting and dying AGAIN.
When will we ever tell the Eurotrash to start contributing to their own defense instead of using their money building a socialist utopia at America’s expense? The US has spoiled that continent ever since the Marshall Plan.
She had time to be in contact with Obama!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.