Posted on 09/13/2008 2:37:04 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
A rebel US Republican congressman has sided with Russia in its invasion of and brief war with Georgia, putting himself at odds with the Bush administration and politicians of both parties.
"The Russians were right; we're wrong," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said at a hearing of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
"The Georgians started it; the Russians ended it," he added.
Mr Rohrabacher claimed that unidentified intelligence sources had assured him that Georgia started the fighting that began on August 7 when Georgia's military tried to re-establish control over its breakaway, pro-Russian province of South Ossetia.
Russia joined the battle, brutally repelled the Georgian offensive and then pushed deep into Georgia proper, where many of its forces remain nearly a month after the battle ended.
Russia has been condemned by the Bush administration and other countries. Vice-president Dick Cheney visited Georgia and Ukraine, another former Soviet republic, early this month and called Russia's actions "an affront to civilized standards" and "completely unacceptable".
Both US presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, also have issued tough denunciations of Russia.
But Mr Rohrbacher insisted that Georgia was to blame: "The Georgians broke the truce, not the Russians, and no amount of talk of provocation and all this other stuff can alter that fact."
A know rebel, he has taken controversial stands and clashed with the Bush administration in the past.
His comments got little attention in the United States but have been played prominently on state-run Russian television bulletins and other media.
Mr Rohrabacher's Democratic opponent in November's elections, Debbie Cook, condemned his comments.
"Congressman Rohrabacher's statements about the situation in Georgia are unnecessary and continue his pattern of reckless comments," her campaign manager, Kevin Thurman, said.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Dana is a great guy and an excellent congressman, but he’s wrong on this one.
This is NOT the Dana Rohrabacher I knew. He’s dead wrong.
Wondering if Dana read this:
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/08/the-truth-about-1.php
This is far beyond wrong.
Some people are saying!
Georgia was baited into the conflict... the Russian response was over the top.
I think it’s time to find another Republican to fill Rohrabacher’s seat. He has made similar stupid (and dangerous) statements with respect to Israel and the PLO:
“Dana Rohrabacher’s Troubling Friends”
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=48C30477-CA9F-4BEA-B04A-CDC55E3D13C1
The article left out that his district is Los Angles, beach front in the great State of California. Clearly that comrade Californian decided to ignore the rule about letting politics stop at the water’s edge. He should have been a Democrat.
Vote him out!
goof ball.
that’s going to help out a lot.
mccain’s pro-georgia.
This guy was nuts when I first met him in YAF forty years ago and his psycho-pathologies haven’t improved at all.
Interesting article. Having finally lived down his quote “the Taliban are devout traditionalists, not terrorists or revolutionaries” it was time to insert foot back in mouth.
dana, you are WRONG on this issue!! We need to support Georgia!!
http://www.aacl.com/Rohrabacher.htm
Actually, he’s south of Los Angeles in “conservative” Orange County. His district encompasses Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach and parts of surrounding cites.
He’s my congressdude and while I don’t support his position on this issue, he’s been a good representative overall.
Plus, he surfs.
What if it turns out that the Congressman has sided with truth? Even if Russia is run by organized crime (it seems to me) even Al Capone must have told the truth once in his life.
I do not suggest that I know the truth about this.
However IMO this goes back to Clinton bombing of Serbian civilians and his support of the criminal and Islamist KLA.
Some "sided" with Russia and against Clinton at that time also.
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