Posted on 08/29/2008 11:16:01 AM PDT by Bokababe
Strategic shortsightedness—defined as mistaking problems and issues of secondary or tertiary importance for those of vital importance, and being unable to foresee the predictable consequences of specific actions—is becoming a chronic malaise in Washington. So characteristic of U.S. policy in the Balkans in the 1990s and the more recent Iraq tragedy, it is now again apparent in U.S. actions with regard to Kosovo, and their spillover effects in the Caucasus. American policy makers had repeatedly told us that Kosovo was supposed to be a “unique” case, but apparently Vladimir Putin didn’t get the memo. The ghosts of our Balkan problems, it seems, continue to haunt us.....
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Clinton and Clark’s invading of Kosovo might be a repeat of ww1
Clinton and Clark’s invading of Kosovo might be a repeat of ww1
What Iraq tragedy?
Putin needs an excuse for anything?
Putin turns around and blames the US election for his invading Georgia. Should we stop having elections?
This is just more whining from Balkan elements who lost Kosovo because they were committing atrocities. Boo-hoo boo-hoo!
Amazing what the “Inexperience” we elected in the 1990’s has brought to fruition a decade later.
History shows that human nature trumps politics and in that same vein so does “demographics” and “identity”.
Americans should pay attention to Kosovo and Georgia and realize that Mexifornia can produce a future civil war.
Clinton gave us the Balkans!
It was an insane choice!
The Serbs were a sovereign nation being invaded by outside forces.
They also are Christian Serbs. Thank you cigar bill, you left the stage but, left the Balkans in a shambles.
One thing about the Serbs, they have existed where they are for well over 2k years. The Albanians will run into hell sooner or later. The muslims will stop stealing land at the point of a serious weapon.
Not only that, but the more they complain about what Clinton did without complaining about what Putin has done, the more they justify what Clinton did in the first place. They're not smart enough to figure it out, and it's sad.
Umm . . . the Georgians are Christian also, and there for thousands of years.
I currently live in Germany, there is ZERO talk of a Kosovo connection. That is probably why Putin is so desperately trying to blame the US.
Hundreds of thousands dead, the Christian community destroyed, a nation still in ruins years after the "end" of the war, trillions of dollars of US taxes and Iraqi infrastructure gone, a choice between permanent occupation or a radical muslim Iraq aligned with Iran... that tragedy?
Putin needs an excuse for anything?
Every action I've seen him take seems to be designed to benefit Russia - in other words, he is a Russian patriot. Far better than the globalist mexican patriot running the US, IMO.
Putin turns around and blames the US election for his invading Georgia.
I thought he blamed the invasion on the fact that Georgia attacked S.O., which was under Russian protection?
This is just more whining from Balkan elements who lost Kosovo because they were committing atrocities. Boo-hoo boo-hoo
Ignoring all the atrocities commited against Serbs by the albanian muslim scum in Kosovo, tell me - do you think the Serbs would have committed atrocities against the albanian muslims if they hadn't invaded Kosovo?
Nice words, Berliner, and just what Freepers want to to hear, but it's not true. The EU lovers want to disconnect the two, but the Eurosceptics see it quite differently, especially at the The Brrussels Journal:
Steinmeier, who, by working single-handedly to save Planet Earth from a “new Cold War,” is also hoping to replace Merkel as chancellor in the general elections set to take place one year from now.
According to a new poll commissioned by Germany’s ARD public television, more than half of Germans are worried about a new Cold War between Russia and the West. Another poll, taken before the Russian invasion of Georgia, shows Steinmeier gradually closing the popularity gap with Merkel.
Meanwhile, the German military attaché in Moscow has this to say about the Russian bombing of Georgia: “The deployment of air power—despite the regrettable civilian casualties—can be seen as militarily appropriate.” Say what?
Some German media outlets have, not surprisingly, also taken sides with Russia. Deutsche Welle, for example, demands: “Stop the Russia Phobia.” Some German octogenarians are blaming democracy-obsessed Americans for provoking the authoritarian-nationalists running Russia.
The unspoken sentiment running through much of German commentary on Georgia is one of Schadenfreude that the Russians have finally taught the Americans a lesson about the futility of trying to spread democracy to states that Western European elites deem not to deserve freedom. The Financial Times Deutschland: “America Loses Control.” Die Zeit runs a piece titled: “America’s Weakness.” Der Spiegel says: “The sudden war in the Caucasus [has] dealt a blow to US prestige.”
I don't support the Russians and I am an American so my interests are with the US, however it seems that some Germans do support Russia or are less than equivocal in their denouncements.
Very true.
I would hasten to add, contrary to some of the perverse posts on this thread, that the fact that clinton and NATO did the wrong thing in Yugoslavia does NOT mean that any of us think that Putin did the right thing in Georgia.
Two wrongs do not make a right. But unfortunately, one wrong can provoke another wrong, and lend cover to the guy who is doing it.
There is one substantial difference between Kosovo and Georgia. When we fought in Yugoslavia we fought on the wrong side, against our national interest, for all the wrong reasons. At least Putin had enough sense to invade a smaller country for selfish, practical reasons—to cut off the oil pipeline that competes with the ones across Russia, please his countrymen, and enrich himself. Clinton may have enriched himself with payoffs from the Albanian drug smugglers, but it was distinctly contrary to our national interests.
I have good friends in Georgia, and I think this was a horrible atrocity. That doesn’t mean that Kosovo was right. it was wrong, too, and unfortunately it lends cover to a villainous enemy of our country.
They managed to generate some sympathy for their cause. It is lost. They can stuff it.
I'm willing to assume that B_F doesn't have many (if any) left-wing friends. But it should be surprising that the left-wing in Germany finds natural allies in the Serbs, and by extension, their friend in Moscow.
BTTT, Cicero! You are absolutely right.
I can guarantee you that most Germans are loving the fact that the U.S. is taking it on the chin re: Georgia situation.
If it was shortsightedness that led to all this, then I’m not surprised, as we tend only to look for short-term gains.
If it was all “part of the plan”, then I’d like to understand that so-called plan. I mean, it seems to me that we have been waiving a red flag at a bull for 18 years vis-a-vis Russia, and now we are like those guys in Pamplona who run up to the bull and directly, close-range provoke the bull (here, actually a bear). It is like we are asking for war, or have a strange sort of predilection for dumb, masochistic moves.
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