Are you advocating a war with Russia in support of Georgia? Under what treaty obligations are we bound to defend them against a thermonuclear power? With our military stretched to the limit in Afghanistan and Iraq, where are we going to find the ground troops to take on this somewhat arduous task? Most importantly, why would we want to stick our nose into a conflict that doesn’t appear to involve fighting terrorists or threatens our national security interests?
U.S. Army Europe's 18th Military Police Brigade and 21st Theater Sustainment Command and Georgian Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Brigade have been engaged in a joint FX since 7 July. They are literally eyeballing the fighting, er shelling. so far the only thing the Russians have been clobbering is the S.O's. Which in every other breath the "news agencies" reports are "breakaway" from Georgia and loyal to the Russians. If that is so Russia ain't making many friends right now.
What makes you think we would put any ground troops in any significant numbers?
Keeping the oil flowing would be a good start. Putin wants to control it but if a war blows up the damn place there is nothing for Putin and "waz his name" to control.
What would you do? Go past S.O. into Georgia proper? With the U.S. currently conducting joint FX with those very same Georgians? Or make a big deal out of moving into territory that is occupied by folks that are "loyal" to the Russians anyway? Check the photos at the NYT. Plenty of the Russians. See any of the Georgian troops in the NYT article? Isn't that odd...
I've seen some very interesting posts on FR today. Someone mentioned that we should move our aircraft carriers, another mentioned that we should have B-2 bombers and A-10 attack planes to attack Russian armored columns, while another simply stated that we should begin to carpet bomb Russian targets. Interposed between all that were calls for Special Forces (American) to respond to the situation, funding and support of the Georgians, and the US military to step in.
I have never seen such tripe in quite a while. People are rushing to type war with Russia as if it was some video-game.
I have read a lot on the story between Russia and Georgia, and the TRUTH is that BOTH SIDES have crap on their hands. Neither is lily white ...Russia is not innocent (after all, it is in sovereign territory), and Georgia is not the 'Christian' saint that some FReepers are trying to make them out to be (some of the things the Georgians have done against the S.O separatists have not only been very close to cleansing, but they have been against civilians in several instances). Both houses have a pox on them. The current thing is just the result of years (depending on how you look at it, decades) of bad blood between the two protagonists.
The stuff we did in the Balkans also did not help much, but that is not necessary here .....it would be merely semantics at this point.
The main thrust is this ....do the people who are talking about B2 bombers and A-10 warthogs really expect the US to do ANYTHING???? In my opinion all that Bush will do is simply speak. Nothing more. No aid, no g2 assistance, no boots on the ground (that would be hilarious). At most, and even this would be a stretch, would be giving the Georgians some sat intel, and that would even be surprising.
We are in an election year right now. No politician will want to handle that situation ....and while many here see it as advantageous to McCain, if the US Army was to make a move it could easily backfire (as voters see yet another war).
I honestly do not know what is to be done (as mentioned, a pox on both houses. The Russians and the Georgians both have blood on their hands, and this is the result of stupidity on both sides). However I would like to know just what the US is supposed to do .....send A-10 warthogs? Supply the Georgians like the supplies to the Afghan Mujahadeen in the 1980s? Threaten the Russians with military retaliation? Return the US Army units that (so conveniently) left Georgia just before the attacks began? (To be honest I would not be surprised if the Russians had communicated the attack to us before it happened ....)
What exactly is the US supposed to do? What would McCain do in this situation? Pull out troops from Iraq and Afghanistan? Send in the B2s and A10s as some are saying? Supply the Georgians with Javelins to stop the Russian tanks? What?
I would SO like to hear a cogent logical post of what exactly the US is to do, because all I've been reading on other threads are requests of B-2 Stealth bombers and ....oh, a good one ....giving Georgian Intermediate-range ballistic missiles (I assume armed with nuclear warheads).
Sometimes I think that at least a quarter of FReepers are sick in the head. Not as bad a ratio as over in DU, but giving nuke IRBMs to Georgia????
I do feel bad for Georgia, especially since they are either no 3 or no 4 in terms of numbers supporting the effort in Iraq. However, I would still like to hear a logical answer as to how the US is supposed to do anything about the situation (hopefully without mention of warthogs, highways of death, and intermediate range nuclear ballistic missiles ....please include ray guns and photon torpedoes here as well).