Posted on 08/11/2008 6:10:20 PM PDT by reasonisfaith
Time to stop the hand-wringing about Russia's re-igniting the Cold War by invading Georgia. Time to start thinking of what a golden opportunity this presents.
First the reality. Russia, before, during, and after the Soviet Union was and remains a brutal imperialist dictatorship. The Soviet Union was simply the same old Czarist Russian imperialism with Marxism-Leninism as an ideological rationale. The fall of the USSR only meant the fall of the rationale.
So Russia is back to where it has always been, with the Russian compulsion for brute force bullying as its way of dealing with the world. It is no accident, comrades, that Russians were the Soviets, and it is no surprise whatever that they are behaving like Soviets in Georgia today.
Thus the fundamental reality of how to conduct foreign policy with Russia, however distasteful it may be to the squishes at the State Department chronically afflicted with terminal testicular atrophy:
The only thing Russians in the Kremlin understand and respect is superior force and the willingness to use it against them. If you don't give them a punch in the mouth and a bloody nose the moment they start to bully you, they will keep bullying you until you start fighting back hard - or you capitulate and obey their orders.
It's either-or, win-lose. Those are their rules. As Lenin expressed, Kto-kovo?, Who-whom? For Lenin, this was the only question that mattered, who conquers whom? Just as Lenin was the perfect Communist, so was he the perfect Russian.
Ronald Reagan won the Cold War by understanding that if those are the Russians' rules, then we had to play by them. Which is why he announced at his first cabinet meeting as president in January 1981: "Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."
(Excerpt) Read more at tothepointnews.com ...
I liked this part- “Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose.”
I don’t think so. They learned from their mistakes, and they actually know the terrain unlike in Afghanistan.
Here’s hoping that we’re liberally packing a lot of anti-tank weapons and AA missiles along with the Georgian soldiers we’re ferrying back to Tblisi.
“I liked the part about the incompetence of the Russian pilots.”
They fired 51 missiles at the oil pipeline and failed to damage it!
I would not assume that Georgia will be another Afghanistan. The Russians have a lot more oil, military and economic resources at their disposal than they did at the time of the Afghanistan war. In addition, they have learned a lot about fighting insurgencies by watching the Americans.
I agree. And Bush knows this too.
Unfortunately they wield nuclear weapons and capable delivery systems.
the State Department chronically afflicted with terminal testicular atrophy:
So true. Ignore them and do as you suggest.
They fired 51 missles in close proximety and succeded in not hitting it. You do know that was a shot accross the bow don’t you.
The mountainous terrain of the Caucasas Mountains is very analgous to Afghanistan my friend. The islamists have been hiding in plain sight in the Pankisi Gorge for over a decade and the Russkies have not eliminated them. The people in this region of the world are fierce fighters, have lots of mountainous terrain to use to their advantage, and with our firepowerm could stop the Russians in their tracks. Russian has superior numbers, but their military is corrupt, and their soldiers ill trained and not dedicated. The only way they have pacified Chechnya is by buying off the worst local warlord they could find. Would be hard to duplicate in Georgia, especially if we are supplying the means to defy the RussiaN Bear.
I am going to watch Rambo III again tonight.
“You do know that was a shot accross the bow don’t you.”
No, I certainly do not. The Russians have never in their whole national history been that subtle.
They fired 51 missiles at the oil pipeline and failed to damage it!
And this was explained away by idiots that the Russians were only trying to send a message. Message received, you guys can't hit crap.
BS.
That was the old russia. This is the new russia (with the power of pumice).
They were telling the EU that if they interfere they will freeze their assess off this winter. They knew exactley what they were doing.
This will not be Putin’s Afghanistan.
Russia’s troops are battle hardened. And the Georgians well know of the massacres in Chechnya.
Russia is rolling in twice as many vehicles in the opening movement than was done during Afghanistan.
Further, there is no religious OR ethnic component that will rally Georgian freedom fighters. The Orthodox churches will talk of reconciliation, no retaliation and rallying to the Georgian Cross.
There will be nothing more than capitulation by the Georgians.
Georgians would need massive amounts of the Motorola radios that the Chechens used, plus tens of thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and manpads. No one will supply it, as long as Turkey stays neutral.
The Russian pilots did not miss. The target in Gori was hit directly, the apartment block was 50 yards away from it.
They cannot afford militaristic warfare. This is an economic battle they've begun.
If we destroy them economically, we can shove them in their places, again, without firing a shot. But we have to act swiftly and decisively.
Yep, and send them all the IED parts we have captured in Iraq, along with some Iraqi detainees who, uh, know how to use them and some shovels. All that Russian armor on those narrow mountain roads will be a lot less useful once the IEDs start going off.
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