“We should be annihilating the russian forces that remain in Georgia. They need to pull out NOW, or be wiped out by American Forces.”
How?
Where will the assets to wipe them out come from? How will they get there? How long will it take to move sufficient assets there, and what steps could russia take to neutralize a military build-up which would undoubtably take days?
This ignores collateral consequences, of course.
We have air assets sufficient to run them out of Georgia that are within range, in fact only a few hundred miles. But that's not the issue. The issue is to avoid a direct conflict if we can, and accomplish the same thing.
It's underway now. All we can do is hope that sanity rules, but I would not count on it.
I have to make a major and important point here.
The Russians are obviously not currently worried about consequences. In order to counter this, we cannot be worried either. If we do that, they win this by default.
We have people who understand the Russians very well, and they are doing what they need to do. We can only watch and wait.
We could... And Should provide air support for the Georgian ground forces out of bases in Iraq. Turkey is a Nato Nation and could provide the air route.
Our air forces alone could decimate the russian ground forces, air and naval assets. Allowing the Georgian ground forces to retake Georgia.
Sure.. What Ive stated is simplistic in its description but essentially correct. We do have the capability to completely obliterate the russian forces in that area through conventional means. We simply lack the will to do it. as of yet....
If Russia wants to escalate from there, so be it.
I refuse to appease russia in the same way that Germany was appeased before WWII. Each aggression against a free nation should be met with equal aggression in defense of that nation. We should not hope for them to stop, we should MAKE them stop.