Posted on 08/14/2008 11:15:18 PM PDT by Fred
TBILISI, Georgia — Georgia remained in a state of uncertainty Thursday as Russian troops retreated from and then returned to the city of Gori and spent much of the day destroying or carrying away captured Georgian military equipment. Elsewhere in the country, Russian tanks and trucks rolled along country roads toward unknown destinations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that Georgia could "forget about" ever regaining the two secessionist regions that are at the heart of the conflict. At the Kremlin, President Dmitry Medvedev warmly received the political leaders of the zones, which Georgia and the United States insist remain part of Georgia.
Two days ago, Medvedev said Russian troops had ceased hostilities and would withdraw. Since then his troops have moved erratically, heading in one direction and then veering off or reversing course. Russian authorities have given contradictory accounts of how or when the troops might withdraw to Russia or the separatist areas.
"They want to paralyze the country as long as they can," said Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia, who was monitoring developments from Egoeti, a town 8 miles east of Gori. "They are putting everything in a non-usable condition and taking what they want."
The 2-day-old cease-fire appeared to largely be holding, despite scattered reports of shooting and theft of cars by fighters from the separatist zones.
In the central Georgian city of Gori, which straddles the country's main east-west highway, Russian troops began to move out Thursday in seeming compliance with the cease-fire agreement. Georgian police started to move in to take control of the city, but then the Russians returned.
Kutelia said the Russians still had 90 tanks in the city and were destroying a military base there, blowing up
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
The only problem is that the plan isn't what the Russians want...they want it all. Which means that any plan that doesn't involve them having control of the government and the pipeline is really no plan.
As long as Rice/Bush continue to stumble and mumble around and Gates keeps on telling everyone that were not sending military aid. The Russians will become more adamant in their demands.
Bottom line - we loose they win. And when Obama becomes President, partially because of all this, as well as other matters, then we loose permanently. Or at least until 2012,the next time I intend to vote, when the Republican's regain control of the House. By that time we should however all be walking around the streets in our old clothes, penniless, looking for work. Which isn't too far from where we stand today under 8 years of GW. If we had only been able to nominate Forbes for President in 2000 (blame Rush Limbaugh and the conservative establishment for that because they feared McCain more than they wanted a real conservative to win) we'd be celebrating eight years on unparalleled American growth. Yes, even greater than that under Ronald Reagan because we had a Republican Congress for most of it, although it wasn't used at all. Instead we're overjoyed that we're now paying a penny less than $4.00 a gallon for gasoline. Sing Hallelujah ! Amen. P.S. Expect oil prices to rise precipitously when the Russians get to Tbilisi and the pipeline falls into their hands that's why the oil futures have been increasing in price during the past week after nearly a month of decline !
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.