Russian forces destroy key Georgian bridge ( What ceasefire comrade?)

LA Times ^ | 8-16-2008 | Megan K. Stack

[what's up]

Perception has a way of feeding reality, and the perception that a WMD guy like Saddam could get away with pursuing WMDs without any consequences (even if his WMD program was weaker than the world thought) would have fueled a WMD arms race among rogue nations

Yes. To think that so many would have preferred that we continued to pursue Saddam through more and more UN resolutions makes me shudder.

Thank God the President did not choose that route but favored one where we no longer have either Saddam or his disgusting sons on the world stage capturing CNN headlines.

[rodguy911]

Great post Jeff.

A lot of people are quick to point out all the defects in the Bush adm. but Iraq is hardly one of them. It is a truly a mission accomplished and something every American should be proud of.

[rodguy911]

uhhh... hope you didn't forget about the 500 lbs. of yellowcake that was just found in Iraq or the 5 interviews that I personally listened to given by Gen. Georges Sada(Sadaams former Air force Gen.) who personally supervised the shipment of 50 flights of wmds to damascus from Iraq in two gutted planes. Hopefully you haven't forgotten that.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Looky...

[Chgogal]

Yup, and Russia had the audacity to claim it not true but Reuters has footage of the Russians blowing it up. They are not even good liars.

[M. Espinola]

If the Russian barbarian invader is not thrown back from Georgia, (some 500 miles) where? Armenia, The Ukraine, Poland, Romania, or will the West wait until Putin's oil-rich invaders are storming toward the Atlantic?

Putin's Russian butcher Borisov, in the Caucasus

Local residents meet Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov, deputy commander of Russia's paratroopers and in command of the Gori region, as Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's statue is seen in the background, 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi, August 16, 2008. Russian forces in the occupied town of Gori in Georgia said on Saturday they had not received any order to pull out, but Reuters witnessed a visible drawdown in the military presence. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili (GEORGIA)

[Chgogal]

“You know, my son and I are hear to honor the ten thousand dead Americans who are buried in that field over there who came here and died liberating your country...and I do not think at the moment that that has anything to do with George Bush or Iraq.” I then told him,

“I'm not finished. Do you suppose that if you, here over sixty three years later, a frenchman who by your won admission respects and is grateful for the sacrifice of young American who gave their blood and their very lives to liberate your country from tyranny...I say if you can be grateful for their sacrifice here on this spot in France, do you suppose that fifty or sixty years from now there will be Iraqi's who are just as grateful for the sacrifice of American blood and lives to liberate them from a tyrant in Iraq? Do you?”

I had a similar experience in Germany a few years back. German family friends were accusing Bush/America of going to Iraq for oil and how Iraqis were suffering under the brutal US occupation. I let them vent. Then I asked them (in fluent German) how they are suffering under “American Occupation”. All of a sudden you could hear a pin drop.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Bump Dat...

[Lilith Incubus]

has reduced the number of terrorists and terror-minded states world-wide.

Couldn't agree less on that note, with the rousing of Islamic jihadis everywhere in near every city in Europe, all now quite confident to speak out voilently against the West, we will probably have to agree to disagree on that one.

[Lilith Incubus]

We can't deal with supposition when it comes to issues such as this.

European leaders were talking about direct imminent threats from top grade WMD's for the green light to invade Iraq, not 5 year old remnants to suggest they were experimenting with, or 6 year old chinese whispers from a whistle blowing traitor that they shifted the entire their entire weapons programme at the drop of a hat.

I have to digress here, this is way off topic for the thread, I originally was just highlighting a point that Bush chose Iraq instead of other options for reasons he only knows, to showcase the WOT, not trying to argue the validity of the Iraq invasion.

The fact remains that, Iraq wasn't the hub of jihadi terrorism, everyone knows that the hubs of terrorism haven't been attended to, apart from a good telling off for being naughty!
Meanwhile, Europe's leaders are already doing business with the countries Bush says are 'the axis of evil' or whatever it was he called Iran.

[rodguy911]

I think 55 trips with stripped out 707’s and 747’s from Iraq to Damascus and satellite photos of semis hauling over wmd’s from Iraq to syria is a bit more than supposition, but then that's just me.

[Travis McGee]

Not much has changed.

[Jeff Head]

Das ließ mich lachen

[karnage]

I don’t believe the US and Russia will go to war. I think Russia will pull back. But I’m pretty sure the American people would be damn irritated about fighting another war right away. We just won the last one! Haven’t even had the parade yet!

[Lilith Incubus]

I don’t believe the US and Russia will go to war. I think Russia will pull back.

I seriously hope you are correct, but the noises that Russia are making in the media sets alarm bells ringing for me.

Incidentally, I don't think Europeans (people that is, not leaders) would be as concerned if Bush had a longer period of Presidency to address this, but with the US seemingly doomed to a future of extreme liberalism, and with Obama waiting in the wings, seemingly hoodwinking the the naive aspect of the American populous, this very real threat from Russia is even more dangerous, not only for the US, but for the whole world.

Imagine a scenario of Russia antagonizing the US into a spit-spat war, then pulling back with innocent rhetoric, playing the human-rights-America-World-police-interfering-in-Russia-is-peaceful-and-democratic-and-wants-partnership-with-America , in order to bolster American moderates to voting Obama in the hope of a new world coalition.

I know the majority of Americans will have Russia's card marked, and will remember how their strategics work from the days of the cold war period, but what about the college bred Liberals, or the moderates who are just sick of foreign wars?

All FReepers will see the hardline, Communist Russian streak of proud Imperialism oozing from Putin, couple that with the new found extreme wealth and energy monopoly that Russia has a vise grip on, and you have a very dangerous set of variables in play.
With that in mind, would any American want to try and and deal with Putin, 12 months down the road, when you have President Obama, and a group of ultra left, common purpose sympathizers as his aides?
Personally, I find that a scary, scary concept. Maybe that's just because we Europeans have lived this Liberal type of crisis management for a couple of decades now, and absolutely know full well, that mindset is completely ill equipped to deal with people like Putin, Countries like Russia, Iran or any aspect of extreme terrorism.
Our European leaders have already shown that they'll sell our heritage, culture and religious views, and open our borders in exchange for favorable energy supplies, they'd do the same thing should Russia start turning those gas taps down.

I'd love to see Russia pull back, but if/when they do, the political noises they make after will be of much interest to me personally.
I've voiced my opinion on different threads about Putin, in addition to his extreme Communist views, he's well known as an excellent strategist, is an excellent chess player, and there's no way he invaded a sovereign European state in the glare of the whole world just to get a few shells off, in order to show petulant anger towards his former USSR bloc Countries for jumping ship from Mother Russia.
Things are afoot here, there's subterfuge by the cartload.

Bush' foreign policy is in direct conflict with Sarkozy's, Merkel's and most other European leaders long term energy plans, why do you think they voice such resounding support for Obama? They want the Liberal in, then he will leave Countries like Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia alone to spread their own version of religious or imperial ideologies as long as they leave the gas and oil pumps switched on.
Just this morning on TV, Merkel and Sarkozy are saying that "Georgia can join NATO if they wish", are they hedging their stake in the surety that Obama will get into power, and pull America back from the frontline to calm Russia for immediate future?

Maybe there is no conspiracy at all, and the EU are going to stand tall and oppose Russia?
The next few weeks are going to be interesting.

[Chgogal]

Ich freue mich darüber. : )