Posted on 08/10/2008 2:39:43 PM PDT by library user
As a Russian jet bombed fields around his village, Djimali Avago, a Georgian farmer, asked me: “Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?”
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Russia is not talking about autonomy for either South Ossetia or Abkhazi.
Thanks, great video. Thanks very much.
For years Russia has been issuing passports to Abkhaz and South Ossetia residents, etc..
I haven't researched this yet for myself. But if this is true, this has the earmarks of an operation, by Russia, against Georgia.
It just started, give us a break ok? One doesn't automatically start launching B-1's, nukes or sending in massive land troops in this type of situation........Sheesh!
Abkhazi is already at war with Georgia.
Finally a sane and tempered assessment without the usual diatribes and calls for war against Russia. The reality of South Ossetian and Abkhazian independence is now only coming to the press. Before both regions assertion of independence in the 90s had little air play particularly the Georgian ass whipping it received the last time they tried to put down the Abkhazian independence. Georgia over played its hand yet again but now the consequences may just solidify the complete sovereignty of these regions once and for all.
I find it hilarious that Russia is helping to defend S Ossetia, yet didn’t lift a finger to help Serbia. Serbians are just cannon fodder proxies for the Russians and don’t even realize it.
If you do simple history checks on these “pro Russian” propaganda speeches on FR, totally touting the Pravda/Putin Party line....7 of 10 are Serbs.
Check it out Freepers.
From the Anchorage Daily News, March 29, 2004:
Russia boasts weapon to overcome U.S. Star Wars OW (March 29, 5:17 am AST) - Russia has designed a "revolutionary" weapon that would make the prospective U.S. missile defense useless, Russian news agencies reported Monday, quoting a senior Defense Ministry official.
The official, who was not identified by name, said tests conducted during last month's military maneuvers would dramatically change the philosophy behind development of Russia's nuclear forces, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported.
If deployed, the new weapon would take the value of any U.S. missile shield to "zero," the news agencies quoted the official as saying.
The official said the new weapon would be inexpensive, providing an "asymmetric answer" to U.S. missile defenses, which are proving extremely costly to develop. Russia, meanwhile, also has continued research in prospective missile defenses and has an edge in some areas compared to other nations, the official said.
What could these effin Russians be thinking? Frankly it is a good question the Georgian asks.
Message to Milosvikniks and Putinistas: Putin is the one who pulled out the Russian troops Yeltsin sent to Kosovo and he refuses to send them back. Kosovo is not worth a drop of Russian blood. Putin supports the Serbs less even than the man who appointed him as his chosen successor.
The Russians have a number of ships laid up in Sevastopol in various states of repair (or disrepair). The Ukrainians need to take control of those vessels and either absorb them into their navy or hand them over to the Georgians to replace the Georgian warships sunk in this war.
From www.worldthreats.com, April, 2004:
----
National Security and the Americas. Antero Leitzinger is a writer for the Eurasian Politician and he is interviewed here by Ryan Mauro of worldthreats.com.
"WRM: Haitian activists have claimed that Artistide was overthrown with US support. They claim that rebels were trained in the Dominican Republic, with US assistance, and then crossed over and overthrew Aristide, again with US assistance. The Russian press also has claimed this, saying we did so to make Haiti an “aircraft carrier” between Cuba and Venezuela. What is your take on these accusations?
AL: Whenever a left-wing regime is toppled somewhere in the world, certain people accuse the US for masterminding it. They know very little of history. The Haitians are perfectly capable to oust their own rulers. Russians believe these claims because that is exactly what they would have done in their neighborhood."
How right you are. Russia won’t lift a finger for Serbia. Putin considers them mere cannon fodder for proxy actions in the area.
...if it wasn’t funny it would be sad.
The enemy of my enemy (Russia) is my friend.
Russia has started a New Cold War and Russia and Serbia are now my enemy.
Chirac Arrives for Talks With Putin
MOSCOW (AP) -- French President Jacques Chirac became the first western leader to visit Russia's top secret Titov space control center, touring the site Saturday as part of Russian efforts to court the lucrative European satellite-launching business.
... Russia's cash-strapped space program has worked closely with the European Space Agency in recent years, launching ESA satellites and carrying ESA astronauts on research missions to the International Space Station. The Titov space control center is in Krasnoznamensk, about 25 miles southwest of Moscow.
In February, the ESA reached an agreement with Russia to launch Russian Soyuz rockets from France's Kourou launch pad in French Guyana. The launches are expected to begin in about three years.
...
Putin and Chirac are also expected to discuss European Union expansion that will include eight countries that were either part of or allied with the Soviet Union.
The continuing violence in the Middle East and the international fight against terrorism are also likely to be on the agenda. The Kremlin said that Putin would also raise the issue of making it easier for Russians to receive visas to travel to France and other EU member states
And what dues would those be, specifically?
Trifling with words. Heres another news flash: Russia’s tacit if not open support for Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence, declared unilaterally in the 90’s by those provinces is as legitimate as the US’, recognition of the new Muslim state of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence (and Croatia’s and Bosnia, etc.). Secondly, conquests make nation-states - that’s the stuff of world history. And if Georgia can’t put a lid on a genie it let out of the bottle (by it’s own independence) then give it up and stop trying to start nuclear winter by sucking the West into their internecine struggle.
My point stands. The US recognized Kosovo’s independence. Russia does not recognize South Ossetia’s nor Abkhazia’s independence nor will they because they want these territories to be Russian territories, not independent nations. Therefore, Russia has no moral justification for their actions. They are not supporting an ally’s independence, they are waging a war of conquest against their neighbor.
OIL FOR PALACES, NY Post, April 2, 2004:
(hyperlink no longer valid):
ALMOST a year after the fall of Baghdad, everybody knows that Saddam Hussein stole billions from the Iraqi people. What is now emerging is that the United Nations was his partner in crime - aiding and abetting him during the eight-year Oil-for-Food program
...
Uday, the older son, even got U.N. funds for his Iraqi National Olympic Committee. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed on June 13, 2002 to hand over $20 million to build an Iraqi Olympic arena, part of Uday's absurd bid for the 2012 Olympics. A renowned rapist, Uday used to torture Iraqi athletes if they failed to win international competitions.
His father? Saddam built new palaces throughout the eight years of the program. Gen. Tommy Franks got it right when he reached Baghdad in April 2003: The Iraqi dictator's rule was an "Oil for Palace" program.
...
Although the United Nations supposedly kept an eye on the price at which Saddam sold Iraqi oil, in reality the Iraqi strongman set the prices and forced his customers to pay him kickbacks. The Iraqi regime then used this money to bribe and buy influence abroad.
One recipient of that largesse was Shakir al-Khafaji, a Detroit businessman who stumped up $400,000 for former U.N. arms inspector Scott Ritter to make "In Shifting Sands," an anti-sanctions film. Meanwhile, back in Iraq, Saddam's secret police punished hundreds of thousands of Shi'a Iraqis by taking away their U.N. ration cards, forcing them into the very poverty from which the U.N. program was supposed to protect them.
... Difficulties arose almost from the first day because of the way that Annan organized the program. Rejecting advice from experienced U.N. staff, he decided against having one U.N. agency oversee the whole scheme. Instead, Annan created an Oil-for-Food program office in New York to oversee the work of nine U.N. agencies which in turn dealt with the Iraqis, introducing a pointless and costly layer of bureaucracy.
...
The Iraqi government was quick to exploit this bias for its own political ends. The Cairo office of the U.N.'s World Health Organization managed to stall the building of a new general hospital for the Kurdish city of Sulaimani, even though the funds were available in 1998.
Over the life of Oil-for-Food, the Kurds barely got half of the $8.4 billion allocated to them - they are still owed some $4 billion. Who owes it to them? Well, the United Nations was supposed to pay them, out of accounts entrusted to it. But the status of any funds remaining in those accounts is in dispute - and the U.N. is balking at efforts to clarify things. It won't even let anyone else examine its books.
Saddam didn't just use Oil-for-Food to give preferential treatment to Iraqis: He rewarded foreign friends, too. He favored Russian and French contractors, even insisting that all Iraqi oil earnings be paid into just one bank, BNP Paribas in Paris.
One of the largest shareholders in the bank as of 2000 was Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi Sunni who was involved in Saddam's 1959 assassination attempt on Iraq's then head of state, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Qassem.
...
After Saddam and his cronies, the main beneficiary of Oil-for-Food was the U.N. payroll. To make the program self-financing, the United Nations took its cut off the top - 2.2 percent of Iraqi oil sales for its administrative costs, plus 0.8 percent to pay for weapons inspections (in four of Oil-for-Food's eight years), allowing the United Nations to walk away with $1.9 billion of Iraqi oil money. U.N. staff employed by the Oil-for-Food program ballooned to 3,000, the largest single U.N. program in the world.
No wonder that when Kofi Annan met Saddam Hussein in February 1998, he said that the Iraqi dictator was a man that "I can do business with."
Andrew Apostolou is director of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He has just returned from Iraq.
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