President Bush to Make Statement on Georgia-Russia Crisis at 5:15 p.m. EDT

[Scythian]

Headline only so far on fox news ...

[Jim Noble]

We need to stomp Putin (and his Soviet goals) into a senseless, sticky puddle.

Absurd.

We wouldn't do it for Hungary in 1956 when we had much, much greater force available at the scene of the crime.

Now, we don't have the means, we don't have the will, and most importantly we don't have the leadership.

Kiss Georgia goodbye. There's absolutely nothing we could do that wouldn't make the situation worse.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

“I am very upset because my friends in Tbilisi are emailing me and are scared and sad.”

That certainly reduces it all to its essence, doesn't it? I'm certain they are terribly frightened. I'll try to get a circle of prayer going. It's amazing what it can do. There are a lot of prayer warriors who have been all over the world and never left their homes. They've seen things and had no idea what or why they were having those sights or why they felt compelled to pray until it's over. Pray unceasingly, in good season and in bad.

Keep their spirits up by your emails and let them know they are loved beyond measure, protected and need not fear the arrows that fly by day, nor the plague that stalk at night. Gee, I hope they have Bibles.

[Tijeras_Slim]

In the game of nations, you have to think long term.

Well, we certainly excel at that... < /s>

[Jeff Head]

You are wrong. We have the weaponry and the aircraft to deliver it that were designed precisely for stopping these types of armored and infantry column advances. As in completely decimating them.

We have aircraft from Northern Iraq who could.

I believe we should escort those transport aircraft into Georgia carrying the Georgian Iraq troops with fighter and attack aircraft so that if the Russians so much as sneazed at them that we then used them.

Doubtful that we will do this...but to your comments, we certainly could do so and that would be well short of a preemptive nuclear strike.

[egb18delta]

If Putin wanted to deny Airfields for the C17’s he would have... 2000 Georgian troops.. That’s a Brigade??

[NoKoolAidforMe]

Bingo!

[bvw]

All that reactive armor would not help much, either.

[mcvey]

Yes, that "must" made my jaw drop. The use of "must" in a diplomatic setting is one step away from an ultimatum with consequences attached.

We can bring Russian planes down and we can strafe Russian convoys, but if we go there, Russia's reaction will be blunt. If we don't get hit back, the nations around Russia could see a tsunami of Russian attacks (not all of them military in nature.)

This is incredibly dangerous. My guess is that this is meant as an object lesson to all those nations that broke free from the Russian Empire.

We have been too naive for too long regarding the Russians; we have come to think of them as just a group of unusually ruthless Western Europeans. They really are a bunch of typically ruthless Czarists.

McVey

[AHerald]

I don't think his comment about 'regime change in Russia' was a slip of the tongue.

It was just a slip by a tired, jet-lagged president. It's consistent with what our ambassador to the UN strongly suggested yesterday, namely that Russia wanted regime change in Georgia

[mewzilla]

Update....

Georgia: Russians Have Split Country

Prayers for the people of Georgia.

[eastforker]

Had to leave for a moment, What’s this I hear about bombing runs on the capitol and civilian airports.

[mware]

I saw on another thread that Putin has already mentioned that the president of Georgia should be taken into custody for genocide.

I wonder if there are special ops to rescue him if it comes down to that.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

What was the USSR after in Afganistan???

I take it that you are not familiar with Kiplings Kim. All about the 'Great Game' of Britain against Russia in Afghanistan, preventing Russia from getting access to the Indian Ocean?

[mnehring]

I still think that may have been a pointed comment. Give the Russian President a chance to fix the situation by pulling power away from the Prime Minister (Putin) who is pulling the strings on this.

[egb18delta]

Sounds like the New Iron Curtain....Sometime Fences are good...

[Cementjungle]

I wonder if there are special ops to rescue him if it comes down to that.

My guess is that we would just let him stand trial.

[nikos1121]

REal smart comments.

[mware]

My geology professor and mentor when I was young (Dr Peter Wolfe) was in Prague when the tanks rolled into the city.

He took lots of photos from his window and it was ugly, very ugly.