Posted on 08/20/2008 10:51:36 PM PDT by Bokababe
US officials have said that their military presence in Georgia will now become permanent.
The American military has been training and equipping the Georgian army since the spring of 2002.
Having trained three battalions of Georgian soldiers, US military instructors were due to leave in March.....
For Moscow, the Caucasus is a geopolitical backyard, rich in energy resources and crucial to the conflict in Chechnya.
Moscow's refusal to remove its military bases from Georgia has long fuelled tensions between the two countries.
Georgia's President-elect, Mikhail Saakashvili, says the removal of the Russian troops will be high on his government's priority list.
The US, whose own stakes in the Caucasus include a multi-billion dollar Caspian oil pipeline, backs this demand.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
True, as in food. When I lived in Moscow for a few months, I saw just about only imports in the grocery stores.
We can, but we don't.
If BHO is elected, we never will.
Huh? I thought we removed all our troops from Georgia at the end of Reconstruction, in around 1877?
Around the same time it was discovered that oil is the blood pumping through the heart of the American economy and there is no other cheap nor viable alternative in existence today? : )
FARGIN' INFANTRY TRAINING CENTER
at Fort Benning,
FARGIN' GEORGIA!
:) Have a wonderful day!
That joke won’t fly in the South.
Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo was built in a perfect location to protect it.
1. No matter how pro-American Georgia might be, it is not going to wake up tomorrow and it find it has moved hemispheres. It's location is next to Russia and somehow it must work out some security arrangement with Russia, not against it.
2. No matter how pro-Georgia US leaders might pay lip service to, the US Cavalry is NOT coming to the rescue. We might arm and train, but we are not going to war with Russia "to protect Georgia". We are simply using it as an excuse to provoke Russia and scare Europe. We are exploiting the situation, not helping it.
3.US leaders don't really give a damn about Georgia, except as a pawn to needle Russia with. They really don't care if Russia nukes Georgia -- as a matter of fact, they hope it does to give them some excuse to get NATO to neutralize Russia so that they can eliminate Russian oil as competition. Meanwhile, the Orthodox East will be wiped out completely.
4. This is not about "Georgian freedom", this is about oil -- which is why the Bush Administration can confusingly support Kosovo independence in one breath and deny Abkhazian/S. Ossetian independence in the next breath. Georgia has been thrown under a truck to justify fighting over Caspian oil.
5. S. Ossetia and Abkhazia are not "essential" to Georgia. They have been de-facto independent since the break-up of the Soviet Union. And they were relatively peaceful until Shakaashvili came to power and we started using Georgia as a threat to Russia. I am sorry but those two small provinces are not worth fighting a World War over -- and make no mistake, Russia is not going to back down if it's oil supply is threatened because the entire Russian economy is based on supplying oil to Europe. If that oil supply collapses, Russia won't care who it takes with it and we will be dealing with a World War. However much I might feel for the Georgian people, I am not willing to die for them or for some Western oil companies' profits!
Flash News: NWO continues on with the 100+ year fight for oil and gas in S.E. Europe, Near East, Middle East, and Central Asia, among other venues. (Response from the sheeple: “zzzzzz”, and “Pass the chips—American Idol is on!” and “Obama/McCain is my hero! He is for change/status quo.”) /cynicism off
Precisely. We are asleep at the wheel of our country. All we have to do regain semi-consciousness just long enough to pick between Obama/McCain, so that we can go back to sleep while our "choice" makes decisions for us for another four years.
Meanwhile the NWO goes marching on.
I don’t agree, I don’t think, with any of your points.
But thank you for sharing them.
If physical proximity and central location were all there was to pipeline security, Camp Able Sentry would be a much better candidate, being at least on the right side of the local mountains.
Says who? If you've got a link on that, share it.
...but if it were, all the countries it would traverse are NATO members or in the process of joining, which renders the suggestion that Bondsteel has "perfect location" absurd.
Hardly. That Albanian, Macedonia leg of the journey is the least stable leg of the journey and the best candidate for a military base to oversee it. Macedonia has its Greek problems with joining NATO, that are not likely to go away anytime soon. Bondsteel in Kosovo is the perfect location to be able to respond and guard the pipeline where it is most vulnerable. Check out this.
Even canuck conservative who I NEVER agree with says, "If this (the article) is true, Serbia is never getting Kosovo back" -- and he obviously thought enough of the article to post it.
Says the fact that it's actually not being built - construction has never started on the AMBO pipeline, and the fact that no construction is being undertaken isn't really a newsworthy item, ergo, no link for you.
I told you about Camp Able Sentry, yet you ignored it in your response. Given that it's in Macedonia, and is closer to the proposed pipeline route, I find it strange that you'd overlook it.
Not.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever participated in a mission to guard anything in your life? Have you ever researched what it takes to secure a piece of fixed infrastructure like a road or a pipeline? If not, upon what are you basing your opinion, if not the lamentably ignorant opinions of others like yourself?
Unfortunately some of the world's most evil regimes are situated over some of the Earth's largest, found oil reserves. If they had no oil they would not be a threat as they would be destitute, but because they do they have untold wealth with which they can do unimaginable harm. As we have seen in the Oil For Food scandal some of the most powerful nation's will subvert the rule of law for monetary gain or access to oil.
The US is not fighting for the oil or for the wealth that it brings. We are fighting the evil and corruption that occurs because of the misuse of that wealth.
You're losing yourself, Hoplite.
1. No matter how pro-American Georgia might be, it is not going to wake up tomorrow and it find it has moved hemispheres. It's location is next to Russia and somehow it must work out some security arrangement with Russia, not against it==
Oh, absolutely, except for Russia sees this security as nonexistence of Georgia. Putin hates Saakashvili’s guts and has not spoken with him since 2005 except on official meetings. The guy literally thinks that unless you lick his shoes, you are a bug to be crashed. As I wrote in one post: if you think Georgia really wants to fight with Iran when it is only 250 KM away from here on a straight line, you are mistaken, but Russia has not offered anything but humiliation to this country for 200 years, so we are willing to take chances.
2. No matter how pro-Georgia US leaders might pay lip service to, the US Cavalry is NOT coming to the rescue. We might arm and train, but we are not going to war with Russia “to protect Georgia”. We are simply using it as an excuse to provoke Russia and scare Europe. We are exploiting the situation, not helping it.==
Oh hell we know! And no one expects US to fight proxy was with Russia for Georgia. But had we been given NATO membership before as US requested, Russia would not have acted this way - they are scared to death when they see unity; because Germany and France bailed out, they saw the split and took their chance.
3.US leaders don't really give a damn about Georgia, except as a pawn to needle Russia with. They really don't care if Russia nukes Georgia — as a matter of fact, they hope it does to give them some excuse to get NATO to neutralize Russia so that they can eliminate Russian oil as competition. Meanwhile, the Orthodox East will be wiped out completely.
Do you really think that oneone gives a damn about anyone in this world? It's all about interests. Russia wants no alternative to its energy supplies so that it can increase price of gas to Europe 2-3 times and then simply buy them out; and I do not think it is in the best interests of the US to have fully “Russionized” Europe - talk about balance of powers then.
4. This is not about “Georgian freedom”, this is about oil — which is why the Bush Administration can confusingly support Kosovo independence in one breath and deny Abkhazian/S. Ossetian independence in the next breath. Georgia has been thrown under a truck to justify fighting over Caspian oil.
Of course it is about oil - why the hell you think they tried to bomb pipelines?
BUT, Serbs committed ethnic cleansing in Kosovo - these guys fought back and won independence. In Abkhazia 80,000 people forced 230.000 out as a result of the same ethnic cleansing - recognizing independence of Abkhazia legitimizes ethnic cleansing and this is a fundamental difference between Kosovo and Abkhazia... and Re South Ossetia, until very recently 50% of population there held Georgian passports and did not want to be a part of Russia or North Ossetia; just for your info, Java region (the smallest in the region) was almost entirely Ossetian, so was the city of Tskhinvali, but the city was completely surrounded by Georgian villages, that extended into lesser Liakhvi Gorge. In Znauri Region there were more settlements with Ossetians loyal to Kokoity than Georgian settlements, but in Akhalgori district ALL Ossetians and Georgians held Georgian passports - now all of these people have been forced to leave and perpetrator of all of this (Kokoyty WENT public acknowledging that he arranged burning of all Georgian villages around Tskhinvali and Znauri so that Georgians can never return - PUBLIC)now asks recognition of independence from Georgia and Russia is most likely going to grant this. Different from Kosovo, ha?
5. S. Ossetia and Abkhazia are not “essential” to Georgia. They have been de-facto independent since the break-up of the Soviet Union. ==
Oh, that's what you say, but when you have almost 7% of your populations as IDP - currently going to 10% - that kind of makes it essential, does not it? Let alone the fact that these lands historically been populated by Georgians...
And they were relatively peaceful until Shakaashvili came to power and we started using Georgia as a threat to Russia. ===
Oh boy you are wrong here. The first problem arose when Saakashvili closed Eredvi market, which was the way for Russian officials and Kokoity importing contraband into Russia. then Georgians LITERALLY offered Kokoity a bribe for him to step down and leave. Everything was agreed but Russians intervened, urged Kokoity to fire everyone from his Cabinet of Ministers and forced him to appoints GRU officers instead - GRU is a military intelligence of Russian Ministry of Defence... interesting ha. On parallel, they have instigated Abkhazs to halt negotiations with the Tbilisi. Do you know that when they held “elections” in Abkhazia, Russians came and said - OK, we want that guy, full stop!
I am sorry but those two small provinces are not worth fighting a World War over — and make no mistake, Russia is not going to back down if it's oil supply is threatened because the entire Russian economy is based on supplying oil to Europe. ====
No, Russia's oil supplies are not threatened - they can continue doing what they want. What is threatened is Russian monopoly on oil and gas supplies to Europe, and I have already explained ramifications thereof for Europe and the US above.
ping - please read above
ping - this is partly in response to your question on some of history of Abkhazia and South Ossetia posted under different article.
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