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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dvdw© who wrote (8757)	8/15/2008 9:22:16 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15987

NAH Hawk; this means that the surprise attack by Georgia into SO was actually a counter attack, launched on a tip off, which allowed Georgian military to inflict casualties on the entering force. I wish I had more credible information about who did what and when.. We all know the Russians were already massing troops on the border, and the Georgian President is claiming that they had actually crossed the border which necessitated their action to interdict them. I just am curious why Putin would do this while he was in China? A cynic could assert that it would give him the means of having been "taken by surprise" and that Russia's actions were a spotaneous reaction to "Georgian aggression".. But I'm still inclined to think that the local Russian leadership, and perhaps the Foreign Minister, had a "fait accompli" up their sleeves and were waiting for Putin to be "out of pocket" in China for them to make their move. It would be difficult for Putin to question their judgement since they were the "men on the scene" and it would force Putin to accept their actions and provide covering fire in the face of the inevitable reactions to be expected by Bush in his meeting with Putin in Bejing. These local leaders have a real scam going on in S. Ossetia and Abkhazia and big bucks are on the line. I also think there's a real pressure on the Russians to keep commodity prices high in the oil markets. Hence, they need to create some drama that would neutralize a collapse in oil prices. Nothing better than threatening the last major pipeline from the Caspian to accomplish that would be their logical conclusion. But I think it's backfired. Charles Krauthammer has some very good suggestions for a western reaction to events in Georgia: We are not without resources. There are a range of measures to be deployed if Russia does not live up to its cease-fire commitments: 1. Suspend the NATO-Russia Council established in 2002 to help bring Russia closer to the West. Make clear that dissolution will follow suspension. The council gives Russia a seat at the NATO table. Message: Invading neighboring democracies forfeits the seat. 2. Bar Russian entry to the World Trade Organization. 3. Dissolve the G-8. Putin's dictatorship long made Russia's presence in this group of industrial democracies a farce, but no one wanted to upset the bear by expelling it. No need to. The seven democracies simply withdraw. (And if Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, who has been sympathetic to Putin's Georgia adventure, wants to stay, he can have an annual G-2 dinner with Putin.) Then immediately announce the reconstitution of the original G-7. 4. Announce a U.S.-European boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi. To do otherwise would be obscene. Sochi is 15 miles from Abkhazia, the other Georgian province just invaded by Russia. The Games will become a riveting contest between the Russian, Belarusan and Jamaican bobsled teams. washingtonpost.com