Ossentia, Georgia, Taiwan
International
| August 11, 2008
| Tim
I'm going to keep this short. As you know, Russia has placed its tanks in Georgia, and is apparently attempting to turn that nation back into a puppet state. As you undoubtedly know, the old KGB is not happy that they're no longer running a huge chunk of the world, and they want their sphere of control back.
Dictators always start small. If the world gives Hitler the Sudetenland, it's a good sign to him he should, perhaps, acquire Poland while he's there. And the West, even Bush, appears to be doing nothing more than talking. This is a serious crisis.
What am I advocating? Well, what would you want if you were a Georgian? What would you want your future to be? Would you want to go under the thumb of the KGB, or continue as a free Democracy? Would you wish the US could come to the aid of your nation? I would.
And of course, China is watching intently. If the US doesn't help Georgia, or lets this stand, it's all the more reason for them to attack Taiwan.
What next?
I can understand why it's nice and short. I don't know a good plan of action myself, except for perhaps sending troops to Georgia. Due to the general lack of respect for human life that's plagued Russia for a long time, it's right to fear escalation with them. That being said we, as a country shouldn't hang Georgia out to dry.
If NATO is looking for a post-Cold War mission, I think one just fell in it's lap. (And it's not all to dissimilar from its original mission.) Of course, most of the members of NATO have zero spine at this point in time.
One of the NATO members (Turkey) actually has a whole lot of practical issues to worry about from this if it escalates. (Refugees, having one of its neighbor states fall into Russian hands...) I wonder if the security pact will come into play there.
Just to illustrate the last point:
link
I can understand why it's nice and short. I don't know a good plan of action myself, except for perhaps sending troops to Georgia.
Well, I thought we should send some airpower over (lauched from Missouri) and wipe out a few dozen Russian tanks and command outposts for starters. We also have mechanized drones, and I'm fairly sure Georgia would be very happy to let us set up a facility for launching them.
At this point, the important thing is not to actually win anything. This is the point where the homeowner fires his rifle into the air, informing the intruders that this isn't going to go easily for them.
My appreciation of symmetry suggests we the US could immediately sell Georgia weapons which could allow them to strike and destroy part of Russia's oil infrastructure -- just as Russia is taking over theirs. Pipelines, etc. That would blow their minds, and shut down a huge source of revenue for these operations.
And yes, it would raise oil prices here too. This is why we can't just sit around and put off drilling forever: We can't let our every political answer be: "Don't do anything which harms dictators! It'll raise oil prices!"
I wonder if the security pact will come into play there.
Georgia's not a signatory.
But then again, neither was Kosovo, and NATO had no qualms about getting involved there.
I really don't think using our resources to ATTACK Russia, directly or indirectly, would be a very wise plan. I'll agree with you that so far the President hasn't shown much interest in solving this crisis and aiding the Georgian people, but I don't think the solution is through force or arms. Instead of our President hanging around China watching Basketball games and swimming relays, he should have flown out to London as soon as the opening ceremony was over with and had a meeting and joint press conference with Gordon Brown. The President should have pointed out how humiliated Russia should be that this happened of all days on the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic games. There should have been immediate talk of possible economic pressure, perhaps removing Russia from the G8. Also, Russia's involvement with NATO. Right now, we need to consider sending in NATO forces to protect civilian areas and important structures to world security like the two BP pipelines that have already been shut down, and perhaps even helping with the security of the Georgian President. Turkey should be made to be involved in this affair as well IMO. They've been pushing to be apart of NATO for years, and with Georgia literally on their doorstep, I think very few other countries have as much an interest in what's going on now as they do. Our leaders should publicly meet with the Turkish government and discuss the matter.
I hope this can be solved with very little if no military involvement from other nations or NATO, and I think if the President had seemed a little more concerned about it from the get-go we wouldn't be having these discussions about the possible repercussions right now.
Instead of our President hanging around China watching Basketball games and swimming relays, he should have flown out to London as soon as the opening ceremony was over with and had a meeting and joint press conference with Gordon Brown...
Or something to that effect -- I agree entirely.
I really don't think using our resources to ATTACK Russia, directly or indirectly, would be a very wise plan...
The "direct"argument wasn't being made seriously, but as far as "indirectly" -- why not? Why not hit a few tanks which had crossed into Georgia proper?
Yes, I agree: the outcome we have now may be better -- I'm NOT spoiling for a conflict. But if Russia wouldn't have agreed to the ceasefire, then why would that have been unhelpful, in your opinion?
(And yes, I agree we could probably have gone for sanctions too, but that takes quite a while, and a lot of bad things could happen in the mean time.)
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I can understand why it's nice and short. I don't know a good plan of action myself, except for perhaps sending troops to Georgia. Due to the general lack of respect for human life that's plagued Russia for a long time, it's right to fear escalation with them. That being said we, as a country shouldn't hang Georgia out to dry.
If NATO is looking for a post-Cold War mission, I think one just fell in it's lap. (And it's not all to dissimilar from its original mission.) Of course, most of the members of NATO have zero spine at this point in time.
One of the NATO members (Turkey) actually has a whole lot of practical issues to worry about from this if it escalates. (Refugees, having one of its neighbor states fall into Russian hands...) I wonder if the security pact will come into play there.
Posted by: Michael Zappe on August 11, 2008 10:53 PM