Friday, September 5, 2008

The Tanks of August

Three events in the first decade of the 21st century will be remembered as epic turning points in world geopolitics: 9/11; the Iraq War and the Russian invasion of Georgia in August, 2008.

However convulsive the consequences of the first two events, what is transpiring currently in Georgia may be more damaging to international stability than anything that has occurred since 1939.

The objectives of the Russians remain as we reported last week: (1) Deposing President Saakashvili; (2) Destroying Georgia's economy and infrastructure, and (3) Monopolizing Caspian energy supply. [snip]

"At stake is what kind of role Russia will play in the new international system. Putin is putting Russia on a course that is ominously similar to Stalin's and Hitler's in the 1930s...It is important that Russia be stopped now by mobilizing a concerted, global effort to oppose and condemn the Russian invasion. "
The U.N. Security Council is as helpless as when confronted with Iranian defiance of its Resolutions. Faced with a Russian veto, the Council is still "discussing" the situation.

If NATO can not reverse its current malaise and restore itself as an alliance in which political reach is matched by military muscle, it will become as ineffectual as the European Union in international crises. [snip]

"Tanks once again decide what happens. 'Soft power,' on which so many hopes had been pinned, has just been exposed as irrelevant...The decision on whether to confront Russia is an enormously tough one. But that decision will have to be made. Europe's holiday from serious geopolitics is over."

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