Report from the Georgian Front

As we continue to follow the war in Georgia, and make no mistake, the war is still on; our exclusive sources on the ground have been filling in some of the gaps. A team went out on reconnaissance last night to assess the damage and came back with stories you won’t see on the news [snip]

These irregulars have been accused of ferocious acts of looting and of committing atrocities on the local population wherever they have gone. Their job, it seems, is to run amok in the wake of the Russian troops, do their worst, but give deniability to the official Russian military. All these activities are in violation of a new cease-fire agreement that Russia and Georgia signed on Friday.


While the agreement called for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops, the Russians refused to set a date and withdrawal seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. When US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was asked about these reports on Saturday, she responded limply, “The Russians perhaps are already not honoring their word" [snip]

No simple answers will suffice in this very public show of force. But force against democratic society requires a forceful response, one which we have not given. Just as Georgians stood beside America in Iraq, we must now stand beside them in this grave hour of their imminent demise. Weak statements of support no longer suffice. They will make us all vulnerable in the face of power-hungry opponents, which Putin has now declared Russia to be...

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Russia began Georgia aggression three years ago...

A trove of evidence strongly suggests that Russia was preparing the logistics for war well before August 7. As long as three years ago, diplomats, officials and analysts say, Moscow started waging a multi-pronged propaganda, military and economic campaign against its tiny neighbour as it moved hurriedly and provocatively into the Western sphere - and possibly even into NATO, Russia's Cold War nemesis, itself.

"The political decision was made in April," said Pavel Felgenhauer, a military analyst in Moscow. "It was final. Preparations were being in place for a year beforehand."

Propelled to power in 2004 after the so-called Rose Revolution, Mr Saakashvili immediately began to push his country headlong toward the West, purging the Soviet-era bureaucracy, liberalising the economy and cosying up to the US by sending 2000 troops to Iraq. Many observers say the Georgians, with the US in their corner, became overly confident of their capabilities.

"These are the most romantic people in the world. They're very gallant, in the stupid sense,"... "Do they really listen? They're very much the charge of the light brigade people. It has a lot to do with personal honour."

[snip] Russia also started issuing passports to residents of South Ossetia. In March, Moscow rejected sanctions on separatists in the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia proposed by the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose confederation of former Soviet republics. Instead, the Russian Parliament passed a resolution recognizing the demands of South Ossetian and Abkhaz separatists...

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Russia 'distributing passports in the Crimea'

Ukraine is investigating claims that Russia has been distributing passports in the port of Sevastopol, raising fears that the Kremlin could be stoking separatist sentiment in the Crimea as a prelude to possible military intervention.

The allegation has prompted accusations that Russia is using the same tactics employed in the Georgian breakaway regions of Abhkazia and South Ossetia in order to create a pretext for a war...

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NATO Now

Russia’s adventurism in Georgia was meant to send the bluntest of signals to its neighbors: “Don’t get too cozy with the West, because we rule this region.” The fossilized communists and other Kremlin toadies all too willingly obey. But such a subservient response will only take Ukraine backwards.

To the contrary, the solution is for Ukraine to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military alliance. Ukraine will have a better fate with NATO, a grouping of 26 democratic European and North American countries, rather than with Kremlin autocrats.

“NATO now!” should be the new rallying cry for all politicians in Ukraine. But as we have seen, the desire of France and Germany not to irritate Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe’s natural gas, is blamed for the April decision at the NATO summit in Bucharest to delay the membership applications of Ukraine and Georgia... [snip]

Western leaders, meanwhile, should recognize that their ambivalence to Ukraine and Georgia is encouraging Russia to menace and threaten beyond the Caucasus and Black Sea...

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Nato divided on American call to punish Moscow

Russia’s military walkover in Georgia has deepened Nato divisions as it prepares to find a new way next week of handling the resurgent former superpower.

Washington has called a meeting on Tuesday of Nato foreign ministers, essentially to punish Moscow for what the United States, Britain and, especially, East European countries see as a brutal invasion that reverted to Cold War methods.

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said: “There need to be consequences for Moscow’s behaviour.” Relations with Russia, which has had a “partnership” with Nato for more than a decade, would not be the same for years to come, he said.

The trouble is that several big European states — notably France, Germany and Italy — do not see the Russian offensive that way. They partly blame Georgia, a would-be Nato member and a protégé of the United States. As Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, told The Times:

“Russia is a great nation. Look how we have been treating it.”

[cowards all. Recommended, if you haven't indigestion and for some reason desire it...]

SOURCE

After Russia's invasion of Georgia, what now for the West?

Russia’s invasion across an internationally recognised border, its thrashing of the Georgian military, and its smug satisfaction in humbling one of its former fiefdoms represents only the visible damage.

As bad as the bloodying of Georgia is, the broader consequences are worse. The United States fiddled while Georgia burned, not even reaching the right rhetorical level in its public statements until three days after the Russian invasion began...

[untrue: McCain immediately replied precisely the unambiguous language history proves is the only such heard by aggressors. Unfortunately, European and Russian media aren't quoting McCain - they're overwhelmingly quoting Obama... [snip]]

The European Union took the lead in diplomacy, with results approaching Neville Chamberlain’s moment in the spotlight at Munich: a ceasefire that failed to mention Georgia’s territorial integrity, and that all but gave Russia permission to continue its military operations as a “peacekeeping” force anywhere in Georgia.

More troubling, over the long term, was that the EU saw its task as being mediator – its favourite role in the world – between Georgia and Russia, rather than an advocate for the victim of aggression...

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THE GEORGIA TEST

The phone may not have rung at 3 a.m., but when word came of Russia's brutal invasion of neighboring Georgia, one of the two presidential candidates instinctively understood the adventure's long-range implications.

And one did not.

Indeed, the crisis in the Caucasus is giving voters real insight into how John McCain and Barack Obama might handle a foreign-policy emergency.

In his first public reaction, Obama merely called on "Georgia and Russia to show restraint" - a reflexive exercise in what Sen. Joe Lieberman rightly labeled "moral neutrality."

Then Obama called for a UN Security Council resolution condemning Russia - apparently unaware that Moscow, a permanent Security Council member, can veto any such resolution.

He also suggested sending an international force under "an appropriate UN mandate" to South Ossetia. (See above, Security Council veto.)

Obama's initial reaction was that only Georgia's territorial sovereignty was at stake - and that the way to resolve that issue was to negotiate.

But McCain immediately understood that the real issue wasn't just a Georgian territory violation, but Vladimir Putin's premeditated effort to let Eastern Europe know that Russia intends thoroughly to dominate what it terms its "near abroad"...

[Recommended > ]

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Propagandists turn to Dick Cheney plot

RUSSIANS were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by US Vice-President Dick Cheney to stop Barack Obama being elected president of the US.

The line came on the main news of Vesti FM, a state radio station that -- like the Government and much of Russia's media -- has reverted to the old habits of Soviet years, inwhich a sinister US hand washeld to lie behind every conflict, especially those embarrassing to Moscow.

The Obama angle is getting wide play. It was aired on Wednesday by Sergei Markov, a senior political scientist who is close to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "George Bush's administration is promoting interests of candidate John McCain," Dr Markov said.

"Defeated by Barack Obama on all fronts, McCain has one last card to play yet -- the creation of a virtual Cold War with Russia."

A classic of Soviet-speak also came from Vasili Lickhachev, a former Russian ambassador to the EU.

"The West has spent a lot of time, energy and money to teach Georgia the tricks of the trade ... to make the country look like a democracy, We and many other nations see through this deceit."

Modern Russia may be plugged into the internet and the global marketplace but in the battle for world opinion the Kremlin is replaying the old black and white movie...

[we must remember that Putin assumed control of Russia's media years ago...]

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America Focused on Iraq, Could Have "Avoided" Georgia Violence

[meanwhile, in America...]

ABC News' Ayana Harry Reports: Former Senate Majority Leader Democrat Tom Daschle S.D. represented the Obama campaign discussing the Russia-Georgia conflict on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos. " In a debate with Republican Mitt Romney, Daschle maintained

"If we would have preemptively worked with Russia, with Georgia, making sure that NATO had the kind of ability and the presence and the engagement, we could have perhaps avoided this."

[yes, we all assumed it was ultimately America's fault]

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Basketball's Kobe Bryant on Patriotism


The reason this story is making waves is that first, it was unexpected and second, Bryant was obviously sincere when he said it.

NBC's Chris Collingwsorth, former pro football player, was interviewing basketball superstar Kobe Bryant and asked him about the first time he put on the "USA" uniform:

Kobe: "Well I had goosebumps and I actually just looked at it for awhile. I just held it there and I laid it across my bed and I just stared at it for a few minutes; just because as a kid growing up this is the ultimate, ultimate in basketball."

He asked where Byrant's patriotism comes from.

Kobe: "Well, you know it's just our country, it's... we believe is the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it's just a sense of pride that you have; that you say "You know what? Our country is the best!"

Collinsworth: "Is that a ‘cool' thing to say, in this day and age? That you love your country, and that you're fighting for the red, white and blue? It seems sort of like a day gone by(?)"

Kobe: "No, it's a cool thing for me to say. I feel great about it, and I'm not ashamed to say it. I mean, this is a tremendous honor."

Bryant's attitude was refreshing coming from a star athlete. You can watch the video here courtesy of Ms. Underestimated.

[Kobe: cool]
[NBC putz: not so much]

discipline