South Ossetia War

[ronmcdon]

Originally Posted by highwaystar22

Russia is bombing civilian targets well away from the conflict zone. They have opened this up and become the aggressor. If you are really just trying to protect your "citizens" in S.O. why would you bomb civlian targets miles and miles away, and bomb the port on the black sea?

Everyone seems to miss the big point here. Georgia controls the one marjor pipeline that Russia can't get to without annexing Georgia back into Russia. They are furious as hell that they have that pipeline and have used this conflict as an excuse to bomb it, although they have been unsuccessful in completely destroying it. Georgia used to be a part of the U.S.S.R. until they went pro-democracy. Russia is waging a war for oil and natural gas control so they can line their filthy pockets. Man where have I heard "war for oil" before.... oh yeah, when people accuse us of doing things in Iraq of Afgan for oil yet when the Russian's do it we are sticking our nose in their business and we're the bad guy. (btw Iraq had a 72bil surplus and we haven't requested any payment for our "services" to liberate them from a despot.)

If Georgia falls, then our street cred goes to shiz and any security agreement we sign with any friendly country can be called into question. It's like a bad dream.

Great point about the pipeline. For that reason alone, I think europe and the US have too much interest at stake to allow the russians to fully invade georgia.

Georgia was in the wrong to invade, but my guess is that they were playing a bluffing game in the first place that a) the russian would advance futher than ossetia (true), and b) they would be backed by the UN and the US (yet to be proven, but seems also likely). I will say that US demands are very reasonable if they ask that things return to the way they were before the Georgian invasion. If Russia fully invades Georgia, then that is also going a bit too far, and will almost certainly trigger another Cold War.

Saving face, or street cred as you say also goes both ways. I'm just not so sure the US can afford another conflict, given our current dismal situation. Of course, right or wrong, I fully support the US. Better we have access to oil pipelines than the Russians. Oil prices here might very well take a huge hit if that occurs. We don't need that, esp not right now. Otherwise, its politics as usual. Both sides have economic interests at stake. nothing new here.

Apparently, now it is a Russian invasion. The Russian 'peacekeepers' have pushed well beyond Ossetia; UN intervention (if not confrontation) seems very probable at this point.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080811/..._xKb0Nhstg.3QA

Couldn't be any worse timing for crap like this