Priceless
President Bush has a second career awaiting him as a comedian:
Condemning as unacceptable what he called Russia’s “bullying and intimidation,” President Bush on Friday said Russia must withdraw its troops from all of Georgian territory and said the United States would stand with Georgia in the conflict.
“Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected,” he said.
All of this would be a lot easier to take without laughing so hard that coffee shoots out my nose if Mr. Bush’s entire career, from his campaign in 2000, to his coronation via the Supreme Court, to his 2004 campaign, to the way he deals with dissent, to the politicization of the Department of Justice, has been NOTHING BUT BULLYING.
His protest about “Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” is also cute: this is the guy after all who pioneered “pre-emptive war” and “regime change”. Stamp your cloven hooves a little harder, Mr. Bush: perhaps someone will listen.
Mr. Bush said that the cold war was over and that Russia had damaged its credibility and standing in the international order. Russia now has to “put itself back on the path of responsible nations,” Mr. Bush said.
As we all know, responsible nations don’t invade other nations. Not in the 21st century they don’t.
Typically when he finds himself in a tight spot, the President reverts to his fake-cowboy-I’m-just-a-reglar-guy act.
After postponing a trip to his ranch in Texas by a day, Mr. Bush went to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va., for a briefing on the situation in Georgia.
“Got a lot of folks, smart folks, analyzing the situation on the ground and, of course, briefing us on different possibilities that could develop in the area and the region,” he said…
I think we can safely say he’s in a tight spot.
It’s also nice to see the Secretary of Defense openly suggest that President Bush is an idiot:
“My guess is that everyone is going to be looking at Russia through a different set of lenses as we look ahead.”
Mr. Gates’s remarks, while critical of Mr. Putin, also included an implicit rebuke of any effort to base American policy solely on a perceived friendship within the Kremlin. At the Pentagon, Mr. Gates was asked whether he trusted Mr. Putin anymore, and he paused before responding.
“‘Anymore’ is an interesting add,” he said. “I have never believed that one should make national security policy on the basis of trust. I think you make national security policy based on interests and on realities.”
So much for those soulful eyes I guess.
I’ve had a lot of fun at Pretzeldent Bush’s expense with this post: it’s always great to see a royal asshole hoist on his own petard. But the fact is that we have no cards to play in this showdown with Russia, and the Russians know it:
A top Russian general said Friday that Poland’s agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor base exposes the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported.
The statement by Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn is the strongest threat that Russia has issued against the plans to put missile defense elements in former Soviet satellite nations.
[snip]
“Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent,” Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.He added, in clear reference to the agreement, that Russia’s military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them.” Nogovitsyn that would include elements of strategic deterrence systems, he said, according to Interfax.
At a news conference earlier Friday, Nogovitsyn had reiterated Russia’s frequently stated warning that placing missile-defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic would bring an unspecified military response. But his subsequent reported statement substantially stepped up a war of words.
That’s right, they’re threatening to nuke Poland: so while I’m having fun at Bush’s expense, the situation is deadly serious. Still, it’s great to see Mr. Bush reduced to stamping his foot and throwing a temper tantrum. I always felt it would come to this eventually. Guess that’s what happens when you spend your presidency as a belligerent drunk surrounded by yes-men and crooks.
Anti-McCain Ad
brutal…
The New York Times Stamps Its Impotent Little Foot
Here’s a hoot of an editorial in the Times Russia Takes Gori:
Europe and the United States must make clear to Mr. Medvedev — and the real power player, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — that more aggression and lies will not be tolerated. They must make clear that Russia will pay a price, in diplomatic standing and economic relations, if it does not immediately withdraw its troops, agree to international mediation and permit the deployment of truly neutral international peacekeepers to Georgia’s breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Where to begin? How about we start with the simple fact that Russia’s the big boy on the block when it comes to energy supplies, especially gas. BBC:
Gazprom controls about a third of the world’s gas reserves and it is responsible for a quarter of Europe’s supplies. Most of Europe’s gas is piped via Ukraine, and when Gazprom shut down the pipeline in 2006, the flow to the rest of Europe fell, in some areas, by 40%.
[snip]
The EU has major concerns about security of supply and is moving ahead with a pipeline plan of its own. Nabucco will bring gas from Central Asia and the Caspian across Turkey into the European Union. But it will have only enough capacity to provide a small proportion, perhaps 5%, of Europe’s needs.So Europe needs Gazprom, and that is why European companies and their governments have actively embraced the two projects. Austria is likely to serve as a hub for both. EU officials say that even during the Cold War the Russian gas supply was stable, so it is better to rely on Gazprom than potentially unstable sources such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
So if the Times thinks Germany or Britain is going to jeopardize their relationship with Russia for the sake of George “Those Weapons Must Be Somewhere” Bush, then I want some of what the Times is smoking.
The fact is our options are limited. We can’t force the Russians out, because our military’s stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can’t exert moral pressure on the Russians for invading a sovereign nation, for obvious reasons(and Georgia actually DID attack Russia’s interests, unlike Iraq). We have no standing to do anything.
So, like George Bush, the Times stamps its feet impotently and whines.
Department of No DOY.
Georgia is one of the closest US allies in Eastern Europe. President Mikheil Saakashvili has visited the White House three times in the last four years. Yet this warm relationship did not stop the Kremlin from unleashing a ferocious military response after Georgian troops entered the separatist province of South Ossetia.
US efforts to expand Western influence and spread democracy along Russia’s borders may now be threatened. US relations with Russia itself, at the least, are in flux.
“This gets at the stability of the framework the US thought was going to govern the post-cold-war world,” says Stephen Sestanovich, senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Well no doy, Steve-o. That’s what happens when you deliberately dismantle “the framework the US thought was going to govern the post-cold-war world”. That’s what happens when you tie down 3/4 of your army in a desert quagmire.
President Bush, for his part, on Aug. 11 demanded that Russia end its dramatic escalation of violence in Georgia and agree to an immediate cease-fire and international mediation.
“Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century,” said Mr. Bush in a statement televised shortly after his return to the US from the Beijing Olympics.
But since the crisis began, there has been no hint that the United States would consider any kind of military move, even logistical aid for Georgian forces, that would bring it into direct conflict with Russia. The US and the West appear to have little leverage over a Moscow that is flush with oil money and eager to reestablish its position along its borders.
That’s because we have no cards to play. We can’t send our army in. We can’t get the Russian angry over Iran. The Russians are currently quite wealthy from oil profits, while we are quite poor, having drained our treasury to fight an unnecessary war (which, I might add, we are losing).
Other possible moves include threatening Russia with the loss of the 2014 Winter Olympic games at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“The United States, its allies, and other countries need to send a strong signal to Moscow that creating 19th-century-style spheres of influence and redrawing the borders of the former Soviet Union is a danger to world peace,” said Ariel Cohen, senior research fellow in Russian and Eurasian studies at the Heritage Foundation, in an analysis of the impact of the crisis.
OH NOEZ!!!1! Mr. Cohen, who works for the Bush-loving right-wing Heritage Foundation, certainly sounds tough, but you’ll notice that outside of threatening to take away the Olympics, he’s not really calling for airstrikes or military action to save our supposed ally.
Georgian President Saakashvili has long been one of the Bush administration’s favorite world leaders. Georgia contributed 2,000 troops to the US effort in Iraq, and Mr. Saakashvili has talked often of his support for Bush administration efforts to spread freedom and democracy among the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Saakashvili and Bush seem to share a good personal chemistry. Bush visited Georgia in 2005; during Saakashvili’s return visits to the White House, the two joshed about folk dancing and their wives’ luncheon plans.
In March, at a White House appearance, Saakashvili thanked Bush for supporting Georgia’s aspirations to join NATO and for “protecting Georgia’s borders.”
“I think this is a very unequivocal support we’re getting from you,” the Georgian leader told the US president, for the cameras.
Silly Saakashvili: you must not have been paying attention when Bush Senior abandoned the Kurds and the Shiites after they’d outlived their usefulness.
Perhaps the Georgian leader thought the US would come to his aid if he got in trouble. If so, he did not take into account the drain that Iraq has been on US forces and the US standing in the world – or the American need to work with Russia on other important geopolitical issues, such as the effort to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
…adding that all those promises of NATO membership, the radar installations in Georgia, and the tacit egging on of Mr. Saakashvili’s fantasies didn’t help the cause of sanity all that much.
Oh and look: the New York Times is reporting that Russia’s not actually leaving Georgia. That’s also a file from the Department of No DOY:
The commander of the Russian battalion that the Russian soldiers were looking for Georgian fighters who were violating the cease-fire agreement; Russia could argue that the agreement allowed for such activity. Occasional gunfire could be heard around the city.
The Russian soldiers were letting civilians leave Gori but were preventing anyone from entering.
Bitterly criticizing the United States and other Western countries for letting Georgia down, its president, Mikheil Saakashvili said Russia had flagrantly defied the accord and effectively severed the country in two.
The accord is not specific about where Russian and Georgian troops are allowed to be in Georgia. Under the deal’s somewhat vague terms, Russia may claim that it is allowed to send troops where it believes its interests are threatened. Mr. Saakashvili’s protests were joined by the leaders of several former Soviet countries from Eastern European, who were in Tbilisi to show their support for Georgia.
And Saakashvili sure is playing the pity card after his idiotic decision to incite a war with his far bigger, far meaner, and far better armed neighbor ended as predicted:
“Today, the West’s very will is tested,” Mr. Saakashvili said in a telephone call with journalists. “The main thing is if the West fails now, then it will have tremendous consequences for the world for years to come.”
Mikheil? If I were you, I’d worry about the consequences for YOU if your countrymen figure out what your “leadership” has done to their future.
This is Not Helpful
The Philadelphia Police Department has a long and disgraceful record of brutality, especially toward black people. And although Police Commissioner Ramsey has done a better job of disciplining bad cops than his predecessor, more work needs to be done:
ADIMA DAVIS is barely a toddler and already she knows what it feels like to get maced in the face.
“Mommy, it burn,” Adima, 1 1/2, said yesterday as her mom, Dionne Whitaker, recounted a violent encounter with Philadelphia police over the weekend.
Whitaker, 28, said she and her daughter had been at an outdoor baby shower in North Philadelphia when a narcotics officer rushed into the yard, igniting a police “riot” that injured at least six people, including two little kids and women who were maced, struck with batons and pushed to the ground, according to witnesses.
[snip]
Two officers on the scene - Thomas Schaffling and Sean Bascom - were linked to the May 5 police beating of three shooting suspects. That incident was captured by a Fox 29 news helicopter and broadcast around the world.In the Fox video, Schaffling, a member of the elite Narcotics Strike Force, is seen pulling driver Brian Hall out of a car. Schaffling acknowledged afterward that he had “utilized foot strikes” on Hall in an attempt to subdue him, police documents show.
Bascom struck a suspect in the head, face and collarbone during the May incident, an Internal Affairs investigation concluded.
At the time, Schaffling and Bascom were partners assigned to Squad B of the Strike Force.
Schaffling was not disciplined in connection with the videotaped beating. Bascom, one of eight officers disciplined, was suspended for five days by Commissioner Charles Ramsey.
These guys need to be fired. And John Mcnesby, who comes off like a poorly-spoken baboon, needs to stop making excuses. Both need to happen immediately:
Police have said that the officers were chasing a drug suspect who ran through the yard where the baby shower was being held, but those at the celebration said that the suspect had not cut through the yard and that police had mistakenly arrested a relative who had just arrived at the shower with a gift in hand.
Schaffling, Bascom and Devlin could not be reached for comment. Capt. Verdell Johnson of the Strike Force declined comment last night.
John McNesby, president of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police, said that he was unfamiliar with the baby-shower incident but that Schaffling and the other Strike Force members are hard-working officers who are the best of the best.
“I know all them guys to be good cops,” McNesby said.
“The Strike Force is the go-to unit,” he added. “They get the guns off the street, they get the drugs off the street, they are out there aggressively fighting crime and you’re going to have complaints . . . Police officers have a right to use force. You’re dealing with people who don’t want to be arrested.”
McNesby cautioned that complaints filed by citizens against officers are mere accusations.
But William Johnson, executive director of the Police Advisory Commission, a city-funded watchdog agency, said the accusations in the baby-shower case were troubling. Johnson said “quite a number of people” at the shower came to the commission’s Center City headquarters to file complaints.
Does this sound like a family full of criminals to you?
What went on, citizens allege, was that a bunch of rogue narcotics cops unleashed a fury on some working-class folks enjoying what should have been a happy occasion.
Joseph Williams, the uncle of the baby’s father, said he watched the incident unfold in horror and called 9-1-1 for help.
Williams is the block captain of the 2400 block of West Master Street, a block that sits as an oasis in crime-ridden North Philadelphia. On the afternoon of the shower, the Rev. Albertis Ford, of the Faith Tabernacle Church of God, had the block closed off for his annual “Feed My Sheep” event, in which his family serves free food to community members. As he dished out potato salad and slices of ham, people began to gather across the street at the home of Matthew and Lorna Peterson for the shower.
The Peterson home is an inviting place. A Winnie the Pooh flag that reads “Welcome” is posted above the front door. The once- trash-strewn, abandoned lot next to their home has been turned into a garden with rows of flowers and vegetables. The fenced-in grassy lot, with its swing set and miniature basketball hoop, has always been a place for neighborhood kids to play. It seemed the perfect spot for a baby shower - or so the Petersons thought.
Lorna Peterson’s daughter Lacrecia Tindley, 30, who is nine months pregnant, was just about to open her gifts when Schaffling allegedly ran into the yard, grabbed Tindley’s brother, Jamar Stroman, 24, pressed a baton across his neck and dragged him out of the yard. Relatives said they had followed Schaffling to ask why Stroman was being arrested.
Witnesses said Schaffling then took out his gun and screamed obscenities as he told everyone to get back. He called for back-up officers and placed Stroman in a squad car. Then Schaffling took out a metal baton and began to swing it into the crowd, striking several people, witnesses said.
The Mayor and the Commissioner keep talking about how important it is to repair relations between Philadelphia’s African American community and the Police Department. Schalling’s behavior is not helpful, nor are McNesby’s excuses. Furthermore, Ramsey should fire Mr. Schalling TODAY. The man is doing damage to the police force, to the department’s reputation, and to the efforts to reconcile the cops and the community every day he remains on the payroll.
Lifted
Oddly, almost immediately after writing last evening’s post, my depression lifted apruptly and quickly.
I’m more convinced than ever it was something chemical.
Ton of Bricks
I don’t know what the hell happened yesterday, but by the time the dim sum I had for lunch was in my belly, I was ready for a long nap. I hit the sack around 4:30, and didn’t wake up until almost 6:00. Ever since then I’ve been inexplicably depressed, obsessing over the same things I always get hung up on while I’m plumbing the depths. What’s weird is that usually it takes something to set off the crash: this time it was for no apparent reason. No real reason at all.
It was a great relaxing and productive weekend: the food dehydrator Christina ordered arrived, so on Saturday we picked up 25 pounds of peaches at the farmers market to dry and to can. The dried peaches are delicious, and while I haven’t had anything from the cans yet, the peach butter is the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I don’t know why I’m depressed.
Before the canning and dehydrating started in earnest, we spent a few hours in Lower Merion: my friend Wendy’s neighbor has an in-ground pool in her back yard and we were invited over. The water was lovely and I spent the brunt of the afternoon floating in the water and reading lesbian crime fiction. It was a wonderful time. I don’t know why I’m depressed.
That Saturday evening, my friend Jim and I finally got the ceilings repaired on my second floor. When I moved into to Chateau sur Schuylkill, I had this idea that I would build a ladder and trap door to our flat roof (I still have this idea actually). The guy who did my roof came by and cut some holes in the ceiling where a ladder could be built, then promptly disappeared. Through inertia and plain old reluctance to take on a project i wasn’t sure how to complete, the ensuing holes remained for the next 4 years. Fixing them turned out to be simple and easy: the whole job, including the previous day’s trip to the home depot probably took no more than 2 hours. Then we partied. No reason to be depressed. We weren’t even out that late. Watched some Flight of the Conchords on dvd.
Sunday morning was relaxing as well. Bopped around the house and went out to dim sum for breakfast. In retrospect, that may explain a lot: it was a pork-shrimp-and-starch fest, followed by a trip to Trader Joe’s and a stop at Pathmark. After arriving home I crashed out, and when I woke up I was in a pit. There’s really no reason for this to have occurred to begin with, but once in the pit, things went from bad to worse. My ankle and instep had been aching all day, as if i bashed it on something, but I hadn’t gotten that kind of drunk at anytime during Friday or Saturday and there was no bruise. Since about 3:00 yesterday I have had a pronounced limp.
By 10:30 PM or so, I was beginning to think my bad mood might have something to do with being home all day, so I told Christina I was stepping out for a beer. “Are you sure?” she asked. “It’s kind of late…” I looked at the clock. She was right, and besides I knew if I went to the bar I’d just sit there looking at my reflection in the mirror drinking and thinking too much. “I was kinda hoping for some hanky panky,” she added. I was in the mood too, hemmed and hawed for a few minutes and finally said “I’ll just get a six-pack and bring it home.”
I was in the Best Haus (formerly the Wurst Haus) when Sam’s mom’s best friend from college walked in. I wouldn’t have noticed her, except she made a point of saying “Hello Mr. Brendan F. Skwire. How are you?”
I turned to see who was speaking to me, and when I saw her face my mouth and jaw hardened into a grim frown. “FINE,” I intoned. I am not going into old history, but this young woman had made it her business from day one, including through the pregnancy, to make her opinion of me quite clear to Sam’s mom, who she also lived with. This continued through the two years that Melissa and I were separated by geography.
Now I’m not saying I was some kind of model of the perfect provider during Sam’s first year: I was unemployed and taking any job i could to pay the bills, including restaurant work which after 18 years in kitchens I vowed I’d never return to. But that was between Melissa and me, and no one else had any business telling us how to run our affairs. I was doing the best I could.
Seeing this loathesome meddling troll, who has had such long-term negative impact on my life, dredged up the worst of the past four years, pushing me further into the pit. I was angry at myself for not telling her what a piece of shit she is, and felt worse that I didn’t tell the guy at the register that she was shoplifting (she wasn’t so far as I could tell). I came home from the Best Haus in the Wurst Mood, and by that time intimacy was pretty much out for the night. I rolled over and tried to sleep, but between the 2 hour nap, my throbbing ankle, and my ruminating mind, I slept fitfully at best.
This morning, I woke up feeling better, but almost from the minute I stepped outside the house, things went downhill. My ankle was still killing me: i’d taken some ibuprofen at 3:00 AM to dull the pain, but by 9:00 AM it was wearing off. I decided to give my foot a break and drive. The Schuylkill Expressway was busier than usual, and I soon found out why. The entrance to the Vine Street Expressway, my direct route to work, was closed for repairs. It took over a half-hour to reach the next exit, which was only a mile or two down the road, thanks to the inevitable traffic jam.
I arrived at work to find not only that the internets were down, but a grant I’d had nothing to do with had been lost by the office that received it. It was a substantial sum, and handled by the state: I was tasked with resubmitting online, which had to be accomplished by the end of the day. Long story short: it’s done and I left work early to get my shit together.
Now it’s nearly 10:00 PM. I ate a little dinner,, went down to the bar for a few, and now I’m finishing my blogging. I’m still depressed. I hope it’s over soon. There’s no reason for it, I’m done with it, I have no time for it.
I understand why people self-medicate, I really do. I don’t know if what i have going on right now is depression or not, but it sure feels like what depression must feel like. But it’s not there 24/7 for me: I don’t want to numb my shit day in and day out to stem off these occasional valleys I find myself in. If they’d only make something not-illegal that leveled you off when you need it, you know? Something not addictive, something you could take like ibuprofen for a bum ankle.
What a fucking pain in my ass. That’s all it is, a pain in my ass.
Don Helms, Last Remaining Drifting Cowboy, Dead at 81
Don Helms, last of Hank Williams’ Drifting Cowboys, has died.
Mr. Helms was the last remaining link to the Drifting Cowboys. His guitar was heard on more than 100 of Williams’ recordings, including “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Cold, Cold Heart” and “I Can’t Help (It If I’m Still In Love With You).” His steel playing is an indelible part of those records, and after Williams’ death Mr. Helms went on to provide significant parts on recordings such as Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight,” Stonewall Jackson’s “Waterloo” and Lefty Frizzell’s “Long, Black Veil.” He played with other greats as well, including Loretta Lynn, Ernest Tubb, Ray Price, Jim Reeves and Webb Pierce.
…and that’s about all the Nashville Tennessean, from the home of country music, has to say about the steel player from one of country music’s most enduring voices. Classy. Classier than the New York Times, which doesn’t have even a mention of Mr. Helms, who played for a man covered by Tony bennet and Perry Como.
They don’t show him, but that’s Don helms on the lap steel.
Here’s some footage of Don playing with Bill White at a Hank Williams tribute:
and some latewr footage of
Chuckle
The Russian military advances represented the first time Russian forces invaded Georgia proper in the four-day-old conflict, which has unnerved the West and resurrected some Cold War anxieties. Georgian officials said Russian troops had moved into several other cities in western Georgia, holding out the prospect that fighting could escalate on a second front.
President Bush, in his sharpest comments about the conflict thus far, said Russia’s offensive was “unacceptable in the 21st century” and had “substantially damaged Russia’s standing in the world,” as well as harmed relations between Washington and Moscow.
“I am a pot,” Mr. Bush added, “and I want you all to know that this kettle is black. It is a very black kettle.”
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden shortly after returning from the Beijing Olympics, Mr. Bush said it was up to Russia to restore peace by withdrawing its forces from Georgia.
“The Russian government must respect Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said. But he did not suggest what the United States would do if Russia kept up its campaign in Georgia.
That’s what happens when you stick 3/4 of your country’s Army in Iraq. Jump up and down a little more, Rumplestiltskin: someone just called your bluff.
I Think the Shit is About to Hit the Fan
Although it hasn’t been as prominent in the news as truly important events like the Olympics and John Edwards’ mistress, but some really nutso aggression is going down between Georgia and Russia over the area of South Ossatia (no I hadn’t heard of it either before this weekend).
I’m honestly not sure who started it, but according to Jerome a Paris (a frequent kos writer) Georgia’s president Saakashvili is a neocon and has been provoking Russia for years, as has the Bush Adminsitration:
What changed in the past few years was the series of “color revolutions” in former Soviet republics, started in Ukraine (the orange revolution) and continued in Georgia (the rose one). These have often been profoundly misunderstood, and have been turned into a simplistic “brave democrats fighting to choke off the grip by the evil Putin on their country” narrative, which, oh so conveniently supplemented an extremely aggressive policy by Washington against Moscow.
No longer was Putin an ally or someone that could be worked with, he was evil incarnate. Whether this has anything to do with the fact that he prevented Yukos from merging with a US oil major, or blocked the construction of an oil pipeline and export terminal project to Murmansk that would not have been controlled by the State-owned pipeline monopoly, we’ll never know. But the fact remains that the steady policies of encirclement of Russia by bringing former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO, and then former Soviet Republics, and setting up massive military bases there continued and accelerated, despite earlier promises to Russia not to do that. And the rhetoric about Russia’s “energy weapon” suddenly turned strident in 2006 as the UK, the neocons’s faithful lapdog, suddenly realised it no longer had enough gas and had to find someone to blame for that state of fact rather than its insane ‘let the markets provide’ policies.
After telling us how Russia was behaving aggressively, threatening democracy in various countires bordering it, and how it was vital that we support these countries, including my military means (isn’t that what Georgia joining NATO was about - about “attacking one is attacking all”?), they tell us that we don’t want war with Russia?
Is it because Russia, after telling us what would be considered a casus belli by them, actually acted on such announcements, called Saakashvili’s bluff and responded with overwhelming force, kicking his ass, and by proxy, that of his gung-ho advisors in the WSJ and other neocon nests?
We don’t have to approve Russia’s policies to note that it has been consistent and unsurprising for anyone who bothered to listen to them (something neocons don’t seem to do, except to find proofs of hostility to justify their own macho posturing).
Even granting that Russia has conducted an aggessive, outward bound foreign policy (as opposed to the kinder version that says they are simply reacting to Western provocations) towards the former Soviet Republics and beyond, this whole episode should disqualify the neocons from ever speaking about foreign policy again - they claimed the need for strength, the need to call Russia on its imperialism, the need to beef up the military of the threatened countries and to support them with the full force of the alliance of democracies - and they dumped Georgia at the first opportunity, after Russia showed it was actually serious about fighting when it got under way?
We get the worst of both worlds: military build up, diplomatic tensions and deep mistrust within (former?) allies in the West, and defeat when the inevitable confrontation happens.
However, it’s never a good sign when Dead Eye Dick makes an appearance:
On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney said that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States.”
The crisis over South Ossetia appeared to ebb as Georgian troops began retreating and honoring a cease-fire, a claim Russia disputed. U.S. officials said Moscow was only broadening its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the region.
The sheer scope of Russia’s military response has the Bush administration deeply worried. Russia on Sunday expanded its bombing blitz in areas of Georgia not central to the fighting.
Cheney spoke Sunday afternoon with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Cheney press secretary Lee Ann McBride said. “The vice president expressed the United States’ solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” McBride said.
Asked to explain Cheney’s phrase “must not go unanswered,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, “It means it must not stand.” White House officials refused to indicate what recourse the United States might have if the military onslaught continues.
Right now, our so-called ally is getting their ass handed to them by the Russians (shades of his father in that one). Our military is bogged down in Iraq. Afghanistan is collapsing. The president is a despised lame duck.
What’s Dick gonna do?
