Russia has just invaded Georgia.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/08/georgia.russia2

Georgia today called on the US to step in after Russian tanks rolled across the border to aid separatists in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

The Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, said it was in US interests to help his "freedom-loving" nation. In an interview with CNN, he said: "Russia is fighting a war with us in our own territory. "It's not about Georgia any more. It's about America, its values. We are a freedom-loving nation that is right now under attack."

His plea came during a three-hour ceasefire in heavy bombardment of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, by Georgian forces. At least 10 Russian peacekeepers have been killed and 30 injured. Fifteen civilians have died.

Russian forces invaded the regional capital, Tskhinvali, and bombed a military airbase outside the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, after the president, Dmitry Medvedev, said it was his duty to punish those responsible for Russian deaths.

[thewiseguy]

1. Well Georgia started this

[malaise]

26. You kill 12 peacekeepers and don't expect a response

Those lunatics are crazy.

[DavidDvorkin]

35. The "peacekeepers" were there against Georgia's wishes

Russia decided they would stay, even after Georgia told them to leave.

Were they there to keep the peace, or to protect the separationists from the government? I suspect that Georgia saw it as the latter.

[Odin2005]

60. Those so-called peace-keepers are RUSSIAN OCCUPIERS. n/t.

[jayfish]

36. Right...

:eyes:

GEORGIA ENDS AGREEMENT FOR PEACEKEEPERS IN ABKHAZIA
Russia warns Georgia detaining peacekeepers may end in bloodshed
TIMELINE - Georgia and Russia's worsening relations

I don't think the blame game is a great idea here.

Jay

EDIT TO FIX BROKEN LINKS

[SidneyCarton]

41. The Caucasus is a nightmare.

There are offenses that go way back there, and everyone's memory is long. The Russians still act like they own the place, and all 3 of the Transcaucasian states (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) alternately allow themselves to be manipulated by the Russians, and engage in very dangerous violent behavior. The Georgians started this with Russian provocation, due to Georgian instability, due to Soviet ethnicities policies, etc. etc...

[sudopod]

40. Too-Tall Lincoln started this damn war!

Hugs n Kisses,



The Confederacy

[zanne]

2. Another Big Muddy?

We can't get involved in another war right now, guys. We're busy in Afghanistand and Iraq. Check with us later.

[BR_Parkway]

3. That headline will have every redneck in South Carolina grabbing for their

guns and ammo!

[jakem]

4. Hotlanta must not fall!

but seriously, WTF is going on with this?

[Strelnikov_]

6. The next act of the last man standing resource war

Blocking action through this region means that the Putinist's control the flow of energy resources from the Caspian unless Iran is 'pacified'.

++++

BTC pipeline

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTC_Pipeline

Is down

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3751397

++++


Putin has long been nursing ambitions of using Russia's vast oil and gas supplies as an instrument of power. In the mid '90s, after 15 years in the KGB, Putin went back to school, attending the St. Petersburg Mining Institute. He wrote a dissertation titled "Toward a Russian Transnational Energy Company." The topic: how to use energy resources for grand strategic planning.

“In the early stages of pro-market reforms in Russia the state temporarily lost strategic control over the mineral resources industry. This led to the stagnation and disintegration of the geological sector built over many decades…. However, today the market euphoria of the early years of economic reform is gradually giving room to a more balanced approach that... recognises the need for a regulatory role of the state.”

- Vladimir Putin, “Toward a Russian Transnational Energy Company.”, PhD dissertation, St. Petersburg Mining Institute


”The Rouble must become a more widespread means of international transactions. To this end, we need to open a stock exchange in Russia to trade in oil, gas, and other goods to be paid for in Roubles. Our goods are traded on global markets. Why are not they traded in Russia?”

— President Vladimir Putin, Speaking before the full Russian parliament, Cabinet and international reporters, May 2006


”Russia has found the Achilles’ heel of the US colossus. In concert with its oil-producing partners and the rising powerhouse economies of the East, Russia is altering the foundations of the current US-led liberal global oil-market order, insidiously working to undermine its US-centric nature and slanting it toward serving first and foremost the energy-security needs and the geopolitical aspirations of the rising East”

- W. Joseph Stroupe, author, Russian Rubicon: Impending Checkmate of the West, as quoted in the Asia Times, November 22, 2006


From the Russian perspective, the Saudi role and OPEC model have benefited the United States, which can pressure Saudi Arabia into opening the spigot to deal with supply emergencies; the US also pressures other oil producers, such as Libya, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, and Indonesia, by military methods, diplomacy, and economic sanctions. In the Russian alternative, the US will be far less influential, and have fewer levers, commercial or military, to effect pressure on the energy suppliers. Russian arms and defense-industry partnerships are on offer to relatively weak, intervention-prone energy producers in Africa and Latin America to offset US pressure.

In the OPEC model, the benchmark is Brent crude, priced in US dollars. In the Russian model, the discount and disadvantage between the Brent and Urals benchmarks will be reduced, and pricing will evolve toward a currency basket, including the ruble. In the OPEC model, suppliers hold much of their cash and government securities in US controlled institutions. In the Russian model, cash is held in the form of a currency basket; conversion from cash is sought into non-US assets, particularly in the European market.

In the OPEC model, investment in new energy reserves should be open to, and may be controlled by, US corporations. In the Russian model, strategic reserves should be controlled by national companies, state-controlled champions, or joint ventures in which Russian interests are in the majority. The Russian model also extends to energy-convertible coal, uranium, and other mineral resources. Through negotiations for Russian accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the US, Australia, Canada and other resource-exporting states have sought to gain unlimited access to search and development of Russian minable resources.

The Russian model rejects this, and instead assigns priority and equity control of domestic resources to national resource companies. The model proposes tradeoffs and partnerships in resource exploitation in third countries, especially the developing states. The US-backed OPEC model assigns international priority to the Arab states. The Russian model assigns priority to the Central Asian alliance, including China, India, and Iran; secondarily to Latin America and ultimately Africa.”

- John Helmer, “Russian energy model challenges OPEC,” Asia Times, July 18, 2006,


In the end, the choice between these two alternatives — Grab the Oil or Energy Reconfiguration — this decision is much bigger than oil alone. It is a choice about the fundamental ethos and, in fact, the very nature of the country. Most immediately, it is about democracy versus empire. In economic terms, it is about prosperity or poverty. In engineering terms, it is a matter of efficiency over waste. In moral terms this is the choice of sufficiency or gluttony. From the standpoint of the environment, it is a preference for stewardship over continued predation. In the ways the US deals with other countries it is the choice of co-operation versus dominance. And in spiritual terms, it is the choice of hope, freedom and purpose over fear, dependency and despair. In this sense, this is truly the decision that will define the future of America and perhaps the world.

- Robert Freeman, “Will the End of Oil Mean the End of America?,” 2004

[jakem]

11. sigh.

[bushmeister0]

31. Saddam tried something similar, attempting to trade his oil in Euros and look where it got him!

And got us!

[CatWoman]

13. the south shall rise again!!!

:)

[King Coal]

49. Sic Sherman on those Ruskies!

[tannybogus]

14. LOL!

I'm in SC. Screw Atlanta. We'll fight to the death for Myrtle Beach. Bet the Citadel cadets have

raced to the battery to watch Fort Sumter and look for "The Star of the West."

:hide:

[SidneyCarton]

43. Nah, I think we'll let you go this time.

On the conditions that you take GWB with you. We don't want him.

[tannybogus]

54. I'd rather face reconstruction again.

GWB can go to Elba.:evilgrin:

[raccoon]

15. MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA--You gotta check this out::

MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA
by Henry Clay Work

Ring the good ol' bugle, boys, we'll sing another song,
Sing it with the spirit that will start the world along,
Sing it as we used to sing it 50,000 strong
While we were marching through Georgia.

CHORUS:Hurrah, hurrah, we bring the jubilee!
Hurrah, hurrah, the flag that makes you free!
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea
While we were marching through Georgia!

How the darkies shouted when they heard the joyful sound!
How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found!
How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground
While we were marching through Georgia!--CHORUS

Yes, and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears
When they saw the honored flag they had not seen for years.
Hardly could they be restrained from breaking forth in cheers
While we were marching through Georgia!--CHORUS

"Sherman's dashing Yankee boys will never reach the coast!"
So the saucy rebels said, and 'twas a handsome boast,
Had they not forgot, alas, to reckon with the host
While we were marching through Georgia!--CHORUS

So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train,
Sixty miles in latitude, 300 to the main.
Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain
While we were marching through Georgia!--CHORUS

http://www.civilwarpoetry.org/union/songs/marchga.html

[tannybogus]

17. I have never met a Southerner named Sherman.

His name is still mud. Hell, there are those here still fighting about taking the flag down.

[Mudoria]

28. Yep.. too bad Sherman didn't catch a bullet to the head imo

[sudopod]

44. My 7th grade science teacher was named Mr. Sherman.

Though he was from Kentucky, originally. :p

[tannybogus]

55. That was a last name.

Don't know anyone who was named that.:hi:

[sudopod]

45. lol, double poast. nt

[nerddem]

18. NO BLOOD FOR... ...COKE

[Ahpook]

42. Hehe, i can hear them loading up now:)

[Fox Mulder]

58. Funniest post of the day!

:rofl:

[Wickerman]

5. I guess the Republicans were finally right

the Russians were coming to get us! A decade or two late...











:rofl:

[Seen the light]

7. This is a good way to usher in the Olympic spirit n/t

[Dark]

8. They can have it. Hell, give'em Alabama too.

nt

[SoCalDem]

9. and Pootie-Poot & Georgie are watching the Olympics

Not much from the new president of Russia, eh? The Popeel Pocket Pootie-Protege..

[snappyturtle]

10. I guess we should be happy about this:

'International leaders called for peace. A spokesman for George Bush, who is in China, said: "All sides should bring an immediate end to the violence and engage in direct talks to resolve this matter peacefully."'

Doesn't sound like the good ol' bush way to me. Nice that our president could go on vacation at our expense when transportation costs are so high....well, for most of us.

[EstimatedProphet]

12. I hope they'll do something about Columbus while they're there.

[tannybogus]

16. Richard Holbrooke predicted this.

Former U.S. Ambassador Discusses Georgia, Kosovo

NEW YORK, March 21, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and chief architect of the Dayton peace accords that ended the Bosnian war, remains a leading commentator on foreign affairs in the United States. RFE/RL correspondent Nikola Krastev asked him about Kosovo, Russia, and Georgia.

RFE/RL: In an article published in November 2006 you argued that Georgia has become the stage for a "blatant effort at regime change, Russian-style." Do you still view the situation in the same manner?

Richard Holbrooke: I was hopeful that the temperature was going down in Georgia and then last week there was this airplane incident, helicopters attacking. So, I don't know what's going on, I'm not in touch with the people in Georgia right now, but I remain concerned about the situation because they are still blockading some exchanges between Georgia and Russia. They should make this a normal border again.

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1075399.html

This is old but it could have been written today. Holbrooke was just on MSNBC. He said it was no accident that Russia did this with the Olympics going on. He said Putin and Bush are in China now picking their noses. Not really - I just made the nose picking up. Bush is probably picking his nose though.I wonder if Bush will look into Putin's eyes and try to devine how to stop this mess.
:nuke: Scarey!

[deaniac21]

19. Oh man, SI has just picked them preseason No. 1.

[tannybogus]

20. They're screwed.

The SI curse will get them!:yoiks:

[MountainLaurel]

21. Oh dear

This doesn't bode well. At all.

[Hubert Flottz]

22. Does this mean that Bobby Barr won't be pResident?

[Postman]

23. There are "terrorists" in Georgia. Russia is simply implementing the US model.

What's good for the goose.....

[DavidDvorkin]

24. Why the jokes?

Is the name coincidence sufficient reason to treat what's happening as comedy?

[tannybogus]

25. We are whistling past the graveyard.

I don't think it's funny, but what am I gonna do. My head will explode if I try to worry about everything going on.
Just humor to relieve stress.:hide:

[Connie_Corleone]

27. It was frustrating reading thru this thread and not getting any relevant info.

It's a very serious situation. Yeah the name is Georgia. haha very funny.

Can we actually discuss the original topic now?

[jayfish]

29. To The Point Of The Post.

We will do nothing. Our "spreading freedom and democracy" meme will be laid threadbare.

Jay

[Strelnikov_]

33. If the cold war was a war, we are now at a defacto state of war with Russia

Not much to joke about in that.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3751753#3751827

[bushmeister0]

39. Indeed. Hear, hear! What's Camp Bondsteel doing in Kosovo?

From a previous post, some possibly useful info:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3403983&mesg_id=3404072

"The Atimes:

"The Caucasus Republic of Georgia, as nations go, is not apparently a major global player. Yet Washington has invested huge sums and organized to put its own despot, Mikhail Saakashvili, in the presidency in order to close a nuclear North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) iron ring around Russia.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the capital Tbilisi and made sharp statements against Moscow for supporting the separatist Georgian states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in essence blaming Moscow for an imminent war Washington has incited in order to bring Georgia into NATO by the December NATO summit.

Western media have either tended to ignore the growing tensions in the strategic Caucasus region or to suggest, as Rice does that the entire conflict is being caused by Moscow's support of the 'breakaway' republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In reality, a quite different chess game is being played in the region, one which has the potential to detonate a major escalation of tensions between Moscow and NATO."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JG16Ag01.html

Note that during her very successful sweep through the region last week, her getting the Czechs to sign on the dotted line for W.'s pie in the sky missile defense radar system drew the Russian's ire. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying "We will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods."

Soon after Pravda announced:

"Russia cut the amount of exported crude to the Czech Republic twice last week, which made the country use its owns state crude reserves. Russia started the reduction of shipments immediately after the Czech authorities signed an agreement to deploy a US radar station in the country. Czech media assumed that the reduction of fuel shipments became Russia’s response to the decision."

http://newsfromrussia.com/world/europe/14-07-2008/10577...

F William Engdahl write for the ATimes:

"It makes abundantly clear that Washington is aiming its military strategy at the dismantling of Russia as a potential adversary. That is a recipe for a possible nuclear war by miscalculation. Rice's latest Caucasus and Czech visit only added to that growing danger."

Georgia is just a sideshow, Kosovo is the nexus:

From a lenghty investigation at my blog a while back . . .

There are alll kinds of pipelines coming on line, both Russian and Western, that all happen to wind up one way or another near Kosovo, the gateway to Europe from the east. The Russians are very much into the idea of them being the sole suppliers of natural gas and oil to Western Europe. They apparently will stop at nothing to assure this happens.

(The Russians, in fact, just signed a big deal with the Serbian gov. for their South Stream pipeline which envisions transportation of 10 billion cu m of Russian gas annually across the Black Sea.)

There's only one thing standing in their way. A huge US military base in Kosovo.

Camp Bondsteel

Back in '99 the US began building a military base in southern Kosovo to "keep the peace" in the Balkans after the Serbs withdrew.

From the World Socialist web site:

"Camp Bondsteel, the biggest 'from scratch' foreign US military base since the Vietnam War is near completion in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. It is located close to vital oil pipelines and energy corridors presently under construction, such as the US sponsored Trans-Balkan oil pipeline. As a result defence contractors—in particular Halliburton Oil subsidiary Brown & Root Services—are making a fortune. "

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/apr2002/oil-a29.shtml

globalsecurity.com:

"Camp Bondsteel is quite large: 955 acres or 360,000 square meters. If you were to run the outer perimeter, it is about 7 miles. Bondsteel is located on rolling hills and farmland near the city of Ferizaj/Urosevac. There are two dining facilities at Camp Bondsteel: one in North town and one in South town. The food is very well prepared and there are always a variety of main and side dishes to choose from. There are also salad bars, potato bars and multiple dessert offerings. Due to General Order #1, only alcohol-free beer is served, but it is better than nothing! There are set hours for meals, but each dining facility also has a 24-hour section for sandwiches, coffee, fruit, and continental breakfast items."

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/camp-bondsteel.htm

According to Stars and Stripes:

"KFOR has split what are now 16,000 troops into five brigade-sized task forces, each of which includes a different contingent of KFOR’s 35 NATO and non-NATO members. The U.S. is the lead nation for Multinational Task Force (East), which is headquartered at Camp Bondsteel. MNTF (E) also includes units from Armenia, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Ukraine."

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55950&archive=true

Original post:

http://imnotworthy.blogspot.com/2008/03/gwot-all-roads-lead-through-kosovo-oil.html

That's a whole lot of troops to watch over a "country" of 2 million people, ten years after the war ended.

Speaking of the whole Kosovo independence thing.

Naturally, W. did what he always does before making a potentially world changing decision, hunkered down with his advisors and chewed over every detail for months before deciding that, yes, backing Kosovar independence was the way to go. Knowing all the geopolitical pitfalls involving the Russians etc, he is the Decider.

That's not actually really not how it happened, of course.

From the WaPo:

"'At some point in time, sooner rather than later, you've got to say: Enough's enough -- Kosovo is independent,' Bush said. Responding to a reporter's question in Rome on Saturday, Bush had said a deadline should be set for a U.N. resolution on Kosovo's independence. 'In terms of the deadline, there needs to be one,' he said. 'This needs to come -- this needs to happen.'

Asked Sunday about when he would like that deadline set, Bush seemed flummoxed. 'I don't think I called for a deadline,' he said. Told that he had, Bush responded: 'I did? What exactly did I say? I said, 'Deadline'? Okay, yes, then I meant what I said."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...

That's how the big boys do it!

[bushmeister0]

50. The price of stupidity. The "Kosovo precedent."

Enerpub:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly linked the Kosovo issue to the other frozen conflicts where Moscow exerts influence -Transdniester, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Chechen separatist envoy Akhmed Zakayev said he believes Putin doesn't want to be held responsible for a UN decision on Kosovo's future, but that once its status is decided, he will use it for his own ends.

'Putin understands that in order to formalize legally the de facto annexation of these republics - from Moldova to Georgia - he needs precisely the Kosovo precedent, and he will get it,' Zakaev told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service from London today."

http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=9884

Serbianunity.com

"PARIS — Vladimir Putin has criticized the daily Le Monde for referring to South Ossetia and Abkhazia as separatist regions, while not using the same phrase for Kosovo.

'You said separatist? Why didn’t you use this word about Kosovo?' the Russian prime minister wondered in an interview for the Paris daily, published on Saturday.

'You cannot answer, and this is because you do not have an answer,' Putin continued.

The journalist then remarked that 'in Abkhazia, it was the Georgians who had been ethnically cleansed, while in Kosovo, the situation was quite the opposite since it was the Albanians that were exposed to this practice'.

But Putin said that the two things were 'not at all opposite'.

'Thousands of Serbs can’t return to Kosovo. Hundreds of thousands,' he said.

'Where did you see refugees coming back to Kosovo,' he continued. 'Don’t tell me stories, I know what is really going on there.'"

http://news.serbianunity.net/2008/06/02/7833/

"What exactly did I say? I said, 'Deadline'? Okay, yes, then I meant what I said."

Kaboom!

[muriel_volestrangler]

51. I don't see why Kosovo is important to the South Stream pipeline

After all, it goes through Bulgaria, Hungary and Italy - all NATO countries - and doesn't go through Kosovo.

[bushmeister0]

53. Marvin: It's all in the same neighborhood and Kosovo is the main highway.

RIA Novosti:

"Russian presidential front-runner Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that Serbia had been engaged in the South Stream gas pipeline project to show support for Belgrade in the ongoing Kosovo dispute. . . Russia and Serbia signed a draft agreement on Monday to build a gas pipeline for the transit of Russian natural gas through the Balkan country.

The agreement signed in Belgrade in the presence of Medvedev and Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica is scheduled to result in a contract on February 28. On the same day another contact on the South Stream project will be signed with Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsan following talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The South Stream project is planned to transport 10 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually across the Black Sea, with the first deliveries scheduled for 2013.

South Stream was proposed by Gazprom and Italy's Eni and is a rival project to the Nabucco pipeline backed by the EU and U.S., which will pump Central Asian gas to Europe via Turkey bypassing Russia. Nabucco, which is due to go on line by 2011, will involve Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.

Addressing Kostunica on Monday, Medvedev reaffirmed that Moscow would maintain its firm stand on the territorial integrity of Serbia."

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080226/100089312.html

Note the comment on the "territorial integrity" of Serbia.

[muriel_volestrangler]

63. Yeah, that means Russia is friendly with Serbia

They always have been. That was one of the causes of WW1 - Russia backed Serbia against Austria. So one of the 2 routes for the pipeline (the other being via Bulgaria and Greece) to Italy goes via Serbia - for which Serbia will get a bit of money, and be able to take gas from the pipe too. Russia wants Serbia to know it's still its friend.

But what are you saying the US needs a huge camp in the neighbouring Kosovo for? It's not as if they'll want to cut the pipeline supplying Italy, is it?

[bushmeister0]

64. I'm assuming

they would prefer Russia's South Stream line is upended and the Baku/Ceyhan line through Georgia is the one that supplies Europe.

I don't think the powers that be are too happy with the Italian set up with the Russians. They're used to the Italians and their opportunistic shennanigans. Remember the old man who ran the whore house in Catch 22?

"I was a fascist when Mussolini was on top. Now that he has been deposed, I am anti-fascist. When the Germans were here, I was fanatically pro-German. Now I'm fanatically pro-American. You'll find no more loyal partisan in all of Italy than myself."

Maybe, I'm just paranoid, though. Why do you think one of our largest military bases is in the heart of the Balkans, ten year after the last war there?

[SpookyCat]

52. Not everyone understands/appreciates gallows humor...

that's true, and for you and others who don't it seems callous and shallow. I understand that.

But for those of us who do, it is vital. I assure you with no hyperbole, if I couldn't laugh at the absurd and horrific, I would have been dead long ago by my own hand.

As another poster stated, there's too much to absorb to not release some steam, and for folks like us, that means dark jokes.

Please understand for many of us it's simply a defense mechanism, I certainly mean no offense by it.

:hi:

[RollWithIt]

30. Some background on this:

Basically the southern province of South Ossetia was breaking away from Georgia. The rebels in South Ossetia were Russian backed. On Friday the Georgian government began an attack on the region to secure its own borders. Several Russian peacekeepers were killed (some reports say almost a dozen). Now the Russians are rolling into South Ossetia in response.

[Connie_Corleone]

32. Thanks for the background on this.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

34. More:

The Ossetia region is roughly divided in half, the Northern part being part of Russia and seemingly happy about it, the Southern part being part of Georgia but wishing to join the Northern part, an inclination that greatly pleases Russia and greatly pisses Georgia, Hijinx ensue.

[jayfish]

38. See Post 36 For A Recent Chronology. -NT-

Jay

[underpants]

37. What a wonderful start to the Olympics

:eyes:

[LeftishBrit]

46. Hell. Bloody hell!

I hope that this doesn't end up as total disaster.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

47. It's hard to see how it can't, frankly.

NT

[bushmeister0]

48. Lots of video from Georgia via the BBC.

Looks and sounds like a war to me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7548664.stm

How'd the Russians get so many tanks together and on the road so quick? Looks like they might have been planning this for a while. Hmmm . . .

[Danieljay]

56. So what. We do it. Why can't Russia. I mean, who the hell are we ?

:sarcasm:

[tannybogus]

57. Let's hope W doesn't try to prove anything.

I hope he doesn't have some warped idea that he has to show Putin he's just as tough by hitting Iran.

Oy Vey!:yoiks:

[baby_mouse]

66. Are you kidding? He wouldn't dare. NT.

[tannybogus]

59. Where are we going?

And why are we in this handbasket!!?
:shrug:

[kenny blankenship]

61. What does this have to do with John Edwards' penis

-exactly?

[Disturbed]

62. The Busholini Regime will not openly support Georgia with

Military force.

[Karenina]

65. Let us hope not...

:hide:

Can we get a few recs going here? Danke!

[baby_mouse]

67. That's what I wanted to know. NT