Gorbachev slams US's 'serious blunder'

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/gorbachev-slams-uss-serious-blunder/2008/08/12/1218306832712.html

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, commenting on the Russia-Georgia conflict, has accused the United States of making a "serious blunder" in pursuing its interest in the Caucasus region.

He also said the US charge that Russia was committing aggression in Georgia was "not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity".

"By declaring the Caucasus, a region that is thousands of miles from the American continent, a sphere of its 'national interest,' the United States made a serious blunder," Gorbachev said in an opinion piece to be published in the Washington Post on Tuesday.

Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, said Russia was not seeking territorial expansion, but it has "legitimate interests" in this region.

Russia sent its tanks and troops to pro-Moscow South Ossetia on Friday in response to pro-Western Georgia's military offensive to take back the province, which broke away in the early 1990s after a separatist war.

US President George W Bush warned Russia not to overthrow Georgia's government, saying Moscow's invasion of its neighbour wounded its world standing and endangered ties with the West.

[babylonsister]

1. GWB, STFU. Any warnings, about anything, should not come

from you, asshole.

I don't know who or what to believe.

[BRLIB]

2. Mike Malloy just read Gorbachev's full response, I am looking for it.

Malloy spent all weekend trying to get to the truth, which you will not hear in this country.

I just found this article, right before I saw the post.

Also Georgia has some 30 times increase in military spending lately, backed by US and Israel, including training by US military...

[seemslikeadream]

3. egged on Mikheil Saakashvili,

http://www.slate.com/id/2197281/


Regardless of what happens next, it is worth asking what the Bush people were thinking when they egged on Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's young, Western-educated president, to apply for NATO membership, send 2,000 of his troops to Iraq as a full-fledged U.S. ally, and receive tactical training and weapons from our military. Did they really think Putin would sit by and see another border state (and former province of the Russian empire) slip away to the West? If they thought that Putin might not, what did they plan to do about it, and how firmly did they warn Saakashvili not to get too brash or provoke an outburst?

It's heartbreaking, but even more infuriating, to read so many Georgians quoted in the New York Times—officials, soldiers, and citizens—wondering when the United States is coming to their rescue. It's infuriating because it's clear that Bush did everything to encourage them to believe that he would. When Bush (properly) pushed for Kosovo's independence from Serbia, Putin warned that he would do the same for pro-Russian secessionists elsewhere, by which he could only have meant Georgia's separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Putin had taken drastic steps in earlier disputes over those regions—for instance, embargoing all trade with Georgia—with an implicit threat that he could inflict far greater punishment. Yet Bush continued to entice Saakashvili with weapons, training, and talk of entry into NATO. Of course the Georgians believed that if they got into a firefight with Russia, the Americans would bail them out.

Bush pressed the other NATO powers to place Georgia's application for membership on the fast track. The Europeans rejected the idea, understanding the geo-strategic implications of pushing NATO's boundaries right up to Russia's border. If the Europeans had let Bush have his way, we would now be obligated by treaty to send troops in Georgia's defense. That is to say, we would now be in a shooting war with the Russians. Those who might oppose entering such a war would be accused of "weakening our credibility" and "destroying the unity of the Western alliance."

[malaise]

5. Good post

The Europeans have described it as a massive strategic blunder - aka a clusterfuck - Bush at his best.
Innocents die because he's obsessed with 'his' national interest.

Fuck this fucking planet.

[Dover]

4. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of U.S. instructors, and its sophisticated military

Gorby's statement in the Washington Post:

A Path to Peace In The Caucasus


....What happened on the night of Aug. 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond. To accuse it of aggression against "small, defenseless Georgia" is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity.

Mounting a military assault against innocents was a reckless decision whose tragic consequences, for thousands of people of different nationalities, are now clear. The Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of U.S. instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of NATO membership, emboldened Georgian leaders into thinking that they could get away with a "blitzkrieg" in South Ossetia.

In other words, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was expecting unconditional support from the West, and the West had given him reason to think he would have it. Now that the Georgian military assault has been routed, both the Georgian government and its supporters should rethink their position.

Hostilities must cease as soon as possible, and urgent steps must be taken to help the victims -- the humanitarian catastrophe, regretfully, received very little coverage in Western media this weekend...cont'd

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081101372.html