This is F’n Crazy, and Frankly, I’m Uneasy about It
Let me just say that Georgia is freak'n done-sy.
Looks like no matter what other nations call for Russia to do, they're still going to do whatever the hell they want. The truth is, Russia (in its government policies, not necessarily the people because, well, I just don't know what everyone's thinking) has not changed that much in terms of its mentality in the former Soviet neighborhood: it sees itself as "above" these former eastern bloc countries and are "well-deserved" to be the patrimonial overseer over the former Soviet neighborhood. Well, guess Russia's just doing what they have always done and ... just being themselves, always strong in personality ... blunt rebuttals and "waving the finger," mostly to the West. At the same time, what the hell was Georgia thinking -- taking over Russian-backed South Ossetia to "come into the West?" Fallacy in this thinking: 1) Even with all the military training they've been reinforcing before taking on South Ossetia, they wanted to challenge RUSSIA? Oh, so over-estimated themselves; 2) Did they actually think breaking away from Russia and coming into the West would be that easy? Did they forget Russia never lets go easily? Did they forget that the West is an exclusive gentlemen's club?
Do people think before they act anymore?
And, speaking of blunt, this is a blunt reminder that the 20th century hasn't left us for some far-away island oasis for vacation yet. It's still here. It still dictates our politics ... especially that of the Northern Hemisphere and former Soviet bloc.
And seems like Bush has issued his strongest warning yet, sending troops to oversee "humanitarian efforts," and wagging his finger at Russia, demanding them to abide by the cease-fire and withdraw its forces or risk its place in "the diplomatic, political, economic and security structures of the 21st century." In face of a huge bully of the former eastern bloc, I wonder if that would really work. Reminds me of trying to control bullies in grade school classrooms ....
What I am curious about is what Obama would do in the same situation. What do you think? Maybe we should write him. Hahaha!
August 15, 2008
Russia Vows to Support Two Enclaves, in Retort to Bush
By ELLEN BARRY and C.J. CHIVERS
MOSCOW — President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia said Thursday that Russia would act as an international guarantor of the two pro-Russian enclaves at the center of the crisis with Georgia, and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said that Georgia could "forget about" territorial integrity because of the war.
The comments did not stake out a new position, but together, they offered a sharp retort to President Bush's insistence a day earlier that "the sovereign and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected."
The Russian rebuke came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed to the region to work for a settlement and to show support for the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Speaking in France after meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy, she urged Russia to honor the truce and withdraw all of its troops.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, speaking in Washington, ruled out the use of American military force in connection with the conflict, but said that relations between the United States and Russia may have suffered long-lasting damage as a result of Russia's actions.
"I don't see any prospect for the use of military force by the United States in this situation," Mr. Gates said at a Pentagon briefing. "Clear enough?"Meanwhile, in Georgia, Russian forces briefly allowed the Georgian police to return to the city of Gori on Thursday morning as the Russian troops appeared to prepare to pull out. But joint patrols were canceled three hours later and the city returned to full Russian control.
In a further sign that Russian forces remained in control of key parts of Georgian territory, Russian tanks patrolled the city of Poti, a Black Sea port farther west.
Mr. Medvedev said he would support the independence aspirations of South Ossetians and Abkhazians in accordance with the United Nations Charter, international conventions of 1966 and the Helsinki Act on Security and Cooperation in European.
"You have been defending your land, and the right is on your side," Mr. Medvedev said at a meeting with leaders of the two breakaway regions.
"Russia's position is unchanged: we will support any decisions taken by the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in accordance with the U.N. Charter," he said, adding that "not only do we support but we will guarantee them."
As Ms. Rice traveled to Georgia, she stopped in France for discussions with Mr. Sarkozy, who brokered the cease-fire accord between Russia and Georgia.
Speaking after the two-hour meeting, at the president's summer residence in southeast France, Ms. Rice said: "The provisional cease-fire that was agreed to really must go into place. And that means that military activities have to cease."
Ms. Rice was due later to travel to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.On Wednesday, the United States and Georgia called the Russian advances into Gori and another strategic Georgian city a violation of the cease-fire agreement struck only hours earlier.
In response, Mr. Bush sent American troops to Georgia to oversee a "vigorous and ongoing" humanitarian mission, in a direct challenge to Russia's display of military dominance over the region. Mr. Bush demanded that Russia abide by the cease-fire and withdraw its forces or risk its place in "the diplomatic, political, economic and security structures of the 21st century." It was his strongest warning yet of potential retaliation against Russia over the conflict.
In his briefing, Mr. Gates said the American military's mission was to deliver supplies, provide shelter and take other steps of a strictly humanitarian nature.
However, he said "the entire premise" of relations between the United States and Russia had been called into question by Russia's conduct over the last week, and that the relationship between Washington and Moscow could be affected "for years to come" if Russia did not quickly withdraw its forces from Georgia.
"My personal view is, there needs to be some consequences" for Russia's behavior, he said. He did not suggest what those consequences should be, other than a lowering of Russia's image in the world.
Asked whether the curtain might be rising on "another cold war," Mr. Gates said that was "certainly not our desire." That question will be decided in "the days and months to come," he added, making it clear that he thinks Moscow holds the answer. "I think, frankly, that we have been pretty restrained," he said.
Russia's goal was not really peacekeeping and the protection of pro-Russian inhabitants of South Ossetia, he suggested. Rather, he said, it was to send a message to Georgia and other former Soviet states that they should think twice before "daring to try to integrate with the West."In Gori, which was the focus of international protest after Russia shelled it and occupied it on Wednesday, the attempt at joint patrols on Thursday suggested a cooling of tensions there.
Gori is just 40 miles from Tbilisi, and rumors had circulated on Wednesday of a possible advance on the city.
It was not clear why the joint patrols failed, but it appeared that personnel on the ground were in conflict. Around 10 a.m. Thursday, a Russian Army major ordered Georgian and Russian police officers to patrol in pairs. But this clearly did not last. "We had to go or there would have been shooting," said a Georgian officer, who would not give his name.
More than 30 Georgian police officers left Gori and returned to a post outside the city; shortly afterward Russian troops fired three artillery rounds. Their target was not clear.
In Poti, three Russian tanks were seen patrolling the city. Villagers there said the Russian tanks frequently made the 30-minute drive from their base just northeast in Senaki to Poti to perform exercises on an abandoned military base, with troops jumping off their tanks and sweeping the area around them.
A Georgian state television reporter was shot, but not seriously hurt, on Thursday afternoon while broadcasting live from the side of the road between Tbilisi and Gori. The reporter, Tamara Urushadze, wearing a flak jacket marked "TV," was speaking when muffled pops could be heard. She looked over her shoulder, then stepped sideways and fell in front of the camera. A bullet grazed her left wrist, and Ms. Urushadze continued broadcasting live as she held her bleeding arm.
In an interview on a liberal radio station, Ekho Moskvy, Mr. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said that Georgia's territorial integrity was "de facto limited" and that any agreement suggesting otherwise would be "deeply insulting" to the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
He also said he was not worried about the threat of international isolation, the Interfax news agency reported.
"I don't know how they are going to isolate us," he said.
The decision on Wednesday to send the American military, even on a humanitarian mission, deepened the United States' commitment to Georgia and American allies in the former Soviet sphere, just as Russia has been determined to reassert its control in the area.
A senior Pentagon official said Wednesday that the relief effort was intended "to show to Russia that we can come to the aid of a European ally, and that we can do it at will, whenever and wherever we want."
At a minimum, American forces in Georgia will test Russia's pledge to allow relief supplies into the country; they could also deter further Russian attacks, though at the risk of a potential military confrontation.
"We expect Russia to ensure that all lines of communication and transport, including seaports, airports, roads and airspace, remain open for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and for civilian transit," Mr. Bush said. "We expect Russia to meet its commitment to cease all military activities in Georgia, and we expect all Russian forces that entered Georgia in recent days to withdraw from that country."
Mr. Saakashvili, who had sharply criticized what he called a failure of the West to offer support, declared the United States relief operation a "turning point" in the conflict, which began last Thursday when Georgian forces tried to establish control in the breakaway region of South Ossetia, only to be routed by the Russians.
Mr. Saakashvili interpreted the aid operation as a decision to defend Georgia's ports and airports, though Bush administration and Pentagon officials quickly made it clear that would not be the case. A senior administration official said, "We won't be protecting the airport or seaport, but we'll certainly protect our assets if we need to."
Mr. Bush spoke in the Rose Garden of the White House on Wednesday, flanked by Ms. Rice and the secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates. He announced Ms. Rice's plans to fly to France and Georgia, but State Department officials said there were no plans for her to go to Moscow.
Mr. Bush's remarks, like the military operation he ordered, reflected a growing apprehension within the White House over Russia's offensive, as well as mounting frustration that Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whom Mr. Bush often calls a friend, was unmoved by appeals for moderation. Underscoring the urgency, Mr. Bush, who had remained at the Olympics in Beijing while the conflict erupted, postponed a planned trip to his ranch in Crawford, Tex., which was to have begun on Thursday.
The first relief aircraft, a C-17 transporter carrying medical supplies and materials for shelter for thousands displaced by the fighting, arrived in Tbilisi on Wednesday; a second was due Thursday.
Ms. Rice called Mr. Lavrov, and informed him about the relief operation. The presence of American troops to help the aid mission will also allow the United States to monitor whether Russia was honoring the cease-fire.
At a news conference at the State Department on Wednesday, Ms. Rice evoked some of the darkest memories of the cold war, though she stopped well short of promises of direct military support to Georgia.
"This is not 1968, and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can invade its neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it," she said. "Things have changed."
She and Mr. Bush gave credence to Georgia's accusations that Russian forces continued to operate in violation of the cease-fire. Russia insisted that all of its operations were permitted under the agreement.
The cease-fire included a provision that required Russian forces to withdraw to their "normal bases of encampment" but also allowed them to "implement additional security measures."
A senior American official said the vague language "would allow the Russians to do almost anything."
Only hours after the agreement was reached early Wednesday, a Russian tank battalion occupied parts of Gori, a strategic city in central Georgia. Hundreds of additional Russian soldiers also poured over the border from Russia into South Ossetia, accompanied by fuel trucks and attack helicopters.
The presence of Russian forces in Gori frayed nerves as rumors circulated of an attack on Tbilisi itself. A Russian battalion commander, at a checkpoint on the highway from Gori to the capital, spoke menacingly of Mr. Saakashvili.
"If he doesn't understand the situation, we'll have to go further," the commander said on the condition of anonymity. "He doesn't seem to understand that the Russian Army is much stronger than the Georgian Army. His tanks remain in their places. His air force is dead. His navy is also. His army is demoralized."
Ellen Barry reported from Moscow and C.J. Chivers from Gori, Georgia. Reporting was contributed by Steven Lee Myers, Thom Shanker and Helene Cooper from Washington, Sabrina Tavernise from Gori, Andrew Kramer from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Katrin Bennhold from Paris..
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