Russia has pretty much seen fit to ignore the Georgia ceasefire agreement hurriedly cobbled together by French President Sarkozy, and the EU is doing very little about it if anything.The Russians have announced support for the 'independence' for the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, with the announced intention that they will soon be part of Russia, and they still maintain a stranglehold on what's left of Georgia.
The EU's response has been pathetic.
What they mainly agreed to in an emergency meeting today was (a)to issue yet another warning to Moscow to abide by their agreements, 'or else' they'll cancel a meeting with Russia on mutual cooperation: (b)to threaten another scary emergency meeting of the EU if Russia refused to keep its word; (c) to appoint an EU bureaucrat to monitor the situation; (d)to shelve any notion of meaningful sanctions and (e) to throw some aid money at what's left of Georgia to salve their collective conscience.
And oh yes - At Poland's insistence a specific mention was inserted about the importance of building ties with Ukraine.
That's about it, and I'm sure Putin is absolutely quaking in his moccasins.
Actually, the Russians were pretty quick to respond, with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov urging Europe to follow its "core interests."
By that, what he meant was simple blackmail. The EU imports about a third of its oil and about 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, and now with the rape of Georgia, th eRussians are in position to cut off Europe from the gas and oil of Central Asia entirely. And the European winter approaches.
I have a feeling that President Bush and the American troops stationed in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and those missile defense bases are starting to look very different to the EU about now. It might be a very good time to re-negotiate the terms of some of those military facilities if they want us despised Yankees to hang around. Perhaps our insisting on a suitable EU contribution to the cost of deploying them on foreign soil might be in order.
3 comments:
Hypocrit Europeans! Said something against unproportional Russian response and NOTHING, NOT a single word to what has caused this response! Not a single word of condemnation of GEORGIAN AGGRESSION against South Ossetia!
Therefore, according to EU aggression is normal, killing of civilians in night devastating of a city and villages is normal, while forcing to peace and destruction of genocidal army is "aggression".
Double standard hypocrites supporters of mass murderer war criminal Bush!
Hello, Ipz, and welcome to JoshuaPundit.
Let's not mince words here. The Russians had this planned well in advance. They sponsored attacks by their proxies in South Ossetia on Georgia for months prior to the war, and they had a full combat force ready to go in when the Georgians responded.
Given how poor the Russian military is at logistics generally, they had everything in place beforehand.
And BTW, no reputable journalists who aren't Russians have found any evidence of Georgians deliberately targeting civilians or comitting a `genocide'...although the Russians and their Ossetian militia 'allies' obviously had no problem with going after civilians.
What this is about is Russia wanting its empire back and wanting to be able to blackmail Europe by taking control of the last pipeline from Central Asia that wasn't Russian controlled.
And I agree with you...the EU IS a bunch of craven hypocrites to allow it.
Russai is a dying nation, and they'd be much better off spending their petrodollars on their infrastructure an dinvesting in their country rather than invading someone else's. But then, Putin and the other apparatchnicks have no real interest in Russai aside from raping its wealth anyway. Like his pals, Putin's $40 billion dollar fortune is squirrelled away in Switzerland and Liechenstein.
Regards,
ff
Ip206
Much has been said about how Georgia attacked South Ossetia. The statement that nothing has been said about this seems to be emphatically incorrect. The standard line within the main stream media is Georgia attacked South Ossetia. The Georgians have come under writhing criticism within the media for this. Now admittedly there has been some tepid criticism of Russia for something about a disproptiante response. Generally the Geogian claims that South Ossetian militia were attacking Georgian civilians has been ignored or downplayed in the media. Also, as Freedom Fighter points out the media seems to have found no credible evidence of Georgians targeting South Ossetians. If the past is any guide, the Western and American news media wants to side iwth Russia for two reasons. 1.) They have always had an infatuation with leftists movements and by extnesion they are infatuated by Russia. 2.) Vladimir Putin and Russia have demonstrated a willingness and ability to to kill their critics any where in the world. Not to many people want to risk they or their families being on the receiving end of a KGB assaination. The meida wants to side with Russia and they cannot seem to find credible evidence of Georgians attacking South Ossetian civilians. For example, no prime time interviews of the appropiate Georgian officals. In spite of this, the Russian position has become the standard line within the press, yet they are having trouble defending the Russian position. Had the US done what Russia did, there would already be a general assembly resolution at the UN condemming American actions. Yet the UM does not even do any thing symbolic to oppose Russian actions.
I think part of the problem stems from the Russian response to a country that posed no threat to them and the Russian response to any kind of criticism is to accuse those critisizing of vilifying them. The media has gone out of its way to try and present the Russian position. The problme seems to be that the Russian position is so implausible that not as many people as the Russians would like are buying it.
Freedom Fighter:
You write: "The EU's response has been pathetic." I agree, however, there is not much they can do. They allowed their military to completely deterioate. At this point, it would probably take them years to get it back to a level that could challenge Russia and I would not expect Russia to sit around while they do that.
I might also point out that the Russian military may be better at logistics than you give them credit for. I still think they planned this. This should not surprise us, as major powers plan for a variety of contingencies. They saw there opportunity and with the help of their friends in the news media who largely ignored the South Ossetina provocations they took advanatage to recapture a portion of their empire.
The primary criticism that Russia has faced is that according to the media its response was disproportional. As stated previously, had the US done something like what Russia did the media critisism would be far more severe than anything Russia has faced.
I would tend to agree with you on those bases that the US has in Europe. If the US asked them to help foot the bill for them, they would probably tell us to leave. I wish it were as simply as simply leaving them but it may not be. Russia will never forgive us for the loss of their empire. Even if the US gives up its status as a major world power, Russia may still target us for destruction. As it is right now, I think we need those bases for monitoring of Russia if nothing else.
As you point out, Russia is a dying country. This dying country has the most advanced nuclear arsenal on the planet, the most advanced delivery system on the planet, the largest stockpile of WMD on the planet, one of the best intellegence agencies on the planet, they have made clear they see Aemrica as their main enemy, and their leader may be a mad man. Recently Mr.Putin accused the Americans of provoking the conflict in Georgia to help a certain candidate in the up coming presidential election. If he really believes this, he is mad. If he is mad, he may be unpredictable. Of course there is the chance that he is simply repeating the Kremlin's propaganda that he likely helped write.
In sumamry, Russia is by far and away the greatest threat to the free world at the present time. The threat posed to Aemrica is especially acute, as they have declared it to be their number on enemy.
Many Western Europeans and even some of the leaders have become extrodinarily misguided. They thought Aemrica and Israel posed the greatest threats to world peace and they largely ignored Russia. They are paying a steep price for this oversight now. The Russians will likely wnat those US bases removed from Western Europe and the Western Europeans will likely want them out to. after all, its not prudent to provoke your major oil supplier. A prediction: all US military personnel and US military equipment will be out of Western Europe by 1/1/2011. In other words, by this time there will not be a US military presence of any type any where in Western Europe.
Once the US ceases to be a major power, will Russia stop targeting the United States. Maybe but probably not, as they have spent many decades building up the US as its major enemy and Russia seemd to be a dying country. They are going to need an enemy to turn the energies of the people toward. They have spent many years making that America.
For its part, the US has a massive national debt. As such, right now it cannot afford to reopen the Cold War with Russia. Russia is buyoed by oil wealth. The price of oil will likely remain at or above $100 per barrel for the next few decades at least. In this current environment, the US simply cannot compete with Russia in the development of new weapons and new weapons systems. This can be changed but it will require leadership. First of all the US will need to cut some social well fare programs. Examples of programs that could be scaled back and in time eliminated are social security and medicare. The money not spent on these programs could go into the military. Also, the US will probably need to institute a draft. This will be very hard to do. People don't like their social programs cut but the survival of the country may well depend on axing some of these programs.
Post a Comment