Op-Ed Columnist: Will Russia Get Away With It?

Hugh Hewitt: Georgia's An Ally, And Russia Is Attacking It
Townhall.com Blog's TownHall Blog — Powerline's John Hinderaker posts on the energy pipelines that are a big part of the struggle between Russia and Georgia , and Bill Kristol points out that Georgia has been a very good ally in the war against the jihadists and would deserve our strong help even if Russia hadn't obviously violated an international border. The impact of the Russian brutality is deeply damaging : "Russia has applied unprecedented military power . . . and it is of such amplitude that it would have scared much bigger states," Alexander Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said in an interview. "This war has changed the whole ...

Hugh Hewitt: Georgia's An Ally, And Russia Is Attacking It
Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog — Powerline's John Hinderaker posts on the energy pipelines that are a big part of the struggle between Russia and Georgia , and Bill Kristol points out that Georgia has been a very good ally in the war against the jihadists and would deserve our strong help even if Russia hadn't obviously violated an international border. The impact of the Russian brutality is deeply damaging : "Russia has applied unprecedented military power . . . and it is of such amplitude that it would have scared much bigger states," Alexander Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said in an interview. "This war has changed the whole ...

It's Raining Nazis--Continued
Swampland — ... He carefully lays out the U.S. and European Union initiatives in Eastern Europe that have led to the Russian pushback. Most of the western actions have been morally justified support for the new democracies--and Georgia may be the most heart-warming example--in the region; others, including the costly and technologically untenable missile defense system fantasized by Bush, have been unnecessarily provocative. And Kagan's (right)wingman, Bill Kristol, is similarly modulated in the NY Times: ...

Neocons Call For U.S. To Launch War With Russia
Think Progress — ... Bill Kristol: [Georgia] has had the third-largest military presence — about 2,000 troops — fighting along with U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq. For this reason alone, we owe Georgia a serious effort to defend its sovereignty. Surely we cannot simply stand by as an autocratic aggressor gobbles up part of — and perhaps destabilizes all of — a friendly democratic nation. ...

Neocons still love that Cold War mentality
Political Animal — When Robert Kagan… The details of who did what to precipitate Russia’s war against Georgia are not very important. Do you recall the precise details of the Sudeten Crisis that led to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia? Of course not, because that morally ambiguous dispute is rightly remembered as a minor part of a much bigger drama. The events of the past week will be remembered that way, too. …and Bill Kristol… When the “civilized world” ...

Sovietsky Soyuz attacks an ally... Bush?
At-Largely — The far-right often criticizes me for not playing "we are the greatest country in the world" game, because the talking-point is for them always more important than the reality we are facing. They see criticism of US policy as unpatriotic, despite the necessity for such criticism in light of this administration's crimes. This nation has lost - and likely for a very long time - ...

Required Reading: Dangerous World
Weekly Standard Blog — From the New York Times, “Will Russia Get Away With It?” by Bill Kristol From the Washington Post, “Putin Makes His Move” by Robert Kagan If I worked for the Atlantic or The American Prospect, I would be forced to write about stuff that I have little or no familiarity with. Fortunately, I’m under no such pressure here at the Weekly Standard and thus feel no pressure to erect a phony façade of omniscience regarding the events in Georgia. Instead, I can freely confess to having known little about South Ossetia until this Friday. In addition to acknowledging my own prior ignorance, I ...

McCain And His NeoCon Allies On The Warpath... Again
DownWithTyranny! — ... an independent foreign policy (well, if "independent" means tied to American priorities, that at least is true). Although Georgia is thousands of miles from the Atlantic-- and has been, for good reasons, rejected for the NATO membership it hoped to gain by helping the U.S. occupy Iraq-- Saakashvili appeals to "our common trans-Atlantic values of liberty and democracy." Give me a break. The values he holds in common are with hysterical NeoCon war criminals like Cheney, Bill Kristol, slimy Georgia lobbyist/McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, Randy Scheunemann, and ...

Simple Answer to an Idiot's Question:
Shadow of the Hegemon — Yes, Mr. Kristol. Yes, Russia will "get away with it". Because you can huff and puff all you want about dictators (which seems to be a slight mischaracterization of the situation both Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin are in, but anyway), but Russia isn't Syria, Libya, Iran or Iraq. You can't bully it, and you sure as hell can't invade it. This is a whole different level, now, and your yapping, irritating toy poodle of an discredited ideology isn't equipped to handle it. Go back to prattling about Lebanon or something. Edit: Hahaha, this stuff is all over the place. Robert Kagan is prattling on about how this is ...

And some days the bear eats you
RedState: Conservative News and Community — Russia, Georgia and the United States From the diaries by Erick. The Russian bear is awake from its hibernation. Russia's response to the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia was typically Russian - "disproportionate" - in the words of the Bush administration. The conflict, killing thousands and dsplacing tens of thousands in just a weekend's short time, has serious implications for the United States, its newer friends among the former Soviet republics and older friends around the world: Sure the Georgians got themselves into this conflict by launching a bid to recapture South ...

The Road Leads Back to War
Hit & Run — Bill Kristol reacts to the Russo-Georgian war: Georgia, a nation of about 4.6 million, has had the third-largest military presence -- about 2,000 troops -- fighting along with U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq. For this reason alone, we owe Georgia a serious effort to defend its sovereignty. Surely we cannot simply stand by as an autocratic aggressor gobbles up part of -- and perhaps destabilizes all of -- a friendly democratic nation that we were sponsoring for NATO membership a few months ago. You might have thought the American presence in Iraq made it less wise to go plunging into a confrontation with the Russians. ...

It Was 3 A.M., And We Were Asleep
LiberalOasis : The Blog — The Politico rightly called the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia a real "3 A.M." moment for Obama and McCain. In the case of McCain, it proved him to be reckless and rash, simplistic and belligerent -- "much worse" than Bush, declared Talking Points Memo. This is no surprise to me. His deep neocon sensibilities are why three years ago I called McCain "the most dangerous man in America." But it was also a "3 A.M." moment for the broader liberal movement. And I am sad to say that we failed. Despite the shattered credibility of the neocon community, in this crisis neocons have still ...

links for 2008-08-12 [delicious.com]
FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog — Barack Obama Watch: The One's Fan Club (tags: Barack Obama) Did McCain Plagiarize His Speech on the Georgia Crisis? - Political Insider A Wikipedia editor emailed Political Wire to point out some similarities between Sen. John McCain's speech today on the crisis in Georgia ...

It Was 3 A.M., And We Were Asleep
The Hollywood Liberal — It Was 3 A.M., And We Were Asleep The Politico rightly called the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia a real “3 A.M.” moment for Obama and McCain. In the case of McCain, it proved him to be reckless and rash, simplistic and belligerent — “much worse” than Bush, declared Talking Points Memo. This is no surprise to me. His deep neocon sensibilities are why three years ago I called McCain “the most dangerous man in America.” But it was also a “3 A.M.” moment for the broader liberal movement. And I am sad to say that we failed. Despite the shattered credibility of the neocon community, in this crisis neocons have still proved ...

Georgians: We Helped you in Iraq, now Help us!
The Moderate Voice — The Georgian government is recalling its 2,000 troops serving in Iraq to confront the threat at home, reports The Times: We helped in Iraq - now help us, beg Georgians As Russia forces its neighbour to retreat from South Ossetia, the people of Gori tell our correspondent of betrayal by the West. (…) Miriyan Gogolashvili, of Tkviav, said: “The Russians will be here tomorrow. They want to show us and the world how powerful they are. Tomorrow it will be Ukraine and nobody in the West is doing anything to stop them. Why were our soldiers in Kosovo and Iraq if we don’t get ...

Frankly, My Dear, I Don’t Give A Damn About South Ossetia
Dean's World — As I’ve been predicting, the Russian offensive seems to be over, contra Bill Kristol’s expectation they would march into the Georgian capital and overthrow the gov’t. There’s a bit too much paranoia about Russia these days. They aren’t as liberal as one would like, but they are basically a democracy, if a very flawed and authoritarian example of the species. Also, as Kristol points out Russia is a pretty feeble power, and I would add that this probably isn’t that big a deal unless the Russkies actually do go charging into the Georgian capital and establish a dictatorship, which seems very unlikely for all ...

Country First
Obsidian Wings — by publius Like the presumptive Democratic nominee, I went on vacation around the time the Georgia mess started. But Hilzoy and Eric have done a fantastic job covering the ins and outs this week. I wanted to weigh in though from a somewhat different perspective. For me, it’s been fascinating to watch the militant anti-Russia critiques ...

Bill Kristol on Victory in Iraq and Impotence In Georgia
The Moderate Voice — I usually comment on Bill Kristol’s much-awaited Monday morning columns in the New York Times. Because of travel, I did not get the opportunity to do so this week. But not to worry, the Times’ letters-to-the-editor writers came through, and not only do an excellent job of critiquing Kristol’s column, but also do a better job than I have in previous posts of describing the limited role our country can play in trying to resolve this latest conflict—because of our military adventure in Iraq. Kristol’s topic this week was–what else?–the Russia-Georgia conflict. In his column, “Will Russia Get Away With It?,” ...

Georgia/Russia Conflict Forced Into Cold War Frame
Commondreams.org Views — U.S. corporate media frequently evoked the Cold War as a key to understanding the conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. This was certainly true of the media themselves, which generally placed black hats or white hats on the actors involved depending on whether they were allied with Moscow or Washington. On August 11, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams referred to “what’s being called the Russian blitz of the nation of Georgia, former Soviet republic that split away and is now threatening to split apart from within.” NBC reporter Jim Maceda followed up: “The powerful Russian war machine is moving ever deeper into Georgia, and teaching all of us ...

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