Let’s bring back the band
Firedoglake — ... But to neocon and original Kagan family member, Robert, nobody needs to even THINK about how all this got started. Nevertheless, this was a preventable disaster, what needs to be done is to keep it from getting out of control. To do otherwise is what bellicose simpletons -- or those who exploit them would do -- cue Bill Kristol. ...

Never a bad time to beat the war drum
Rising Hegemon — ... But to neocon and original Kagan family member, Robert, nobody needs to even THINK about how all this got started. Nevertheless, this was a preventable disaster, what needs to be done is to keep it from getting out of control. To do otherwise is what bellicose simpletons -- or those who exploit them would do -- cue Bill Kristol. ...

Let’s bring back the band
The Hollywood Liberal — ... But to neocon and original Kagan family member, Robert, nobody needs to even THINK about how all this got started . Nevertheless, this was a preventable disaster, what needs to be done is to keep it from getting out of control. To do otherwise is what bellicose simpletons — or those who exploit them would do — cue Bill Kristol. UPDATE: One more thing, if what is going on seems familiar to those of you with a sense of American history that is greater than Lou Dobbs or any FoxNews talking head there are some historical parallels: 1836 to 1848 Georgia = Mexico Russia = The ...

GEORGIA ON MY MIND
Right Wing Nut House — I am not an expert on the Caucasus but I play one on my blog. Actually, even though the above is true, I am blessed with two gifts that allow me to comment on just about any earth shaking crisis that blows up. First, I can read. This allows me the luxury of being able to write intelligently on just about anything that piques my curiosity. Secondly – a and more importantly – I can read a map. This is really cool because in any military confrontation like this, both sides are looking at pretty much the same map you are. No need to guess what sources they are using for information. Hence, both Vladamir Putin and President Saakashvili of Georgia are looking at the map, ...

Annie, Get Your Pen
Balloon Juice — ... in the Caucasus, you have to admire the speed with which the usual suspects organize to agitate us into another war. Three different papers, three different op-eds. In the NY Times, Bill Kristol asks if Russia Will Get Away With It, with no mention that it was, in fact, Georgia who started this (much to the delight of an eager and waiting Russia, ecstatic at the opportunity to do what they have wanted to do for years). In Fred Hiatt’s WaPo, Bob Kagan makes an appearance to queer the debate by Godwinning it: The ...

It's Raining Nazis--Continued
Swampland — When a column starts off like this: 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. ...the author has got to be a neoconservative pushing for the next war, looking for new "Nazis" to justify a bellicose posture in the ...

Abkhazia Heats Up - Will Russia Expand War?
(Obsolete Feed) — ... Just how far is Russia going to push and, more importantly, is there a reason for them fall back? The West can’t afford to truly isolate Russia and it certainly won’t fight it, except by proxy, so where is the incentive? To make matters worse Putin and Russia are finding sympathy in the unlikeliest places: ...

Neocons Call For U.S. To Launch War With Russia
Think Progress — ... Writing in the Washington Post today, Robert Kagan goes even further, suggesting that the Georgia-Russia conflict may be the start of World War III: ...

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” expostulated with ...

Russia and Georgia: Regaining What Was Lost
baldilocks — ... is ferrying 2000 Georgian troops home from Iraq after Saakashvili recalled them. Russia had little to fear from NATO when considering the launch of an invasion on its former vassal state; they have Europe over a barrel (HT: ...

McCain’s Brain Trust Disagrees Over Whether Putin Is Hitler Or Stalin
Wonk Room — Illustrating the diversity of views that exists in John McCain’s brain trust, McCain’s two most prominent foreign policy advisers have op-eds today in the country’s two most prominent newspapers disagreeing over whether Putin is the new Stalin, or just the new Hitler. Robert Kagan says Hitler: 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 ...

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 - all ...

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 can point you to two columns ...

McCain And His NeoCon Allies On The Warpath... Again
DownWithTyranny! — McCain & his supporters want to attack Russia? The NeoCons are out in force today. I finished putting on my socks just as McCain started making his speech from Erie, PA on the Russian-Georgia conflict. I turned off the TV before he had finished shuffling his papers and tried collecting his thoughts. Today's Wall Street Journal features a mournful plea ...

GEORGIA: Raining Nazis, and McCain's Wikipedia Crutch
Taylor Marsh — ... in power actually woke up and admitted we can’t stop Medyedev and Putin, so all this blathering is just that, blathering; political posturing in a presidential year that gets us nowhere. It’s not about America looking "weak." It’s about realism and what we can actually do in our current situation. Because no rational, studied national security person believes we can do anything about the current crisis that wouldn’t make it worse. Instead, screaming about "Nazi Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia" is seen as ...

Simple Answer to an Idiot's Question:
Shadow of the Hegemon — ... Edit: Hahaha, this stuff is all over the place. Robert Kagan is prattling on about how this is clearly just like 1938, proving once again that if you took away WWII analogies from a neocon, the poor man would be absolutely lost. Yglesias makes ...

The Telling Gloss
Newshoggers.com — ... narrative. Not because it's especially true - although it's becoming a bit more true as time goes on and Russia keeps pushing beyond the natural "stop line" of a purely "status quo ante" operation - but because it plays to their own prejudices better. They're trying to decide whether Putin (who is still the real President of Russia even if his name tag now says "prime minister", as this crisis has shown) is the new Stalin, the new Hitler or both. Not that this is a surprise, as both the big 20th century ...

The Telling Gloss
At-Largely — ... the Georgian president's narrative. Not because it's especially true - although it's becoming a bit more true as time goes on and Russia keeps pushing beyond the natural "stop line" of a purely "status quo ante" operation - but because it plays to their own prejudices better. They're trying to decide whether Putin (who is still the real President of Russia even if his name tag now says "prime minister", as this crisis has shown) is the new Stalin, the new Hitler or both. Not that this is a surprise, as both the big 20th century bugbears ...

The Georgia Surprise
The Atlantic Politics Channel — The flashover in Georgia seems to have surprised everyone but shocked no one.  The analyst class in the United States explains it the boiling over of a longstanding ethnic conflict  cross-pressured by international politics and resource competition; the violence probably inevitable: the active separatists in Abkhazia number about 18% of the population and are less Georgian than they are Russian; Russian "peacekeepers" have been in the region since 1994; both Georgia and Russia have taken turns playing provocateers, with Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili sharing the blame for the flare-up and Putin being blamed for a disproportionate ...

It's Munich!
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — Ah, yes, Kristol and Kagan just haul out ancient columns from the 1970s that merely need the actual names of actual countries plugged in. But what are we to do now that Russia has stomped on uppity Georgia? Hewitt threatens "blunt condemnation of the Russians". Washington Times: "maximum pressure." Bob Kagan: nada, so far as I can tell in his WaPo piece. Kristol: Is it not true today, as it was in the 1920s and ’30s, that delay and irresolution on the part of the democracies simply invite future threats and graver dangers? What are we delaying exactly? A war against Russia? An invasion of Georgia? ...

"This war did not begin because of a miscalculation by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Althouse — "It is a war that Moscow has been attempting to provoke for some time. The man who once called the collapse of the Soviet Union 'the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century' has reestablished a virtual czarist rule in Russia and is trying to restore the country to its once-dominant role in Eurasia and the world. Armed with wealth from oil and gas; holding a near-monopoly over the energy supply to Europe; with a million soldiers, thousands of nuclear warheads and the world's third-largest military budget, Vladimir Putin believes that now is the time to make his move." ...

Joe Klein and the Neo-Cons
The Corner on National Review Online — Monday, August 11, 2008 [image] Joe Klein and the Neo-Cons [ Rich Lowry ] It has already been well-established that Joe Klein can't see straight when the topic is the neo-cons. Another example is this post . In the scheme of things, it's a minor thing (not up there with accusing anyone of divided loyalties). But it's hilarious how Klein condemns Robert Kagan for making a Nazi analogy in his Washington Post op-ed on the Georgia crisis, then recommends the Ronald Asmus and Richard Holbrooke piece as more reasonable, when smack in the middle of it, there's this: As Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt pointed out Saturday, Moscow's rationale for invading ...

Hold-em, Fold-em, Run
The American Scene — If I understand the logic of the McCain camp, the neoconservative intelligentsia and knowledgeable center-right commentators on the horrible situation in Georgia, it looks something like this: - Russia has called our bluff and dared us to make good on any implicit promises to Georgia that we would protect Georgian territorial integrity. - Our bluff having been called, we now have no good options, as we have no real points of leverage to force Russia out, and no credibility as an honest broker between the Russians and the Georgians. Any ...

Midday open thread
Daily Kos — ... The surprising and gradual renewal of acquaintance between Joe Klein and journalistic integrity continues apace, with a post at Swampland today in which he lambasts war luster extraordinaire Robert Kagan, who pulled the Nazi comparison genie out of the bottle on the pages of the Washington Post this morning when writing about Georgia and Russia. ...

Quote Of The Day
A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days — It is true that many Russians were humiliated by the way the Cold War ended, and Putin has persuaded many to blame Boris Yeltsin and Russian democrats for this surrender to the West. The mood is reminiscent of Germany after World War I, when Germans complained about the "shameful Versailles diktat" imposed on a prostrate Germany by the victorious powers and about the corrupt politicians who stabbed the nation in the back. Now, as then, these feelings are understandable. Now, as then, however, they are being manipulated to justify autocracy at home and to convince Western powers that accommodation -- or to use the once-respectable term, appeasement -- is the best policy. But the reality is ...

Quote Of The Day
RedState: Conservative News and Community — It is true that many Russians were humiliated by the way the Cold War ended, and Putin has persuaded many to blame Boris Yeltsin and Russian democrats for this surrender to the West. The mood is reminiscent of Germany after World War I, when Germans complained about the "shameful Versailles diktat" imposed on a prostrate Germany by the victorious powers and about the corrupt politicians who stabbed the nation in the back. Now, as then, these feelings are understandable. Now, as then, however, they are being manipulated to justify autocracy at home and to convince Western powers that accommodation -- or to use the once-respectable term, appeasement -- is the ...

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 any help from the West ...

Rethinking Russia on Terrorism Issues
Counterterrorism Blog — I am not a Russia expert and defer to Robert Kagan and others to paint the macro picture of what Russia's incursion into Georgia means. But there are several issues, outside of these, that need to be looked at in terms of Russia in the greater world, and our relationship to Russia, particularly in counter-terrorism and weapons proliferation issues. What is clear is that Russia is set on selling weapons to those who want very badly to hurt us, and who buy their weapons with the stated purpose of using them for that. Everyone sells weapons, and yes, the United States plays in the game. But Russia's willingness to arm non-state actors and states that are facing ...

Remember the Words? Is that all they were??
The Discerning Texan — " You are either with us or you are with the terrorists ..." It does not take a rocket scientist to see where Putin's Russia falls in that continuum : I am not a Russia expert and defer to Robert Kagan and others to paint the macro picture of what Russia's incursion into Georgia means. But there are several issues, outside of these, that need to be looked at in terms of Russia in the greater world, and our relationship to Russia, particularly in counter-terrorism and weapons proliferation issues. What is clear is that Russia is set on selling weapons to those who want very badly to hurt us, and who buy their weapons with the stated purpose of using them for that. ...

Georgia/Russia Conflict Forced Into Cold War Frame
Commondreams.org Views — ... ) compared Russia to Nazi Germany–while allowing that the analogy “may appear overwrought.” Writing in the Washington Post ( 8/11/08 ), Robert Kagan also made a comparison to Nazi Germany. A striking feature of the coverage was the ability of pundits who have enthusiastically advocated for U.S. invasions of sovereign countries, dismissing concerns that these would violate international law, to demand that Russia be punished for breaking that same law by violating Georgian sovereignty. These commentators seemed blissfully unaware of the contradiction, as when New York Times ...

A Familiar Enemy
Antiwar.com Original — G eorge Orwell once made an important distinction between patriotism and nationalism , one that has since been elaborated upon many times by others , notably the quirky but often insightful historian John Lukacs , but that still has not caught on sufficiently, apparently, to have much of an impact on what we might call our national consciousness:"By 'patriotism' I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one … has no wish to force upon other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose ...

King Georgia
Weekly Standard Blog — "You can't truly stand up for Georgia," Obama said tonight, "when you've strained our oldest alliances." It's worth unpacking this statement. First, it's a clear indication that, despite what some bloggers say, Russia's invasion of Georgia truly is, yes, a world-historical event that has wormed its way into the presidential campaign and seriously troubles foreign-policy thinkers on both sides of the aisle. Second, Obama makes no sense. The implication is twofold: that McCain, who speaks with Mikheil Saakashvili daily, has not "truly" stood "up for Georgia." Please. McCain has so stolidly backed our democratic ally during this crisis that some of Obama's cohorts accuse ...