Putin Moves to Resurrect the Russian Navy

American Thinker, by Christopher Alleva
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/0...rect_the_r.html

8/16/2008 8:15:08 PM

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early nineties, aside from the dismantling their nuclear arsenal, the mothballing of their naval fleet was the most important military development. But now flush with cash, the Russians have announced an ambitious program to build 5 or 6 new aircraft carriers to join their lone carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. (Snip) Russia wants its fleet to remain headquartered at the Black Sea port Sevastopol beyond May 2017

Georgian President Saakashvili, Welfare King
by Bob Murphy

George Bush, following in the footsteps of his predecessors, has established a welfare system with the warfare State. Through the (evolving) public justifications for his use of American military power, Bush has laid out principles under which foreign countries are entitled to US combat forces. As he displayed beautifully on the Glenn Beck show, Georgian President Saakashvili is a welfare king who knows how to game the system.

After telling Beck that the Russians were not attacking Georgia, but America – going so far as to write anti-American proclamations on their missiles – Saakashvili declared:

SAAKASHVILI: America for us is a symbol of freedom worldwide. I grew up with ideals that America I grew up in Soviet communist society until the age of 20. I know I, for me, for my old, early childhood America was a dreamland. America was a place from which all the bright ideas came. America was the place which was great inspiration for me to raise my child. And then when Soviet Union collapsed, when the Cold War was over, when I went to study in the US and finally I realized my dream, I never thought that this evil would come back again. I never thought the KGB people would again try to run the world. And that’s exactly what’s happening now. This is worst nightmare coming true. And what’s at stake here is America's ideals. If freedom collapses in Georgia, it will collapse in both the countries, in other places as well.

Some Americans think that Georgia was minding its own business, when all of a sudden Russia attacked it, and now George Bush, as is his wont, is pining to do what he can to protect freedom.

I don’t think that’s what’s going on at all. Reportedly the Bush administration warned Saakashvili not to provoke the Kremlin, yet the Georgian president ordered his troops into South Ossetia anyway, and without even notifying the US of his plans. Then Saakashvili reassured his people that the US military would take control of Georgian airports and sea ports, an apparent lie that the Pentagon quickly denied to the rest of the world. I think Bush and his advisors must be saying, "What is this guy doing?! Doesn’t he see the impossible position he’s putting us in? Is he trying to start a world war?"

And thus the folly of the Bush administration’s foreign policy adventures is complete. Just as domestic welfare programs violate property rights, create a culture of dependency, and bankrupt the government, so too has Bush’s occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq killed innocents, encouraged weak nations to "need" US military aid, and squandered US strength. This last point is important: It’s not merely that Bush & Co. set the precedent for bold leaders of tiny nations to chant the magic word "democracy" in order to gain access to US firepower. But precisely because the US is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russian Prime Minister Putin was in a much stronger position to invade Georgia. The US really can’t fight a war with Russia at the moment.

Just to make sure there are no misunderstandings, I am not casting Russia as the innocent victim of US expansionism. I have no doubt that Putin is an evil man who would conquer the world if he had the ability.

Fortunately, he doesn’t have the ability. Yet what he does possess – and in far greater doses than his American counterparts – is the ability to think three moves ahead. When the US wanted to let former Soviet republics into NATO, then-president Putin warned that this would upset the strategic balance.

Just think about that for a minute. Isn’t that an odd thing to say? That’s not how US politicians talk. For them, it’s all about freedom and apple pie, and foreign policy is a simple matter of blowing up the bad guys to protect the good guys. There’s very little public recognition of the fact that one nation’s moves will lead to obvious responses and then counterresponses, such that all countries might end up wishing that first move hadn’t been made. That’s what Putin was saying, and so far he seems right on the money.

Let me shift gears a bit and say the talk radio guys are definitely right about Obama. His official statement on the Georgian situation was ridiculous, designed as a message for American voters, not the rulers of other nations with whom he may soon be interacting:

The violence taking place along the Black Sea is just miles from Sochi, the site for the Winter Olympics in 2014. It only adds to the tragedy and outrage of the current situation that Russia has acted while the world has come together in peace and athletic competition in Beijing. This action is wholly inconsistent with the Olympic ideal.

Don’t misunderstand, there is nothing objectionable in these observations for a regular human being. But for someone who is actively seeking to be in charge of the most lethal collection of weaponry the world has ever known, and to be heading a massive organization that has created millions of deadly foes around the world, you can’t talk like that. You have to have some swagger, for crying out loud. I feel like an eight-year-old Corleone nephew, and because of some fluke Fredo is about to become head of the family. Not good.

So we see that there is yet another problem with democracies. Because of their periodic elections, even relatively stable States such as the US temporarily lose their footing. The calculations of both Saakashvili and Putin certainly included the lame duck Bush administration, and the implications of foreign events on the American election.

Conservatives have long realized that the welfare state is immoral and wastes money, but it also hurts the very people it is supposed to help. I hope they soon realize that the same is true of the warfare state. Trying to spread freedom and peace at missile tip will, in the end, only lead to more repression and war.

August 16, 2008

Bob Murphy has a Ph.D. in economics from New York University, and is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism. He has a personal website at ConsultingByRPM.com

http://www.lewrockwell.com/murphy/murphy135.html

You should make one with the "NO!" flashing too.

The Rockwell folks say that all the time. "they're evil, but confronting them will cost us, and freedom is always about OUR freedom, not plain old freedom"

The situation can be diffused, but it won't be. Georgia invaded South Ossetia and started wasting civilians and Russian military personnel. What did Shaakashvili think was going to happen? He apparently had no problems declaring martial law in his country last year and throwing the opposition in the Georgian gulag. We have our own retard at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave interjecting US military personnel into a Hot War with Russian military personnel. This is incompetence up and down the line.

Like most government endevors. I don't assume the Russians are any different.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3583278,00.html

I've read Italian reports of dead mercenaries in Georgia - mostly from the Ukraine, the Baltic States and the US.

"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. Things have changed."
-- Verbal masturbation from Condi, trying to explain to Russia that Bush
is the only dictator who can invade, occupy and overthrow countries

bartcop

The Baby Jesus will fix Russia and Georgia come 1/20/09.

I can hardly wait.

More Foreign agents in the McSame campaign:
Another McCain advisor is under scrutiny for receiving $1 million from the government of Georgia. Remember when McCain used to oppose special interests influencing gov't policy?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington...er-john-mc.html

I'd like to see the U.N. create a U.N. reporter pool in which every country in the U.N. agrees to allow this reporter pool to report on the wars and conflicts U.N. members take part in.

The reporters would wear special badges and powder blue jump suits to let the conflicting sides that these folks are neutral and are reporting on the events of the conflict.

I think this is the only way the citizens of the world would receive fair news coverage of conflicts.

The reporters would be paid by the U.N. and their terms of service would last one year.

This has been making the rounds in the blogosphere.

It's almost as bad as The Baby Jesus campaigning for president of the United States in Germany.

world class leadership

Joe Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is going to Georgia to gather the "facts" for himself. He'll bring us the truth.

Who is he gonna get if from?

If Joey weren't content to hold on to the easiest job in the world; Senator, I'd think he were campaigning for Secretary of State in The Baby Jesus Administration.

or VP???

Yes, VP is easier than being a Senator.

I just don't see Joey adding anything to The Baby Jesus ticket.

He's way too farking old, he's farking bald, he's a known wind bag and particularly enjoys tooting his own horn.

Joey would never give up being able to bloviate continually about how great he is by being a VP.

vote McCain

Exactly, why the fark would a democrat even consider Joey Biden for anything when they don't consider old people like Joey and John Sidney McSame to be qualified to taste test baby food?

Irrational exuberance, I guess.

If he can't bring his own he'll just copy someone else's truth.

Whatever, I just hope he keeps the explanation under an hour.

August 16, 2008
Biden heads to Georgia
Posted: 03:55 PM ET

From CNN's Steve Brusk


Biden is a powerful Senate ally of Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and thought to be on Barack Obama’s short list for vice president, is headed to Georgia Saturday night.

His spokesman, Elizabeth Alexander said, “At the request of Georgian president (Mikhail) Saakashvilli, Chairman Biden is heading to Georgia this weekend. He is leaving this evening and will be there Sunday.”

No other Senators are traveling with him.

In a statement, his office said he will meet President Saakashvili, Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze, and U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Tefft. He also will meet with residents who fled the fighting.

Biden said in the statement, “I am going to Georgia this weekend to get the facts first-hand and to show my support for Georgia’s people and its democratically-elected government. I look forward to reporting to my colleagues in the Senate and on the Foreign Relations Committee, as well as the Administration, about what I learn.”

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/...ads-to-georgia/

So it's ok for someone outside the executive branch to do that stuff after all?

He was REQUESTED by the President of Georgia to go there. Should he say NO????????????

I think he may be in violation of the Logan Act. He's not the only one. Hillary Clinton and Governor Rick Perry, for example, by attending Bilderberger, were also in violation of the Logan Act, in my opinion.

Not enforced so we can ALL violate the Logan act.

Biden will bore them back into communism. Democracy? Who need the aggravation?

I think you may be in violation of the Barney Fife Act.

Well, you allz didn't think it was appropirate for grandpa to even make remarks about it so why the turnaround?

owned

Russia begins Georgia troop 'pull back'


Story Highlights
Russia begins Georgia troop "pull back," military chief says

CNN correspondents report no sign of Russian withdrawal from Gori

U.S. official: Russia will withdraw but is consolidating position in South Ossetia

Human Right Watch: This conflict has been a disaster for civilians


MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia's military says its withdrawal from Georgia has begun, but there has been no indication that such a pull back is happening.

"We're talking about pulling our troops away to the borders of South Ossetia. They will not be on Georgia territory," said Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian armed forces' deputy chief of staff, Monday.

He did not give numbers on the withdrawing troops, nor clarify how many would return to South Ossetia or Russia.

Earlier, a Georgian Interior Ministry official said there had been "no signs" of a troop withdrawal despite Russia's pledge to start moving back on Monday. Watch more on Russia's military tactics »

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said that a Russian armored column had been seen moving a bit deeper into Georgian territory, traveling south from Kashuri to Borjomi. Kashuri is about 10 miles (16 km) south of South Ossetia. Another column was moving north from the Kashuri area to Sachkhere.

Nogovitsyn told reporters Russian troops were leaving Gori on Monday, the Interfax news agency said.

However CNN journalists in Gori, near South Ossetia, said it was still under Russian control and there was no evidence they were pulling out. Also, Russian tank and artillery positions were seen extending nine miles (15 km) south of Gori.

Nogovitsyn said Russia was not yet moving vessels in the Black Sea from their positions near Georgia, but they would return to Sevastopol after the settlement of the conflict.

He said that Russia's deputy foreign minister had presented the U.S. ambassador to the country with a timetable of the events that led to Russia's actions and clearly indicated Georgia's responsibility.

He said a prisoner exchange involving the transfer of 12 Russians and 15 Georgians had been set up.

"We were all set and then the Georgians came up with a bunch of new requirements with no time for us to act so the time to exchange prisoners was interrupted," Nogovitsyn said.

Georgia said Russia was spreading "false" accusations and that it was ready to pursue an exchange.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Vladikavkaz Monday, the capital of the Russian province of North Ossetia, which borders South Ossetia, Interfax reported. He was to meet the commanders and military personnel who excelled in the warfare, the news agency said.

The conflict began more than a week ago when Georgian troops entered the breakaway republic of South Ossetia to attack pro-Moscow separatists. Russia by invading the country on August 8, prompted heavy fighting with Georgian forces that spread to another breakaway republic, Abkhazia.

The Georgian troops withdrew and Russian forces took control of several areas -- prompting an international outcry. After diplomatic efforts led by France on behalf of the European Union, Georgia and Russian signed a cease-fire. France is the rotating EU head.

The six-point deal gives no timetable for a Russian withdrawal, nor any other specifics, according to a copy of the agreement provided by Georgia's government.

A U.S. defense official told CNN about evidence of Russian SS-21 missiles and launchers in South Ossetia.

The official said that while "Russian forces continue to consolidate their enclaves in South Ossetia and Abkhazia," they "are expected to slowly remove forces from Georgia."

Diplomatic discussions continued Monday. Finland's Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, representing the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), was in Brussels to meet with representatives from the European Union, NATO, and the United Nations.

The OSCE is working on a plan to increase its observers in the region to 100 people.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said there was "mounting evidence that Russian and Georgian military used armed force unlawfully during the South Ossetian conflict" and it emphasized that this "highlights the need for international fact-finding missions in Georgia."

"Ongoing militia attacks and a growing humanitarian crisis also indicate the urgent need for the deployment of a mission to enhance civilian protection," HRW said in a report.

"This conflict has been a disaster for civilians," said Rachel Denber, HRW's Europe and Central Asia deputy director.

The conflict has devastated parts of Georgia and South Ossetia, with many casualties reported. The U.N. refugee agency said more than 158,000 people had been displaced by fighting in Georgia, mostly from districts outside the breakaway territories where the fighting began.

CNN's Bruce Conover, Jill Dougherty and Max Tkachenko in Moscow, Fred Pleitgen in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tommy Evans and Michael Ware in Gori, Georgia, and Barbara Starr at the Pentagon contributed to this report.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/0....war/index.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/0....war/index.html

BLITZER: Do you recognize -- and I'm speaking of Russia -- do you recognize these two areas as territorially integral parts of the Republic of Georgia?

KOSACHEV: First of all, I do not recognize this description by Condoleezza Rice, because South Ossetians were attacked, not Georgians, and that started the war which Russia was trying to avoid until the very last moment.

KOSACHEV: Secondly, the current construction of territorial integrity of Georgia, so-called territorial integrity. Yes, it has existed de jure, but more or less never de facto, for the reason it was invented during the '20s by Comrade Stalin, and is now being supported by some leaders in the United States, in Europe, but it is a very artificial construction, and either Mr. Saakashvili or anybody else from Tbilisi will manage to convince South Ossetians and Abkhazians by political means to live together in an integrated state, or there will be no territorial integrity of Georgia. It will be ruined by Tbilisi itself, by attempts to use military force, like it happened the previous days, unfortunately.

BLITZER: Do you understand how much criticism Russia is getting right now? The president, Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, Vladimir Putin. A lot of criticism for what you are doing in Georgia, including threats that Russia could be kicked out of the G-8, the major industrialized nations, and prevented from admission into the World Trade Organization, among other sanctions?

KOSACHEV: I feel sorry about that. But I believe that what we speak about right now is credibility of the so-called West. The previous discussions were about human rights, they were about freedom, they were about democracy, they were about shared common values. Suddenly, at this moment, when South Ossetians are being killed in thousands by Georgians, there are no more speeches about freedom, about human rights, about anything. Everything is about this geopolitical game, and countries are being supported, not people.

And I feel sorry about that. I feel sorry about this double standards. I would have preferred to have our organizations, our common organizations like the OEC (ph) and others being still devoted to common values, not being devoted to the ideas of supporting this country and criticizing the other country whatsoever happens.

BLITZER: It sounds like this crisis is going to continue, given the dispute over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the fact that Russia doesn't really regard those areas a part of Georgia. And the Georgian government, we just spoke to President Saakashvili, says they are integral parts of Georgia. It sounds like there's a recipe for not only continued crisis, but for a long-term escalation.

KOSACHEV: Unfortunately, yes. And we do not want to have that escalation, but I believe that in case the United States and some other countries had not recognized Kosovo, disturbing the territorial integrity of Serbia the previous months, the consistency of these statements could have been much more clear. It was not started by us, again. We want to finalize this conflict as soon as possible, but we protect the population there in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, we protect Russian citizens living here, we protect freedom and stability in the region.

BLITZER: Konstantin Kosachev is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian parliament. Thanks, Mr. Kosachev, for coming in.

KOSACHEV: Thanks.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0808/17/le.01.html

The view from the Russians.

"We want to finalize this conflict as soon as possible, but we protect the population there in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, we protect Russian citizens living here, we protect freedom and stability in the region. " Much as we want to end the conflict in Iraq, protecting the people, their freedom and stability in the region.

Checkmate.

If the question is 'who lost Georgia?' is the answer Dick Cheney?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentb...ney-israel.html

August 18, 2008

Abkhazia Wrests Gorge From Preoccupied Georgia

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

KODORI GORGE, Abkhazia — A Georgian flag lies crumpled in the dirt. A wrinkled photograph of students at what appears to be this year’s graduation is close by. Both are outside a school where rebel soldiers now munch on Russian military-issued rations in this mountainous strip of territory that was briefly part of Georgia but has now been largely abandoned.

The government of Abkhazia, a separatist Georgian enclave, now controls the Kodori Gorge region. With the Georgian military consumed last week by fighting about 120 miles away in South Ossetia, leaving Georgia’s west largely devoid of its presence, Abkhaz troops seized the Kodori Gorge almost without a fight. They were aided by a heavy aerial bombardment that Georgians assert was probably carried out by Russian jets.

“The situation was such that we saw an opportunity and we took it,” said Garri Kupalba, Abkhazia’s deputy defense minister.

The Kodori Gorge, a verdant slice of the Caucasus Ridge along Russia’s southwest border, was prized by the Georgian government for its strategic proximity to Abkhazia, which President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia had long vowed to bring under the country’s authority.

The loss of the territory early last week probably dashed any remaining hopes in Georgia of taking control of Abkhazia, and it served as one more example of Georgia’s failure in a war that has left the country militarily impotent and humiliatingly vulnerable.

The three-day aerial attack on the Kodori Gorge that began on Aug. 9 appears to have been relatively light, given the minor damage on the ground. A military incursion that followed met with almost no resistance.

Abkhaz officials said that Russia, which backs Abkhazia financially and militarily and had recently increased its troop levels in Abkhazia to about 9,000, had no part in the operation. Georgia, however, insisted otherwise.

One Abkhaz soldier was killed in the operation, and neither side reported any civilian deaths. Fearing a heavy loss of life, Georgian officials said, the region was evacuated at the start of the bombardment.

The Kodori Gorge is now largely deserted. Cattle and pigs roam abandoned fields, and laundry still hangs on lines outside empty wooden cottages. Of the 1,500 or so people who once inhabited the region, only about 20 or 30 remain.

Most other residents fled to Georgia. Though Abkhaz officials said they warned the residents of impending military action a day before the airstrikes began, many said the attacks had taken them by surprise.

“We didn’t know that they were going to bomb,” said Nazzi Tsulukidze, 56, at a shelter in the Georgian city of Kutaisi. “We left everything there and are stuck here digging for second-hand clothes,” she said.

Now, about 70 Abkhaz soldiers, Kalashnikov rifles strapped to their backs, live in the region.

“We came to take this territory back,” said Timur Chagava, the commander of Abkhaz military forces in the region. “This is our territory. Look at a map.”

For Georgia, the fall of the Kodori Gorge is probably the final blow to an effort begun by Mr. Saakashvili to retake control of Abkhazia, which gained broad autonomy after a bloody civil war with Georgia in the early 1990s.

The area had spent more than a decade outside of Georgia’s control when, in July 2006, Georgian forces drove an irregular militia run by a local gangster out of the Kodori Gorge and set up a government administration. The government built schools, banks and housing for residents, partly in a bid to draw Abkhazia away from Russia’s influence in the hopes of reunification.

Now the People’s Bank in Azhara, one of the main Georgian administrative centers in the gorge, appears to have been looted, and the striped green and white flag of the separatist Abkhaz government hangs outside.

Watermelon rinds and empty beer bottles litter the front of a ransacked convenience store. Nearby, piles of destroyed ammunition that Abkhaz officials said was of Soviet and American origin are strewn along dirt roads and grassy fields.

“The Georgian units were well armed,” Mr. Kupalba said. “They were armed mainly with American weapons.”

In addition to light weaponry, the Abkhaz government claimed, Georgians had amassed heavy artillery in the region, including antiaircraft systems and multiple rocket launchers, though this could not be independently verified.

The Georgian government said that only a small police force was deployed in Kodori and that no heavy artillery was present.

“There was no possibility to fight back,” said Mevlud Dzhachuliani, a Georgian government official in the Kodori Gorge during this month’s attacks. “They bombed us, and we all left.”


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Comp



The monks don't want to be Georgians either.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=300817




Now we're asking Turkey if we can bring our warships into the Black Sea. Move them close enough and those missiles will be within range.

Neocon Crybabies
by Steven LaTulippe

Although the unfolding drama in the Caucasus has been a tragedy for its innocent victims, the response by America’s political and media elites has been an entertaining and delusional farce.

To recap events, the government of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia launched a surprise invasion of South Ossetia (an autonomous republic within Georgia that has been functionally independent since the break-up of the Soviet Union). On the night of August 8, the Georgian military – armed and trained by America and Israel – stormed through South Ossetia and overran the region’s putative capital city (leaving it a smoldering ruin). Thousands of Ossetian refugees poured northward to Russia, bringing harrowing tales of Georgian brutality. As the Georgian army swept through the countryside, they encountered groups of Russian peacekeepers, who had been stationed there years ago to monitor a previous ceasefire. Several of those Russian soldiers were killed by the advancing Georgian forces.

As anyone with a remote understanding of Russian history (and human nature) should have been able to predict, the Russians reacted rather badly. Before the Georgians could consolidate their "victory," the Russians unleashed a devastating counterattack.

All in all, the Russian operation was a fairly impressive combined arms campaign that involved tactical air support, armor, mechanized infantry, and naval assets. The Georgian air force was destroyed on the ground, and the Georgian navy was sunk or neutralized. Russian forces quickly retook all of South Ossetia and seized critical chokepoints along Georgia’s highway system, effectively cutting the nation into three parts.

The smoke had barely cleared when the Bush Administration, the neoconservative pundits, and our lapdog media started crying foul. Russian leader Vladimir Putin was, inevitably, likened to Adolf Hitler. Georgia was portrayed as an innocent victim of unprovoked aggression. The Ossetian victims were quickly relegated to the Orwellian memory hole.

Although I am not a fan of Vladimir Putin (he is certainly not a libertarian), it’s hard to garner much sympathy for the Georgians. The Russian counteroffensive merely gave the Georgians a stiff dose of precisely the same medicine they were planning to give to the Ossetians.

All in all, it was a humanitarian tragedy, but hardly a heartrending tale of Georgian victimhood.

But America long ago ceased to analyze events with anything remotely resembling an objective moral standard. Nowadays, the only yardsticks our imperial elites understand are power and self-interest.

Over the past seven years, the Bush Administration strove to "contain" Russia by establishing Georgia as a regional proxy. This was quickly followed by the now-familiar horror-show of Washington special interest groups. The petroleum lobby wanted to control a vital pipeline that transports Caspian oil to the Mediterranean. The military coveted Georgian territory for "lily-pad" bases. The arms industry saw Georgia as a lucrative market for its new geegaws and gizmos.

It was a wonderful little playground, and everything was going swimmingly until Putin came along and kicked over the apple cart.

But from all the whining in the media, you’d think it was the Russians who actually started the war.

The most telling example I’ve seen of neoconservative bellyaching was published by Leon Aron (a Russia scholar at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute) in the August 13 edition of USA Today. Most of his article consists of ad hominem attacks on Vladimir Putin and petty ethnic slurs against the Russian people, but the real meat of the piece involves Aron’s description of a newfound menace he calls "Putinism."

"Putinism" is, he claims, a dangerous crypto-fascist ideology that is engulfing contemporary Russia. In the article, Aron lists the main tenets of "Putinism," and, in the process, reveals more about himself and the American Enterprise Institute than he does anything about Russia or its leaders.

There are, according to Aron, five major characteristics of "Putinism":

1. The intensely personal system of power in which the "national leader" rather than democratic institutions rule.
2. The state propaganda themes of loss and imperial nostalgia.
3. The idea of the besieged fortress Russia surrounded by cunning, ruthless, and plotting enemies on every side.
4. Spy mania
5. The labeling of political opposition as the "fifth column" traitors.

To the wearied libertarian ear, this newly discovered ideology should sound eerily familiar.

In truth, each and every one of these principles has already been embraced – and even glorified – by the very neoconservatives who now so viciously denounce Putin.

Take the first tenet, for example. The intensely personal system of power in which the "national leader" rather than democratic institutions rule.

Haven’t the neocons been claiming that our president reigns supreme in times of war, and that he is free to discard the constitution’s limitations on his power as he sees fit? Haven’t they supported policies that allow the president to finger anyone as a "terrorist sympathizer" – a designation that permits our government to imprison suspects without access to a lawyer or a court? (Or, even worse, to "rendition" detainees to overseas dungeons for a healthy dose of "enhanced interrogation techniques"?)

As for the part about "state propaganda," didn’t the Pentagon get caught paying pundits to plant pro-war op-ed articles in American newspapers? Haven’t the neocons been glorifying war as a necessary and desirable strategy for American "benevolent world hegemony"?

As for the part about "spy mania" and fomenting paranoia, can anyone rival the neocons in that department? It was the Bushites – not Vladimir Putin – who gutted the Fourth Amendment with a massive telephone and email wiretapping program – all executed without court-approved warrants. And what about the endless stories of grandmothers and handicapped people being roughed-up and strip-searched at airports because we are allegedly "surrounded by cunning, ruthless, and plotting enemies on every side"?

And what about the Putinesque strategy of "labeling political opposition as traitors." I vividly recall, during the run-up to the Iraq invasion, that anyone who disagreed with the administration’s war plans was promptly smeared and driven from public life by packs of slobbering neoconservative pit bulls. (Has anyone heard from General Shinseki lately?)

And let’s not forget some of the other memorable moments on the Bush II highlight reel.

Did Vladimir Putin suggest to his cronies that they should paint Russian warplanes with UN colors and buzz Georgian cities (thus providing a convenient casus belli if the Georgians should shoot one of them down)? Did Vladimir Putin sow fear among his people with stories of an imminent attack by fictitious, chemical-spraying drones?

Given recent history, the rest of the world must be watching Washington’s anti-Russian hissy fit with slack-jawed disbelief.

Although the reptilian nature of our ruling class long ago ceased to amaze me, there is one question that still piques my curiosity: When our elites write articles like this one in USA Today, are they aware of their hypocrisy? Are they totally deaf to the screams of their own irony, or are they coldly cognizant of their actions?

To put it another way, when the doors are closed and the cameras are turned off, do the neocon pundits kick back in the paneled AEI smoking room, light up a few cigars, and laugh at how stupid they think we all are? Or does some massive wall in their psyche prevent them from gaining true insight into their own nature?

Either way, I agree with Leon Aron about precisely one thing: Putinism – as he defines it – IS a dangerous and destabilizing ideology. But he needn’t go all the way to Moscow to find it.

August 18, 2008

Steven LaTulippe is a physician currently practicing in Ohio. He was an officer in the United States Air Force for 13 years.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/latulippe/latulippe89.html

just more for the right to deny

Who Started Cold War II?
By Patrick J. Buchanan

The American people should be eternally grateful to Old Europe for having spiked the Bush-McCain plan to bring Georgia into NATO.

Had Georgia been in NATO when Mikheil Saakashvili invaded South Ossetia, we would be eyeball to eyeball with Russia, facing war in the Caucasus, where Moscow's superiority is as great as U.S. superiority in the Caribbean during the Cuban missile crisis.

If the Russia-Georgia war proves nothing else, it is the insanity of giving erratic hotheads in volatile nations the power to drag the United States into war.

From Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, U.S. presidents have sought to avoid shooting wars with Russia, even when the Bear was at its most beastly.

Truman refused to use force to break Stalin's Berlin blockade. Ike refused to intervene when the Butcher of Budapest drowned the Hungarian Revolution in blood. LBJ sat impotent as Leonid Brezhnev's tanks crushed the Prague Spring. Jimmy Carter's response to Brezhnev's invasion of Afghanistan was to boycott the Moscow Olympics. When Brezhnev ordered his Warsaw satraps to crush Solidarity and shot down a South Korean airliner killing scores of U.S. citizens, including a congressman, Reagan did—nothing.

These presidents were not cowards. They simply would not go to war when no vital U.S. interest was at risk to justify a war. Yet, had George W. Bush prevailed and were Georgia in NATO, U.S. Marines could be fighting Russian troops over whose flag should fly over a province of 70,000 South Ossetians who prefer Russians to Georgians.

The arrogant folly of the architects of U.S. post-Cold War policy is today on display. By bringing three ex-Soviet republics into NATO, we have moved the U.S. red line for war from the Elbe almost to within artillery range of the old Leningrad.

Should America admit Ukraine into NATO, Yalta, vacation resort of the czars, will be a NATO port and Sevastopol, traditional home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, will become a naval base for the U.S. Sixth Fleet. This is altogether a bridge too far.

And can we not understand how a Russian patriot like Vladimir Putin would be incensed by this U.S. encirclement after Russia shed its empire and sought our friendship? How would Andy Jackson have reacted to such crowding by the British Empire?

As of 1991, the oil of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan belonged to Moscow. Can we not understand why Putin would smolder as avaricious Yankees built pipelines to siphon the oil and gas of the Caspian Basin through breakaway Georgia to the West?

For a dozen years, Putin & Co. watched as U.S. agents helped to dump over regimes in Ukraine and Georgia that were friendly to Moscow.

If Cold War II is coming, who started it, if not us?

The swift and decisive action of Putin's army in running the Georgian forces out of South Ossetia in 24 hours after Saakashvili began his barrage and invasion suggests Putin knew exactly what Saakashvili was up to and dropped the hammer on him.

What did we know? Did we know Georgia was about to walk into Putin's trap? Did we not see the Russians lying in wait north of the border? Did we give Saakashvili a green light?

Joe Biden ought to be conducting public hearings on who caused this U.S. humiliation.

The war in Georgia has exposed the dangerous overextension of U.S. power. There is no way America can fight a war with Russia in the Caucasus with our army tied down in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nor should we. Hence, it is demented to be offering, as John McCain and Barack Obama are, NATO membership to Tbilisi.

The United States must decide whether it wants a partner in a flawed Russia or a second Cold War. For if we want another Cold War, we are, by cutting Russia out of the oil of the Caspian and pushing NATO into her face, going about it exactly the right way.

Vladimir Putin is no Stalin. He is a nationalist determined, as ruler of a proud and powerful country, to assert his nation's primacy in its own sphere, just as U.S. presidents from James Monroe to Bush have done on our side of the Atlantic.

A resurgent Russia is no threat to any vital interests of the United States. It is a threat to an American Empire that presumes some God-given right to plant U.S. military power in the backyard or on the front porch of Mother Russia.

Who rules Abkhazia and South Ossetia is none of our business. And after this madcap adventure of Saakashvili, why not let the people of these provinces decide their own future in plebiscites conducted by the United Nations or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe?

As for Saakashvili, he's probably toast in Tbilisi after this stunt. Let the neocons find him an endowed chair at the American Enterprise Institute.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/...old_war_ii.html

Reading Patrick's stuff now for a bit over 2 years - one wonders how long he has been in the employ of Putin and Company.

He has advocated at virtually every turn of late to just give Russia what she desires as somehow being the only sensible tack any rational being should or can take.

I see his byline and I can almost automatically tell you what will be the turn and tone of the article.

Maybe his flirtation with the Reform party and subsequent loss took something out of him, I don't know. I do know he cringes now whenever he sees a bear's shadow or silhouette.

YMMV (and I'm sure BB it will )

War in South Ossetia: Image Gallery for those who are interested

WARNING: some images are graphic.

Go to Image Gallery


Most of the pictures are of Georgian casualties in the area of Tsingvali.

You can see some interesting pictures of members of the Russian «Восток» Motorized Infantry Battalion, made up entirely of Chechens.

I remember listening to Lawrence Eagleburger about supporting these little breakaway countries. He said they would all be completely dependant on the US for military and economic welfare. Which they are. The EU isn't like the US where there is one voice, one vote. They are struggling with each other, the only thing they will do is to stop the EU/Russia discussion. They are dependant on Russia. They aren't afraid of the bear militarily, they need the gas and oil.

That's right, Germany alone imports 40% of its natural gas from Russia, and in Eastern European member states, that number is closer to 100%.

Of course there is no chance of an EU-Russia military confrontation. As for fears the Russia will suddenly break off gas imports, that isn't going to happen either because Russia does not want to ruin its revenue stream. The only things that squabbling over countries like Georgia does, is sink us back into a Cold War mentality.

People who are now in power in the US have been raised on this propaganda. Now, anything that Russia does, be that consolidating its government-run grain farms, build a new weapons system or assert its power in its sphere of an influence, they cry THE COLD WAR IS BACK ON!!!!

This is an enormous obstacle to productive Russia-US-EU relations. We must have a good relationship with Russia in order to meet our future economic and diplomatic goals. Already, the economic relationship between the US and Russia is growing at an enormous pace. We are currently importing 3% of our LNG from Russia (by way of a Venezuela swap). Gazprom predicts that this number will grow to 15% by 2012. In the EU, the numbers are double digits already and will keep growing.

Russia isn't going anywhere, it will only grow stronger. Contrary to popular belief, our countries share much in common in economic and strategic goals. We have to recognize Russia's growing influence to what it is: Russia asserting itself on the world stage.

Everybody's rhetoric in light of recent events is absolutely insane. Maybe in 20 years, when my generation will be old enough to assume positions of power in both countries, we will finally rid ourselves of Cold War Hide Under the Desk, bullshit.

I think Americans have to understand that the US will no longer be the leader of the world. Russia, China, India and even the EU once it gets its stuff together will have a much bigger influence on the world than our humiliated, bankrupt one.

I wouldn't take it that far, and I would exclude China and India because they have a long time before they get their act together. The EU is in for a lot of problems in the future, both in terms of government and economy. Russia is dependent on its commodity exports, which is not a sound long term economical model.

That leaves the US. I believe we can overcome the crises we find ourselves in leade the world for decades to come.

If they will (your prediction) have, that means they don't already so who does that leave?

Barack Hussein Obama