Storm Before the Calm in Georgia

You know I'm rarely a fan of Purin's policies, but their retaliation to Georgia's attack on South Ossetia is a clear case of doing the right thing for strategic reasons. Sure it helps Russia in terms of securing invaluable alternative pipelines (precisely why they won’t get support from China, at least not for free), but at least Russia will be smart enough to utilize them once the situation stabilizes.

Conversely, the US is just now starting to even attempt to get any benefits from Iraq’s oil because we were so damn scared about giving credence to the hippie “blood for oil” propaganda. This is even though Iraqis desperately need the oil money, as well as help in creating modern machinery to extract and transport it. Naturally we should be able to pick American companies for this, and they should be compensated for their services. Does this help Exxon, et.al.? Of course – and the U.S. government too thanks to disproportionate taxes. Are the Iraqis better off? Indubitably, and they can solicit new bids once existing contracts expire.

For the world to call Georgia a small peaceful nation is a half truth – it is, in fact, quite small. Georgia was the original aggressor in this conflict, and Misha’s much-talked about Western education did him little good, as he was unable to predict the obvious outcome of attacking a region favored by Russia. While Russia certainly cares far less about collateral damage than Western nations, Georgians have been engaged in outright genocide for some time as anyone familiar with Ossetia will tell you.

Fortunately for the US and European propaganda machines, however, most people thought Ossetia was Borat’s whore sister until these recent news, and Putin with his sidekick doesn’t need much help in looking like a supervillain.

Of course while NATO and US can send over all the sideline troops they want, their commanders are [hopefully] not stupid enough, to actually engage Russia – in which case I’ll be blogging from the nearest nuclear shelter. A stern warning is all that the UN can give Russia, and Putin is well aware of this. As I said before, Putin’s activities over the past 2 years have really been testing the limits of his power, and now it seems he’s found an area of slightly more resistance than killing a former spy. All this means is that Mother Russia will wait for some time before officially adopting the new “independent” territories.

Unless the UN can get China to throw their full support behind them they have little alternative than to be angry spectators.

clipped from afp.google.com Russia's military said it would carefully monitor a "build-up" of NATO naval ships in the Black Sea, amid anger at Moscow's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia , regions that broke from Georgian control in the early 1990s. "Certainly some measures of precaution are being taken.... Let's hope we do not see any direct confrontation in that," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding: "It's not a common practice to deliver humanitarian aid using battleships." Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, warned that any NATO attack on the Moscow-backed regions would "mean a declaration of war on Russia." In a departure from Beijing's usual firm support for Moscow, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted as saying: "China is concerned (about) the latest development in South Ossetia and Abkhazia." President George W. Bush said Russia should reverse its "irresponsible decision." Medvedev appeared unapologetic, saying on Tuesday: "We're not afraid of anything."