12 November 2008, 11:09 am
So, Vladimir Putin was right: It was Georgia that started the war with Russia, and once again it was President Bush who got caught in a lie. As the New York Times reported last week, "Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the long-standing Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression." The Bush White House knew--but kept from the American public--facts concerning provocation by Georgia's U.S.-trained forces, which killed civilians in the capital of South Ossetia before Russian troops crossed the border. The provocation has also been documented in a BBC investigative report and by a growing consensus of other reliable sources. No surprise, but it is a reminder of just how eager some are for a new Cold War and how indifferent they are to the truth of the matter. The career hawks are influential in both political parties, as was evidenced by the knee-jerk response of both presidential candidates, who claimed that the Russians had launched a totally unprovoked attack. Sen. John McCain, whose top foreign policy adviser had been a paid lobbyist for Georgia, was most eager to confront the Russians, while Sen. Barack Obama was a bit more cautious. But as recently as in his Oct. 29 infomercial, Obama promised to "curb Russian aggression," which hardly suggests the change we need from the unilateral belligerence of the Bush foreign policy. The result of that policy has been increased estrangement from the one country whose cooperation is totally indispensable in the effort to control the spread of nuclear weapons, given that Russia possesses roughly half of the world's nuclear arsenal and the ready means to build more nuclear arms. Yet instead of putting up a common front against nuclear proliferation, and even before the Georgia fracas, the Bush administration insisted on placing missiles on Russia's borders in a deal-breaker with Putin, whom President George W. Bush had previously embraced. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/cold-war-hawks-nesting-wi_b_143180.html No, this is NOT FOX News! I'm not into staged BS! Bktrout-- I fail to see how to answer your question, however obvious the answer may be, if you don't allow email! JayH -- It's interesting to note an admission of error on the part of the US. But, for the US to qualify this admission by saying that the Russians over reacted is silly. Just look how the US over reacts to being shot at. Immediately bullets fly the Americans call an air strike and civilians die. It happens every day. In their view, the Russians continued to go deep into Georgia to take out weapons dumps that could be used upon Odessians again. The Georgian (US) attack on Odessia was an act of war.... Read More »
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