After his initial choice for campaign song, Abba’s Dancing Queen, was objected to by the republican-supporting group Americans United Against Swedes And Gays, John McCain seized on current affairs and snagged Ray Charles’ “Georgia on My Mind” before democratic rival Obama get’s to it, reports Chaim Sugarman. McCain’s hope now is that the conflict lasts through the republican convention, so that his latest foreign policy platform remains relevant.
Things were not all fine and dandy for McCain, however, Georgia’s republican party withdrew its support for the presidential candidate after he called their state “remote” and “obscure”.
“World history is often made in remote obscure countries,” McCain said. “It is being made in Georgia today. It’s the responsibility of the leading nations of the world to ensure history continues to be a record of humanity’s progress toward respecting the values and security of free people.”
…
“As you know, over the past several days we’ve seen that international aggression is,
tragically, not a thing of the past,” McCain told the audience. “We thought we put a lot of that behind us at the end of the 20th century. But now it’s rearing its ugly head in the 21st … [in] the small of nation of Georgia.”
KABOBfest’s special assignment got a bit snarky following up on the remarks by US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice on the matter:
“This is no longer 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, when a great power invaded a small neighbor and overthrew its government,” Rice said. “The free world will now have to wrestle with the profound implications of this Russian attack on its neighbor, for security in the region and beyond.”
“The Free World will not be available to wrestle with the implications of this matter until 2029, as it will be busy wrestling with the security implications of its own invasion and aggression against Iraq in 2003 and Iran in 2009.” Said Sugarman.
However, Sugarman was left speechless after hearing President Bush speak on the issue: “Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century,” said president Bush.
I would be hard pressed trying to justify Russia’s action, the most likely scenario that Georgia’s adventures in that one small province were a western-backed provocation to gage Russia’s tolerance and response. Russia read the message, and decided to show no tolerance and plenty of response. Point made.
Ultimately, Georgia’s approach to South Ossetia and Abkhazia is similar to Russia’s criminal approach to Chechnya; If Georgia has the right to be independent from the former Soviet Union, why don’t these small regions of ethnic minorities get to?
A final thought, the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakasomething is a douche bag. Why is he talking like he is entitled to massive US support? He’s no Israel, the US owes massive, unconditional support only to Israel. Besides, his AGPAC lobby in Washington is not all that powerful yet, all the support they have so far mustered up is the two senators from Georgia, and one senator from Arizona who actually still lives in 1968 and is still nervous about the tide of the Evil Empire.
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“If Georgia has the right to be independent from the former Soviet Union, why don’t these small regions of ethnic minorities get to?”
Absolutely Mr F! Effectively they had been autonomous for 10 years, Georgia violated agreements.
There do seem to be rather more famous blind singers among blacks than in other ethnic groups:
Stevie Wonder (total crap!)
Ray Charles (brill!)
Blind Lemon Jefferson (also brill!)
There have also been an awful lot of dim witted US presidents too, a list is hardly necessary.
This is probably coincidence.
Posted by xoggoth | August 19, 2008, 12:34 pmFayyad, you must not be aware that South Ossetia and Abkhazian military and irregular forces had been shelling and harassing nearby Georgian villages for weeks prior to the conflict.
Russian hackers were disrupting Georgian government websites and inter-government communications since mid-July.
You have bought the Russian narrative hand and foot. As someone who grew up in the Soviet Union, take notice when I say that the Russians are not Arabs, nor Americans; they are highly capable tacticians with an immensely effective propaganda apparatus.
You should try to view the situation through a different frame of reference than what you are normally used to. The Russians think differently from Arabs, other Europeans or Americans, in substantial ways.
When I hear that 300 Russian tanks and 500 Russian armored personnel carriers were en route within 24 hours, it is clear as daylight to me that Russia was not merely ready for this action, it had more or less planned out zero hour for the start of operations.
Russian army units are rarely staffed at even 50%. Skeleton crews are more common, at 15%, 25% for a division sized force, consisting of the officer corps and elite units. It is an all conscript army. The mobilization alone should have taken at least a week, much less getting those units reacquainted with their equipment, bringing in sufficient reserves of fuel, armaments, even food for the soldiers.
The air force is a great example. Russia used at least 50 fixed wing aircraft in Georgia. There are not 50 combat certified pilots in the Russian Air Force in any given sector! Maybe 50 operating in the entire country, From Vladivostok to Murmansk to Moscow to Rostov.
It should have take the Air Force days to assemble appropriate strike packages, yet Russian jets were bombing Georgia before tanks even appeared on the Georgian side of the Roki Tunnel.
Let me explain it to you like this: Russia was not just prepared for this. It was not merely expecting this. In Russia, all these things don’t just happen when the President says “go”.
Russia doesn’t just keep 800 armored vehicles, 50 aircraft, 5 battleships and the tens of thousands of conscript soldiers to run all this machinery at the ready for something to happen. From the Russian perspective, why wait? It is much more efficient to choose the time and place of battle.
Did Georgia take the bait? Clearly. You need to understand, however, that the Russian psyche is utterly different from what you are used to. Maskirovka – roughly translated as concealment or deceit – is a founding principle of Russian military strategy.
You’re going to say, so what, that’s just like America. It’s not; it’s a completely different thinking process. The Russians play by completely different rules.
With Americans and the US Army in particular, you get exactly what they say. They say, do this or we will take you apart like this and that. You don’t do what they say and they take you apart just like they said they would. The whole time you know exactly what is coming, but they do it better and more efficiently than you ever thought possible. It’s all very logical and straightforward.
With Russians, they’ll say, do this or we’ll do this to you. You don’t do it, and start planning thinking you know what is coming. And then they do something completely different that has nothing to do with you, and the whole time you were just a disposable pawn in a massive game who played his part as if it was scripted.
I wish I could explain it better… I’ll try to think of a way to explain it.
Posted by Anonymous | August 19, 2008, 2:04 pm