US, allies contemplating action against Russia

[951-Riverside]

Source: The Associated Press

The United States on Sunday accused Russia of stalling its military pullback in Georgia, but the Bush administration is not rushing to repudiate Moscow for its actions.

The White House is struggling to figure out the best way to penalize Russia. It doesn't want to deeply damage existing cooperation on many fronts or discourage Moscow from further integrating itself into global economic and political institutions. At the same time, U.S. officials say Russia can't be allowed to get away with invading its neighbor.

Fighting broke out after Georgia launched a massive barrage Aug. 7 to try to take control of the separatist province of South Ossetia, which is heavily influenced by Russia. The Russian army quickly overwhelmed Georgia's forces, then drove deep into the country, bombed Georgian ports and military installations and tied up an east-west highway through the nation.

"There's no doubt there will be further consequences," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who briefed President Bush on the fast-changing crisis over the weekend at his Texas ranch.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080817/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_g...

[msongs]

1. if russia doesnt stop being bad, Bush is gonna resign in protest lololol nt

[951-Riverside]

2. hahahaha n/t

[Xipe Totec]

3. Perhaps some sort of timetable is in order... nt

[Hyuke4]

5. Timetables? Horse Radish

Russia can use the same line we are using in Iraq,even though iraq has asked us for a firm withdrawl timetable,we are telling them We cant nt leave until the situation on the ground is stable,until our Generals say it is.
I thought Iraq was a democracy and Sovereign state since we liberated them? Is It? why should they have to wait until we achieve " VICTORY" is it all about the US? why should they care about our Victory? Whose country is it to make hose decisions.We said we would leave as soon as they asked us.
So the fact is if we have a Right to determine when and under what conditions we will leave,if we are ever leaving,Russia has that same right, in fact Russia has a lot more right than we, do because thats is right in their backyard.
They are not going to allow us to encircle them in a Vise.
Would we allow Russia to have basses all around us,encircle in us slowly?
What if russia wanted to install some defense missile shield in Cuba to defend us and others from say, Colombia,would we allow it? Why would we want Russia to protect us from Columbia when we are a world power?
Bush is telling them that Bullying threats and and militarism is not the way to go.what a joke
He forgot that we threatened Bully,and insults others before we launched our illegal war against Iraq and is still occupying Iraq?
He forgot about the many insults and intimidation of every nation that did did not buy our WMD lies? Freedom fries? Old Europe,Incompetent and Irrelevant UN? and Cheese eating surrender Monkeys?
Do we have any right to be telling Russia anything?

[Xipe Totec]

6. I must remember to put the sarcastathingie on my posts

[Silentobserver]

8. Amen...

Best post ever! And very honest, we should always put a mirror in the face of our leaders so they can realize we still care and so remember their past actions! Bless you!

[PSPS]

4. This AP story surprises me

It says "Fighting broke out after Georgia launched a massive barrage Aug. 7 to try to take control of the separatist province of South Ossetia, which is heavily influenced by Russia.

That's the first time I've seen any domestic media outlet put that truth in the story, at least before the last paragraph.

Usually, the MSM writes whatever the white house propaganda office feed to them. In this case, the story line is to portray the "evil Russian bear on the loose, invading its innocent neighbors." The fact here is that it was Georgia, with its puppet government slavish to bush, that invaded South Ossetia and started this whole thing. They thought the US would come to their rescue (we did fly their troops back from Iraq.) Instead, they were repulsed quite handily by the Russian army to protect the largely Russian population in South Ossetia.

I wonder how long it will be before this version of the story will be scrubbed?

[leftchick]

11. notice the bias is still there though

....

"which is heavily influenced by Russia."


Uh, Hell Fucking OOOOOO!! How many countries does the US bomb/"influence"? The hypocrisy is enough to make me vomit.

[dipsydoodle]

7. The military pullback

will just be the official Russian troops leaving the Georgians with the issue of the "irregulars" over whom the Russians may no longer have complete control.

I'm guessing that following emptying out the Georgian armaments locations west of Triblisi the irregulars may well be very heavily armed.

Me thinks Saakashvili bit off a whole lot more than he can chew - Dumwit.

See here for Satyagrahi's post and something very close to the truth on this subject :
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[jeff30997]

9. "Russia can't be allowed to get away with invading its neighbor."

It's very ironic coming from a country that illegally invaded a sovereign nation thousands of miles away from its border for no legitimate reason and massacred and tortured innocent civilians.

[Tutonic]

10. Further consequences? Oh my Lord, C. Rice has finally spoken

and this is her great pronouncement. Good thing Biden was willing to go over there and rescue Rice, Graham and Lieingman. Eight years of these fools and still no coherent foreign policy. Nothing more than rhetoric.

[tocqueville]

12. Make no mistake, EU is with Bush on this one

This is not Iraq

Even if Saakashvili started the hostilities, the Russian response was out of order. Russia counted on a European split (specially because Germany is more dependent on Russian gas) but the only result was to scare everybody and create unity. Besides if there are countries that want to join NATO, they are free of doing it.

The only thing Ivan can do today is to swiftly leave Georgia. If they don't they will be thrown out from the G8 and the WTO, and the winter olympics boycotted. At the same time a build up of NATO forces will occur in the region.

Whoever becomes the President of the US in 4 months from now will have to face this problem. And this time the best way to ALIENATE allies would be to do nothing about Russian bullying of their former possessions.

[SpiritMatter]

13. Bush/McCain Foreign Policy Hypocrisy

BUSH PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE STANDARD IS THE FOREIGN POLICY BLUNDER OF THE CENTURY!

Russia is simply following the brain dead foreign policy standard set by Bush with Iraq. We pre-emptively attacked and conquered a sovereign nation without Iraq launching a single military attack against U.S. or Americans living overseas. Russia had the foreign policy wisdom to with hold military force until Georgia attacked Russians in Ossetia. The rest of the world is not blind to this Bush administration double standard.