Dmitry Medvedev signs degree recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent.

[bushmeister0]

Reuters:

"'I have signed decrees on the recognition by the Russian Federation of the independence of South Ossetia and the independence of Abkhazia,' Medvedev said in a televised statement.

The decision sets Russia on a collision course with the West, which has strongly urged Moscow not to recognise the two regions and to support Georgia's territorial integrity . . .

Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, compared the position to the eve of World War One, saying a new freeze in relations was inevitable.

'The current atmosphere reminds me of the situation in Europe in 1914 ... when, because of one terrorist, leading world powers clashed,' Rogozin told the RBK Daily business newspaper.

'I hope (Georgian President) Mikheil Saakashvili will not go down in history as a new Gavrilo Princip,' Rogozin said, referring to the man who in August 1914 killed Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, triggering the world war."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-georgia-ossetia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

As if that's not scary enough:

Reurters:

"Two U.S. warships will deliver humanitarian supplies on Wednesday to the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti where Russian troops have been mounting patrols, the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi said on Tuesday."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LQ130468.htm

Anyone have a bomb shelter?

[malaise]

1. Kosovo anyone? n/t

[bushmeister0]

2. Um hum: See how momentious decisions like this are made.

From a previous post in March:


"Kosovo, there's that word again.

W. sure opened up a can of worms with that brilliant move.

And this is story in the WaPo about how this whole thing seems to have come about it very telling:

As per usual, W. hunkered down with his advisors, got all the best information he could, weighed the pros and cons and after months of intense study came up with the idea of Kosovo indepenence. Or was it the guy who almost stole his watch in Albania?

The WaPo:

"'At some point in time, sooner rather than later, you've got to say: Enough's enough -- Kosovo is independent,' Bush said. Responding to a reporter's question in Rome on Saturday, Bush had said a deadline should be set for a U.N. resolution on Kosovo's independence. 'In terms of the deadline, there needs to be one,' he said. 'This needs to come -- this needs to happen.'

Asked Sunday about when he would like that deadline set, Bush seemed flummoxed. 'I don't think I called for a deadline,' he said. Told that he had, Bush responded: 'I did? What exactly did I say? I said, 'Deadline'? Okay, yes, then I meant what I said."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bushmeister0/24

[NashVegas]

4. Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia - Check Out This 1993 NYT Article

With extreme reluctance, the NATO allies last week edged toward intervention, deciding with the approval of the United Nations Security Council to send fighter planes over Bosnia to enforce a ban on (largely nonexistent) Serb military flights there, starting tomorrow.

Germany was particularly skittish about participating in air control operations, having been burned by its past mistakes. Most recently, it has begun to admit that it made a mistake in rushing its European allies into recognition of the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Slovenia at the beginning of 1992, on the ground that this diplomatic step would help curb Serbian aggression.

Instead, the German campaign to recognize Croatia may have given Serbs an additional pretext to attack in the weeks before recognition was actually extended. The pretext was there because the last time Croatia was given its independence -- by Nazi Germany in World War II -- Croats set up concentration camps and butchered tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies.

Bosnian Muslims joined in some of the bloodletting then, and the clumsy German meddling half a century later may have been another reason why Serbs in Bosnia went on the rampage after Bosnian independence was recognized last year.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5D91039F932A25757C0A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

That's the background that gets scrubbed when people talk about Milosevic and Karadzic.

[mainegreen]

3. Our nations logic for recognizing 'territorial integrity' is such a farce.

Honestly, I find our behavior embarrassing. It's like having your drunk cousin say wildly inappropriate things at the first thanksgiving you've brought your new girlfriend to. All you can do is stick your face in your hands and pray he shuts up soon.

[bushmeister0]

5. It's even worse when that drunk is the president

http://gawker.com/5035885/bush-looking-drunk-at-the-olympics

[leftchick]

7. what really scares me is the lack of reporting the truth here in the states

first there is nary a mention on TV about this potential final storm brewing. And if there is it is told as a neocon fantasy tale, but americans will eat it up, pull out their flags and root for the good old USA! I assume the democrats will bend over for their usual position. We are fucked.

:scared:

[bushmeister0]

8. Equally scary is how little our fellow DUers seem to be interested in this story.

Calling Michele Malkin names seems to rate way higher.

[leftchick]

9. it is depressing

:(

[bushmeister0]

6. South Ossetia aiming for the stars:

NYT:

Alexei Sanokoyev, 23, an analyst for the South Ossetian government’s foreign policy department says hopefully:

"I think after Russia, we will be recognized by, for example, Belgrade, for example, China, and maybe Syria, and also Belarus.

And Cuba, of course."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/world/europe/26ossetia.html?hp

Wow, for this we're going to start WWIII?