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Originally Posted by jujuman13  While is is undoubtedly true that Russia baited Georgia, it is also true that as seasoned politicians they (Georgians) should have realized what was happening as well as also realizing that the Bear (Russia) had enormous forces on Russia / Georgian border to react almost instantly to any act against either South Ossetia and or Abkhazia. |
There is no question Georgians were aware of the presence of Russian forces near the Georgian border as it was (1) well publicized, the Russian pretext being ordinary military exercises, and (2) Saakashvili directly made mention of such events as provocations. He was fully aware of the situation.
IMO the evidence suggests that the Georgian "response" was in fact a well-planned effort to force a situation. They had no intent on holding ground as one might expect with soldiers with real nationalistic zeal and purpose, and therefore I would conclude the incursion into S. Ossetia was purely a political gambit. As you pointed out, these are seasoned diplomats, not teenagers who are "provoked" into fighting with simple insults.
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Originally Posted by jujuman13 The utterances that Rice is making are not going to ease the situation in the slightest, if anything they will make the Russians even more intractable. |
I would think that is the point of the hostile rhetoric. The intent is to polarize.
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Originally Posted by jujuman13 It is also so very true that the West NEEDS Russian co-operation with regards to the Terrorist problems that plague our world. |
But terrorism will continue to bubble up over time regardless. It is a war that can not actually be won. Terrorism has been around for thousands of years. Although certain organized flare-ups can be stamped out here and there, the basic fuel for unrest and a culture for terror is probably built into many cultures and I suspect even has roots in the human psyche. That is the problem, now, isn't it? Russia wants to define our some of our freedom fighters as terrorists, and we want to impose that same distinction on some of their colleagues.
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Originally Posted by jujuman13 Indeed IMHO we also need to include the Chinese in these deliberations. |
They have their own Uighur and Tibetan "terrorists" they don't want to be accidentally redefined in public discussion as freedom fighters. I suspect they will want to stay as far away from this debate as possible.
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