Not too surprisingly, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev took a pro-Russian view of the Georgia crisis in a New York Times commentary. Gorbachev wrote: “Russia did not want this crisis. The Russian leadership is in a strong enough position domestically; it did not need a little victorious war. Russia was dragged into the fray by the recklessness of the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili. He would not have dared to attack without outside support. Once he did, Russia could not afford inaction.” Gorbachev also blamed the West for mounting “a propaganda attack against Russia, with the American news media leading the way.” He also suggested that the West might have been behind the confrontation. “It is still not quite clear whether the West was aware of Mr. Saakashvili’s plans to invade South Ossetia, and this is a serious matter,” he wrote. “What is clear is that Western assistance in training Georgian troops and shipping large supplies of arms had been pushing the region toward war rather than peace.”
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28 Comments
“with the American news media leading the way”
Just like the American news media, led by the New York Times, cheered on our invasion of Iraq.
Or reported that the surge worked. Hmmmm, sort of suspicious isn’t it? Groby’s getting kindof grampish isn’t he?
Gorbachev blames West for Georgia crisis
It is the truth.
Why doesn’t someone tell him a bird pooped on his head? Needs to wipe it off.
What is clear is that Gorbachev, didn’t want to have one of those “KGB Heart attacks” and find himself taking a dirt nap.
I like the lack of coverage that our little inflation and monetary policy receives.
Good to know that our media are owned by the same people who benefit from the current policies.
My free investment tip for the day. Buy Silver. It has taken a huge dip lately. The odd thing is that there has been no significant increase in supply to warrant the price drop. It is a manipulated drop. It will rise again.
It was another foreign policy fiasco brought to you by gw and mccain, no doubt suggested by mccain’s Georian lobbyist.
It’s not supply and demand driving oil prices nearly as much as our foreign policy meddling and bungling.
“U.S. crude gained $5.60, or 4.85 percent, to stand at $121.16 a barrel by 12:45 p.m. EDT, the biggest percentage gain since June 6. London Brent crude climbed $6.11 to $120.47.
Oil is down sharply from the record high of $147.27 a barrel reached July 11 — a slide triggered by evidence of a global slowdown in energy demand — but it remains up about 20 percent so far this year and about sixfold since 2002.
Thursday’s gains came after Russia said it would respond with more than just a diplomatic protest to a U.S. deal with Poland to station parts of a U.S. missile defense shield on Polish soil.
Relations between Russia and the West had already been strained by Moscow’s military intervention in Georgia, a conflict that has already disrupted the transit of Azeri oil through the region.
The U.S.-Russia spat adds to a list of other political factors that have supported oil prices in recent months, such as the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program and repeated militant attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria.
Adding support to oil and other
Regular I rarely agree, but today I do. I think Gobrachev is worried about his own skin.
Almost there Phantom. You also forgot to mention the inflating of the currency. I wouldn’t expect you to know that though because it is hidden so well from the public. If we still had a gold backed currency, oil would be $25.00 per barrel.
Mikhail- If you want to continue to be on the
“Borscht on Wheels” program, sign this article and send it to the New York Times now!!
This is old news to me, I was writing about this early last week. The Eagle is therefore olds and not news.
Why is this being taken so light-heartedly?
We’re over there inciting wars with folks that have nukes, this ain’t lil’ ol’ Iraq we’ll be soon dealing with.
This country needs to grow the hell up.
Especially those who still believe this is some isolated deal that has nothing to do with the U.S.
We already have a police-state grid in place, detainment camps for the dissidents that will be pissed off when they are drafted and for those that get all up in arms about their life-savings (all tied up in stocks) that will be wiped clean and oh yeah, for those that are hungry too.
Sorry to say it… but then again, no I’m not, “the sky is falling!”
You all wanted to be “global player’s”, here’s our chance.
Russia doesn’t want to be owned by the International banker’s and they don’t like that too much.
This is beginning to look like the twilight of the American experiment and we are sufficiently dumbed down enough to let it happen.
Gorbachev isn’t doing this to protect his own skin. He’s said things very much along these lines before. See for example here. Last night I wrote a response to Gorby’s editorial that can be read at blog, if anyone’s interested:
http://chriscarrollsmith.blogspot.com
The response of NYT readers to the Gorbachev editorial was annoyingly affirmative of what he had to say. I think he makes some decent points, but much of what he says is downright wrong and even verges on stupidity.
It is all very suspect with the Georgia lobbyist being mccains foreign policy advisor. Russia had controlled Georgia for 2 centuries, so the stranglehold theory is rather ridiculous.
Bush should not have been pushing so hard for EU membership, it only agitated things.
We would not like Cuba to become a member of Russia.
“Phantom
Posted August 21, 2008 at 7:49 pm | Bush should not have been pushing so hard for EU membership, it only agitated things.”
Dang, Phantom, is there anything that you are NOT an expert on?
Really, you know everything, (regardless of whether or not there is any basis for it.)
LOOK OUT YOUR WINDOW, there are BLACK HELICOPTERS!!!!! OMG!!!
I sprained my ankle this weekend, somehow, someway, Bush is to blame for it.
Geez,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, you guys………. get a grip.
USA is THE Super Power on the face of this Earth. We could force our will at any place and at anytime.
Our military is hamstrung and prohibited from the ass-kicking that is a war, that is any war. If the decision is made to go to war, then do it. Dragging out the horror of war is self-defeating. Do it quickly, and brutally if necessary. Russia v. Georgia is a good example.
There is a solid reason why “War is Hell”.
Our military is hamstrung because of the whiners. There is no conflict that the whiners would say OK to. The whiners just want to ‘play nice’ and stick their heads in the sand, and hope, and deny.
There IS evil in this world. Evil people that want to kill you. Evil people that want to kill your family. Evil organizations that want to kill as many people as they can, and kill you only because you might think differently than they do.
I don’t know what it will take for the whiners to realize this.
America is forced to ‘police the world’ because of that evil. America does not leave behind kingdoms and servants.
America leaves behind Constitutions and Freedom. And, charity, and hope.
And, THAT is why we are different from the rest of the world. And, THAT is why history has never seen a Nation as good as ours.
>>Russia had controlled Georgia for 2 centuries, so the stranglehold theory is rather ridiculous.
That was before the oil pipeline. At the moment, Europe is completely dependent upon oil that comes into the continent through two pipelines: one from Russia and one from the Middle East through Georgia. If Russia controls both pipelines, it controls Europe’s fuel supply. I’m sure NATO has stockpiles and reserves in case of war, but that doesn’t stop Russia from price-gouging or leveraging in the meantime.
There’s also the issue of trade. If Russia controls Georgia, it controls the overland trade routes between Europe and the rest of Asia. There’s always the sea, I suppose, but to retool the shipping industry would take some doing. Russia could certainly inflict some harm on Europe in the meantime if it were to close the roads in and out of Georgia.
You’re right that Russia’s control over Georgia in the Soviet Union days didn’t hurt Europe that much. That’s because Europe at the time didn’t have a trade and energy infrastructure that depended on Georgia as a major hub. Now it does, so the situation is quite different.
Russia was smart enough to go in, do what they wanted to do and then leave.
bush on the other hand, desides an occupation and nation building are in order, paying no mind to the obvious consequences of forced occupation and the resultant resistance.
Russia has a smart leader, we have bush. Apparently they learned a lesson from afghanistan that we still haven’t learned from vietnam.
Please don’t blame Bush for this mess- he thought he was supporting the baseball team in Atlanta.
Jackboot, sorry Sanford, you sound like the average flag-wavin’ patriot. Good for you. Listen to Hannity much? Nobody has argued our “Super Hero…sorry…Power” status, but you gotta throw in a talking point. But, bs hubris and arrogance like you got is what destroyed Roma.
Whiner’s? How about we’re think before doing’s?
Gorbachev blames West for Georgia crisis
Well of course he does. He’s a Russian first.
Georgia didn’t “invade” S. Ossetia; S. Ossetia was Georgian territory (though largely autonomous). You can’t “invade” your own country.
However, Russia used that “invasion” as pretext for its own invasion. One that we can do little about except protest – a fact of simple geography. But let’s not imagine that the Russian invasion is anything other than what it was.
I wonder if the Georgia situation would have ever occurred if we had not been pushing the missile defense treaty with Poland, etc.?
I think Russia’s opposition to the missile defense systems gives an insight to their long range strategic thinking.
GMC – in many ways S Ossetia was to Georgia what Kosovo was to Serbia: technicall part of it but in many ways not. We supported the breakaway of Kosovo; Russia supports the breakaway of S.O. However, the Ossetians (and the Abkhazians) might well regret their decisions. While the US/NATO have no interest in dominating Kosovo Russia DOES have an interest in dominating these regions. In fact, NORTH Ossetia is part of the Russian Federation. And, in many was not unlike Chechnya, I suspect they would like independence.
“Pleefer
Posted August 22, 2008 at 5:45 am | Permalink
Jackboot, sorry Sanford, you sound like the average flag-wavin’ patriot. Good for you. Listen to Hannity much? Nobody has argued our “Super Hero…sorry…Power” status, but you gotta throw in a talking point. But, bs hubris and arrogance like you got is what destroyed Roma.
Whiner’s? How about we’re think before doing’s?”
Good job. Pleef. Instead of discussing the issue, you just throw out cliche’d insults.
If you can’t defeat the message, then shoot the messenger. Your pattern is old hat.
Funny, I mentioned this the other day as a comparison. Guess Russia thinks two can play that game.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080822/wl_nm/cuba_russia_dc_2
So, Sanford, guess you’ll have to answer your question yourself. Ha Ha
What message Sanford? We don’t think the same, you and I. I KNOW that AlQaeda was a creation of Zbigniew Brzezinski. And I know that the evil people that want to kill me reside in the White House. The most evil of people are these neo-con’s running things right now. They are power-mad, insane people. I am for guarding our country and that has zero to do with being in Iraq.
Are you currently fighting in the military? You should be if you aren’t.
And I know that the evil people that want to kill me reside in the White House.
—–
WOW! You must think you are special or something(sociopath?). I doubt GWB and DC want to kill you…
I think I finally understand what bush and mcbush have been saying. A soverign country like Cuba has every right to become a Russian satellite state, and in the 21 st century, we wouldn’t consider invading cuba ’cause Soverign Countries don’t invade Soverign Countries in the 21st century. If russia wants to set up a missle shield of their own in cuba, who would we be to complain?
Bush and mcbush are what texans like to call ‘fcking idiots’.
>>And I know that the evil people that want to kill me reside in the White House. The most evil of people are these neo-con’s running things right now. They are power-mad, insane people.
Speaking of insane people…
Like the familiar saying – “But honest instinct comes a volunteer; Sure never to o’er-shoot, but just to hit, While still too wide or short in human wit.” (Alexander Pope)!