"NATO should extend membership to two former Soviet republics (Ukraine and Georgia), and any Russian invasion of a NATO state could lead to a conflict with the U.S.", Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin told ABC News.
"We have got to show the support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to," she said.
However, the United States and Russia "cannot repeat the Cold War," the Alaska governor said in her first interview since becoming Sen. John McCain's running mate.
Why, then Sarah Palin, are you attempting to grab the steering wheel of foreign relations and drive this nation into a head-on collision with your neighbor, Russia???
Contrary to your statement to ABC news today which will be airing on 20/20 tomorrow night, you don't realize something, Sarah Palin. For the past 20 years the United States has been easily getting away with demoralizing Russia politically, after the decline of the Soviet Union. Read history. Foresight helps resolve conflicts by not getting into them in the first place.
Things have changed, Sarah Palin. It is not wise of you to follow in McCain's shoes by taunting Russia with belligerent and irrelevant "tough talk".. "ECONOMIC SANCTIONS" on Russia? Are you out of your mind? Uhm... and how much of a bargaining chip is the US economy these days to a nation that is drowning in OIL, the worlds numero uno commodity?
Am I the only one to notice that McCain and Palin have been more vocal about foreign "relations" with Russia than our President has been? Why is that?
Sarah Palin's threats to Russia are reflections of insecurities in her own understanding of foreign politics. Before she continues threatening the world's underground superpower, I'd like to know her credentials for talking on such a subject with more responsibility than she has completely come to terms with yet.
I'd describe McCain and Palin not so much of mavericks as they are kamikazes
Showing posts with label Cold War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cold War. Show all posts
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Worlds largest combat aircrafts arrive in South America from Russia for training exercises.
While American media is busy wasting breath on lipstick, pitbulls, pigs and OJ Simpson...Today in South America, two of Russia's supersonic Tupolev Tu-160 bombers landed for "training exercises" in Venezuela after the Bush administration and Mad Dog McCain have continued to repeat their brainless war threatening banter towards Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin.
The Tupolev TU 160, also known as Blackjack, was designed to strike strategic targets with nuclear and conventional weapons deep in continental theatres of operation.
Since we live in the United States of Amnesia, lets review some history, shall we?
* Early 1962 -- Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, worried by the deployment of U.S. nuclear missiles in Turkey, asked his defence minister if it was time now "to put a hedgehog in Uncle Sam's pants" by sending Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba.
* The operation, codenamed Anadyr, began shortly afterwards. Soviet ships transport 50,000 soldiers, as well as artillery, tanks and more than 40 medium-range nuclear-capable missiles to Cuba, 11,000 km (6,900 miles) from the Soviet Union.
* October 14, 1962 -- The Cuban missile crisis reached its climax after U.S. U-2 spy planes took the first clear pictures of missiles in Cuba. For a week, Moscow denied the deployment.
* October 22, 1962 -- U.S. President John Kennedy imposed a sea blockade of Cuba and put U.S. armed forces on heightened alert, ready to order a strike on Cuba. The Soviet Union pledged to retaliate with "the most powerful strike".
* October 26, 1962 -- tension started to subside after Moscow announced it is ready to remove its missiles from Cuba in return for U.S. guarantees it will never attack the island. A secret agreement with Moscow removed U.S. missiles from Turkey.
* April 1970 -- after testing Washington's nerves with showy appearances of nuclear submarines in the Gulf of Mexico and landings of Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bombers in Cuba, Moscow decided to boost its presence in the Caribbean in response to increased U.S. moves in the Baltic, Black, Japanese and Bering Seas.
* According to Soviet and Russian military archives, after 1970 the Soviet Navy made at least 29 voyages to Cuba, lasting an average of 40 days. One or two Soviet submarines accompanied these flotillas in half of all the missions.
* Tu-95 strategic bombers and its Tu-142 anti-submarine version landed at local airfields and Moscow's Lourdes signals intelligence facility in Cuba was among the most significant eyeing the United States.
* After 1991 -- the overnight collapse of the Soviet Union and a severe economic crisis ended showy Soviet overseas missions and resulted in the closure of Lourdes, along with bases in some other Soviet allies.
* August 2007 -- President Vladimir Putin ordered Tu-95 and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers to resume flights around the globe. The gesture was designed to show a more assertive role Russia intends to play in world politics.
* Almost simultaneously, Russia's navy starts long-distance sorties overseas.
* Oct 26, 2007 -- Putin, on a visit to Portugal, drew a parallel between U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Europe and the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
* August 2008 -- the U.S. and Poland clinched a deal to deploy elements of Washington's missile shield in Moscow's Cold War ally. The agreement is overshadowed by Russia's brief armed conflict with close U.S. ally and NATO aspirant Georgia.
* Sept 8, 2008 -- Russia said it will send "Peter the Great", one of the world's largest nuclear-powered warships, to Venezuela for a joint naval exercise in the Caribbean, its first major maneuvers on the U.S. doorstep since the Cold War.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Operation South Ossetia Liberation
It seems the cold war is getting warmer, but this time around we can see the news as its reported around the world, immediately... Not without a grain of salt of course, as with our own... but the truth usually becomes crystal clear after looking through from all viewpoints.
After first reading of the current conflict between Russia and Georgia a little over a week ago, I noticed how nimbly the motives for the Russian "invasion" were discussed. Meanwhile, our president, defense secretary and RNC nominee did nothing but drum up anti-Russian sentiment. I have to admit, I was thrown off by what Russia was doing as well but figured since I didn't know much about Georgia, nor had any idea of the political background of South Ossetia, that there must be more behind Russia's offensive, not to say that some of the things Russia is and has been doing are to be praised, but I know when I'm not getting the full picture.
1. Why are our headlines not mentioning a word about Georgia's prior offensives in South Ossetia, a region that has been fighting for its independence from Georgia for a decades?? Seeing as "protecting South Ossetia" is the reason Russia is giving for it's military intervention in the region I would think it would have some relevance. This is like people ignoring Osama Bin Laden's reasons for waging war on the US and passing it off as "he hate's our freedom".
2. Why are we hearing (if we're listening) about the 40,000 some refugees fleeing from South Ossetia into Russia? Why wouldn't they instead flee to Georgia, and why isn't this a headline anywhere in US media??
3. How is Russia's intervention much different from US intervention in Iraq both in 91 and 03? I hear people try to separate the two by stating that Iraq was a dictator and Georgia has a democratically elected president. Musharraf is not a democratically elected president, (he came to power as the result of a coup) the staggeringly vast majority of Pakistan disapproves of Musharraf yet we still refer to him here in the west as "President Musharraf". The title used to define a leader are all subjective to convenient political climate of the society. Propaganda exists on all sides. It will never go away, but we can empower ourselves and do better by recognizing this.
4. What has been going on with South Ossetia and Georgia?
hmmmm. How much space do I have left?
South Ossetia is nestled between the mainland of Russia and Georgia. UN, NATO, OSCE, CEU all "recognize" South Ossetia as a part of Georgia, in 2006, South Ossetia held an independence referendum in which 99% of the 95%-turnout voted to be recognized as an independent state. The referendum was monitored by 34 nations including Germany, Austria, Poland, Sweden. The resulting vote, although a shining beacon of pure democracy in action was denied and condemned by UN, NATO, CEU, OSCE, and the Russian Federation.
South Ossetia originally declared independence in 1991-92 after a three year war with Georgia. Military conflict between the two regions go back to 1918 and have continued on throughout the years with major incidents in 2004, 2006 and presently 2008.
5. What else has been going on with South Ossetia and Georgia?
On November 11, 2006, the South Ossetian State Security Committee exposed an alleged Georgian attempt to assassinate the South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity and organize a coup d'état in the region. Alan Parastayev, the former South Ossetian Interior Minister and Supreme Court chairman, has reportedly turned himself in to the State Security Committee and confessed to being a party to the plot.
On November 12, 2006, Georgia cut off the telephone communications with South Ossetia.
On August 7 2008, hostilities began between Georgian forces and South Ossetia's separatist forces. Over 1500 civilians and 15 Russian peacekeepers have been killed since hostilities began.
I think most of all I have a strange sense of disconnection anytime I read an article on any major news source as I know there is a history in this region and the media is not presenting it in any light whatsoever. It upsets me that the leaders of my country and much of our media are so quick to label someone as the "aggressors" and delivering the news as if Russia woke up one day and just decided to invade it's neighbor.
I have yet to be able to understand exactly what would motivate the US to align themselves opposite from Russia on this issue, so I'm really curious as to why besides an inane cowboy desire to confront your most dangerous potential enemy, the US has decided it's a good idea to start barking at Russia for invading Georgia. I'm quite sure the Russian media portrayed it as "Operation South Ossetia Liberation".
Why can I not stop thinking of the South Ossetian mother who I heard on the radio the night of August 8th cry that people there are terrified beyond belief. They can not sleep at night as there are Russians, Armenians, Ossetians, Georgians, and Americans living there and "everyone has been set against each other". I can not fathom what these people are living through while we as Americans are buying every word our media and leaders are feeding us. Don't think every nation is without it's own side of the story. Besides Putin's clear disapproval of the US invasion of Iraq I'm not sure what unspiteful motive the US has for pinning Russia to the wall for this.
I suppose I'll leave it at that for now. Seriously though. We have this going on in the world and our presidential candidates are being asked about gay marriage and whether or not they believe in the boogyman?!?!
good night.
After first reading of the current conflict between Russia and Georgia a little over a week ago, I noticed how nimbly the motives for the Russian "invasion" were discussed. Meanwhile, our president, defense secretary and RNC nominee did nothing but drum up anti-Russian sentiment. I have to admit, I was thrown off by what Russia was doing as well but figured since I didn't know much about Georgia, nor had any idea of the political background of South Ossetia, that there must be more behind Russia's offensive, not to say that some of the things Russia is and has been doing are to be praised, but I know when I'm not getting the full picture.
1. Why are our headlines not mentioning a word about Georgia's prior offensives in South Ossetia, a region that has been fighting for its independence from Georgia for a decades?? Seeing as "protecting South Ossetia" is the reason Russia is giving for it's military intervention in the region I would think it would have some relevance. This is like people ignoring Osama Bin Laden's reasons for waging war on the US and passing it off as "he hate's our freedom".
2. Why are we hearing (if we're listening) about the 40,000 some refugees fleeing from South Ossetia into Russia? Why wouldn't they instead flee to Georgia, and why isn't this a headline anywhere in US media??
3. How is Russia's intervention much different from US intervention in Iraq both in 91 and 03? I hear people try to separate the two by stating that Iraq was a dictator and Georgia has a democratically elected president. Musharraf is not a democratically elected president, (he came to power as the result of a coup) the staggeringly vast majority of Pakistan disapproves of Musharraf yet we still refer to him here in the west as "President Musharraf". The title used to define a leader are all subjective to convenient political climate of the society. Propaganda exists on all sides. It will never go away, but we can empower ourselves and do better by recognizing this.
4. What has been going on with South Ossetia and Georgia?
hmmmm. How much space do I have left?
South Ossetia is nestled between the mainland of Russia and Georgia. UN, NATO, OSCE, CEU all "recognize" South Ossetia as a part of Georgia, in 2006, South Ossetia held an independence referendum in which 99% of the 95%-turnout voted to be recognized as an independent state. The referendum was monitored by 34 nations including Germany, Austria, Poland, Sweden. The resulting vote, although a shining beacon of pure democracy in action was denied and condemned by UN, NATO, CEU, OSCE, and the Russian Federation.
South Ossetia originally declared independence in 1991-92 after a three year war with Georgia. Military conflict between the two regions go back to 1918 and have continued on throughout the years with major incidents in 2004, 2006 and presently 2008.
5. What else has been going on with South Ossetia and Georgia?
On November 11, 2006, the South Ossetian State Security Committee exposed an alleged Georgian attempt to assassinate the South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity and organize a coup d'état in the region. Alan Parastayev, the former South Ossetian Interior Minister and Supreme Court chairman, has reportedly turned himself in to the State Security Committee and confessed to being a party to the plot.
On November 12, 2006, Georgia cut off the telephone communications with South Ossetia.
On August 7 2008, hostilities began between Georgian forces and South Ossetia's separatist forces. Over 1500 civilians and 15 Russian peacekeepers have been killed since hostilities began.
I think most of all I have a strange sense of disconnection anytime I read an article on any major news source as I know there is a history in this region and the media is not presenting it in any light whatsoever. It upsets me that the leaders of my country and much of our media are so quick to label someone as the "aggressors" and delivering the news as if Russia woke up one day and just decided to invade it's neighbor.
I have yet to be able to understand exactly what would motivate the US to align themselves opposite from Russia on this issue, so I'm really curious as to why besides an inane cowboy desire to confront your most dangerous potential enemy, the US has decided it's a good idea to start barking at Russia for invading Georgia. I'm quite sure the Russian media portrayed it as "Operation South Ossetia Liberation".
Why can I not stop thinking of the South Ossetian mother who I heard on the radio the night of August 8th cry that people there are terrified beyond belief. They can not sleep at night as there are Russians, Armenians, Ossetians, Georgians, and Americans living there and "everyone has been set against each other". I can not fathom what these people are living through while we as Americans are buying every word our media and leaders are feeding us. Don't think every nation is without it's own side of the story. Besides Putin's clear disapproval of the US invasion of Iraq I'm not sure what unspiteful motive the US has for pinning Russia to the wall for this.
I suppose I'll leave it at that for now. Seriously though. We have this going on in the world and our presidential candidates are being asked about gay marriage and whether or not they believe in the boogyman?!?!
good night.
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