I want to know what the US is going to do to stop the killing of civilians in Georgia and Ossetia. Where the fuck is the outrage? Why isn’t every diplomat from the US, the EU and the United Nations not on the ground trying to put a halt to this travesty?

I would say we ought to mind our own business for once (or maybe twice – Darfur).

Is there any human more than George Bush, and any nation more than the U.S.A. who can have LESS CREDIBILITY when speaking about the rights of SOVEREIGN NATION?

I hope, in the fullness of time, that Putin’s personal remarks, about his soul mate GWBush’s speech of his shock and dismay at the Russian invasion of Georgia, becomes public knowledge.

Does Bush have any inkling of the absurdity of his public statements in light of the U.S.’s illegal, immoral, and criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq?

Probably not. For we have already been re-assured by Bush that he doesn’t do nuance.

The United Nations was formed to prevent this kind of crap. There have been signals for months that this was coming. Where have the world’s diplomats been? Regardless of how incompetent the State Department has become in the last 16 years doesn’t mean someone with a brain and a conscience shouldn’t be trying to be an honest broker. We don’t have to be the world’s police force but we can sure as hell act as honest mediators in potential conflicts, as in Darfur. Access to another country’s resources should not be the basis for our interactions with them.

You might want to read up on the history of this area for the last 2 or 3000 years and then decide if we have any business sticking our nose into this conflict.

You and I share outrage over the events in georgia. But do you really think that his incompetency has any creds? I am sure that after the cowboy talked to Putin he (Putin) was ROTFLHAO.

I would like to know more about the visit Condi made to Georgia last month.

What you’re saying, in essence, is that the world’s diplomatic community should just sit on their hands and do nothing. The US may not have a lot of moral credibility but we’re not the only nation on the planet. You don’t want the US involved in any way whatsoever, fine. What about the UN and the EU?

Kristol, Kagan and their neocon buddies apparently think we ought to invade Russia to ’save’ Georgia. Or something. Didn’t work in 1919, so not sure why those nuts think it would work now. And besides, what the hell would we invade them WITH? Of course, we could sent in Blackwater. Hmmm. Might kill a couple birds (so to speak) with one stone there…

Georgia just got a lesson: Don’t poke a bear with a sharp stick if all you’ve got to defend yourself with is a sharp stick.

Well I guess they could embargo Russian oil through the Straits of the Dardanelles….

…wait, THAT won’t work. And Bush and everyone else has made symbolic acts like using the Olympics for political purposes (well, except for a few photo-ops with pastors from officially sanctioned Chinese churches, that is).

And it is sad that Bush has used up any credibility on the issues of “Sovereignity” that the US might have held at one point. It’ll likely have to be the Europeans that take the lead on this. Or maybe the real voices opposed to this will not come from “States” themselves, but from popular expressions of disgust. Darfur, Tianamen, Myanmar, East Timor…all of these were protested initially by non-governmental entities. Only later did governments respond because they saw it in their interest to “appear” independent of “Realpolitik”logic.

Far as I’m concerned, Shrub is a non-player being played by Putin. The least we could do is recruit someone with some diplomatic cred but outside the govt to get involved with whatever diplomatic efforts are being made. Or someone could get involved without govt approval. There are old hands around who have a standing with the Russians.

Ack! Especially when you consider what he said and how he said it. This am he was all braggin’ about how he spoke harsh to the President of Russia with that same crappy condescension he offers to us. And he sounded like he was bragging. He’s an embarrassment.

“I looked into his eyes and saw a man I could share pajamas with”

My memory may not be correct but wsn’t it as a result of conflicts w/ Georgia last winter that Russia shut off the gas going to and thru Georgia and resulting in disruptions in Europe?

You forget that there has been a Russian peacekeeping force in both autonomous regions since the early/mid ’90’s. You also seem to forget that Georgia (with at least a little rah rah support from the Bushies) invaded these regions and Russia responded to this invasion.

Diplomacy is fine and the EU President (from France) arrived over the weekend as did a representative from Finland.

I’m not interested in assigning responsibility. I’m interested only in stopping the killing. After Nam I seem to have this aversion to killing.

After thinking about this a little longer, I sure hope some Russian fighter jock doesn’t decide on his own to put an AAM up the jet exhaust of one of our transports carrying those Georgian troops home from Iraq. That would make an extremely bad day for everyone everywhere.

This is a VERY dangerous situation, and we’ve got morons in charge.

we’ve got morons in charge

You give them way too much credit. *g*

Does Georgia have oil?

Natural gas, I think.

Well since we did the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan it is hard for us to criticize the Russians. Besides it’s too late to go after the oil in Georgia.

A nation other than the U.S. needs to take the lead on this. Any other nation. We are big and we are loud and we are judgmental and we have demonstrated (”we” being our glorious “leaders”) that unless there’s something in it for us, all our talk about freedom and sovereign nations is absolute hooey. We have become the most hypocritical, untrustworthy nation on the planet. Good job, George.

Georgia is the birthplace of Joseph Stalin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin

Good Morning Blue Texan and Firedogs,

Blue Tex – agree with you on the Obama ad – as much as I thought I would enjoy retaliatory stuff, I’d rather see more issues oriented themes like that DHL/radio ad -

and with Team McJello, it’s a
a target rich environment

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

Being a peace activist seems to have become a career. The company’s good, though. Gandhi, King, Berrigan, Seeger, Phillips, Baez, Sheehan et al.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Well said.

Swim like an Olympian, SD.

yep

Jane’s upstairs

an informative diary from Jerome a Paris with lots of background on Oil, gas, pipelines in the region

A little bit of history
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4637034.stm

Al Jazeera weighs in on Saakashvili.

o/t

for cinnamonape.

can’t imagine you haven’t heard of this yet, but just in case, 100,000 rare Lowland Gorillas found in equatorial Africa – thought of folks like you when I saw it

cnn

getting ‘database error’ message with preview, so just gonna hit submit and keep my fingers crossed

Oh, I don’t mind attacking. I just think he should keep hammering “McSame=Bush.”

OK, after seeing the ad, I’m still not wild about using the “celebrity” angle but I think it’s a good spot.