my guess - US wanted Russia to be distracted with Georgia while they attack Iran. But it went too fast in the favour of the Russians. my opinion - Russia did their best in this situation.

My read is the cold war is good for business in the US and Russia it's all about $$$$$

mikell

I think all this is the elites wanting to bring the cold war back. They play both sides and have a depopulation or at the very least an exploitation agenda, and the cold war was good to them, with all that needless military expenditure and general raping of the third world. So they seem to be engineering more conflict between russia and the USA, by developing the former and downgrading the latter.

These are TV wars which, unbeknown to the general popubaaaation, is selling a product.

What really irks me is that the North American media, as well as Stephen Harper (George Dubya's yes man) and GWB,
make out Russia to be the villain here.
Russia must stop the aggression, poor ole' Georgia.
Innocent Georgia, evil Russians.

The propaganda is annoyingly funny, boy, you can hardly tell that George Dubya has interests in Georgia, or Georgia is being groomed for Nato, or that US wants to encircle Russia with missiles.
No; one would never think that the media here is biased against Russia, why would we ever think that?

Agreed! It's really impossible to imagine that the Georgians didn't expect the Russians to respond like they did, Olympics or not.
So were the georgians expecting the US or NATO to come to their aid, or is this a part of a larger, more long tern plan?
The only other explanation I can think of is that the Georgian president is nuts and has no sense of reality...

Please educate me on this subject.

While listening to NPR (National Public Radio - for those of you outside the US) I heard an interview of a local who said essentially:

Russian military peacekeeping forces had been stationed alongside (or in the general vicinity) of the Georgian forces in Ossetia as peace-keepers for a number (unspecified) of years. This might account for the apparent quickness of the Russian response in the conflict.

There had been several 'skirmish' type events occurring between the two forces, (I suspect the confrontations were not politically driven, just a natural occurrence of having generally 'opposed' forces in such close proximity. Like on the North-South Korean border from time to time.)

Georgia's president then issued a 'cease fire' order to put a stop to these clashes, but the very next day all hell broke loose. No one knows, (said the interviewee) exactly what sparked the large-scale Georgian knee-jerk reaction other than the 2000 Russian volunteers who were bused into the capital(?) of Ossetia at the time.

- - - - - -

I was also under the impression that Georgia had been withholding some services in the area (water, electricity, etc.), presumably as an incentive to fall in line with their government position on accepting American influence in the country. Those closely affiliated with Russia, by family connections, business, heritage, culture, or political influence, were not happy about the development and it seems that Russia wanted these people's desires respected. America proceeded with it's course of enticing Georgia to accept the western help (I'm sure to the benefit of NATO and America) which, of course, Russia correctly identified as having 'military-strategic' consequences.

The rest is history.

How wrong is this perception of the events?


[edit on 13-8-2008 by Maxmars]

Originally posted by mikellmikell
My read is the cold war is good for business in the US and Russia it's all about $$$$$

mikell

It always about money.. War is the biggest profit for any big country.

Just a comment on the OP: yes, this is the opinion of the www.stratfor.com, which I think is an excellent source of info and analyses.

There is no way Saakashvili could have made the move without a nod from the US.

You know how you will know it's over???

It will be over when the Soviets hold the pipeline terminus.....

And Tbilisi....

And have installed a puppet to take the place of Saakashvili.

I find it sort of funny that Russia invaded because of seven dead Russian "peacekeepers". The Russians could throw 40,000 troops into a woodchipper and not bat an eye.

Putin's trying to grab the Oil, he could care less about Ossetians. They are just a pawn.

Originally posted by jerico65
I find it sort of funny that Russia invaded because of seven dead Russian "peacekeepers". The Russians could throw 40,000 troops into a woodchipper and not bat an eye.

Puh-leeze... You have Georgian artillery located in 5 different places, pounding the city. Your actions, Armchair Colonel?

Originally posted by budski
There's 2 ways of looking at this - either russia is playing the US at their own game and deflecting attention away from the conflict...

I agree, but only to an extent. They are not trying to distract from the conflict, but distract for the reasons and motivations behind the convict. Russia know exactly what they are doing here. Saying there was a "US nod" will provoke a knee-jerk Anti-American reaction. No matter what Russia does in Georgia, it will be justified in the eyes of the useful idiots.

Breaking the cease-fire: Well, if the US had not given Georgia the nod...

Expanding the zone of conflict: Well, if the US had not given Georgia the nod...

Shooting babies in their cribs? Well, if the US had not given Georgia the nod...

Using chemical weapons? Well, if the US had not given Georgia the nod...

Okay, those last two are outrageous hyperbole, but you can see the point I am making.

Originally posted by Maxmars
And Russia, who definitely seems to hold the high ground in the international court of opinion, may have a few new 'tricks' up her sleeve regarding public sentiment and how to 'use it' to their advantage.

I think in some respects, the US gave the nod to Russia for their dispproportionate response, at least in Russia's eyes. Putin knows that the West considers peace with Russia far more important than the sovereignty of any one nation.