Postby dolfan » August 11th, 2008, 7:52 am
See, I think that's a pretext. Not that I'm right that it is "about Israel", because odds are even or worse on that, probably, but that's my theory. I think that it is about Iran.
The UN Secretary-General wants to hand over international control within Kosovo to the EU and Kosovo itself. Russia said two weeks ago that he doesn't have the authority, that only the Sec. Council can approve that. Whatever. The fact is Russia has been threatening to use the whole Kosovo question to justify an invasion of Georgia for more than 2 years and hasn't done squat until now. Why now?
There are key differences here. The UN itself approved the Kosovo independence plan over Russia's objections. In South Ossetia and Abkhazia, there's been no secession from Georgia, no international recognition of their rights apart from Georgia, no international recognition that they are culturally, geographically or politically Russian as opposed to Georgian, no recognition of those provinces' rights as sovereigns to make a decision to federate with Russia. All of that is wholly lacking here. If this is "payback", then Kosovo is a pretext and not a precedent.
If the timing of this is not about oil and Iran, then it is simply about raw power and Russia used the cover of the Olympics and Bush's presence there. It was a sneaky sucker punch. In my opinion, we should advocate hard now for Georgia's membership in NATO, and we need to form two naval blockades --- one of Cuba and one off the Sea of Marmara off the coast of Turkey OR off the Meditteranean coast of Israel. If Russia wants to use Georgia to inch closer to Iran's border with Turkey, then we need to have our foot right next to theirs.
Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven. (David Lipscomb, On Civil Government, 72).