Russia invades Georgia

[D9 (RIP)]

The breaking news this morning on CNN (I don't know why FOX is talking about Lindsey Lohan with this going on ) is a full on invasion of Georgia by the Russians this morning. The Georgian President was on CNN this morning basically imploring the US to intervene, saying that they are being targeted by Russia for their Pro-American/Western posture. I'm sure he's at least mostly right about that.

[ETH22]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe...tia/index.html

[D9 (RIP)]

LOL, where are all those kids that played Ghost Recon I? They've already been briefed up on this scenario. Get to the Recruiting Office, slackers.

[SF18C]

I just left the Rep of Georgia last week, I was near Tbilisi, supporting Immediate Response '08 .


There is more going on than being reported, as usual!

"These troops that are in Georgia now -- they didn't come unexpectedly," the president told CNN. "They had been amassing at the border for the last few months. They claimed they were staging exercises there and as soon as a suitable pretext was found, they moved in."

Obviously timed to not occur before the US finished a major exercise in the area, would have been bad business to attack while the US was training with the GAF!

[D9 (RIP)]

Seriously, we need to wake up to the state of the world today.

We need to realize that we are, effectively, a World War. True, we do not face a uniformed national enemy with a nasty dictator to put a face on the entirety of the movement that opposes us. Instead, we are in a struggle with a whole gaggle of petty opportunists. While they may not share a common ideology and uniform, they are united in their opposition to US power - and especially to its projection into their spheres.

We could easily list a few:

1. the obvious first choice - militant Islam - which is not embodied in any specific nation but rather is a cultural trend across North and East Africa, the Middle-East, parts of the Far East and Europe.

2. Russian nationalism - an eclectic blend of nostalgic yearning by the people for the "glory" of the heady days Stalin's eminence among the starving, terrorized masses. There is some kind of general psychological problem with a public that prefers to be a feared "world power" at the expense of their liberty and well-being. And of course there is always a Putin willing to step in and try to make it happen.

3. South American Neo-Marxism - as emblematized by the luminary Hugo Chavez, Left-leaning anti-American regimes are the universal trend in SA save Colombia.

4. China - Olympics aside, every Chinese move towards Liberalism is met with an equal or greater reinforcement of the state. They have been no real help in our enduring stand-off w/ N Korea, instead milking and Realpolitiking the situation for favors as it has suited their interests.

There are others.

We are accustomed to thinking of World Wars as consisting of great power(s) vs. great power(s). We have to recognize that a great power against a pack of small nations, united in their opposition to us, is just as dangerous or more so.

There are those who suggest that we solve this problem be sinking down into the mire and trying to beat these countries at their own game. Play 'em against each other, etc. There are people in this country who are adept at this kind of thing, but as a nation we are not, nor have we ever been, the masters of subterfuge and duplicity that would facilitate navigating the tumultuous water of international diplomacy and intrigue ahead of the likes of a Putin. Most of these heads of state come from cutthroat backgrounds in intelligence or outright crime. We should not play them at their game.

We must re-militarize the way we did in 1941. We must become more dangerous and confrontational with these elements in the world, recognizing that the concept of enemy can transcend the nation-state, be embodied by it, or be a subset of it. We have so dominated one mode of conflict, that our enemies in the world have identified the limitations in our thinking on the matter and exploited our weakness. Either by maintaining deniability at the nation-state level (Pakistan) or by acting as nation-state's under flimsy pretenses when we are fully engaged elsewhere (Russia), we are being bled by enemies who could not withstand the force of our might, but have learned well to operate in the defilade afforded them by our antiquated sensibility and old-fashioned concepts of conflict.

A much larger military is needed, and yesterday. And we have to realize that moves like this most recent one from Russia should be met with immediate, forceful responses.

Just my 0.02.

[Penn]

There are two pipes lines which run through the country. Russia wants to controll them. The west and Russia have been on this path in Georgia for about five years now. Russia made the move because Putin knows in his bones that we can't, but more importantly, won't do anything about it.

[TheLion03]

Much like SF18C I was there last week as well. As far as we understood from open source stuff the Russians were staging 300+ tanks and troops on the border as well as other elements. The Georgians we were training were much more concerned with getting the rest of thier country back than with being the 3rd largest supporter in Iraq

The fact that the Russians waited until we left does not suprise me. What does suprise me is the statements made by Georgia. In my opinion the Georgians just got alot of help from the US and now felt they could push some of the Russian peacekeepers back without being scolded to much because they have made an honest effort to help the US and join NATO

[Chris Cram]

The Associated Press

Fri, Aug 8, 2008 (5:33 a.m.)

Georgia's Interior Ministry spokesman says that Georgian forces have shot down two Russian combat planes.

[SF18C]

RGR that Lion03...I think the offensive operations (the shelling of South Ossetia) the GAF took immediately following the bulk of the US departure was a calculated move to try and halt the pending invasion by Russia, bolstered not by the training they received but the support that was given by the US. Russia also knew that it would not be wise to attack while over a 1000 US Military were on location. But I feel that they also planned to attack as soon as the US left.

One more point and I will leave it at that...this was a very large exercise with a very long logistical tail. It took over a month to get everything in country. The bulk of US personnel only left on the 2nd and 3rd of August.

[TheLion03]

AP

"Yakobashvili said that one Russian plane had dropped a bomb on the Vaziani military base near the Georgian capital, but no one was hurt. "


wonder if they hit our beds, the mattresses were stiff anyway.

I am starting to wonder if anyone will figure out WHO started this. Russia says Georgia and vice versa.

Solid Copy, SF18C-

I know that we were not the last ones out by any means and the logistical sections were going to be there for awhile longer I hope they are already pressing out or did so yesterday.

[SF18C]

Originally Posted by TheLion03

AP

"Yakobashvili said that one Russian plane had dropped a bomb on the Vaziani military base near the Georgian capital, but no one was hurt. "


wonder if they hit our beds, the mattresses were stiff anyway.

I am starting to wonder if anyone will figure out WHO started this. Russia says Georgia and vice versa.

Solid Copy, SF18C-

I know that we were not the last ones out by any means and the logistical sections were going to be there for awhile longer I hope they are already pressing out or did so yesterday.

That is what I heard today...one can only hope they bombed the squaty-potties! So did the GI monster get you too?

[TheLion03]

Hahahaha those things were terrible nothing worse than having to do deep knee bends in order to use a bathroom. we got smart after awhile and took chiars from the DFAC and cut holes in the seats and stiffened up MRE boxes in the field.

80% of us got the monster we started calling it Stalins Revenge.

[SF18C]

This just in…Georgia is pulling 1000 of its troops out of Iraq to redeploy in Georgia!

[TheLion03]

That is a large scale logistical move. US planes are the ones flying them back and forth. Also they just got one of thier units back from Iraq last sat.

I wonder who plans to give them the assets to move them back or will they be stalled in country so this will be more likely to die down

[incarcerated]

Great to see a Russian writing for 'The Hindu.'
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/intern...icle109172.ece

Russia to build base in Abkhazia

Vladimir Radyuhin
MOSCOW, February 18, 2010
Russia will build an inter-service military base in the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia that will strengthen position in the Caucasus and the Black Sea.

An agreement on a combined land, air and naval base was signed on the sidelines of Abkhaz President Sergei Bagabsh's visit.

The base is designed “to protect Abkhazia's sovereignty and security, including against international terrorist groups”, said the document.

The agreement is valid for the next 49 years, after which it may be automatically prolonged every 15 years.

Russia and Abkhazia also signed a host of bilateral agreements on cooperation in the defence and economic fields.

“These agreements provide a foundation for the peaceful development of Abkhazia as an independent state,” said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev....

The military base in Abkhazia, which will accommodate up to 3,700 troops, will project Russia's air and naval power across the Caucasus and the Black Sea and will counterbalance the ongoing build-up of U.S. military presence in the coastal states of Romania and Bulgaria. Russia also has a military base in the former Soviet republic of Armenia.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F3JE20100216

Georgia's rebel Abkhazia to allow Russian base

Amie Ferris-Rotman
MOSCOW
Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:56am EST
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region said on Tuesday it would allow sponsor Russia to build a military base on its soil for land troops, strengthening the region's dependence on Moscow and provoking ire from Tbilisi....

"The agreement on Wednesday will allow for one, united military base on Abkhaz territory, for Russian land troops," the rebel region's deputy defense minister, Garri Kupalba, told Reuters by telephone from the regional capital Sukhumi.

He said the new base, which would link several points across Abkhazia and accommodate at least 3,000 land troops, including units of Russia's FSB border guards, would be built "sometime in the near future."

The European Union and Western alliance NATO have repeatedly expressed concern that a Moscow-led military build-up in Abkhazia threatens Georgia's territorial integrity.

It is also watched with unease by Western powers for its proximity to crucial energy routes which flow to the EU.

Georgia decried the new plans for a land base as illegal.

"Abkhazia and South Ossetia are Georgian territories, and the deployment of foreign troops on the territory of another country is called an occupation," parliamentary speaker David Bakradze told reporters on Tuesday in Tbilisi.

"Since the Russian aggression in 2008, Abkhazia and South Ossetia have become one big military base for Russia."

Abkhazia's deputy foreign minister, Maxim Gvindzia, said the troops for the new base are already stationed in the region.

LAND, AIR AND NAVAL TROOPS

Tbilisi's pro-Western leaders accuse Russia of effectively annexing rebel Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in bloody separatist wars in the early 1990s.

Since Moscow recognized them as independent, Venezuela, Nicaragua and tiny island state Nauru followed suit....

Russia also installed land, air and naval troops in the rebel region of 200,000, and started work on several bases which are yet to be completed, causing NATO and the United States to call the moves a violation of international law.

A naval base is planned in Ochamchire on the northern coast, airborne troops for Gudauta on the coast just north of Sukhumi, and land troops in the Kodori Gorge area in the south of the region near the de-facto border with Georgia. It is not yet clear if the Kodori Gorge area will be included in the new projected land base, Kupalba said.