I’ve written up a response to Gorbachev’s editorial at my blog that might help clarify a few things about this conflict, if anyone is interested. I see there are no links allowed, but googling “Mild Mannered Musings” will point you to the right page.

A few points as well..

Operation Iraqi Liberation (notice the acronym)

Now a few months ago, the iraqi government issued no – bid contracts to 5 major firms, to re-develop the oil pumping processes in Iraq. 4 of these firms were major US firms and the 5th was BP (British Petroleum)… the entire world was hoping to bid on these contracts, including India, China, Russia, Brazil.(BRIC for those familiar with economics of the world right now)

These contracts are only for 2 years but are for infrastructure development, once their’s a sizeable investment, the country will never be able to get these countries out of their oil fields!
Every other player who tries to bid at the end of these 2 years will have to be able to pay off the money invested by these firms to take over, since no one will be able to low ball enough, they’ll be settled in for the looong term.

If you go to youtube, and search for Fox Georgia Interview. The fox channel had an interview with a girl from san francisco who was in Georgia, at the time of the attacks. Very interesting perspective!!

Also you have to take into account, that the US has an Oil Pipeline running through Georgia, this is the only oil pipe line that doesn’t pass through the middle east, Iran, or Russia. And it runs right along the border of South Ossetia (sp). If you think back over the past year or so, we’ve had a lot of interaction with Georgia, including a visit by President Bush there, to be proud of their “sovreignity”.

Now, think of the situation with Kosovo, who broke free of Serbia with a lot of international support. Russia didn’t like this, and protested the recognition of the new state. The international forum was warned that a poor precedent was being set here. If you notice, now what Russia did by recognizing the sovreignity of South Ossetia and stepping up to protect them when they were attacked… is not much different than what the rest of Europe and Nato did for Kosovo is it?

If you go to youtube, and search for Fox Georgia Interview. The fox channel had an interview with a girl from san francisco who was in Georgia, at the time of the attacks. Very interesting perspective!!

Also you have to take into account, that the US has an Oil Pipeline running through Georgia, this is the only oil pipe line that doesn’t pass through the middle east, Iran, or Russia. And it runs right along the border of South Ossetia (sp). If you think back over the past year or so, we’ve had a lot of interaction with Georgia, including a visit by President Bush there, to be proud of their “sovreignity”.

Now, think of the situation with Kosovo, who broke free of Serbia with a lot of international support. Russia didn’t like this, and protested the recognition of the new state. The international forum was warned that a poor precedent was being set here. If you notice, now what Russia did by recognizing the sovreignity of South Ossetia and stepping up to protect them when they were attacked… is not much different than what the rest of Europe and Nato did for Kosovo is it?

The Iraq war was about oil eh? Well, we sure as hell aren’t seeing it over here. As a matter of fact, ever since the Iraq war oil prices have only gone up for everyone (thats the effect blowing up pipelines typically has).

I’m not defending the war or condemning it – I’m just sick of hearing it was all for oil. Oil that the U.S. has not received a single drop of, nor will, because the current Iraqi government controls that.

It’s time the US stopped trying to be the world’s police force. We aren’t getting paid for it and we always seem to lose face.

South Ossetia is part of Georgia, so Russia has no business even being involved. If Alaska took up arms and decided it wanted to be part of Russia and the US sent troops in to secure it’s territorial integrity, would Russia be justified in invading? The South Ossetian seperatists are effectively criminals, they’ve had more than enough time to submit to Georgian rule, and Georgia has every right to bring them to justice.

Russia was not attacked, so how exactly is a Russian counter-attack justified? (the very term counter-attack is innacurate).

Russia is out of line and the Ossetians are fools. The Russians are happy to exploit the tensions between the Ossetians and the Georgians because of the long-term benefits for them: intimidating neighbors and creating bargaining chips. South Ossetia is just going to end up as a future Chechnya.