Letter to the editor:

Are we marching toward war with Russia?

Thu, Aug 21, 2008 (2:03 a.m.)

After the Russian invasion of Georgia, John McCain said, “We are all Georgians now.” Randy Scheunemann, a former lobbyist for Georgia, has been a part of McCain’s campaign, and McCain favors Georgia’s inclusion in NATO. That would mean the United States would be bound to go to war with Russia over the actions of the Georgians.

Although Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was elected, he has shown tyrannical aggression toward his political opponents and the people of his country, most of whom are very poor. Saakashvili was the aggressor in the latest conflict by attacking South Ossetia, whose residents fear the Georgians more than they fear the Russians. The Georgian president knew the Russians protected the Ossetians, but he must have figured America had his back.

The main interest America has in the area is gas and oil pipelines that go from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey, cutting out the Russians. The people along the pipeline play so poorly with one another that the American taxpayers have to guarantee the financiers’ investment in the likely case that someone blows up the line.

It is clear that it has been the policy of the United States to wage a political and economic war on Russia, and with our plans to install missile systems in the face of the Russians, there is a threat of an arms race or worse. The Russian leaders may not be nice people, but getting in their face and bringing a loose cannon such as Georgia into NATO does not represent sound leadership for our country.

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

By mwh710

8/21/08 at 6:02 a.m.

Suggest removal

Nothing the Republican party does is sound leadership for our country.
By neiman1

8/21/08 at 7:57 a.m.

Suggest removal

The President of Georgia was the guy poisoned by the left overs of the KGB for Putin during the last election. Remember his horrible looking face as the people of Georgia rejected Putin demand they obey and elected this American educated man from the former Soviet colony. John McCain didn't need a lobbyist to tell him people risking everything to be free and a democracy need the support of America. I thought that was what we were about.
By JohnF

8/21/08 at 8:15 a.m.

Suggest removal

neiman1,

How was the Georgian invasion of Ossetia an instance of Georgians risking everything to be free? They were already free. They risked everything to send troops into a region that wanted to be free of Georgian rule. It's the Ossetians who want to be free.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

"The war, which began with a lightning Georgian offensive...aimed at ending secessionist South Ossetia's 16-year-old de facto independence, prompted a Russian military intervention

"The Ossetians, who claim to have inhabited the same territory for centuries, say their nation was broken in two by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who awarded South Ossetia to the Georgian Soviet republic against the Ossetians' will. (Stalin also took away Abkhazia's independence and made it an autonomous republic within Georgia.) As the USSR was collapsing, Ossetians fought a brutal war of independence against Georgia, which ended in a three-way peacekeeping agreement in 1992. Under that deal, Russian, Georgian, and South Ossetian forces were to jointly guarantee security until a final settlement was reached.

"The arrangement collapsed in a hail of artillery fire and bombs..."

The Russinas aren't blameless in this, but it was Georgia that invaded Ossetia.
By uddeboda

8/21/08 at 11:45 a.m.

Suggest removal

I doubt if there will be war between the USA and Russia, not this time around. The USA can not wage a political or economic war on Russia, Russia is by far much more rich than the USA is. They huge deposits of long lasting fossil fuels and a vast array of precious metals. They are very content the way it is now, making money, so much money that the USA is very jealous of their success.
By jfnance32

8/21/08 at 1:06 p.m.

Suggest removal

"Russia is by far much more rich than the USA is. "

I felled out my chair on this one.

The USA is number 1 in GDP at 13.8 trillion. That is 3x's bigger than the 2nd place Japan. The GDP is bigger than the next 4 countries combined.

Our federal budget is bigger than Russia's entire GDP. Our defense spending is half of Russia's GDP.

I would agree that they are getting richer than they were before because of the increase in prices of natural gas and oil. Communism literally destoryed their economy. Their new model of mafia style ran businesses and government is better but it still lacks in robust productivity.

Their military is not in that great of shape. They rely heavily on nuclear weapons as the backbone of their defense plan.

They have lots of aging equipment. They have not come out with a new true (only slight modifications of old desings) fighter plane or tank for decades. The bunk of their navy sits in ports. They occasionally fly old bombers to harass US ships and military installations.

Their nukes are dangerous.

They can cause a lot of mischief in the world.

They are big enough to stomp on Georgia which is a tiny country.

I do not think they want to go back to the cold war spending levels. Putin wants to make money not war.
By JohnF

8/21/08 at 2:59 p.m.

Suggest removal

I believe uddeboda was referring to mineral, oil, and gas wealth. In that sense they are far wealthier than we are and therefore potentially far wealthier by other statistical measures as well. Of course they have yet to demonstrate that they can get their act together enough to make the most of those resources, but that doesn't mean they won't.
By LV_Tom

8/21/08 at 3:53 p.m.

Suggest removal

Wait a minute uddeboda.... The US has huge deposit of Mineral, Oil, Gas and Coal too...But the radical anti-American left wing of this country, sometimes manifesting itself in environmentalists (and House and Senate Leaders) are preventing exploration of these resources.
By JohnF

8/21/08 at 8:34 p.m.

Suggest removal

Russia has over three times the known oil reserves as the United States.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oi...

Russia's natural gas reserves are many, many times ours.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872966.h...

LV_Tom,
Not wanting to despoil our nation for the purpose of furthering our addiction on fossil fuels is not anti-American, nor is it radical. Believing that we can make our nation energy self-sufficient using clean, renewable sources of energy is about as pro-American as one can get. Why are people like you so pessimistic about our ability to accomplish this? Anti-Americanism, perhaps?
By jfnance32

8/21/08 at 9:27 p.m.

Suggest removal

"therefore potentially far wealthier by other statistical measures as well"

What would those be?
By uddeboda

8/22/08 at 12:08 a.m.

Suggest removal

johnf

That was what I was refering to, the wealth of fossil fuels and mineral wealth, which the world is fighting over to be part of, and the Russian nation is quite capable of causing havoc for the industrialised western nations, but they would be cutting off the hand that feed themselves.