Tag: "South Ossetia"
“They didn’t care if it was a house or a military camp…They bombed everything.”
When it comes to stories about Russia’s invasion of Georgia (such as this one which tells how Russia is trying to make formal what it’s been doing for a long time), reporters make one fundamental mistake that colors their coverage wrongly. I’ve made the same mistake in some conversations I’ve had about Georgia. The mistake [...]
Russians Bluster and Bull***t on Our Op-Ed Pages
The Russian government has sent forth two mouthpieces to try to sway American public opinion this week. Mikhail Gorbachev has an op-ed in the New York Times wherein he said that Russia was just minding its own business in South Ossetia when the wicked Georgians shelled the city and forced them to act to save [...]
Yes, but They Don’t Go!
Even after signing a cease-fire agreement that says they have to leave Georgia, the Russians, like the Chorus of Policemen in the Pirates of Penzance, don’t seem to be in a very big hurry to go. In Gori, a strategic town on Georgia’s main east-west highway, six Russian armored personnel carriers, three tanks and two [...]
Two Good Columnists on Russia
One more Georgia-related post then I’m on to other things. There are a couple exquisitely-written columns out today that I think are worth your time. The first comes from Gerard Baker, my favorite columnist from across the Pond. He is, as you might expect, not particularly happy with those who have drawn moral equivalence between [...]
A New Outbreak of Bush Derangement Syndrome
Here are a couple quotes from a news story. See if you can figure out where they came from. I changed one word in the first quote so as not to give the game away. [Radio listeners] were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of [...]
Is Putin Overreaching?
Is Russia getting overconfident? Having beaten down Georgia, the Russians have the chance to claim the South Ossetia region, where they’ve been agitating and issuing Georgians Russian passports, for quite a few years. Georgian President Saakashvili has signed a rather weak cease-fire agreement that leaves his country open to further Russian aggression. They have, very [...]
A Return to Realpolitik?
Ross Douthat, in a post titled “unrealpolitik” asks an interesting question. After he recounts that russia could make our lives much more difficult with Iran and Afghanistan if we take a hard line on them, or arm the Georgian military with truly modern weaponry, he comes to the real nut of the matter: Is the [...]
Bush Excoriates Russia and Saakashvili Steels for the Fight. What Will Putin Do?
President Bush criticized Russia today harder than he’s ever lit into any country not ruled by an Islamist tyrant. He recounted the reports of Russian attacks on Georgian cities and said that, if the bear out to be true as reported, it would be a “dramatic and brutal escalation of the conflict in Georgia” that [...]
That’s What You Said