Did Bush give Georgia the green light for its assault on South Ossetia?

[Hamlette]

if so, why aren't we talking about it?

If this is true, whoever is responsible should be banned from foreign policy for the rest of his or her natural life:

"Mr Saakashvilli may also have banked on support from his closest ally, US president George W Bush, whose administration is said to have given tacit support for a Georgian assault on South Ossetia in the believe that the territory could be recaptured within 48 hours."

And I suspect that it, or something like it, is likely to be true. Ask yourself this: would the Georgians not have given us any hint that they planned an assault on South Ossetia? I think that's really unlikely. In any case, if they didn't tip us off before getting into a shooting war with Russian troops (who were in South Ossetia as peacekeepers), that should, in my book, put paid to the idea of them as good potential allies.

If they did, what did we say in response? There are things we could have said that would have deterred any but the most completely suicidal Georgian leader. Saakashvili has been unbelievably reckless, but it would have been orders of magnitude more stupid to do what he did had we said, clearly and emphatically, not just that if he did this, he was on his own, but also that taking this step would seriously damage his relationship with us, and would put paid to his hopes of joining NATO in the foreseeable future.

Which is to say: we had a lot of leverage. It is hard to believe either that we didn't know this was going to happen, or that we used our leverage to prevent it. And that is inexcusable. Thousands of people are dead, the freedom of action of Russia's neighbors has been drastically reduced, and our own credibility, such as it was, has been badly damaged.

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/08/what-did-we-tel.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. More likely Big Dick

given that the other guy's name sounds like Suckawilly.

[liberalmuse]

2. You mean like he did with Israel and Lebanon some months back?

Naaaaaah.

This administration is an unmitigated disaster.

[TomInTib]

3. We knew it was going to happen We've had 1,000 troops there since mid-July.

And we fucked it up, again.

[malaise]

4. Is the sun hot?

Is the pope catholic?

Does Bush lie?

[panader0]

5. US troops were on manuevers at the time in Georgia

Saakashvilli knew that Russian troops were massing at the border. Duh! Why did Saakashvilli choose this moment to try to reclaim S. Ossetia? Seems like some kind of set up to me. Once again, the poor civilians are the ones who suffer.

[Jim__]

6. Most likely he did. Bush and Cheney are obsessed with oil.

If Georgia controls South Ossetia, there is a pipeline from the Caucasus to the ME, completely outside of Russian control. Bush has learned nothing over the last 8 years. He's still rolling the dice with the peace of the whole world on the line.

Another DU thread.

[DemoTex]

7. Kinda like Poppy gave Iraq a wink and a nod to invade Iraq's 19th province: Kuwait?

And US Ambassador (to Iraq) April Gillespie passes this tid-bit to Saddam in 1991 .. the rest is history.

[daleo]

8. He's making a lot of good points

It strains credulity to think that the Bush administration was caught by surprise. I am sure Putin knows this.

[Aliens_UFOs_Facts]

9. Bush Admin Wants A War Now !!

If you study Benjamin Fulford and other intelligence data,
you will see the Bush Admin is really trying to get a war happening.
Even Russian oil barons might be in on the game.

While there is a war, people can't study this ...

the Orion Project!

http://www.theorionproject.org/en/vision.html

QUOTE: "For over 100 years, these advanced concepts in energy generation have either been ignored or actively suppressed due to the power of fossil-fuel based economic and industrial interests."