"Confident Russia Determined To Resist American Hegemony By Force If Necessary"

[Better Believe It]

From Georgia to the Brink of a New Cold War
A Pawn in Their Game
By DEEPAK TRIPATHI
Deepak Tripathi, a former BBC foreign correspondent and editor, is now a researcher and an author.

For the first time in almost twenty years, the West faces a resurgent Russia that has put the trauma of the breakup of the Soviet Union and the resulting chaos behind. Today’s Russia is run by a younger leadership with autocratic efficiency, confident because of its vast energy resources and determined to resist American hegemony, by force if necessary. The crisis in Georgia goes beyond the Caucasus region. Its roots lie in America’s overwhelming ambition to expand and its tendency to make colossal miscalculations under the Bush presidency.

The impoverished former Soviet republic is, in effect, a pawn in the broader US design to encircle Russia. It is also located in a region which has some of the largest energy reserves in the world. For the Kremlin, the prospect of NATO coming so close to its southern borders is a step too far. Fortunately, some NATO members, most notably France and Germany, also do not see Georgia either as a full democracy or a stable country. And many in the alliance and the European Union have doubts about Saakasvili’s ability to take mature decisions.

In an era when America has assumed the right to launch pre-emptive strikes, it is difficult to see the Kremlin behaving differently. The prospect of Georgia joining NATO, which might deploy nuclear weapons on Georgian territory, is simply not acceptable to Russia. Remember the Cuban missile crisis of 1962? At the time, Soviet nuclear missiles, deployed just 90 miles from the coast of Florida, brought America and the Soviet Union close to a disastrous war and the Soviets were forced to back down. Does the White House not know history? Or do the neo-conservatives in the Bush administration not care?

The description by President Bush of the Russian action as ‘disproportionate and unacceptable’ is laughable in the context of America’s own conduct in its foreign wars in recent years. Washington should be more worried about the damage the crisis has done to its authority in the world. Diplomacy was never a strong point of the Bush administration. The blunders in Washington and Tbilisi have made the conduct of relations with Russia much more difficult. They may also have created other problems for the next occupant of the White House, for an increasing number of countries around the world may begin to look to Russia now that it has risen again.


Please read the entire article at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/tripathi08162008.html

[Jim__]

1. And bush has no clue how badly he's blundered. - n/t

[calimary]

2. Maybe he's trying to create a lovely parting gift for his girlfriend before he has to

leave office. Set her up with a whole new Cold War to give her something to do since he won't be around that much anymore, and they won't have any excuse to continue "working" together.

Sorry, but I remain DEEPLY suspicious of the bush/contradicta thing. I suspect not only that he's been drinking throughout, but that he's been schtupping her throughout. After all, she's not gonna nag and get pissed off like laura does since she doesn't have to live with it like laura does. And it's nice to be the soft open arms for the "misunderstood" fuckwad whose wife keeps stomping off to a luxury excape at the Mayflower Hotel.

I've suspected this for a LONG time. And every time I see one of those photos in which he's leering at her, my suspicions grow stronger.