In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he saw no need to invoke American military force in the war between Russia and Georgia but warned that U.S.-Russian relations could suffer lasting damage if Moscow doesn’t retreat.

“The United States spent 45 years working very hard to avoid a military confrontation with Russia,” said Gates. “I see no reason to change that approach today.”

In other words “Take it, it’s yours.”

NEVER show weakness to the Russians…

Or, in less euphemistic words:

We own it. It is ours. We won.

Yes.

first counter move… Poland finally agreed to the missle deal, with American support for its military…

Or, in less euphemistic words:

We own it. It is ours. We won.

MadisonConservative on August 14, 2008 at 12:51 PM

You left out the Foxtrott Uniform. I know, because you’re a gent!

“The United States of America stands strongly, as the president of France just said, for the territorial integrity of Georgia,” Rice said. “This is a member state of the United Nations and its internationally recognized borders need to be respected.”

“It is time for this crisis to be over,” she said. “The provisional cease-fire that was agreed to really must go into place. And that means that military activities have to cease.”

groan

Yeah I got to see a whole lot of those shallow Germans a few weeks back as they shouted Obama! Obama!

No…surely would NOT…

Been a long day.

Merkel I trust, based on what I know of her and her experience. Even if she is a former Ostie (former DDR).

But with reunification, a good number of Osties were melded into various government structures over the years, to include the foreign ministry and defense establishment. Putin was part of the Dresden Residentura, the KGB office, and Dresden was focused on maintaining the loyalty of East Germany and East Germans, and used East Germans who were sent into West Germany. Some of those former links are still active. I no longer have access to a lot of good stuff, and if I did surely would display it here, but it can be safely assumed that within the highest offices of the Bundeskanzlerei and within the German Foreign Office and defense establishment, there are a good number of active and sleeper assets answerable to the KGB/SVR…and thus to Putin.

That Shroeder GazProm thing still rankles a lot of Germans. Other Germans seem to view it as a plus since Shroeder can “guarantee” Russian gas to Germany. Pretty shallow on their part.

Putin has inside information in Germany. Sources with access. Germany is one of Russia’s essential elements of intelligence on their overall intelligence collection plan.

coldwarrior on August 14, 2008 at 3:00 PM
I’m sure former left wing PM Gerald Shroeder, now a highly paid exec with Gazprom, still has some close government contacts.

a capella on August 14, 2008 at 3:45 PM

I’d be just as sure that the organization that Merkel has inherited from Shroeder is just as infected with saboteurs as the one that Bush inherited from Clinton.

Hopes dashed. Condi to present Georgia with French-negotiated cease-fire terms. Russian “peacekeepers” stay in South Ossetia, and get to patrol a 10-km buffer zone inside Georgian territory. No doubt US aid contingent on accepting it. Sigh.

Putin has inside information in Germany. Sources with access. Germany is one of Russia’s essential elements of intelligence on their overall intelligence collection plan.

coldwarrior on August 14, 2008 at 3:00 PM

I’m sure former left wing PM Gerald Shroeder, now a highly paid exec with Gazprom, still has some close government contacts.

You want Angst? Just imagine the wolfish grip on Putin’s face is Obama wins the WH.

pseudonominus on August 14, 2008 at 3:13 PM

Cancel! Cancel!!

I’m one of those who follows the principle that if you think it it can come true. I keep negative images and energy at a distance as much as possible.. ;)

But, getting China to work for other than their own ends…hmmmm…that should keep the “experts” awake all night for quite a while.

coldwarrior on August 14, 2008 at 3:16 PM

Haha. I walked in to that one up!

I think that might be one of the avenues to explore how to pit them against each other.

Trouble is the whole world is watching now. The TV crews are in, the bloggers are blogging, and the pictures go up on the internet of Russian atrocities in Georgia.

Wethal on August 14, 2008 at 3:18 PM

I got quite a laugh out of the Russian minister on CNN saying that they had stopped their advance while I watched the reporter run from the advancement of Russian tanks on live TV!

You’re looking at it from the viewpoint of an American.

Even if McCain is elected, over Obama (who would be a wimp) he will still have both houses of Congress controlled by the Dems… which is a recipe for International Policy gridlock.

Add in that he sees BOTH Pres candidates embracing economic and border policies that will KILL the American economy and thus make us a Paper Tiger? (Cap and trade stuff).

I don’t think he really cares which is elected… long term America is in for a tough time either way.

Romeo13 on August 14, 2008 at 3:20 PM

Of course I am!

I think that what Putin might not understand is that Americans might be paper tigers is some aspects BUT the rise of the USSR is not one of them. He must not realize that the baby boomers are the ones who have the memories of safety drills about climbing under your desk and bomb shelters being built due to the nuclear threat of the Soviets.

I don’t think that Putin understands McCain’s relationship with Georgia and that President.

And I have faith in the American economy. We just need to stay on the energy independence drum. I just hope we can stick with it!

In the past five years the ratio of combat air time on the part of US pilots to that of training air time for Russian pilots is on something like 2000:1. The Russians can still design them, but they can’t build them, not without Western assistance. Thus Russia has approached India to build the new Russian fifth-generation fighter, their answer to the F-22. India, thankfully, for totally unrelated reasons, has slowed down the contract and hasn’t gotten around to actual full scale production. Another Putin weakness that we simply must exploit.

Russian military training in general, outside of Spetnaz and a few smaller special purpose forces, has been dismal. Still on par with what we saw in the 1970’s Soviet training film Sons of the Fatherland. Basically WWII tactics, as were seen in Georgia, and WWII doctrine pretty much as well.

Texas Gal on August 14, 2008 at 3:07 PM

You’re looking at it from the viewpoint of an American.

Even if McCain is elected, over Obama (who would be a wimp) he will still have both houses of Congress controlled by the Dems… which is a recipie for International Policy gridlock.

Add in that he sees BOTH Pres candidates embracing economic and border policies that will KILL the American economy and thus make us a Paper Tiger? (Cap and trade stuff).

I don’t think he really cares which is elected… long term America is in for a tough time either way.

I’d imagine he’d be happier than Kasparov winning the International Chess Tourney. [Of course, Kasparov is one of the most vocal anti-Putin Russians on the present stage.]

An Obama win in November would sure make things a lot easier for Putin.

No, Putin is not wounded. He is however, regrouping, applying “lessons learned” and probably fast.
coldwarrior on August 14, 2008 at 3:05 PM

His reputation as a world leader who would be entitled to participate in matters such as the G8 (to which he wouldn’t belong it it hadn’t been for Bubba Clinton’s sucking up to a fellow lefty), and the official liaison office that NATO has allowed Russia, is wounded, or damaged.

Putin wanted to be seen as the guy that the US and Europe could “work with” – on issues such as Iran. No one really works with a gangster – that implies a freedom of choice gangsters don’t allow. But he’s shown there’s no difference in tactics between Soviet Communism and Russian national imperialism.

I agree that someone had some plans that were screwed up by the Russian military, and I wonder how many “vacancies” there suddenly are in the Russian military heirarchy.

As far as the Russian military screw-ups go, someone over at NRO posted a good explanation: Russia has been buying fancy hardware, but the training is poor. The pilots haven’t been hitting their targets because they’ve had what the US/British/Israelis would consider woefully inadequate training time.

And you’re right – Putin is smart, and a quick learner, and is trying to figure out what he can do.

Trouble is the whole world is watching now. The TV crews are in, the bloggers are blogging, and the pictures go up on the internet of Russian atrocities in Georgia.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

The Chinese element…an unanswered vital question.

If China is successful in the Kazakh connection, what will Russia do? China poured well over a billion dollars into Turkmenia in the past year or so. To build infrastructure, mostly. But also to show Chinese presence in central Asia. Much as I hate to admit it, even consider it, China hold one of the keys to unlocking Putin’s regime. But, getting China to work for other than their own ends…hmmmm…that should keep the “experts” awake all night for quite a while.

Rick on August 14, 2008 at 3:07 PM

If you have time you might watch the briefing with Gates at that link on C-SPAN. He does make a reference to Putin’s statement about that Feb year ago and how it raised the ire in Washington.

One of my biggest angsts about our system is that we change every 4-8 years which effects our foreign and domestic policies

You want Angst? Just imagine the wolfish grip on Putin’s face is Obama wins the WH.

coldwarrior on August 14, 2008 at 3:00 PM

Gates did say this morning that there has been traditionally exchange in fire between SO and Georgia during August for some reason over the last few years. That might have also given cover.

Yes I did notice that Putin was the only PM in China.

I have to say I wish I was a fly on the wall when Hu heard that Putin had used his shinning moment on the world stage as cover!

You understand. Now expand on that. Brainstorm it a bit more.