Once you get started on this stuff, it’s hard to let go.
As usual, some of the best material on what’s really going on in Georgia has appeared in the British press, not in the NY Times. I’ve put together a few links that give some perspective here.
From the London Independent: Saakashvili sucked up to the West and gambled that NATO would back him when he got in a firefight with Russia
Also from the Independent, check out the comments here on how Saakashvili may have started the whole thing
From the UK Guardian, some good background on what Russia is demanding
And I’m posting below an intelligent piece by J. Victor Marshall of the Independent Institute over in Oakland. Marshall has a bit of the Peter Dale Scott in him, but this is well worth reading.
Georgia on My Mind
By J. Victor Marshall
Whenever a crisis somewhere in the world involves Russia, members of Americas political establishment appear gripped by a collective psychosis.
The latest revival of Cold War rhetoric comes on the heels of Russias incursion into neighboring Georgia to counter its recent attack on the ethnically distinct enclave of South Ossetia.
South Ossetia, which was once part of the Soviet republic of Georgia, has increasingly asserted its independence since 1991, when several thousand Georgian troops invaded, unleashing barbaric violence on both sides.
Its no surprise that armchair warriors like Vice President Cheney, uninterested in the regions complex history, now bluster that Russian aggression must not go unanswered.
But Democratic hawks like Richard Holbrooke are no less quick to raise the specter of the Cold War and declare ominously, Moscow’s behavior poses a direct challenge to European and international order.