Folks are saying McCain has the advantage with the Conflict between Russia and Georgia.
It seems that Obama is holding back, letting McCain hang himself and McCain is doing a great job.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Georgia, a US ally, had been strongly advised not to react confrontively with Russia. They didn't listen and Russia came back hard.
McCain makes like Billy Goat Gruff and threatens, huffing and puffing.
It is remarkable that CNN, at least, keeps putting on partisan political experts, not real experts on the region. So it is not surprising that the commentary they get is incredibly dumb. Richard Bennett suggests that the US might deliver stinger missiles to the Georgians. Simply brilliant! That would pretty much be the same as declaring war on Russia. Do we really want to do that?
McCain is talking tough with Russia. Problem is, he's a gnat on a lions ass and he doesn't realize it. McCain is having a flashback to 1969. Back then, in THAT cold war, the US was a superpower and Russia was a hollow chimera. We know that now. But now, we also know that Russia is up to its eyeballs in oil money. The Russia of today is far more powerful and capable, massively more so than was true in '68
McCain talks about putting pressure on Russia. Right. So does Bush. Problem is, they are impotent. The Viagra they've been delivering to their white male supporters who get their sense of masculinity by supporting war doesn't work in the real world. The real world says the US is helpless and all the nations of the world know it. McCain has multiple phone conversations with Shakashvilli and then Shackashvilli used it on national TV. Didn't McCain talk about Obama being manipulated by Ahmadinejead? But it's okay to meddle with the workings of real diplomatic efforts. ...Well, as real as you're going to get with Condi Rice, the worst Secretary of State n the history of the US.
Gee whiz, Condi speaks Russian. That means she can say things like, "Huh," and "what" and " didn't know that," and "Nobody told me that"
McCain and his team seem to be set on demonstrating that he can be a tough, bellicose commander in chief. What he's showing is total lack of nuance. He's showing that his experience during the war was as a prisoner, not a leader. His willingness to jump into confrontation so fast when the stakes are so high, is astounding. Who knows what Russia is willing to do in response? Well, they have demonstrated what they were willing to do in response to Georgia's affront to their expectations.
Meanwhile, Obama just holds his own, keeping his powder dry, letting McCain run his mouth and fully show what kind of leader he really is and is not. I don't think today's Americans are in the same throes of anti-communism, or fears of the "red menace.” I don't think Americans like to see McCain talking so tough, putting the US at risk of a big war we managed to avoid going nuclear in for nigh on 40 years.
Ironically, McCain plays games with politics, even though his surrogates accuse him of stealing the stage with his Commander Chief Demonstration. But McCain and his surrogates are milking this tragedy to the mad.
We'll see where the coming poll meanderings lead us. Meanwhile, Israel must be watching this with great interest. The Russian incursion into Georgia sets the precedent. They get away with it, so, does that mean Israel does too, when it goes after Iran?
Some say we're re-entering the cold war. Seems pretty hot to me.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com and is a columnist with Northstarwriters.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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After all the work to keep America out of a nuclear war, all the years spent trying to minimize risk, and then the fall of the Wall and collapse of the "paper tiger," and all the years of not having to be constantly worried about the "Soviet nuclear threat," these idiots have enabled the situation to digress to a point that is even more dangerous.
And in the intervening time, they've made the world more scared of the "American threat" than they are of anything else.
Hell, I'm more concerned about the American threat!
Obama is not only correct in his measured response, it is the ONLY responsible response available for an honest man to have.
by
JC Garrett (40 articles, 65 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 604 comments)
on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 11:25:56 PM
You're kidding yourself & giving Obama way too much credit.
Obama is propagating the exact same lies as McCain, Bush, & the entire American media. (After all, his advisers are Brzezinski & Holbrooke.) They're all on exactly the same page -- portraying the violence in Georgia as resulting solely from "Russian aggression," while overlooking the huge causative role of US imperialism.
You are bending over backwards to make Obama seem "good." But he's not "good." He's a lying imperialist, just like all the other major figures of both parties. The very best that could be said is that he hasn't shot his mouth off quite as much as Bush & McCain. But what he has said, has advanced the exact same perspective that they've advanced.
by
Richard Mynick (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1232 comments)
on Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 12:05:12 AM
Can you imagine McCain without his handlers? Look how Lieberman was correcting him. Any candidate stumbles occasionally, but McCain, oh well, he was third from last out of a class of 900. What to expect.
by
Rob Kall (869 articles, 4014 quicklinks, 345 diaries, 1846 comments)
on Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 5:18:12 PM
In the 21st century Nations Do Not Invade Other Nations McCain I hate the gooks McCain admits “I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live,” – John McCain, when asked about his continued use of the racial slur, “gook.” The American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq doesn’t count as an invasion, because “Gooks” populate these so-called nations. As sub humans do not qualify as citizens in a sovereign state, they can be bombed until they die or go away. “We are all Georgians,” McCain says. He means, “We are all white people.” McCain’s racist warmongering boils down to the Red Menace and the Yellow Peril. Three generations have absorbed these slogans as mothers’ milk. Obama is toast.
by
Jason Paz (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 100 comments)
on Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 12:52:52 AM
This is an article I wrote three days ago about Obama jumping on the Business-Party bandwagon by making some outragous comments about Georgia. He's blaming the Russians, talking tough, and sucking up to the "pro-free-trade" president of Georgia, just like mcCain was.
“No matter how this conflict started, Russia has escalated it…” Obama.
Nice,huh? Give Georgia a pass on shelling South Ossetian civilians for 30 hours before one Russian soldier set foot in Georgia. Oh, wait, they killed 15 Russian Peace-Keepers at the same time.
by
scott creighton (25 articles, 11 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 244 comments)
on Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 6:39:54 AM
I have a U.S. ex-pat Russian reader that has kept me briefed on the Georgia situation. He agrees with your stance and believes that the U.S. has terribly distorted the viewpoint in favor of Georgia.
The Georgian leaders are far from being innocent. Obama is hanging back because he isn't a leader. Of course, neither is McCain.
by
Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments)
on Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 11:36:24 AM
I was trying to get a handle on this situation when it first started, and I just couldn't understand why every single US story omitted the facts that Georgia attacked South Ossetia first. Then I started looking into Georgia's president, and things started looking errily familiar to Pakistan's president.
This is a compilation of videos from the Nov. 7 2007 protest in Georgia. it's the capital, not even South Ossetia, and people in Georgia were protesting their presidents corruption and his close ties with George Bush and US corporate interests.
George W. is visibly upset because the country named for him ( as he thinks) had been poked so badly. Obama and McCaine are happy to oblige because both do not care for anything, surely not for those dead people. War party gets contracts, Condi puffs her cheeks and stompes her legs, Iraq is off the plate suddenly and Iran... we don't talk about it. Eva Longoria is trying to get pregnant and we have to worry that white people are not a majority anymore.... Georgians suddenly are proclaimed Europeans and even offered a membership in the NORTH(!) Artlantic(!) Treaty. The spice must flow and the showbiz goes on. Eat your checkers with blood on the side.
by
Mark Sashine (54 articles, 19 quicklinks, 252 diaries, 3605 comments)
on Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 8:05:52 PM
I watched the press conference with Rice (until the feed had colour bars routed into it, just as a heavily-accented reporter began correcting Rice's reversal of the facts ...), and her specific avoidances contadict the White House propaganda that they warned Georgia not to attack.
Reportedly, US special forces were involved in the initial attack, so the White House's denials fall a bit flat.
This appears to have been designed as a way to bog down Russia in a regional conflict, and stir up "Western" hostility (or at least, the hostility of Western governments, which can be blamed on this engineered crisis), in order to limit any Russian response to a US/Israeli attack on Iran.
I hope I'm wrong, but I haven't been during the past very dark eight years ...
by
Jordan Thornton (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 3 comments)
on Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 9:56:06 PM
12 comments
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