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Originally Posted by kermitology
If South Ossetia invited the Russians to protect them, wouldn't that be similar to any other breakaway state inviting the Americans to help them?
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..... and the fact that the Russian presence in South Ossetia was part of an already agreed with peacekeeping deal with Georgia.
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Originally Posted by kermitology
perhaps it would also be wiser to reign in the admittedly wild Georgian president.
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No kidding. According to this he had been warned.
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Bush administration officials, worried by what they saw as a series of provocative Russian actions, repeatedly warned Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to avoid giving the Kremlin an excuse to intervene in his country militarily, U.S. officials said Monday.
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http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/ar...ed_georgia.php
I'm betting Rice had a few harsh words for him when they met. The US pumps in >$1.2bn in various projects and then he gives the Russians a prime opportunity to destroy a chunk of it. What's more he flaffs about for 3-4 days before signing the peace deal giving them extra time to take out hardware. Rice probably had him by the ears telling him to sign.
He gambled. He lost.
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Originally Posted by kermitology
My point in all of this is not to say that the Russian's are doing good, they are clearly not. But that the portrayal of the Russian's as the only bad guy here is wrong.
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Agreed. There is no way in hell unless he's a complete idiot that Saakashvili couldn't have foreseen the Russian response. He himself admitted that he knew there were tons of tanks close to the border. As for how it all started I haven't heard it disputed by him or the western media that he launced an attack into Ossetia starting the whole thing.
My feelings at this time. He wanted the war. He loves playing the victim, he loves the attention. He was banking on outside intervention. He didn't get it.
I'm willing to bet that when this all blows over and people look back on things there's going to be a lot of Georgians pissed of with him.