ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist&reg;.com: Putin Punishes Georgia</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { font-size: large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="133" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="7" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="482" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="1" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="300" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="24"> <td width="624" height="24" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#149; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#149; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#149; <a href="teflon.html">THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#149; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">REACTIONS</a> &#149; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="2"> <td width="133" height="2"></td> <td width="489" height="2576" colspan="3" rowspan="2" align="left" xpos="133" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font size="5" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"><b>U.S. Spread Too Thin</b></font><p><b><font face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica">by John M. Curtis</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>(310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright August 17, 2008<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="style1">&nbsp;S</span>hocked by Russia s recent invasion of Georgia, the White House continues to ratchet up the Cold War rhetoric trying to get Moscow to back down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Secretary of State Condoles Rice a Soviet expert by academic training insisted this was not 1968, referring to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslavakia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> While the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Russia continues its repressive ways, collectivizing private industry and dismantling the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>free press.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When former president Vladimir V. Putin named his successor, left office March 1 and was named prime minister by the Kremlin, it signaled a return to the old Soviet days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While President George W. Bush called Putin his  friend, the ex-KGB agent dismantled Russia s free press, jailed dissidents and expropriated private industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When Russia invaded Georgia Aug. 8, it was a continuation of the same repressive and strong-arm tactics.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;<span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>NATO has no answer for Russia s powerful army, capable, at any given moment, of conquering any European country or any one of its former satellites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Rice blasted Russia for  playing a dangerous game, promising that NATO would not permit a return to the old Soviet days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> We have to deny Russia strategic objectives, which are clearly to undermine Georgia s democracy, to use its military capability to damage and in some cases destroy Georgian infrastructure and weaken the Georgians state, said Rice, realizing that U.S. commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan make it impossible to confront Russia in Eastern Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>NATO can t provide enough troops in Afghanistan, let alone consider how to contain a growing Russian threat to Eastern or Western Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Rice hasn t quite caught up to the reality that the world s last superpower lost much of its global influence.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When Bush decided to make Iraq his priority in the wake of Sept. 11, he weakened U.S. national security, draining the military and treasury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it wasted untold billions losing a long, bloody guerrilla war in Afghanistan to CIA-funded Osama bin Laden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When the Soviets finally pulled out Feb. 15, 1989 they were nearly broke, eventually accelerating its complete collapse Dec. 21, 1991.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Spending nine years in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union learned a bitter lesson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Not to squander a nation s blood and treasure on a useless war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Nearly eight years into Afghanistan and over five-and-half years into Iraq, the U.S. finds itself in the same predicament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Nobel prize-winning, Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz came to the same conclusion about Iraq:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The war has broken the U.S. economy and weakened U.S. national security.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;<span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>If Rice can t get NATO to commit enough troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, she s not going to get them to defend Georgia or other former Soviet satellites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> We are not going to allow Russia to draw a  new line at those states that are not yet integrated into the transatlantic structures, said Rice, continuing to push for Georgia s and Ukraine s entrance into NATO and the European Union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While Condi talks a good game, she knows three s very little interest in Western or Eastern Europe for a military confrontation with Russia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Russia s recent invasion of Georgia, over the pleas of its hothead president Mikhail Saakashvili, unwilling to concede one inch of territory to mother Russia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>White House officials won t admit that the Iraq War has damaged U.S. national security by draining the economy and military to the point that there s little left to intervene elsewhere.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) must make the argument that Bush s national security plan including the Iraq War has weakened the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>There s no getting around the fact that the U.S. was virtually impotent to deal with Russian tanks steamrolling over Georgia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Should the White House go ahead with plans to place missile interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic, the U.S. might have to confront Russia should they bomb the sites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Russian Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn warned Poland and the U.S. to not go forward with its missile defense system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Poland by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a strike 100 percent, said Nogovitsyn, leaving the door open to a nuke strike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Condi may be right that things aren t 1968:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They re 2008, a far more dangerous world with both nuclear and conventional options still on the table.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;<span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Bush seems intent on staying the course in Iraq until he leaves office Jan. 20, 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Without an end in sight, the U.S. economy will continue to bumble along until the order is finally given to pull out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain promises, like Bush, to continue the war until a mythical  victory, perhaps defined by zero U.S. casualties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama sees the damage done to the U.S. economy, military and national security, promising to withdraw forces within 16 months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Russia s invasion of Georgia and Iran s continued uranium enrichment was made possible because of a U.S. military too bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan to intervene elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Rice hasn t faced reality that there s no rescue plan in NATO for Georgia or any other country including Poland that may be subjected to Russian aggression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>White House plans to install missile interceptors in Poland could be the next flashpoint.<br> </p> <p><b><u>About the Author</u></b><br> </p> <p><b>John M. Curtis </b>writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He&#x2019;s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.<br> </p> <p></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td width="133" height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="133" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>