Foreign Follies

The ceasefire between Georgia and Russia is in effect, sort of. The Russians aren't too blatant in violating it, except for the whole fortifying their positions inside Georgia thing. But I'm not going to rag on Russia, or Georgia because that whole region is pretty messed up.

No, I'm going to talk about what the United States has to do with this, because they have some (though only a small amount of blame) to take for the war that broke out a couple weeks ago.

You see, what the United States did was make Georgia think its military could hit above its weight class. They genuinely believed that they could go into South Ossetia (where Russian soldiers were already stationed), take it over by force (which would involve engaging the Russians in combat) and hold off or deter any Russian response. Obviously they were completely incorrect. Instead, the Georgian David got curb-stomped by the Russian Goliath. Where the Americans come in is that they, indirectly, are the reason that the Georgians were so overconfident. You see, the Americans have about 1000 "military advisors" in Georgia, training the Georgian military. They also sell large amounts of arms to the Georgians, to modernize their military and bring them up to western (NATO) standards. I think the Georgians believed that either: a) That the presence of American soldiers in the country would prevent the Russians from attacking. b) That their new military gear purchased from the United States and Israel (which almost stopped sales to Georgia because of the conflict) would give them a massive technological advantage over the Russians. Or finally, c) That the Americans would respond to the Russians with something more than a stern talking-to.

Obviously option "c" is the least likely by far, America's military is too stretched to consider even a small-scale conflict with the Russians, not to mention that the American people would never stand for it.  "a" is also unlikely for reasons that the Georgians should have recognized. Russia is a big kid on the block once again, and fully intends to throw its weight around. They are not going to worry about hurting a few feelings here and there, even with the United States. The Russians are going to actively try to rebuild a power block to counter NATO's influence, and I think that this was the beginning of that effort. Russia isn't going to look the other way anymore in exchange for some Adidas track suits and a BMW. They're back in the game.

So it must have been option "b". Technological superiority. There is some merit to this theory, as the Georgians did manage to knock out several state-of-the-art Russian tanks with their new Israeli missiles (again, the Israelis were NOT pleased about the Georgians using those missiles). But ultimately the technological edge was minimal, and the Russians are (for now) much better trained, and had far more combat power in the area than the entire Georgian army possessed.

In things closer to home (just a little south to be exact), Obama has picked his running mate, and Joe Biden will be his V.P. candidate. I don't know much about Biden right now, but I will be reading up on him in the next few days.

I'm just glad Obama didn't make the colossal mistake that having Clinton as V.P. would have been.