Preserving the territorial integrity of Georgia will not be possible without preserving the territorial integrity of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija province.

It is unacceptable to recognize the unilateral independence of Kosovo province from Serbia and, at the same time, keep repeating the territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected when it comes to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

If we all respect the territorial integrity of Serbia in regards to its Kosovo province, then we are also going to honor the territorial integrity of Georgia. But if someone doesn’t respect Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over Kosovo and Metohija, then they better shut up about the territorial integrity of Georgia

What NATO did in Yugoslavia — slaughter of civilians, destruction of the bridges on Danube, razing the Belgrade television and the rest, takes away their right to criticize Russia for any present or future actions, as far as I am concerned. Case CLOSED!

Moving along, then. One has to be either stupid or harbor malicious intent to call the Russian action “aggressive” when it was clearly a response to the Georgian attack on South Ossetia. Russia is a guarantor of the truce that froze the conflict in the early 1990s when Ossetia and Abkhazia seceded from Tbilisi; as such, it certainly had the right and one might even argue duty to intervene when the truce was violated by, say, the Georgian army invading Ossetia wholesale.

Of course, Tbilisi claims that Ossetians attacked first. Just like Poland. Why would the Ossetians provoke the war? They had de facto independence, Russian citizenship, and could wait the Georgians out pretty much indefinitely. One could argue that it would be in Russia’s long-term interest to remove an American client regime from Tbilisi, but why now? And remember, it is Washington, and not Moscow, that’s been going around the world installing puppet governments.

Even if McCain, Bush, Rice and all the West were right on any of his points – and he is not – U.S.was a participant in the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, the Bosnian protectorate, and the occupation of Kosovo. That means U.S. government got no credibility to talk about principles or international law, or peace, or stability. None.

But his sort of “analysis” is the one you’ll find common in the West: Evil Russia manipulates, provokes, attacks, threatens. Yeah, right.

1. 85% of federal income or $1.4 trillion goes towards military

Where you got that figure?
Utter rubbish. A lie.

Military spending budget 2007 figures:
3.7% of US GDP (which historically is a low figure)
$463 Billon (includes DoE)

Taxation:
Top 2% of earners (>1 Million atxable income) provide 15% of total tax revenue.

Oil:
Military expenditures have nothing to do with keeping people addicted to oil. So far, oil was the cheapest source of energy and the whole economy runs on it. Those US strawberries, peppers and broccoli that you’ve bought yesterday in your neighborhood superstore were available to you through oil.

Democrats blocked oil drilling in CONUSA/ANWR so far, for long time, but it seems that era is ending and US will be able to replace ME sources with their own oil within 5-10 years (financed by fatcat bankers and fatcat oil mafia). US would be still dependent on Canada (16%) and Mexico (15%) to cover total needed, but that is better than funding Soddy financed jihad.

BTW, Exxon paid in taxes in 1007 about 12 billion more than was their profit. That goes for fatcat oil mafia.

Just FYI, the profit margins in oil biz are extremely slim, oil has one of the lowest profit margins of all commodities. If you want to be a fatcat, oranges (and the final product OJ) are about 4 times more profitable and you’d skip astronomical initial outlay expenditures. There are industries/sectors that are about 10 times more profitable than oil. But a smart conman like Soros, I am sure he beats even that figure hands down.

But something tells me that you really aren’t interested in this info. You divide people on fatcats and ahm, leancats(?), without actually considering how they are linked and how society works together.

Your perspective, overall, seems to be colored by envy.

There are scammers and on men/women, of course, coruption follow mankind like an unseparable shadow, but the corruption in Western Democracies is a fraction of corruption anywhere else. A majority of the people that you call fatcats are hardworking people that work 12 or more hours per day. And die often earlier than a welfare bum, because of the stress from responsibility they have to bear.

Russians, and muscovites in particular, have a lot of disdain for the peoples of the Caucasus. The common slur is “chernozhob,” which translates as “black ass.” Although Georgians and Armenians, as christians, occupy a slighter higher social niche than Chechens or Azeris, they are viewed as inferior to Great Russians. Georgians, and other Caucasus peoples, are considered to be prone to criminality, dishonest and dirty. The Moscow authorities routinely round them up and expel them from the Russian capital. Russians do not think of Georgians as “European.”

I think that one reason that Russians support the military operations is Georgia is this disdain for “those people.”

I also think that one reason the Russians are allowing the S. Ossetian militia and various *volunteers* to operate freely in the areas of Georgia that they control is because Russian public opinion has a certain comfort level with the thought of different chernozhopy fighting each other. That is what “those people” do, after all.
The Russian army has plausible deniability, they are not themselves involved in the ethnic cleansing, and it is so hard to control these excitable people.

Socialize the costs, privatize the profits.

Explain why should the American middle class shoulder all the costs. They certainly don’t share in the benefits. 85% of federal income or $1.4 trillion goes towards military related expenditures so as to keep America addicted to oil. As I said before, those that benefit are largely the fat cat military contractors, the fat cat war profiteers, the fat cat subsidized oil mafia, the fat cat Jihadi mofos, the fat cat Wall Street bankers, and the fat cat global imperialist elite. Why should I be ok with that?

Ninety-nine percent of people in South Ossetia voted for independence from Georgia

Ninety-nine percent… Impresive… does it include the 9% of Georgians that lived there until August 8/2008? Oh sorry, forgotten… They don’t count–as one Russian sargeant noted recently when directing a group of Georgian volunters cleaning Tskhinvali streets: “Labor is good for monkeys!”

After just one day’s fighting between Georgian and Russian forces, the US and Britain were calling for an “immediate ceasefire”.

Could this be the same US and Britain, who repeatedly rejected the widespread international calls for an immediate ceasefire during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict?

The US and Britain also say that they support Georgia’s “territorial integrity”.

Could this be the same US and Britain who, by championing Kosovan separatism showed nothing but contempt for the ‘territorial integrity’ of Serbia?

In addition, the US has condemned Russia for what it calls its “dangerous and disproportionate” action against Georgia.

Yes, that’s right, the country which launched ‘Shock and Awe’ against a largely defenceless and impoverished Middle Eastern nation five years ago-on a wholly fabricated pretext– accuses others of taking ‘dangerous and disproportionate action’. Chutzpah really isn‘t the word.

The US has also accused Russia of seeking “regime change” in Georgia. That’s rather like John McEnroe accusing another tennis player of being impolite to the umpire.

When it comes to seeking “regime change” the US are undisputed world champions- they’ve toppled regimes from Belgrade to Baghdad, from Tehran to Tblisi. The US is to regime changing what Casanova is to making love- no one has done it more often.

Of course, what underpins the US and British hypocrisy is a colossal arrogance. It’s an arrogance which seeks to extend NATO to the doorstep of Russia. Imagine if Russia was encouraging Mexico or Canada to join a Russian-led military alliance, and 1,000 Russian troops were engaged in exercises in Mexico as US troops were only last month in Georgia? Or if Russia announced it was to site a missile defence system in Jamaica- as the US has done in the Czech Republic and Poland?

It’s sad to see so many journalists in America and Britain fail to challenge the attitudes which underpin the blatant hypocrisy of their country’s foreign policies. Do they honestly think that different standards should apply to the US and Britain for everyone else?

The US and Britain claim to be keen supporters of democracy, but when the electorate don’t vote the ’right way’ whether it be in elections in Palestine or in Belarus, they call the vote invalid.

Ninety-nine percent of people in South Ossetia voted for independence from Georgia, but as far as US and Britain is concerned, the “territorial integrity of Georgia” should be maintained. In Kosovo though, a majority in favour of independence is enough to gain US and British support for secession. At the same time, the wishes of the Serbs in Republic Srpska to join up with Serbia have been ignored.

It seems that self-determination, like democracy, is a principle to only be selectively applied as far as these Olympic champions are concerned.

McCain has called Russian military action in South Ossetia “deplorable”. But the most “deplorable” thing of all is the breathtaking double standards of the United State and its most loyal poodle-Britain.

“There’s absolutely no reason for that.”

One again, you present naivity as an argument.

There is a very good reson for that as noted by buddy larsen.

Nootwithstanding, for instance, Europeans that decided to reduce their military spending deflecting it to welfare, to a degree that theit respective militaries are little more than collection of tin soldiers. They are esentially riding on US taxpayers’ backs.

There is one aspect, though, that is largely disregarded or forgotten. A sizable portion of military spending budget is dedicated to R&D. The results (spinoffs) are bounced back to civil sector. That factor is not negligible either. Just from the top of my head, my SE Linux layer has been developed by those eeeevil spooks at NSA. (The budget for Intel agencies, although separate, is usually lumped with overall military spending figures).

How about, keeping the sea lanes open, the skies open, and as much of the land as possible open, for freedom of movement for people, goods, and services?

From another angle, wave a wand and disappear the US military –how does the world look in 1 year/ 5 years/ 20 years/ ?

And please, give a real answer. it doesn’t have to be long.