Give me a break. Half the world’s discussion on this issue shows both sides. It is quite a shock that the readers of Belmont seem not to have ever even seen reports on what the other side is even saying.

Try watching www.russiatoday.com at least.

Nobody (except Bush, Putin and Saakvashili) wants this war. Nobody wants to see Georgians or Russians hurt.

I love the idea that the Russians and Georgians are not going to clash at that bridge 17km north of Tbilisi.

All businesspeople know that Russia is Europe’s largest consumer market.

It takes a redneck to immediately jump to conclusions and repeat the hackneyed and inaccurate hogwash that “Russia has not changed” and forget that Russians are now anti-communist and a lot less socialist and radical feminist than US Republicans are.

McCain is 100% behind anything US feminists tell him to do.

I would rather have Putin as my leader than Hillary Clinton.

You are saying that anyone who reports on what foreign and Russian media are saying…is somehow “not with the Neocon program”?

The Dem sites are being reasonable on this.

Sorry buddy but I am with the anti-Islamofascist crowd but not the anti-Russian crowd.

Belmont Club, as I remember it, was into a dispassionate military analysis.

The particular one above makes it look like the blogger thinks its 1921 and the Bolsheviks are attacking, however (back then the Bolsheviks attacked from the east after taking Baku).

Russians wouldn’t give a damn if Georgian forces went south of that other mountain range to hide. They wouldn’t chase them.

They know that the American Neocons would whisk USAakvashili away on a plane even if the Georgian people rose up against him (the Russians say SSCHAakavishili where SSCHA means USA in Russian).

It is pretty bad for Americans looking to Europe’s largest market to hear the Russians naming their most hated Saddam Hussein type figure with a name that has USA in it.

Bush should care about this and ask this guy to settle the matter NOW.

But Bush doesn’t care about American business if it isn’t oil business.

Bush is going to be a $Billionaire when he is no longer president. Mark my words, Clinton’s unfair $100Million windfall won’t compare.

The issue at hand is what US-backed guerilla groups might do to Russian units that want to hold to a ceasefire but might not be allowed to.

Prolonged Neocon-backed pin-pricking instead of abiding by the French-backed agreement will destroy good relations between America and Russia, which (did I already say?) is the LARGEST consumer market in Europe moneywise.

The wolverine mentality can be childish at this juncture. If the Russians want to stop advancing, let them. If they want to pull back to just the territories, let them.

If, through guerrillas not abiding by the ceasefire, Bush forces Russia not to be able to say “OK, we’re done here” he will be misusing our military while severely damaging American corporations who deal with Russia.

And remember that the Georgians are suffering from a Russian boycott of their wine, which was ALWAYS a staple in the Russian diet. This boycott is the result of the rhetoric of the ulta-nationalist president whom the Americans helped get elected in 2004.

Imagine what would happen to Mexican farmers if Americans stopped buyign from them (I hear that, because of salmonella, Americans actually have stopped buying from Mexico).

Wolverine wannabees should either go fight themselves or, otherwise, hope that the Georgian farmers can once again sell their food and wine to their largest neighbor and economic power house (and largest market in Europe).

The mafia ambush angle can be handled…but notice that nobody besides 2×4 has been talking about that.

Saakvashili isn’t saying “We would like to let the territories go (which we never had in the first place and which were only made a part of Georgia by Stalin) but we want a promise from Russia to stop the mafia operations”.