Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark57
I guess the point that we will continue to disagree on is who that "foreign power" is in this case. I say because it is a self governed autonomous region, both Russia and Georgia are foreign powers. Georgia invaded South Ossetia in violation of the 1992 agreement, possibly thinking that the US would back them up.
Russia responded to requests for help from the South Ossetian government, a little too heavy handedly maybe, but they did what they set out to do. Now they say that Georgia has forfeited the territory as well as the right to maintain a peace keeping force there. I agree with them, while you seem to agree with Bush and McCain that Russia is the bad guy.
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I fail to see how Georgia can be a foreign country in its own country. As far as I know, no country has recognized South Ossetia as anything other than part of Georgia. Now, South Ossetia may have every moral right to fight and, if they beat the Georgians, win their independence. But that is not what happened here.
Nor do I see how Georgia can possibly have "forfeited" its rights to part of its country by trying to establish control there. Usually, it works the other way. If you acquiesce too long in a region being independent, you lose your rights. Lets not forget, the South Ossetians have been pushing for full independence. The Georgians have, at some point, to act to take back the region, or give it up.
I do not see the Georgians as nice guys here. I have no doubt that the operation to retake this region would have caused a tremendous number of casualties. Civil wars are very ugly. Look at our own. But the rule has never been that if you have to kill people to keep a region, you have to give it up.
In any event, the Russians have no business making pronouncements concerning anybody's right to Georgia. As we know from Chechnya, the Russians are perfectly comfortable devastating a region to keep control of it. If the Georgians have lost their rights here, it is because the Russians have taken them.
As for the Russians being bad guys, I do not blame the Russians for not wanting allies of the U.S. on its border. But lets not forget why these countries want to establish close ties to the U.S. They all have long and bitter experience of what it means to be part of the the Russian sphere of influence. Hemming the Russians in may be provocative. But if you are in that region, you damn well want them hemmed in as much as possible.