Thursday, August 14, 2008

I Should Say Something Profound

About the Russian/Georgian War but I'm fresh out. As regular readers know, I am officially unimpressed by the glory of war. Heroism, bravery, I'm down with that and some of the finest examples are found in battle but wars just leave a damn big mess to clean up and any more, they don't even settle things all that well for anyone but the dead. There are times when they cannot be avoided and I despise appeasement -- but winning by trickery, guile and outright cheating to avoid a war, I'm a huge fan of -- me and Eric Frank Russell. (Especially see Wasp.)

There has been some talk here and there about Should America Pick A Side? (Oh, hells no, but Congress and the papers prolly will: Georgia, the underdog). It is usually then followed by wise discussion of Nuclear Brinksmanship, c'os y'know, "...us an' the Russkis, toe-to-toe...."

I'm callin' BS. Uncle Sam's brave(?) Congressbeings and The Executive Branch are neither one gonna bet Duluth (or as Tam has pointed out, worse yet an aircraft carrier group, 'cos whattaya gonna do in response?) against peace in Georgia. There's a mess there, one built and left behind by the Soviet Union; it is only one mess of many and you can bet the other former satrapies of the Evil Empire are watching closely. The Ukraine's already gettin' uppity and those are just the first sullen drumbeats. It's a family argument; I've no quarrel with sendin' food and blankets (other than with doing it with my taxes -- pass the hat, instead!) but we'd be otherwise clever to stay well out of this'n. It's not our fight.

Couldn't happen to a more-deserving spymaster turned de facto autocrat than Gospodin Putin. I think he's gonna get handed his own rump, done to a turn, and will have done more to get the old "buffer states" playin' nice together (and against Russia) than a whole nest of diplomats.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Russia is using Georgia to give the other former Soviet Republics a warning...not to join NATO, and not to be too independent. Russia may not be the USSR, but it still has the Red Army, lots of tanks and planes, and nukes. Be a different story, though, when Russia goes head to head with China or India.
I agree with war not being wonderful. It leaves terrible pain, destruction and financial cost in it's wake. Our warriors are great, but we always hope they never have to use what they know.

Frank W. James said...

I couldn't agree more. We have enough of a mess to deal with over in the sandbox as it is.

My fear is this Russian adventure may give the idjits in Iran some ideas and that is something we simply don't need. Especially with the possiblity of an appeasement Democratic president.

All The Best,
Frank W. James

Anonymous said...

Holy cow! You must be one of the three people on the planet who've even heard of Wasp, let alone read it.

But this morning the raydjo news reported that Russia's rattling its sabres at Poland. "Don't you dare infringe on our rights to threaten your sovereignty with your antimissile defense."

I'd call that an aggressive posture.

M

Anonymous said...

its a pity its not as simple as you propose.Would that it were.

rremington said...

...but wars just leave a damn big mess to clean up and any more, they don't even settle things all that well for anyone but the dead.

Don't tell that bit right there is not profound. The TRUTH is always profound.

Rick

word verification:rrvocsz- it almost sounds Russian

Anonymous said...

Aw, hell, Og, it's never simple when governments are involved. Or religions. Or--

We're humans. We don't do "simple." But just once -- just daggone once! -- I'd like to see the people who would as soon be left alone rise up, beat the politicians and ringleaders who got the mess going to death with hoes, hold a couple of wonderful parades for the soldiers, and send everybody who's not from around the war zone packin' for home. Is it really all that much to ask? Of course it is.