A New Ice Age?

Wow, good post all! everyone is really on the ball which is amzing considering teh anti Russian propaganda from the MSM. Maybe Americans are starting to wise up.

I think the Western leaders look so uncertain because they know the truth about the conflict despite the activity of their mass media. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner even visited Ossetia in these days and called the Georgian hostilities in South Ossetia "massacres". These leaders know Saakashvili's mind is not OK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSrrL157wQ4
I think if the NATO "punishes" Russia strongly, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will lose his honesty and good reputation because he saw the situation not on American TV but in Ossetia itself. If the NATO does not "punish" Russia, then Condoleezza Rice will lose her reputation because the USA led Saakashvili to power in Georgia.

If we want to unite with Russia and the rest of the world under western principles maybe we need to create a world order that is less biased, the current world order set by the US gives US the authoraty as a global dictator. Russia cant even be a victim of a genocide by a US puppet state, without being portrayed as the aggressor. In this world the US has the right to break international law, invade other countries, install regime changes, recognise illegal states etc while at the same time insisting on punishing anyone else that break international law. This is a world order where any nation that does not accept US right to be a rogue state and subdue to US global dictatorship, will be a target. Now that Russia is cornered by America, surrounded by US army bases, NATO and soon a US rocket shield, they can no longer stand on the sideline and witness their own destruction. Unfortunately US will also drag Europe into this conflict at a point where we should be buildig relationships with Russia as a equal partner instead of an enemy.

The West, obviously, is rather hypocritical. Without the support of the US, Georgian government would dare to launch a war? The west is responsible for the present situation and should get punished.

WTO membership for Russia has been a controversial topic in Russia even before events in Georgia and following hostile and unfair reaction of the West. Many in Russia believe (and I agree) that Russia would be better off without WTO. Protectionist measures would be beneficial for local industries in Russia and they would encourage foreign investments because it would be cheaper to build a factory in Russia than import foreign-made goods. Russian export (gas, oil, lumber) is unlikely to benefit from WTO.

Membership in G8 does not give Russia any benefits, as it stands now, Russia is making concession after concession to the West in exchange for the photo-ops with Western leaders.

When US strategy in their war against Serbia is to bomb civilian infrastructure to make them dependent of the West, is that not a war crime? Ans who else is waiting for the US to apologise or at least condemn the Genocide on 2000 Osetians by an american puppet state on US funding? Instead they are questioning if the number is correct and trying to label Russia as the aggressor? Yes this is a peaceful decade.... Maybe if we can have one single US president that doesnt have to start a war the world could enjoy some stability and peace for a few years

Regardless of Bush's comments, many have had the concern Bush was trying to restart the cold war, he is after all the poster boy for the military industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about.

Reagan who is credited for ending the cold war did so by running both the US and Russia to the brink of bankruptcy, in fact Russia was for all practical purposes "over the edge" economically speaking and so cried uncle first.

Bush has copied Reagan economic policy but interestingly only managed to bankrupt the US,
Russia on the other hand has never had it so good economically speaking, largely based on oil prices.
It's not a good position to find America in, but it is nothing more than yet another example of what the short sighted goals of the republicans have done to this country.

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If that is true, then the peaceful decade of the 1990s
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Bombing of Serbia and its capital is referred to as "peaceful decade"?