This Isn’t the Return of History

I get it US = bad Russia = good The Hate America crowd representing in full force. I'm sure its all George Bush's fault and HIS Highness Obama will make everything better.

Fareed Zakaria is just a tool of the conservative lunatic fringe and his clueless analysis of the Russia-Georgia crisis is so far off base as to be laughable. He has to work at CNN because no real major news network would bother with him except Fox. Incompetent Rice has brought about the new Cold War and Russia is going to profit from it while the USA suffers. Putin was correct in stating that one American presidential candidate, McCain, is trying to benefit from this so called crisis.

Fareed Zakaria is just a tool of the conservative lunatic fringe and his clueless analysis of the Russia-Georgia crisis is so far off base as to be laughable. He has to work at CNN because no real major news network would bother with him except Fox. Incompetent Rice has brought about the new Cold War and Russia is going to profit from it while the USA suffers. Putin was correct in stating that one American presidential candidate, McCain, is trying to benefit from this so called crisis.

This is hilariously wrong... Georgia attacked Russian peacekeepers in S. Ossetia in the middle of the night, clearly throwing the first punch. They used inaccurate rockets and mortars on universities and hospitals. This is a blunder, but for neocon planners who encouraged the unstable Sakaashvili to grab those territories. Now Russia de-facto controls the Black Sea coast, which is of considerable strategic importance. Also, the US and Western Europe are at odds over this in a big way. If anything, we've just shown ourselves to be the paper tigers in the region that people have suspected us to be for so long.

Wait... Didn't Georgia Start this....? Or does that little fact mean anything to you Fareed Zakaria

The missed argument in all this, the one that has been passed over by all news agencies and commentators is whether South Ossetia should be a free and independant state. They have been acting as such, de facto if not de jure, nearly since the breakup of the Soviet Union. They have voted twice on the subject, and each came out for independence.
The question that has not been asked, and requires asking if there is to be any resolution (and before blame is assigned) is if South Ossetia's breakaway from Georgia is valid. It seem as if no one has discussed this, and I have no idea of what is involved in this situation. Was Russsia setting all this up in order to make a land grab, or is there a valid need to recognize the independence of South Ossetia as an independant state, in which the west, through its lack of initiative have had a major hand in creating the crisis.
Bottom line: Tell me honestly and truthfully about South Ossetia so that I can make a rational judgement. So far the press has failed dismally in this simple and necessary task.

Where in the he-- does the Media come up with all of you short ,big-headed midgets like Fareem, Costas, Stephenopouis God do all of you have a short man's complex. Fareem , please go home.

I can't believe a Newsweek writer did not thoroughly research his or her subject. Georgia was the one who attacked South Ossetia unprovoked and killed South Ossetians and Russian advisers before the Russians responded with an attack. This wasn't an unprovoked attack by the Russians. The U.S. would never allow its soldiers to be attacked and killed in an unprovoked manner without responding in the same manner. Bad reporting by Newsweek.

Some of You commenters out there, really need to go back to "high school" to be re-introduced to proper spelling, before you can "comment " on anything at all !

I think this is another dishonest portrayal of the events that really ignored the facts on the ground( or just have no clue) How can you possibly say: ??????Russia has become more dysfunctional, corrupt, dictatorial and assertive..???. Russia WAS dysfunctional, corrupt, and dictatorial, in the 90???s. In fact, it was a failed state with crushed economy, criminal anarchy, complete luck of law and order and luck of functional institutions that we associate with democracy. And of course there was NO free media in the 90s. It was wholly owned and operated by the few oil rich oligarchs who pulled all the strings in the country. Putin changed it all. It made him admired by 70 +% of the population for over 8 years. Russian transformation under Putin begun before oil price rise( 1999-2004) and it is remarkable. While Russia continues to have well documented problems,t those problems are being tackled head on. Situation on the ground improves year after year. Just talk to people on the Russian streets if you have any doubts.

Of course this war was not ??????major strategic blunder?????? by any means. Seeing Georgia???s army being pumped full of money and weapons by US, Russia was fully prepared for eventuality: When someone has so many guns he will use them, especially under lunatic Georgian leadership. Georgian army started the war by indiscriminately and massively bombing South Ossetian capital. Russian response was quick and brilliantly executed. 5 days it was all over. US neocons in ???heritage foundation??? called it ???classic combined arms operation???. Disproportional response?? Russians just successfully applied ( Colin) Powell Doctrine, something US did in the first Iraq war.

There is one important fact this article got right: ??????In fact, the real challenge we face in dealing with Moscow is that we have too few such ties and, as a result, too little leverage?????? Do you know that Russia was trying to get admitted in the NATO in early 2000s?? It got denied admission and instead created NATO-Russian council. Do you know that Russia tried to get into WTO for 13 years?? Do you know that US still didn???t repel soviet era laws against Russia?? Russia tried to get into closer cooperation with the west but was repeatedly denied admission, instead it got US cancellation of the missile treaty and missile systems on its borders. From all that Russia made very logical conclusion that west still interested in Russian isolation and confrontation, not cooperation.

Fareed, I really liked your analysis of middle east politics, but please read up on Russia before posting this shollow analysis of Russo Georgian war. I would strongly recommend www.stratfor.com US maintained and in-depth geopolitical analysis.

I think this is a vast oversimplification; you???re big mistake here is the assumption that Putin actually wants to act in the interest of greater Russia, when in actuality he just wants absolute power. Putin has gained far more than "70,000 South Ossetians" with this gambit. He has postured himself as a force to be reckoned with; the undisputed leader of his region and one in which the US and EU are powerless to stop. He doesn't care about sanctions or world opinion; he has no reason to. At the end of the day, he'll still sell his oil. Everything else is secondary.

The thing is, the Russian people eat this stuff up. They LOVE that they have a tough-guy leader who thumbs his nose at the world and shoots tigers and builds new missiles and takes his shirt off and has military parades in Red Square. Especially after nearly two decades of post-cold war humiliation as a third-rate power, they are hungry for these demonstrations, and intolerant (at best) towards those who seek to point out the underlying problems in the society he created (as indicated by the murder of journalists and opposition leaders, demonization of the west, etc.)

Is it short-sighted? Maybe it is. Oil prices won???t stay this high forever, and if things get too scary, foreign business and investment will move away. Not to mention that few tyrants meet with happy fates in the end. But at the moment, Putin is riding very high within his own borders, which seems to be all he really needs (he???s already enriching himself personally by the billions). The US isn???t going to stop him (or even contain him) anytime soon, especially under an Obama administration. Nor is Europe or China. I would reckon that he could probably send a few tanks into Berlin right now and face only slightly more than a slap on the wrist from the international community, while a monument to his honor would be erected in Moscow.

And this is what really matters to the man. He???s an old-style Soviet, but one who realized that communism isn???t the best way to absolute power, capitalist authoritarianism is. And to that end, he seems to be very effective.

we must indicate our displeasure with their actions with economic power. they are indeed drunk on oil profits yet are now irreversibly mired in the worlds economic engine. they are no longer isolated and alone as in the past.

their stock market and personal walth are far more important to them now.

If your article is true, that Globalization is the counter balance to Russian militarism, then John McCain's militaristic threats to Russia is equally off base.

If your article is true, that Globalization is the counter balance to Russian militarism, then John McCain's response of militaristic threats to Russia is equally off base.

Russia not only has Oil, it also has natural gas which most of the European goverments depend on. When the thing are the way they are, what kind of leverage are you expecting to have agains Russia?

terrible article.