Three Milestones On The Road To War

It is obviously good news that Georgia has apparently agreed to the terms of the cease fire brokered by Nikolas Sarkozy of France along with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev (here), but I would like to point out three developments over the last two years (more or less) that pointed to the recent conflict (IMHO)…

This tells us of the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in October 2006, who wrote about the war in Chechnya and Russian Prime Minister (and former president, of course) Vladimir Putin’s role; a campaign which was supposedly to last “two weeks” in 1999 instead spawned a wave of terrorism by separatists which led to the brutal deaths of children at a Beslan school (I have no evidence upon which to blame Putin for that horrific act, I wish to emphasize, but only the tactics that led up to that).

However, I would argue that, by this country’s relative silence in the aftermath of Politkovskaya’s death (as well as other dissidents), our ruling cabal made it clear to Putin that we would look the other way no matter what tactics he employed to squash opposition to his regime, or that of any Russian leader.

This reminds us of Dubya’s idiotic antagonism of Putin and Medvedev over deployment of a missile defense shield in Europe. Missile defense is truly the fantasy of all neocons in pursuit of unending war and “cost-plus” government contracts that deliver victories only within the realm of propaganda (they don’t call it “Star Wars” for nothing).

This tells us of the visit by Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Russia in which they met with some human rights activists, but failed to meet with Garry Kasparov, the highest-profile dissident of all. Such a meeting would have sent the message to Putin and Medvedev that we were serious, and possibly would have given him pause before deciding to strike.

I realize this is all speculation and ultimately my opinion only, but I would only ask that future adult political leadership in this country would see that these were missed opportunities to pursue a diplomatic course in advance of this recent tragedy.

Update 8/14/08: Clueless as usual...