boo boo on rail
egypt hill, mississippi - may 2007
Boo Boo is my late cat from Costa Rica and I've been thinking about him lately. Here are some past remembrances and something important to ponder on this beautiful Monday morning, the value and sanctity of life.
Have a great Monday!
As most of you know, Russia has invaded Georgia in response to Georgia's effort to reign in the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Russia's heavy-handed reaction has caused many civilian casualties by indiscriminate bombing and even though Russia claims to have no interest other than to remove Georgian troops from South Ossetia, it is clear that the communist regime has other ideas.
The history between Georgia and Russia is a long, complex and bloody struggle of the weak versus the mighty with Russia at times playing savior and at others, conqueror. The recent developments bring to light the misunderstandings that the outside world has of far eastern European politics and the Russian bear and brightens the dull and often misunderstood, misconstrued strategic policies of the United States.
I've mulled this extremely sad and unfortunate situation over since the outbreak of the fighting and unfortunately I have more questions than answers.
Obviously, our main strategic goal in the region is the steady supply of central Asian energy supplies. British Petroleum has helped construct a pipeline that runs from Azerbaijan through Georgia and into Turkey, completely bypassing Russia. According to reports, the Russians went after the pipeline almost immediately, some reports indicating that some 50 missles or bombs were used with no ill effect to the pipeline. Interestingly, a pipeline 30% owned by British Petroleum, who is embroiled in some difficult negotiations for another large oil conglomerate in Russia. I suppose it's possible that the Russians, if they fired on the pipeline at all, intentionally missed as a firm and dire message of dominance to BP.
I still can't grasp a rational and logical reason that Georgia's leadership would agitate Russia by invading South Ossetia to retake the breakaway province. I assume that someone within the inner circle of Mikhail Saakashvili's administration had to know that the Russian reaction would be swift and deadly. What exactly did they think they would gain?
Incredibly outnumbered, the Georgian military is simply no match to the well-trained (arguable) and well-armed military of Russia. Russia fields about 34 times the personnel and is supplied with an infinitely superior number of tanks, planes, missiles, troop transports, etc. It's simply suicide.
Condoleeza Rice was recently in Georgia meeting with Saakashvili and maybe something was said during their meeting that led him to believe that we would support fully any attempt by him to retake South Ossetia. If not, then this will go down in history as one of the biggest political and military blunders in history.
What this tragic situation does emphasize is that Russia in no friend of the world. Vladimir Putin is nothing more than a low-rent KGB thug with an eye on the prize of world dominance through energy, a goal Russia has never been able to achieve on her own. First, is was the jailing oil executives and bundling the wealth and power of conglomerates like YUKOS into the plus-50% state owned GAZPROM and now it's the all out pillaging of a weaker country, all for sake of oil. Russia wants it and doesn't want us to have it.
And where is the left-wing, anti-war, anti-war-for-oil outrage against Russia's actions? This is a REAL war for oil. So, where is it folks? Outrage? Anyone?
We, the United States, are in no position to help the Georgians militarily and frankly, George Bush chastising Putin for invading a "sovereign nation" is a half-step short of reeking hipocrisy. And the only thing we can hope for is that, in the end, Russia does not stay and Georgia maintains her independence and democracy, but this seems unlikely. The UN will accomplish nothing and neither will NATO.
In the meantime, Georgia burns and sadly, the only real losers in this event will be the people of Georgia.
some people are exponentially sharper than I am.
A new blog I've been reading lately called The Breda Fallacy is operated by a beer-drinking "reference librarian" who is also a gun-toting, artistic amputee. . .and frankly she doesn't mince words when it comes to base observations of the obvious.
Like this one.
and the media immediately slips into a Bush Derangement Syndrome seizure as proved by the following headline:
Bush ignores Afghan school violence
This Associated Press article states:
"KABUL, Afghanistan - In his State of the Union address, President Bush called Afghanistan a young democracy where children go to school and Afghans are hopeful. But he didn't mention the violence that has killed 147 students and teachers, and closed 590 schools in the last year — almost as many as the 680 the U.S. has built."Yes, I agree. It's absolutely horrific that children are dying trying to pursue educational opportunities in a war-torn country, but I think that number and others need to be put into perspective.
"But there's an even more worrying trend: The number of students and teachers killed in Taliban attacks tripled in the past year, to 147, Hanif said, while the number of students out of class because of security has hit 300,000 since March 2007, compared with 200,000 in the previous 12 months. The number of schools closed has risen from 350 to 590."Our nation, in 1999, had a dropout rate of 4.7% of all 10th, 11th and 12th grade students, which was approximately 520,000 students, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau. Trying to look on the bright side of things in Afghanistan, at least they really WANT an education and are willing to die for it. Must be that Bush again, ignoring everything.
"More than 6,500 people — mostly militants — died in insurgent violence last year, the highest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, according to an AP count based on official figures."Using the FBI's methodology of computing violent crime rates per 100,000 inhabitants, guess what the "murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate" of Afghanistan turns out to be? About 2 deaths per 100,000 people. And the US in 2006? Over five deaths per 100,000. Again, we are not at war with each other.
From The Washington Times:
Congressional Democrats are trying to undermine U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus' credibility before he delivers a report on the Iraq war next week, saying the general is a mouthpiece for President Bush and his findings can't be trusted.
"The Bush report?" Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said when asked about the upcoming report from Gen. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq. The top Democrats — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California — also referred to the general's briefing as the "Bush report."
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Gen. Petraeus' report was potentially compromised by the White House's involvement in drafting it.
Put the evidence in the car, Junior!
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