Rice Refusing To Call Russia?
By Steve Hynd Saturday Aug 30, 2008 6:00pm
Fallout from the Georgian conflict is still widening, in what may become the defining foreign policy issue of the 2008 US elections.
In yet another example of Bush administration "diplomacy", Condi Rice is seemingly refusing to talk to her Russian counterpart about escalating tensions in Georgia - even over the phone.
Two and a half years ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said U.S. ties with Russia were the best they had been for "quite some time."
Now she and her Russian counterpart are barely on speaking terms over Georgia, and foreign policy analysts are worried that the soured relations will curtail Washington's diplomatic clout around the world.
... U.S. officials said on Friday Rice had not spoken to Lavrov for nearly two weeks -- since a ceasefire was negotiated that Washington accuses Russia of disobeying.
She has not visited Moscow either, but she went to Georgia to show support for beleaguered President Mikheil Saakashvili.
"There's no need to pick up the phone and talk to the Russians right now," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.
Meanwhile, Russia is saying it will respond in kind to any Western measures against it, meeting sanctions with sanctions or aggression with aggression.
"Russia does not want confrontation with any country. Russia does not plan to isolate itself," Medvedev said in an interview with Russia's three main television stations.
But he added: "Everyone should understand that if someone launches an aggressive sortie, he will receive a response."
The comment may well have been aimed at bellicose rhetoric from Republican candidate John McCain and from his campaign proxies. By now, in normal times, the crisis in Georgia would be calming down. But it hasn't and Russia has explicity accused the Bush administration of hyping the conflict to aid the Republican election campaign. That has been denied, of course, but Russia has pointed to an American passport (h/t Kat) - belonging to a Texan named Michael Lee White - which was found in a building occupied by Georgian commandos as circumstantial evidence that US advisors were aiding Georgian troops during the fighting. (EDIT: White has denied involvement and said his passport was stolen on a flight from Moscow back in December 2005.)
Login or Register to post comments.
Be informed: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/georgia_and_kosovo_single_intertwined_crisis
Georgia and Kosovo: A Single Intertwined Crisis
August 25, 2008 | 2028 GMT
By George Friedman
The Russo-Georgian war was rooted in broad geopolitical processes. In large part it was simply the result of the cyclical reassertion of Russian power. The Russian empire — czarist and Soviet — expanded to its borders in the 17th and 19th centuries. It collapsed in 1992. The Western powers wanted to make the disintegration permanent. It was inevitable that Russia would, in due course, want to reassert its claims. That it happened in Georgia was simply the result of circumstance.
There is, however, another context within which to view this, the context of Russian perceptions of U.S. and European intentions and of U.S. and European perceptions of Russian capabilities. This context shaped the policies that led to the Russo-Georgian war. And those attitudes can only be understood if we trace the question of Kosovo, because the Russo-Georgian war was forged over the last decade over the Kosovo question.
...Cont...
The Russians should also prolly check what party that person belongs to, wouldn't surprise me if it was another republick.
Stupid nutsy's aka neocons.
Like anyone would want to hear from that lying bitch.
Her excuse for everything was "but I am expert in Russia issues".
Failed.
Let governor Palin call russia i heard she has experience
with russia being in close proximity.
as my old granny used to say: never trust anybody that has got an oil tanker named after them.
If she admitted to even attempting to contact the Russians it would be so much more embarrassing when her efforts did no good or even made the situation worse.
We are all probably better off that she allows her incompetence to show in doing too little.
constituent @ 5:
Badda Bing!
harley @ 4:
Epic Fail
Hamburg - European observers have faulted Georgia in this month's
Caucasus conflict, saying it made elaborate plans to seize South
Ossetia, according to the German news magazine Der Spiegel on
Saturday.
In a report to appear in its Monday edition, it said officials of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had
said acts by the Georgian government had contributed to the
outbreak of the crisis with Russia.
Spiegel said OSCE military observers in the Caucasus had described
preparations by Georgia to move into South Ossetia.
The onslaught had begun before Russian armoured vehicles entered a
southbound tunnel under the Caucasus Mountains to South Ossetia.
It said the OSCE report also described suspected war crimes by the
Georgians, including the Georgians ordering attacks on sleeping
South Ossetian civilians.
...
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1427854.php/S...
Get rid of NATO and for crissake tear down those star war thingies. Russia looks upon them as an act of aggression, which it is.
Another chance to exercise those vaunted Russian language skills missed. She must be chomping to get into a conversation. No?
Astonishing to say, but those areas shown in the open ground where the bombs hit look eerily like the crater where Flight 93 'crashed'.
Brad @ 12:
With her teeth, I'd stick to hay.
Bush said he was a war president and he has proved it every day of his stolen 7.5 year of (Gore-Kerry) term in office of the presidency.
I still can't believe that a person could steal the highest office of our country and not a d... thing would be done about it. Just proves we are a country of NO laws.. Wait a minute there are laws for and enforced on the citizens of this country and it is called a Police State , sponsored by Bush , Cheney with the aid and lack of backbone by some democrats.
Award winning Pelosi , Lieberman followed by the Blue Dogs which just keep kicking Bush's can down the street..
Just think what a different economy and shape this country would be,, if the presidency was not stolen from the true winners of the elections in 2000 and 2004.
Oooh, that'll so show them. The russians will be all like, "why don't you call us?" and we'll be all like...Shuh! No way. They think they're so cool. Whatever.
it is important to remember that georgia started this thing with tacit approval from that nasty little terrier we call our head diplomatic envoy... she has no interest or experience in diplomacy...
meohmy @ 13:
Craters all look pretty much the same. Go for a walk in the woods of Germany sometime...
Republicans will do whatever they can to concoct a foreign policy crisis that doesn't have the stench of the Iraq failure about it to give McCain something new to focus on between now and November. The media will perform admirably in their roles as stenographers as Republicans try to rekindle the old, cold war Russian bear as the major threat to America. Osama bin Laden will soon enter his eighth year as a fugitive no closer to being captured than he was on September 12, 2001.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that if a Democrat were in the White House now and bin Laden were still a fugitive, we'd be treated to a series of articles by "serious" journalists saying how haunted the president is by his/her inability to bring the greatest mass murderer of Americans to justice, and how it served as yet another indication of the foreign policy failures of the administration?
Why would Condi do her job now -- it's hurricane season and there's some great shoe sales over the Labor Day weekend again.
Let's leave the unsubstantiated, open mouth insert foot style of blogging to the rightwing nutters, shall we?
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/31/0831passp...
There's the actual story on the passport. It took me all of thirty seconds to find.
"I think it said BinLaden determined to strike in the U.S."
"I don't recall"
"I don't recall"
the least she could do is play a piano recital for them.
I'd bet that Rice is refusing to talk to her counterpart in Russia because the U.S. has little if anything left to threaten Russia with. The old cold shoulder is all they can give them at this point. The NATO military force is mostly located in other parts of the world, is vastly under trained and ill equipped plus there there is little consensus between the various EU nations about what to do with Russia. In addition, Russia has many economic as well as military threats it can use against the Europeans and the Europeans know it. Try to bring it in front of the UN and the Russians will veto everything. Try sanctions and the Russians will reduce their natural gas supply to Europe and/or reduce their food exports.
This leaves the U.S. to take the lead but with most of its forces committed to the middle east, that only leaves a naval option but that is extremely risky and will only go so far. This is what the Bush Administration has led us to.
abarts @ 22:
I've recently learned that Ambien ('Everybody here is on it' - Colin Powell)
causes memory problems.
Which explains a hell of a lot more than just the above incident...
Condi call sarah and ask her to get a hold of the russians
she has connections i'm told by candy mccain.
maybe she doesn´t have the number... or she´s waiting for her phone to charge... it could be something simple like that... or maybe she just wants to annihilate the human race as a fond farewell gesture...
Rice doesn't want to get backed into a corner and end up saying something she'll regret. Mixed signals now could only escalate issues.
abarts @ 22:
talking point we're fighting them over their so we don't have to fight them here.......no longer true?
What would she threaten? You know the USA will be arrogant-- threats only. NO effort would be made at diplomacy.
Send Palin over, she's a "Russia expert" from Wasilla.
Paging Dr. Rice...Paging Dr. Rice...
If McSame and Wolfkiller get in, I bet 60 plus year alliances start reshifting and NOT in our favor. It will be wholly self-inflicted and well-deserved.
b!X, thanks for that link, I hadn't seen it as yet. It doesn't give the "actual" story on how White's passport ended up in Georgia, though - just a hint at an alternative theory that it was stolen by someone unknown on a flight from Moscow, presumably for sale, and ended up in Georgia that way. Why anyone in Georgia would want to buy the cancelled passport of someone holding dual US/Kyrghiz citizenship isn't speculated upon.
I reported exactly what the Russians were saying (loudly) and carefully added no extra speculation of my own other than to note it was purely circumstantial so I feel your charge is unfair. Your mileage may vary - but gimme a break, huh?
Regards, C
natural gas, oil pipelines
everything is about that
Paging: Dr. Howard, Dr. Rice, Dr. Howard........
constituent @ 5:
You know, that may be a goal for international powers (including allies) at some point. Let me explain. Mccain, if he becomes President may have just set himself up for rival nations either to increase their attempts to assassinate him or increase the pressure (I.E. armed conflict, economic pressure, etc.) on his Administration to such an extent that the pressure becomes unbearable. The hope is that McCain will eventually develop a medical condition, force a coup, etc. and is replaced by the vastly inexperienced Palin. The goal obviously is to get Palin into the Presidency. With Palin as the President of the United States the chances of her making costly foreign policy mistakes while facing a potentially hostile, Democratically lead Congress in addition to facing experienced foreign adversaries is extremely high. This isn't far fetched because the U.S. Government does it all the time.
May she could send them an email. Putin4wrlddomination@yahoo.com
constituent @ 28:
Sadly, it never has been true.
Conversely, fighting "them" (that is, the wrong guys..) only means we will
eventually be fighting them here.
Simply awesome.
Not calling is what you do to your jr. high boyfriend who you found under the bleachers with another girl. In other words, it is not considered 'international diplomacy'. This gang of fucking retards can't be gone from 1600 Pennsylvania ave fast enough.
you got two oil-men in the White House, and you got former KGB heads cozzy with their own oil-men at the Kremlin
I can't wait for electric cars to take over
Another example of Republicans putting someone in a position that simply isn't qualified for the job. Rice has been an utter failure in every way. In preperation of Gustav she's probably at Macey's buying some new shoes.
GOD Damn repugs!
They lie us into two wars.
The lie about Barack and Joe.
They lie about Palin.
They lie about getting us into more WARS!
I will never vote, respect or associate with a repug as long as I live.
The real reason we haven't been attacked i again is that Osama was successful.
He attacked the WTC to bankrupt America and to let the right wing warmongers try to rule the world.
Now the whole world thinks of us as the evil empire.
The same people who voted for bush will vote again for this madness.
Thanks I feel a little better.
Putin's claimed that the invasion of Georgia by Russia was perpetrated by Georgia for political reasons to enhance McCain's chances for the election. Why isn't this in the news much? It could very well be a possibility because when you add up all of the pieces, it could be entirely possible. McCain's chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann was a lobbyist for Georgia and is part of the community of neoconservatives who relentlessly pushed for the invasion of Iraq. Didn't Karl Rove meet with Saakashvili just days after the July 9 private dinner between Condi and Saakashvili? This smells to high heaven to me.
Shouldn't President Bush call McCain's Veep choice, Alaks Gov Palin to negotiate with Russia?
After all, As Govenor,
Alaska is in proximity to Russia, and Palin has that experience from her PTA and Govenorship of dealing with Russia.
In the meantime, Rice will continue to hide or use vacation time. Praying President Bush will call Biden. We know Cheney is useless in these matters.
I wouldn;t be surprised to see Rice use the same excuses her diplomatic staff was when they were refusing Rice's direct orders to serve in Iraq.
Simply put, neocons don't give a flying rat's ass about diplomacy. They live by Hitler's creed, where it was said his biggest fear was some moron coming in with a peace deal at the last minute and messing up their plans. These people literally masturbate at the thought of war and destruction. It's great for business.
well well now, who could be telling the truth here? Putin or the lying sack of shit Bush? I put my money on Putin any day! That poor guy from Texas will probably disappear and Bush will declare that he never existed. Or disappear him and swear that the Russians murdered him. I never really hated anyone until Bush and his gang and now I have a whole bunch of criminals that I really hate! Remember how the Bible says that demons walked the earth? Well I think they are here again and have infested Washington.
Russia totally asked Georgie to the prom, but Georgie told Condi that he was going to go with her! Condi is NOT going to talk to that bitch!
(hooray for petty vindictive asshats, that would rather start world war 3 than give anyone the satisfaction)
The very opposite of diplomacy. Not talking. She's pathetically incompetent.
This is just sickening. How in the world could George W. Bush, a man who saw into Putin's soul, now not make any effort to talk to him.
What the heck else is going to happen in the coming months, and into the next administration, as a result of Bush's incompetence?
Robt @ 43:
With all of the insanity of the past 7 years; with all of the insanity of McCain picking Palin as VP; I wouldn't be one bit surprised at all if Bush actually asked Palin to go speak with those commie Ruskies. Are we all losing our minds???????????????
The astonishing thing is that a person of Rice's intelligence and achievements has no idea of the meaning of the word diplomacy, negotiations or of what her job as Secretary of State is. Palin is almost certain to have padded her credentials in her Wikipedia biography. Makes me wonder what Rice's real resume looks like.
The NeoCon strategy as applied and approved by Cheney/Rice/McCain/Rove has been to coax Russia back into the Cold War. Real and or Fake Belligerents are needed fast to save the crooks in power. False flags, fear, endless war and repression have been their strategy from the start and now they have to pour it on.
Fritz @ 42:
It is. Just not in the USA.
Vladimir Putin accuses Bush of provoking Georgia conflict to
help John McCain
It's very simple. Rice hasn't gone to Moscow because the whole thing came about through our effort to force Russia into its old role as cold war enemy. This could hardly be accomplished by treating them like the aggrieved party. And, they ARE the aggrieved party. Saakashvili sent his troops in to bomb UN-approved Russian peacekeepers and sack the capitol of South Ossetia. Putin tried to contact Saakashvili about it, and then turned to * at the Olympics to intercede and was refused. Clearly that was provocation enough to respond with alacrity, and to insist more provocation will bring actual war instead of the cold war we're angling for. The Russians don't want this shit. We do. And we are doing everything in our power to cement it.
All one really needs to do is to set all the lies and propaganda aside to look at things objectively, and it is clear as heck. If we were not strongly interested in another cold war, NATO would have closed up shop. There is NO purpose for NATO except to threaten Russia... any other purpose for it and it Russia would already be a member.
And, if they'd done it to us we would have bombed the crap out of them. Russia has acted admirably, considering, and especially if you hold it up next to what * and Fudd would have done in their position.
The apparent strategy of the Cheney/Rice/McCain/Rove NeoCons is to restart the Cold War. A major confrontation with Russia, a false flag incident, or War with Iran is needed and needed fast to maintain and intensify the fear instilled in the American people. Even with the 5 to 8 % advantage election rigging has given, there is a chance that a new administration will not play softball and may start dismantling the police state and the strategy for endless war that the NeoCons have constructed.
With the US economy collapsing, maybe Condomhead Rice DID call Russia, but had to do it collect and Putin wouldn't accept the charges.
See, this is why McCain & Palin just won't do. We need to have some actual, Thinking, ADULTS in charge.
Jo @ 8:
*clap clap*
castanea @ 19:
Exactly!!
General Jack D. Ripper @ 49:
No, were not losing our minds. We are entering a place of time and space, Lie, spins and weasils. A place were Conservatives govern their way from elected positions of power. Appointed to these elected positions by the Supreme Court.
Yes, it is maddening isn't it though?
As a California job transplant into Nebraska. Sanity here is an isolating disease.
May I suggest the conservative republican corporate method of handling this Russian issue.
-have the elected leader in charge appoint a croney that can't do the job.
-have that croney on vacation during emergencies when needed.
-have a media blitz on the diplomatic strategy of not talking to those involved.
-Criticize bill Clinton.
-Blame the Democratic "thumping" that caused Conservative in Congress to set the worlds record in partisan filabusters.
-Hire a consultant to advise you how to lead and do the job you accepted.
-Not understanding of r really listening to above advice, Go to some other country and have talks with them about other less life threatening issues.
-If issue hasn't resolved itself, contract out this task of your job to a private corporation for billions of dollars to perform your job.
-do not, put in place any contract language to hold this private company responsible for not performing what they were hired to perform.
-Allow them to return frequently for more cash awards, do not ask for updates.
-As pressure builds because the press continues to ask why things are getting unbearably worse. Hire a (you name it) issue Czar as someone to perform your job officially on tht issue and reports to you directly.
-If things get really bad, blame the czar that you hired to do your job. Fire him. maybe even hire another fall guy czar.
-Outright refuse to communicate on the premis it is genius strategy that is not accepted by uneducated folks.
-Continue to blame democrats who have no authority is this matter, what so ever.
- As it is all collapsing because of your eneptness. Hold off until you can hand it over to the Democrats or the next Administration at the least.
Still suspicious for me, since they said he is a world traveler and now living in China, he also sent email on Saturday to his family that he didn't contact for years saying he arrived safely.
though it is possible, we all can lose things, I lost my jacket with an expired student ID on an international flight, I notified the flight company desk and they never call me back, probably someone in Hawaii (since the airplane went to Hawaii after my flight) now wear it, or maybe in Kazakhstan, that's probably Borat wear it .
She should have Palin call them - that'll solve all the problems.
*
I don't think the Russians give a damn and why should they ?
meohmy @ 13:
ssshh, you will burst the reality bubble ;)
Billy @ 24:
Provigil followed by Ambien, rinse repeat ad infinitum, explains a lot about the last seven years.
Rice will probably be McSame's pick for Secretary of State. More of the same.
Exactly what has this bucktoothed beast of a woman with bad hair done to deserve her paycheck for the last 8 years??? What a racket.
Bush foreign policy at work, isolate and alienate. Too bad it is the U.S. that is isolated and alienated.
I personally cannot wait for the day 'Condi' is out of the news for good. We cannot stand to see or hear her moronic hypocrisy on display. If the EU wants to continue to self destruct they can continue to obediently follow the US straight to hell.
Rice may know something about Russia, but she knows very little about autonomous states in the old Soviet Union.
meohmy @ 13:
Oh God, don't make this already bad event the cause for trying to resurrect the wacko 9/11 conspiracies.
Login or Register to post comments.