Legal Commentary

Russia Announces Halt To Military Operations In South Ossetia

By Big Tent Democrat

Declaring in no uncertain terms that it was calling it own tune - that it was providing the world with its Tom Friedman "suck on this" moment, Russia today announced a halt to military operations in its conflict with Georgia:

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia announced Tuesday that he had ordered a halt to his country’s military operation in Georgia, although he did not say that troops were pulling out and he insisted that Russian forces were still authorized to fire on enemies in South Ossetia. The president said Russia had achieved its military goals during five days of intense fighting . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) Achieved its goals indeed. Russia rendered a lesson to the world this week. It will play by its rules, not anyone else's. And in a sign of the inability of the American Media to grasp what is obvious, a NYTimes editorial states:

The United States and its European allies must tell Mr. Putin in the clearest possible terms that such aggression will not be tolerated.

Oh really? And how do you propose to do that NYTimes? They talk of this:

There can be no business as usual until Russian troops are out of Georgia, fighting has ended and all sides have agreed on a plan for calming the tensions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. At a minimum, that means international mediation, more autonomy for both regions and the stationing of truly neutral international peacekeepers — not Russian troops.

. . . The United States and Europe also need to take a hard look at their relationship with Russia going forward. Neither has protested loudly or persuasively enough as Mr. Putin has used Russia’s oil and gas wealth to blackmail its neighbors, throttled Russia’s free press and harassed and imprisoned opponents.

. . . The West wants and needs Russia as a full responsible partner. For that, Russia needs to behave responsibly. And the United States and Europe must make clear that anything less is unacceptable.

Empty nonsense. Someone is going to stop buying Russian natural gas and other energy supplies? Impose sanctions? Just ridiculous. With the autocratic regime of China hosting the Olympics these weeks, with the United States occupying Iraq and threatening Iran, it is time to end the charade and deal with the realities - no one has moral authority when it comes to foreign affairs. The United State began this century establishing the precedent of doing whatever the hell it could get away with. No one could stop the insane invasion of Iraq by the United States. And no one could stop the Russians from doing what they have done in South Ossetia.

As Tom Friedman might put it, the Russians said "suck on this." Start sucking Bush.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 12, 2008 (boomark / email).