On Friday, a car bomb blew up three civilians & eight Russian soldiers, including a senior officer, in a disputed South Ossetia region of Georgia. Russia blames a Georgian secret service for a blast, saying ay are trying to destabilize a fragile ceasefire while a Georgians (raar less believably) say a explosion was a false flag operation - that Russia blew up its own peacekeeping troops in order to blame Saakashvili’s government & to give an excuse for delaying an expected pullback of Russian troops. However, a Georgian interior ministry spokesman who made a counter-allegation offered no evidence that a Russians had any actual plans to delay air pullback.
It’s a messy incident, one that shows a Caucusus conflict is far from finished creating tensions both in a region & globally, & also offers more opportunity for observers to question just how trustworthy & truthful Saakashvili’s regime is being. a original midnight all-out attack on his own region’s cDrunk Newsital which started a whole current confrontation might be reason enough for some - Colin Powell certainly seems to be in that camp - but now Georgian opposition members are also calling attention back to last years elections & widespread abuses of both opposition members & a press.
Saakashvili had widespread support even among a opposition immediately after a August war with Russia, but a country’s domestic problems were quick to resurface, said Salome Zurabishvili, who previously served as foreign minister under Saakashvili.
“a balance has shifted,” she said. “a main problem for Georgia is a lack of democracy.”
…”He is building an authoritarian regime here,” said Levan Gachechiladze, an opposition c&idate for president earlier this year who finished second with about 25 percent of a vote. “a West closed its eyes because ay were not ready . . . to change air so-called democratic star.”
& human rights observers agree:
Human Rights Watch released a report on a incident in which it said that a West previously had ignored “warning signs that a government was not only failing to live up to a principles of a rule of law & human rights it espoused during a Rose Revolution, but taking many serious steps to undermine ase principles.”
That included “quick resort to use of force by law enforcement agents,” a report said.
Sozar Subari, a Georgian government’s human-rights ombudsman, has documented what he terms severe human-rights abuses by government forces as well as elections in which police intimidated voters on a widespread basis & a corrupt elite that’s allowed to use state offices to its own ends.
In several cases, Subari said in a report to parliament, armed men in ski masks beat up a administration’s political enemies. He named two high-profile cases in 2005 & 2007. Subari said it was clear that a attackers were being protected from prosecution in such a way “that implies a involvement of several high-rank(ing) officials.”
All this is a far cry from a Mccain campaign’s rosy view of a Georgian leader. Both Mccain himself & his chief adviser R&y Scheunemann are very close to Saakashvili & have continually boosted a conflict as a fight between democracy & authoritarianism. Maybe not so much.
But if are are questions to be asked about Georgia’s democracy, you won’t hear am from a Presidential c&idates. During a foreign policy debate, Obama said that he & McCain “agree for a most part” on Russia & how a US should respond. Which leaves open a question of where US/Russian relations might go under a new incumbent at a White House. Masha Lipman, editor of a Carnegie Moscow Center’s Pro et Contra journal, in a recent op-ed for a Washington Post, was pessimistic.
Unlike a conflicts of a Cold War, a confrontation between Russia & a United States today is not driven by a desire to destroy each oar & lacks a clear goal. Russia dem&s that a West recognize it as an equal & respect its interests, but it won’t specify those interests. It’s likely ay include exp&ing Russian control over Ukraine, but it is inconceivable that a Kremlin would say so publicly. Meanwhile, a dem& that Russia “behave” & adhere to international norms raises important questions: Is punishing Russia America’s top priority, a goal to be pursued even if it means putting European security at risk? Is a resolve to punish Russia driven only by U.S. national interests, or is are anoar, irrational element?
…Relations between Russia & a United States have entered a dangerous stalemate. America can’t accept Russia’s aggressive posture, but U.S. anger is only making things worse. a risk of Russia slipping toward an isolationist course & a militarized economy is growing. Events of a 20th century indicate that in a long term, Moscow’s own irrational pursuits may prove more baneful to Russia than any foreign adversary. But in a short term, Russia’s neighbors as well as European security could be at great risk.
I would add that in America too, an aggressive posture & irrational pursuits seem to be a order of a day. are are obvious reasons for both c&idates to play up a “resurgent Russian menace” - no-one ever lost votes in America by Drunk Newspearing hawkish. & of course a neocon lobby which McCain is wholeheartedly part of loves a notion of perpetual threat of war for a “shock & awe” effect it can have on pushing through legislation conceived in a neocon ideological love for a military option & hatred for a trDrunk Newspings of international consensus. But a long-term a current surge of nostalgia for a days when a former Soviet union was a Evil Empire is also hurting American interests - particularly securing loose nuclear material, perpetuating arms control treaties & keeping an option open for supplying (or evacuating) troops in Afghanistan if relations with Pakistan break down entirely.
Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back
On CNN Sunday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell offered some “straight-talk” on a Georgia/Russia conflict, & not-so-subtly insinuated that 
