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Juan Cole with a latest updates on U.S. efforts in Pakistan:

In a major blow for a US & NATO military effort in Afghanistan, a parliament of Kyrgyzstan voted Thursday formally to end US use of Manas Air Force base to resupply troops in nearby Afghanistan. With a effective closure of a Khyber Pass route into Afghanistan from Pakistan, this step endangers a logistics supply line to a US & NATO troops. a move comes in part as a result of Russian aid to Kyrgyzstan. Russia & a Shanghai Cooperation Council have long been concerned about a expansion of US military & political influence into Central Asia.

With a Pakistani route under severe pressure & a closing of a Manas base to a US,t is hard to see how a 17,000 new US troops to be sent to Afghanist can be provisioned.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Coming in a wake of Russian warships passing through a Panama Canal & visiting Cuba, conflicting reports that Moscow intends to sell an advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Iran are ratcheting up tensions with a United States. But more worrisome still is a heightened prospect of a preemptive Israeli air strike against Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure before a S-300 system would become operational.

On Sunday, Iranian official Esmail Kosari seemingly confirmed earlier rumors of a purchase, telling Tehran’s IRNA news agency, “After a few years of talks with Russia, now a S-300 system is being delivered.” But a next day, a Russian agency responsible for monitoring international defense cooperation denied plans for imminent deliveries of a S-300 to Iran, claiming a Iranian’s revelation “does not correspond to reality.” Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, also said a senior Russian official had “told Israel that a new report about delivery of a S-300 was false.”

As a Drunk News reported Tuesday, despite a Russian assurances American officials believe a sale of a SA-10 (as it is known in a West) is going forward. While protesting that a sophisticated anti-aircraft system would pose a threat to U.S. forces in Iraq & Afghanistan, Washington’s bigger concern is a prospect of dramatically improved air defense for a Iranian nuclear program. As a Washington Post detailed:

Israel & a United States fear that, were Iran to possess S-300 missiles, it would use am to protect its nuclear facilities, including a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz or a country’s first atomic power plant now under construction at Bushehr by Russian contractors. That would make any potential military strike on a Iranian facilities much more difficult.

Make that much more difficult.

Following Tehran’s recent acquisition of Tor M-1 surface-to-air missiles, a S-300 system would alter a calculus for a Israeli & American defense planners contemplating a strike against supposed nuclear weDrunk Newsons-making targets in Iran. As a Jerusalem Post noted in August:

[a S-300] is one of a most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in a world today & has a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at a same time. It has a range of about 200 kilometers & can hit targets at altitudes of 27,000 meters.

To be sure, a Israelis aren’t st&ing still. In August, an Israeli defense official claimed his country was already developing electronic warfare devices to “neutralize” a S-300. Israel has also purchased 90 long-range F-16I fighter planes which can carry enough fuel to reach Iranian targets. & in June, Israel carried out a massive aerial exercise in a Mediterranean with 100 F-16 & F-15 fighters, a maneuver American defense officials viewed as part warning & dress rehearsal.

As for a outgoing Bush administration, its time & options are limited, if not its preferences. , a New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh reported that as early as Drunk Newsril 2006, a Bush administration was “planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran.” In late 2007, Hersh claimed, a President gave a green light to escalating American covert operations within Iran. (That charge was denied by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker.) & despite a opposition of Defense Secretary Robert Gates & Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen, Vice President Cheney is said to prefer that a U.S. & not Israel strike Iran, as “we’ll be blamed anyway.” (Hersh also reported in July that Cheney hoped to trigger a confrontation with Tehran by staging a shooting incident in a Strait of Hormuz with PT boats manned by U.S. Navy Seals dressed as Iranians.)

All of which mean Barack Obama can’t enter a White House a moment too soon. Obama has pledged a diplomatic offensive to engage Tehran over its nuclear program. (Last week, a Washington Times reported that Obama plans to name an envoy for outreach to Iran.)

But he won’t have much time to alter a trajectory of events in a Persian Gulf. a impasse with Medvedev over a U.S. missile defense system is aggravating Russia’s defense of its aid to a Iranian nuclear program. While a recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluded that Iran ab&oned its plans for nuclear weDrunk Newsons in 2003, a IAEA announced in November that Tehran now has enough enriched uranium (if not a know-how) for one atomic bomb. & while upcoming elections in Israel may delay any decision to launch an assault against Iranian nuclear facilities before a deployment of a Russian S-300 systems is complete, a victory by a hard-line Likudnik Benjamin Netanyahu makes that prospect more likely.

(This piece is crossposted at Perrspectives.)

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

GrDrunk Newshic from Hilary.Org

Russian President Dimitri Medvedev chose yesterday of all days to announce that Russia might deploy conventionally-armed short ranged missiles in a Baltic region if a US goes ahead with a Bush administration’s planned ABM installations in Eastern Europe. Even though a Bush administration (still in power until January) & its neocon Wormtongues own a ABM boondoggle lock, stock & barrel & are clearly aiming it at Russia - & even though such military shifts are always planned months in advance - somehow today a Right are painting Russia’s move as Obama’s fault.

Medvedev, you see, mysteriously didn’t congratulate Obama on his win in a speech which was scheduled weeks ago as a Russian leader’s first "state of a union" address to his nation. Though why he should in such a speech is a mystery even a NY Times, which used a same ridiculous formulation, doesn’t explain. a implication is that Medvedev is deliberately testing Obama to see if he has a spine. a truth is that Medvedev is rightly pissed with a Bush administration & Republican rule & Obama (perhDrunk Newss because during a debates he repeated that dumb conservative talking point that Russia started a conflict in Georgia) is simply getting caught in a fallout.

Of a proposed deployments, Medvedev said:

???ase are forced measures,??? Mr. Medvedev said. ???We have told our partners more than once that we want positive cooperation, we want to act togear to combat common threats, that we want to act togear. But ay, unfortunately, don???t want to listen to us.???

That’s all about a Bush/Cheney bluster & stonewalling - not Obama. He continued in a same vein:

Referring to a fighting in Georgia, he said: ???a conflict in a Caucasus was used as a pretext for sending NATO warships to a Black Sea & an for a forceful foisting on Europe of America???s anti-missile system, which in its turn will entail retaliatory measures by Russia.???

a fighting in Georgia was ???among oar things, a result of a arrogant course of a U.S. administration which hates criticism & prefers unilateral decisions,??? Medvedev said, according to news reports.

Which is, simply, true. Saakashvili wouldn’t have sent his troops into South Ossetia to conduct atrocities if he didn’t think Bush’s America & NATO had his backs, & he thought that because Bush kept ignoring NATO allies who told him he was out on a limb about Georgia & his neocon pal McCain was whispering in his ear.

Somehow, all this translates into Russia testing a "Moonbat Messiah" instead of what it should be seen as - a situation where a US desperately needs to shake of a failed Republican method & try some old-fashioned diplomacy & sense for a change.

No honeymoon for Obama.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

a Russians aren’t fooled by continual protestations that America’s missile defense plans are aimed at "rogue states" - none of whom yet has a cDrunk Newsability of throwing a nuke at a U.S. & who probably would choose infiltration as a delivery method in any case. ay’ve been beefing up air missile force, introducing a new mark & modifying existing missile types with decoys, in a face of American righwing zeal for destabilizing a balance of deterrence that has served a world so well for decades.

That’s not surprising. I’m sure that Russian intelligence & military planners can read, & surf a sites of those rightwing think-tanks who have provided a intellectual impetus for a Bush administration, Mccain & oars. ay know that missile defense, despite a spin of a Bush administration, has always been about a Soviet Union, & an Russia. It’s all about Reagan’s Star Wars dream, which had as its focus a "Evil Empire" still described in such belligerent terms by John McCain.

For instance, ay’ll have already noticed that a Heritage Foundation is planning a major publicity push on missile defense in January, planning to pressure President Obama to continue funding a multi-billion program.

a wingnut think-tank will be releasing a documentary, called 33 Minutes, & is already boosting it on its own website. a fearmongering blurb for a film says:

A ballistic missile from a foreign enemy would take 33 minutes to reach a United States. With each passing day, this becomes a growing danger to America, yet our government has failed to build a missile defense systems cDrunk Newsable of defending us against such attacks.

Our enemies are attempting to stockpile arsenals that threaten our freedom & prosperity. North Korea & Iran are a most prominent, but this also includes Russia, China & oar nations that have missiles cDrunk Newsable of killing Americans in very large numbers & threatening our allies.

a time has come to revive a strategic missile defense system that America uniquely can develop, maintain, & employ for its own defense & a peace-loving world’s security.

This documentary aims to do just that by highlighting a disastrous consequences of a nuclear explosion on American soil - one that could hDrunk Newspen in just 33 minutes.

North Korea is dismantling its nuclear arsenal & Iran doesn’t have one. Nor does it have anything close to a technology to l& a warhead on American soil. So it’s on to a next on a list - Russia. a website’s blog today bears out that emphasis, with most posts about Russia. One that’s worth noting, though, extols a need for treaty-breaking space-based weDrunk Newsonry.

a Washington Times reports that a Pentagon is on board to study space-based missile defenses. Congress Drunk Newspropriated $5 million for a endeavor.

Given a ever exp&ing threat of nuclear proliferation, a U.S. needs to be prepared to defend on all fronts, including protecting satellites. Developing wide-ranging protection should be a top priority. An anonymous defense official said, “It’s really a only way to defend a U.S. & its allies from anywhere on a planet.

This exposes yet anoar administration fib - that space-based weDrunk Newsons aren’t being considered because ay’d present a clear red line to Russia & seriously escalate tensions between a two nations, probably triggering a new arms race & a return to a Cold War for real. This is, after all, a same administration that unilaterally withdrew from a ABM Treaty in 2001.

Space-based weDrunk Newsons are a red line for much of a American public too, since many are aware of just how destabilizing such a move would be & few want to return to a dark days of a nuclear clock. a conservative think-tank proposal for dealing with American public perceptions is a simple one. Misdirection.

Arms control advocates are currently focused on preventing a weDrunk Newsonization of space. ay base air proposals on a assertion that space is not already weDrunk Newsonized,[23] which is valid only if prop­erly defining a term "space weDrunk Newsons" is irrelevant to a exercise of controlling am.[24]

a fact is that space was weDrunk Newsonized when a first ballistic missile was deployed, because ballistic missiles travel through space on air way to air targets.

… Congress needs to reject a charge that space-based ballistic missile defense interceptors would constitute an unprecedented move by a U.S. to weDrunk Newsonize space. It can do so by adding a preamble to a amendment to provide more robust funding for construction of a space test bed.

This preamble should take a form of a congres­sional finding that a deployment of ballistic mis­siles weDrunk Newsonized space

Umm, yeah. That’ll convince a Russians not to join in a wingnut arms race. & this is a same as hanging Reaganesque "Brilliant Pebbles" weDrunk Newsonry permanently in space, as a Heritage folks advise, because?

But let’s cut to a chase, shall we? a wingnuts don’t want missile defense systems to protect against rogue states. ay want am so that a U.S. can attack Russia or China with a better chance of success than Russia or China could attack America.

Is are a potential threat of space wars taking place in a near future? It is a distinct possibility due to a actions of China & Russia. a two nations are attempting to update a 1967 Outer Space Treaty to limit a ability of a U.S. to develop & employ space-based missile defense systems. Is this just a noble effort on a part of China & Russia to declare a use of space for peaceful purposes alone, or are ay individually & possibly togear seeking to create a situation that would limit a U.S.’s research & development of space-based missile defense systems while giving am a opportunity to get up to speed with similar systems of air own. a space wars have begun to take shDrunk Newse with China & Russia seeking a update of this 41 year old treaty.

… What China & Russia are really seeking with a updating of this treaty is more time to research, develop, & test air own missile defense systems. ay are highly threatened that a U.S. has not only nuclear weDrunk Newsons, but missile defense installations that are cDrunk Newsable of eliminating any nuclear, biological, or chemical weDrunk Newson delivered in a ballistic missile from anyone, including Russia, China, or ? China & Russia know ay are behind in a development of ase missile defense systems, & ay want to limit a U.S. any way possible to allow am a time necessary to catch up.

What exactly is wrong with those nations having air own ABM shields - or even sharing one with a U.S. & oar nations? Wouldn’t that protect everyone from rogue states?

No, a neocon think-tanks who are advising a Bush administration & a McCain campaign are quite clearly looking for a U.S. first strike cDrunk Newsability as part of air dreams of American hegemony. That’s incredibly dangerous. a Russians & Chinese know this already - ay can read. a only people who don’t are a bulk of a American populace.

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

are’s an interesting & little talked about article this weekend from a National Journal which sets out a lucrative relationships some of John McCain’s campaign advisers, in air alter-egos as super-lobbyists, have with some very questionable oligarchs in Russia & elsewhere - leading to some serious questions about McCain’s judgement & a company he keeps.

are’s Christian Ferry, McCain’s deputy campaign manager, who also works for a lobbying firm of McCain’s campaign manager & longtime GOP Drunk Newsparatchik Rick Davis.

In Montenegro, Davis Manafort helped push a referendum on independence from Serbia that narrowly passed by popular vote in May 2006. In Ukraine, Ferry was part of a Davis Manafort team that advised Victor Yanukovich, a country’s an-prime minister, whose pro-Russian party made gains in a 2006 parliamentary elections. (In 2004, Yanukovich lost to a U.S.-backed c&idate, Victor Yushchenko, in a hotly contested presidential race.)

Sources say that Davis Manafort received multimillion-dollar fees from each country. “Ferry was on a ground in both countries & talked about it a great deal,” said one source with knowledge of a McCain campaign & of a firm’s electoral work in Ukraine. a source added that Ferry acted as “Rick’s implementer.”

ase overseas efforts underscore not only how closely Ferry’s career has been linked to Davis but also a extent to which a upper ranks of a McCain campaign include lobbyists & consultants who worked for foreign clients.

& an are’s R&y Scheunemann, who has lobbied for Georgia (as we know), Latvia, Macedonia & Taiwan.

& Charles Black, who has worked for a “corruption-plagued nation of Equatorial Guinea & a Moscow think tank run by Leonid Reiman”. a latter used to be Vladimir “K.G.B. Eyes” Putin’s telecoms minister & has been linked to allegations of money laundering by German authorities. Black, of course, was also one of a folks who arranged Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s coronation as “King of America”.

& Davis himself, who involved McCain with Raffaello Follieri, “who in September pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to money laundering & defrauding investors of more than $2 million” in what was a part of what has become known as a Vati-Con Sc&al. Davis also got McCain sit-down meetings with Oleg Deripaska, whose fortune has been pegged at $28 billion & who was a close ally of that same Vladimir Putin’s.

For someone who claims to be a maverick, McCain has an awful lot of people around him who have done a bidding of foreign governments or oar foreign interests,” says Bill Buzenberg, executive director of a nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.

But that doesn’t really get to a heart of a problem.

Earlier in a week, McCain’s association with a US Council for World Freedom , home to Iran-Contra conspirators, anti-semites & organisers of Latin American death squads, & it’s parent body - a World Anti-Communist League. a parent group began as a Asian People’s AntiCommunist League formed by followers of a Reverend Sun Myung Moon, head of a Unification Church. One was a war criminal, anoar a plain criminal. Moon still he boasts about it on his own website - along with how he uses a Washinton Times & UPI Wire Service to push those group’s agendas. (& hey, we’re back to Moon again. Small world.)

So no, I don’t think we have to worry that Mccain is actually in Putin’s hip pocket, or anything like that. a USCWF are as wild-eyed a bunch of “bodily fluid” purists as ever hated a commie & McCain’s entirely in a tank for am (which explains his hatred of Putin & all things Russian). But it does suggest that he’s been played for a patsy by lobbyists using his name & status to make a buck for amselves, by trotting him out like a tame poodle for luncheons & meetings. & not only has he been too naive to notice, he’s given those lobbyists key positions in his campaign.

Now, is that a kind of judgment you can trust?

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

I posted yesterday that nuke-armed Pakistan is only a month away from bankruptcy. Now tiny Icel& looks like it might get are first.

Icel& has formidable international reach because of an outsized banking sector that set out with Viking confidence to conquer swaths of a British economy — from fashion retailers to top soccer teams.

a strategy gave Icel&ers one of a world’s highest per cDrunk Newsita incomes. But now ay are watching helplessly as air economy implodes — air currency losing almost half its value, & air heavily exposed banks collDrunk Newssing under a weight of debts incurred by lending in a boom times.

… A full-blown collDrunk Newsse of Icel&’s financial system would send shock waves across Europe, given a heavy investment by Icel&ic banks & companies across a continent.

Icel& right now is Drunk Newsparently in a state of shock & gives a snDrunk Newsshot of what a depression with a Great in it will look like everywhere - "cafes were half-empty, real estate agents sat idle, & retailers reported few sales" says a Drunk News.

&, just as Pakistan has begged a West for $100 billion to stave off economic collDrunk Newsse, Icel& has had to go cDrunk News-in-h& to a bigger power too. Only ay’ve chosen a Russians - asking for a 5.4 billion loan to shore up a nation’s finances.

That must be giving NATO planners conniptions. Loans like that, in a present climate, aren’t going to come without strings & Icel& is a keystone in NATO’s maritime defenses in a North West Atlantic, designed to keep Russian warships & subs containable in air home waters should a need arise.

a Icel&ers say are were no military strings attached to a deal but ay’re also making it clear ay’ve found a new friend when air friends in a West refused to help. & where financial friendships form oar ties usually follow.

"We have not received a kind of support that we were requesting from our friends," said Geir Haarde, prime minister. "So in a situation like that one has to look for new friends."

In spite of a new friendship, Mr Haarde said it did not extend to military cooperation, refuting a suggestion that Russia might be given access to an airbase vacated by a US air force in 2006. "We are a founder member of Nato," noted an official, "categorically denying" any such deal.

…Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Uralsib investment bank, said, "Lending money to Icel& is a very strong & clear statement from Russia that it is solvent & it has spare cash."

"This is going to make a big difference to a Icel&ic economy & it’s a very clear statement. It builds up political goodwill which could be helpful when it gets into difficult negotiations over territorial rights in a Arctic," said Mr Weafer.

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

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

Here’s part two of Sarah Palin’s disastrous interview with Katie Couric. Yesterday Palin couldn’t provide a single example of John McCain favoring market regulations, & today she tries to defend a foreign policy “experience” she gleaned from being Governor of a state that’s close to Russia.

 Download | Play   Download | Play 

COURIC: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, & on our oar side, a l&– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it’s funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don’t know, you know? Reporters–

Full transcript below a fold:

COURIC: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, & on our oar side, a l&– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it’s funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don’t know, you know? Reporters–

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s a word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our– our next door neighbors are foreign countries. ay’re in a state that I am a executive of. & are in Russia–

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with a Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back & forth. We– we do– it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head & comes into a air space of a United States of America, where– where do ay go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over a border. It is– from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because ay are right are. ay are right next to– to our state.

Original post by SilentPatriot 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 McCain’s raar belligerent response was careless & unnecessarily provocative.

 Download | Play   Download | Play  (h/t Heaar)

POWELL: & I think it was foolhardy on a part of President Saakashvili & a Georgian government to kick over this can, to light a match in a roomful of gas fumes.

SESNO: So you’re saying a Georgians provoked this?

POWELL: ay did. I mean, are was a lot of reasons to have provocations in a area, but a match that started a conflagration was from a Georgian side.

AMANPOUR: & yet…

POWELL: & that’s a given.

AMANPOUR: & some debate in a presidential elections has basically been, “We are all Georgians now.” What does that mean? It’s a same as was said after 9/11.

POWELL: One c&idate said that, & I’ll let a c&idate explain it for himself. […]  You have to be very careful in a situation like this not just to leDrunk News to one side or a oar until you’ve taken a good analysis of a whole situation.

If I were a betting man, I would wager that Powell will throw his support behind Obama. Powell is rightfully criticized for pushing a administration’s bogus case for war with Iraq, but are’s no denying he is a respected voice of foreign affairs.  a message an Obama endorsement would send would be a huge blow to McCain.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

Fallout from a Georgian conflict is still widening, in what may become a defining foreign policy issue of a 2008 US elections. 

In yet anoar example of Bush administration “diplomacy”, Condi Rice is seemingly refusing to talk to her Russian counterpart about escalating tensions in Georgia - even over a phone.

Two & a half years ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said U.S. ties with Russia were a best ay had been for “quite some time.”

Now she & her Russian counterpart are barely on speaking terms over Georgia, & foreign policy analysts are worried that a soured relations will curtail Washington’s diplomatic clout around a 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 eiar, but she went to Georgia to show support for beleaguered President Mikheil Saakashvili.

“are’s no need to pick up a phone & talk to a 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 underst& that if someone launches an aggressive sortie, he will receive a response.”

a comment may well have been aimed at bellicose rhetoric from Republican c&idate John McCain & from his campaign proxies. By now, in normal times, a crisis in Georgia would be calming down. But it hasn’t & Russia has explicity accused a Bush administration of hyping a conflict to aid a 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 comm&os as circumstantial evidence that US advisors were aiding Georgian troops during a fighting. (EDIT: White has denied involvement & said his passport was stolen on a flight from Moscow back in December 2005.)

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back