BIDEN INSULTS RUSSIA, INSISTS U.S. HAS NO INTENTION OF ABANDONING GEORGIA, UKRAINE IN BETTERING RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA

This is my third post in as many days on the strange sayings of VP Biden. This time, Biden talks about Russia, how its leaders are mired in the past. Of course, the Russian government reacted angrily to these assertions, and all this within 15 days of Pres. Barack Obama's cordial visit to Moscow to meet the Russian leaders including President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin.

Andrew E. Kramer writes in today's The New York Times:

"Just weeks after a summit meeting intended to show a thawing in relations between the United States and Russia, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. made blistering references to Russia’s failing economy, loss of face and a leadership that is “clinging to something in the past,” in an interview published on Saturday.

"Speaking on the heels of his trip to Georgia and Ukraine, Mr. Biden said flatly that the Obama administration would make no deals and accept no compromises with the Kremlin in exchange for better relations.

"Russia itself, he said, should find it in its own interest to repair relations."

Biden's comments make an observer wonder whose foreign policy is being followed. Is this Obama's policy and Biden is just the mouthpiece? Or is this Joe Biden going out on his own and expressing his own opinions and prejudices?

Writes Kramer:

"Calling the criticism “perplexing” in light of the diplomatic overtures initiated by the United States and described as “pressing the reset button,” the chief foreign policy adviser to President Dmitri A. Medvedev told the Interfax news agency, “The question is: who is shaping the U.S. foreign policy, the president or respectable members of his team?”

"The adviser, Sergei Prikhodko, said the atmosphere between the countries had improved since Mr. Obama’s visit early this month.

"“If some members of Obama’s team and government do not like this atmosphere, why don’t they say so?” Interfax reported him as saying. “If they disagree with the course of their president, we just need to know this.”"

Biden's comments complicate the approach that Obama took when he was in Russia. Avoid the put-downs and the insults. Instead concentrate on negotiation, discussion and diplomacy. Making Russian leaders mad appears counter-productive and destructive to the gains Obama seems to have made with Medvedev and Putin.

Kramer reports:

"Mr. Biden rejected recent Russian assertions of a restored sphere of privileged interests in the former Soviet Union, made after the war in Georgia. He said he understood that the Russians would not embrace the American stance, but added, “I do expect them to understand we don’t accept” the Russian claims.

"“It’s a very difficult thing to deal with, loss of empire,” he said at another point."

I can only imagine what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton must think of Biden's comments. Why is he shooting off his mouth about relations between the U.S. and Russia given that these things are clearly part of her portfolio? And I cannot fathom how Biden's views represent the Obama foreign policy so centered on diplomacy. Someone please explain what is going on in the mind of VP Joe Biden.

GEORGIANS PROTEST AGAINST SAAKASHVILI

Today's The New York Times carries a story by Clifford J. Levy on the protests in Georgia aimed at kicking out the Bush/Cheney protege Mikheil Saakashvili.

Writes Levy:

"Mr. Saakashvili took office in 2004 after leading the so-called Rose Revolution, which ousted a government with Soviet ties. He pledged to pursue a pro-Western course, distancing the country from Moscow, rooting out corruption and reviving an economy that had fallen on such hard times that electricity outages were frequent in the capital, Tbilisi.

"He says the country has made notable progress under his leadership, and many analysts agree that the economy is far stronger. But his tenure has grown steadily more contentious.

"Former aides have deserted him, and a violent crackdown on a demonstration in 2007 hurt his reputation in Washington, his most important supporter. The ruinous war with Russia has further emboldened the opposition, which contends that he bumbled into a conflict that the country could not win."

Recall it was Saakashvili who ordered the artillery attack against South Ossetia last Summer. The war that ensued between Georgia and Russia left Georgia reeling from the destruction of much of its infrastructure and loss of life. This war was not started by Russia, it was a Georgian attack against the population of a province that is inhabited mostly by Russian emigres. Yet Bush and Cheney and a lot of Republicans including some hapless Democrats blamed Russia and Putin.

If and when the voters in Georgia kick Saakashvili out of office, it will be an improvement and a mark of progress towards peace in the Caucasus. Thank the stars that rational minds in Europe opposed Georgia's entrance into NATO. Otherwise Saakashvili could have conceivably drawn all of NATO's nations into his aggressive war against Russia.

EVIDENCE THAT GEORGIA STARTED SHELLING SOUTH OSSETIA WITHOUT RUSSIAN PROVOCATION

Watching World Focus last night, I was dismayed by statements made by Richard Holbrooke on what the U.S. policy under Obama should be regarding Russia. I disagree with Mr. Holbrooke that Russia poses a threat for U.S. security and policy.

First, why is Russia a threat? Holbrooke must be referring to the Georgia/Russia war. If so, does he not agree that Georgia was the aggressor? Today there is the lead story on page 1 of The New York Times indicating that Saakashvili started shelling Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia, without any provocation from the Russians. C.J. Chivers and Ellen Barry report:

"Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

"Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm."

If this is true, then how is Russia a “threat” to the United States? Somehow people like Holbrooke want to blame Russia and demonize the Russians. The threat to peace comes from statements such as made by Holbrooke. I want Obama to slice through such obfuscation and misinformation on Georgia and repair the working relations between the U.S. and Russia. People like Holbrooke want to make Russia the "enemy," but I want the United States to make friends not only with the Russians but with all other peoples on the earth.

BUSH PLEDGES AMERICAN AID TO SAAKASHVILI OF 1 BILLION, EU KICKS IN ANOTHER 3 BILLION

The U.S. and the European Union have decided to pledge some 4.5 billion dollars to Georgia for aid in rebuilding the infrastructure destroyed in its foolish war with Russia this past August.

So it seems that if a former Soviet-bloc country starts a war with Russia and then gets trounced, it can rest assure that the Western World will bail it out and extend it aid. This seems a dangerous precedent and a moral hazard.

Furthermore, even though he ordered the war and the shelling of Russian civilians in South Ossetia, Georgian president Saakashvili receives praise from world leaders like Bush who have used him as a front man against Putin, Medvedev and Russia. Saakashvili has it made. Of the 4.5 billion in aid, how much do you think his cut will be?

Forget about Saakasvili's crackdown on Georgian newspapers and dissidents who wanted more freedom of the press and more democratic protections of civil rights. The world does not give a care about these things or lack of civil protections in Georgia, only that Saakashvili has provoked the great Russian bear.

One last point. How come there is no pledging of aid for the civilians in South Ossetia who were on the receiving end of Georgia's unprovoked shelling and lethal missiles?

RICE CRITICIZES RUSSIA FOR DEFENDING RUSSIANS IN SOUTH OSSETIA

Why must the Bush administration, and specifically Condoleeza Rice, continually criticize Russia for defending Russian nationals living in South Ossetia?

Today Rice pompously warned Russia that it faces isolation from the West.

The BBC reports on Rice's speech. Even though for the first time (that I know) that Rice acknowledged that Georgia and its president Mikheil Saakashvili started the conflict, Rice went on to blame Russia for its actions.

""Russia's leaders violated Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and launched a full-scale invasion across an internationally recognised border," she said, adding that Russia had also violated the terms of a ceasefire negotiated by the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Ms Rice said it had been "deeply disconcerting" that Russia had tried to "dismember" Georgia by recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and argued that Russia's actions were part of what she described as a "worsening pattern of behaviour". "

What would the U.S. do if Mexico attacked Tijuana with missiles and artillery and aimed them at civilians, mainly American citizens, who happened to be living there? It would be hard to believe that Bush would not send in several brigades of marines to protect the American ex-patriates from Mexican aggression against a defenseless civilian population.

So why all the condemnation of Russia for doing the exact same thing in South Ossetia after Saakashvili ordered the bombing of Russian civilians living in Tskhinvali, the capital of Ossetia?

Rice and Bush are hypocrites. They know that allowing Georgia to join NATO is a direct threat to Georgia's neighbor, Russia. Suppose Georgia was already a NATO member, other NATO members would have been obligated to join the fighting and fight the Russians. This is insanity and totally irrational.

The world must stop Georgia from becoming a member of NATO and must stop Bush and Rice and Cheney from starting a war with Russia in the last few months of their term.

SAAKASHVILI CLAIMS RUSSIA STARTED WAR

Now Georgian president and Bush protege Mikheil Saakashvili is engaged in a public relations campaign to prove to the world that the Russians attacked first on the night of August 7th.

C. J. Chivers reports in today's The New York Times:

"Georgia has released intercepted telephone calls purporting to show that part of a Russian armored regiment crossed into the separatist enclave of South Ossetia nearly a full day before Georgia’s attack on the capital, Tskhinvali, late on Aug. 7.

"Georgia is trying to counter accusations that the long-simmering standoff over South Ossetia, which borders Russia, tilted to war only after it attacked Tskhinvali. Georgia regards the enclave as its sovereign territory."

But the intercepted phone calls are ambiguous at best. Russia did have troops in South Ossetia before the attack, and the phone calls could easily be interpreted as moving units in and out. So the Georgian claim that Russia was moving in vast quantities of men and arms is without hard evidence.

Even with the presence of Russian troops approved by the EU as peace-keepers, Saakashvili was wrong in ordering the Georgian army to begin shelling the civilian population of South Ossetia and its capital Tskhinvali.

Georgia claims South Ossetia as its own territory but for hundreds of years, the Georgians never got along with or accepted the Ossetians and vice versa. In fact, they despised one another. No wonder that most of the Ossetians rejected Georgian sovereignty.

Saakashvili thought he could bomb the Ossetians enough so that they would capitulate. It reminds me of the U.S. strategy in Vietnam. Destroy this town in order to "save" it. Saakashvili and the Georgians would rather destroy Ossetia than lose it to Russia.

Now Saakashvili is trying to claim the Russians started it all. Little evidence of that in today's NY Times.

SARAH PALIN'S UNDERSTANDING OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

The Republicans might well win the election and then we will have Sarah Palin as vice president. Last night on ABC, Palin had no idea what Charlie Gibson meant by the infamous and notorious "Bush Doctrine." My question then is, where has she been for the last five years? The lady obviously does not keep up with current events. The Bush Doctrine allows for unlimited, unending war. It used to be a truism of U.S. foreign policy that the U.S. would never start a war. Now with the Bush Doctrine, anything goes. Preemptive wars, preventive wars, wars based on a president's whims. And Palin has no idea of any of that.

Furthermore, her answer to whether the U.S. would go to war with Russia was downright scary. She said, "Perhaps, so." Here we have a case of that hot head, neocon, Bush protege, Mikheil Saakashvili ordering Georgian army to attack a civilian population in South Ossetia. And attack they surely did, with lethal missiles and a heavy barrage of deadly artillery. Enters Russia to defend the many Russians in South Ossetia. Palin thinks this would be a casus belli?

If the Republicans win, and Palin is the next VP, be prepared for more war, more irrational foreign policy, more dumbing down from the new administration. Incredibly, some Republicans say that Palin represents the new face of the Republican Party. They may be right.

HATRED BETWEEN SOUTH OSSETIANS AND GEORGIANS

Ellen Barry writes a must-read piece in today's The New York Times on life in South Ossetia. Bush and especially Cheney keep saying that Russia must respect the "territorial integrity" of Georgia, but what if the people there don't want to belong to Georgia? Cheney totally ignores the will of the people when he professes support for Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's neo-con American-leaning prime minister. Instead of backing a plebiscite or referendum to let the people there decide, all he does is to foolishly repeat, respect the sovereignty of Georgia.



But the NYTimes article reveals the depth of the animus of South Ossetians towards Georgians, and vice versa. Writes Ellen Barry:

"Over the next three years, Tskhinvali became something like Belfast in Northern Ireland.
The government in Tbilisi established Georgian as the country’s principal language, enraging the Ossetians, whose first two languages were Russian and Ossetian. A few months later, more than 10,000 Georgian demonstrators were transported to Tskhinvali in buses and encircled the city, until they were repelled by Ossetian irregulars and Soviet troops. A true war began in 1991, when thousands of Georgian soldiers entered Tskhinvali. The city was shelled almost nightly from the Georgian-held highlands, and Medeya Alborova recalls holding pillows over her teenage daughters’ heads, as if that could protect them."

No wonder the Ossetians want nothing to do with Saakashvili or the Georgians. Georgians have always looked down upon the people of Ossetia and they even sent in troops back in 1991. It was the Georgian army attacking South Ossetia.

Continues Ellen Barry:

"Even after a cease-fire in 1992, Tskhinvali was isolated from the Georgian territory around it, and accounts of atrocities against Ossetians — rapes and grisly killings — circulated endlessly."

Now place Cheney's support for Georgia's "territorial sovereignty" against this background of discrimination, atrocities and ethnic hatred between the Georgians and the Ossetians. Cheney seems pretty small, doesn't he?

CHENEY THREATENS RUSSIA

We don't need Dick Cheney stirring up trouble with Russia over its recent action in Georgia to protect civilians who would rather be Russian than Georgian. Cheney was in Lake Como today denouncing the Russians and saying that NATO would not allow Russia to get away with its actions.

Roger Runnigen reports today in Bloomberg:

"Vice President Dick Cheney increased U.S. pressure on Russia, saying its attack on Georgia last month and ``bullying'' of other former Soviet states risk a confrontation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization."

Fortunately it appears that other European statesmen are taking a calmer and saner approach, eschewing the military option so favored by war mongers like Cheney in favor of a less dangerous diplomatic approach.

Writes Runnigen:

"The Georgia crisis ``can only be solved politically and not with warships,'' French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters today after a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Avignon, France. France brokered the cease-fire that ended the five-day war over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, though Russian troops remain inside Georgian territory in defiance of Western calls to pull out."

Runnigen reports on more of Cheney's militaristic threats and bluster:

"Cheney accused Russia of ``bullying others'' while using its oil wealth to fuel its own economic progress.
"``They cannot presume to gather up all the benefits of commerce, consultation and global prestige, while engaging in brute force, threats or other forms of intimidation against sovereign countries.'' "

Cheney is dangerous. Americans still must suffer more than four months of him before his term is up. Let's hope he does not start another war during this time.

GEORGIA & SAAKASHVILI START WAR, THEN GET BILLION DOLLARS FROM U.S. FOR RECONSTRUCTION

Now the United States rewards Georgia and Saakashvili by giving grants for reconstruction of infrastructure so Georgia can rebuild what was destroyed in the two-week war with Russia. What lessons should we learn from this?

For Georgia the lesson is clear: start a war of aggression against those in South Ossetia and Abhkazia who want independence. Send in the army, the tanks, the soldiers. Fire missiles and artillery at the civilian population to force them to give up claims of independence. Kill hundreds of civilians. Then claim victimhood after Russia enters the fighting and kicks your ass. Receive a reward from the U.S., get one billion from George Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice in American money.

Something is wrong with the above story line.

WHERE IS BUSH'S "DEMOCRACY" IN CONFLICT IN GEORGIA?

I get the impression that the West's condemnation of Russia for recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abhkazia has more to do with deep seated fears that almost any country in the West could be subject to independence movements by their own minorities wanting to break away. Here Russia has signaled that it will recognize such movements, at least in other countries, maybe not in its own. All the huffing and puffing of Bush, Cheney and Rice seems totally unrelated to spreading "democracy," one of Bush's favorite words.

If Bush wanted to pursue democracy, instead of telling Russia it had to recognize Georgia's "territorial sovereignty," Bush would be pressing both Putin and Saakashvili to sponsor a referendum in both Abhkazia and South Ossetia for the purpose of ascertaining the will of the people. That would be true democracy in action. But Bush and his cronies send in war ships carrying "relief" cargo to Georgia's ports, obviously intending to show Russia that Bush is not afraid to use military force.

There are still some five months left in Bush's term, so anything can happen between now and then. But don't underestimate the Bush danger. Bush could stumble into a serious shooting confrontation with Russia just as he and the other European leaders who support him stumbled into the Georgia mess by failing to understand the repercussions of Russia's concern about the West recognizing the independence of Kosovo a few months ago. Bush also bears responsibility for Georgia's initiation of the conflict by telling that hot head Saakashvili that the U.S. would back him up vis-a-vis Russia, the implication being with war planes and tanks.

BUSH POLICY TOWARDS RUSSIA HYPOCRITICAL OVER SO. OSSETIA

Why is Bush ratcheting up the tension with Putin, Medvedev and Russia over Russia's recognition of Independence for South Ossetia and Abhkazia?

Someone please tell me the difference between recognizing sovereignty for South Ossetia and recognizing sovereignty for Kosovo. In both cases, the inhabitants have an entirely different culture from the "mother country." The Kosovans are Muslim whereas Serbia is mostly slavic and Orthodox. People in South Ossetia are not Georgian and speak an entirely different language.

So how can Bush and Rice say it is illegal for Russia to recognize South Ossetia when the United States early on this year recognized the independence of Kosovo from Serbia? Rice says Russia's actions violate U.N. resolutions but she never quotes chapter and verse or gives any cites. And anyway, if recognition of South Ossetia is against international law, certainly the Kosovo recognition also has to be. Yet neither Bush nor Rice nor Cheney protested on behalf of Serbia. Why are they protesting now on behalf of Georgia and that hot head Saakashvili?

Here's what Saakashvili did to start this whole mess. On August 7th, he ordered the Georgian army, armed with the latest in American produced lethal missiles to fire upon civilians in South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali. Instead of working through diplomacy to see if the Ossetians would consent to holding a referendum to see what they preferred in terms of sovereignty, Saakashvili decided to attack the Ossetians and kill them unless they agreed to be part of Georgia. It would be like the U.S. federal government firing missiles against the civilian population of Texas in the event of some federal-state disagreement. Civilized nations don't do this.

GERGIEV SAYS RUSSIAN ARMY SAVED HUNDREDS OF LIVES IN SOUTH OSSETIA

Valery Gergiev, the noted classical music conductor, is a native of South Ossetia, and today, according to BBC Radio News, he conducted a concert in memoriam for all of the Ossetians killed in the Georgian attack on Tskhinvali, the capital city of South Ossetia.

Gergiev also spoke to the BBC and said if it were not for the Russian army coming to the rescue, hundreds if not thousands more Ossetians would have been killed by Georgian missiles and bombs.

Steve Erlanger reports in today's The New York Times on the contrast between the official U.S. position which makes Russia into the perpetrator and Georgia into the victim and the more nuanced European view that sees this whole conflict the result of an impetuous and not too smart Georgian president Saakashvili.

Writes Erlanger:

"The United States — stung by the Russian move against a Washington protégé, Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili— has talked in cold war terms, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice comparing the Russian move to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. But many European leaders believe that Mr. Saakashvili acted rashly when he sent his troops to take over the autonomous ethnic enclave of South Ossetia, bringing down much of the destruction upon his own head.

"“On one side you have a bear, and on the other, a little ‘roquet,’ ” said one senior French official, using the French word for a yapping little dog. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the Georgian crisis publicly, allowed that Mr. Saakashvili may have fallen into a carefully prepared Russian trap. “But when you’re a chief of state, you have to know about the reality of forces,” he said. “This was an incredible misjudgment by Saakashvili.”"

And it was a disastrous attack against South Ossetia that brought the Russian army to the rescue. What else would anyone expect when South Ossetia was populated with so many Russians? Would Bush or Cheney or Rice do any different if Americans in Tijuana were being bombed and shelled by Mexico which wanted to re-exert control over a largely American colony there?

Bush's harsh reaction to Moscow is just another example of the United States trying to bully the rest of the world in order to protect a Bush crony and protege by the name of Saakashvili.

TRAGIC MISTAKE IN MISSILE AGREEMENT WITH POLAND AS PUNISHMENT FOR RUSSIA'S PRESENCE IN GEORGIA

What a gross mistake for the United States to sign a missile defense pact with Poland today. Everyone knows (wink, wink) that any American missiles placed in Poland target Russia. The American technology might be rudimentary today but tomorrow the missiles probably will be far more accurate and lethal. What do Bush, Cheney and Rice think they are accomplishing? Do they think that Russia will pull its troops out of Georgia as a result? They are tragically mistaken. Russia sees Georgia and its president Mikheil Saakashvili as aggressor and war criminal respectively.

Consider Mikhail Gorbachev's op-ed in today's The New York Times. Writes Gorbachev:

"THE acute phase of the crisis provoked by the Georgian forces’ assault on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, is now behind us. But how can one erase from memory the horrifying scenes of the nighttime rocket attack on a peaceful town, the razing of entire city blocks, the deaths of people taking cover in basements, the destruction of ancient monuments and ancestral graves?

"Russia did not want this crisis. The Russian leadership is in a strong enough position domestically; it did not need a little victorious war. Russia was dragged into the fray by the recklessness of the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili. He would not have dared to attack without outside support. Once he did, Russia could not afford inaction. "

In truth it was Saakashvili who ordered Georgian troops to shell and shoot missiles at civilian enclaves in South Ossetia. Because many Ossetians consider themselves Russians and not Georgians, Russia intervened and sent in its troops. What would the U.S. expect Russia to do? Stand by and do nothing while Russians were being killed by Georgian missiles? Is this what the U.S. under Bush would do if Americans in Mexico were being shot at and bombed by the Mexican army?

Continues Mr. Gorbachev:

"Mr. Saakashvili had been lavished with praise for being a staunch American ally and a real democrat — and for helping out in Iraq. Now America’s friend has wrought disorder, and all of us — the Europeans and, most important, the region’s innocent civilians — must pick up the pieces.

"Those who rush to judgment on what’s happening in the Caucasus, or those who seek influence there, should first have at least some idea of this region’s complexities. The Ossetians live both in Georgia and in Russia. The region is a patchwork of ethnic groups living in close proximity.
"Therefore, all talk of “this is our land,” “we are liberating our land,” is meaningless. We must think about the people who live on the land.

"The problems of the Caucasus region cannot be solved by force. That has been tried more than once in the past two decades, and it has always boomeranged."

Saakashvili and Georgia tried to settle loyalties by brute military force. As Gorbachev says, nothing will be settled militarily in the Caucasus.

It is pathetic to hear George Bush today blithely and ignorantly state that South Ossetia and Abkhazia "belong" to Georgia and are part of Georgia's sovereignty. Howe about telling that to the people who live there and see what they say?

And how come Bush, Cheney and Rice did not suggest to that rash and reckless Saakashvili that he try holding a plebiscite or referendum instead of raining down fiery missiles on Ossetian civilians? Oh no, that would have been too "democratic," although I thought that word was Bush's mantra.

STOP MINDLESS CONDEMNATION OF RUSSIA IN PROTECTING CITIZENS OF SOUTH OSSETIA

I see that almost all of the U.S. foreign policy establishment including the main street media favors censuring Russia and Vladimir Putin for crossing over into Georgia and sticking around to destroy Georgia's military arsenals.

How come these Bushies don't outright condemn Georgia for starting a war against civilians in South Ossetia the night of August 7th. It was not Russia which attacked first, precipitating the conflict. It was Georgia which shot missiles and that hot head Saakashvili who decided that if the citizens of South Ossetia refused to accept Georgia's sovereignty, he would attack them with guns and tanks.

Imagine if the citizens of Texas wished to belong to Mexico instead of to the United States. At which point, George Bush orders the army and air force to bomb Dalles, Austin and other Texas centers of population. This is what Saakashvili, the darling of the Republican social circuit in D.C., has done with South Ossetia.

If Georgia and Saakashvili are such strong examples of democracy in action, why didn't they propose a referendum for the Ossetian citizens to see what they wanted. Then if they voted to belong to Russia, let them go. But don't bomb them!

Bush, Cheney and Rice are quick to condemn Russia for sending in troops and tanks to defend the Russian-leaning occupants of South Ossetia. Yet they did not condemn Israel when Israel and Olmert attacked Lebanon with cluster bombs and tanks two years ago in the July War of 2006. In fact, they opposed a cease fire for a full 30 days to allow Israel to destroy much of Lebanon's infrastructure.

So stop the wholesale mindless condemnation of Russia in this conflict.

BUSH'S FOREIGN POLICY IN TATTERS AFTER MUSHARRAF AND SAAKASHVILI

It's about time that Gen. Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan. After firing justices of the Pakistani supreme court and having his henchmen go out and beat up protesting lawyers, Musharraf's time has long since passed. But the Musharraf treatment of lawyers and judges says a lot about the foreign policy of the United States under Bush, Cheney and Rice.

The U.S. urged Musharraf not to re-instate the judges after they refused to go along with his unconstitutional scheme to be both president and head of the army. Bush would rather have Musharraf as head of Pakistan than respect the rule of law and the independence of the courts. So much for Bush the guardian of democracy.

Contrast the situation in Pakistan with that of Georgia. Bush protests and howls that Russia is illegally attacking and occupying Georgia after Russia steps in to defend its citizens in South Ossetia from shelling by the U.S. trained and supported Georgian army. For Bush, it is a case fof a large imperium, Russia, having its way with a small democracy, Georgia. Georgia's president, Saakashvili, is a Bush protege having being wined and dined in Washington by all the neo-cons after saying all the right things about Bush and Cheney. But at heart he is a small dictator who tried to suppress dissent and opposition by creating a more powerful executive in Georgia, a la Bush and Cheney.

Bush supports Saakashvili because Georgia is a "democracy," whereas he supported Musharraf in his undemocratic quest to get rid of all those justices who opined that Musharraf was violating the Pakistani law and constitution.

Bush is not interested in "democracy." All he wants are leaders of other countries who pay tribute to him and tell him how great a leader he is. Oh, and if their countries send troops to the "Coalition of the Willing" for the immoral war in Iraq, Bush will forever support them.

UBER-BULLY GEORGE BUSH CALLS RUSSIA "BULLY" FOR REACTING TO ATTACK BY GEORGIA ON CIVILIANS IN SOUTH OSSETIA

Of all people to call Vladimir Putin and Russia "bullies" for entering Georgia to protect Russians in South Ossetia, George W. Bush, the super-bully, actually used those words, pompously stating that that's not the way to operate foreign policy in the 21st Century.

Does the uber-bully Bush realize what a hypocrite he is? Do Americans have any idea of how people in other countries view George Bush and the United States? As the bully par excellence. Why? Just look at Iraq and what Bush has done there. Consider his treatment of Iran. Then move to North Korea, then to Venezuela, then to Bolivia, then to Cuba.

The more Bush talks, threatens, cajoles and warns on Georgia, the more ridiculous and transparently hypocritical he becomes.

WHY BIAS IN AMERICAN MEDIA AGAINST RUSSIA AND PRO GEORGIA?

Olga Ivanova writes in today's The Washington Post how the American media seem to take Georgia's side in its conflict with Russia. I totally agree. My impression from reading The New York Times and The Washington Post is that reporters omit mentioning that this whole bloody conflict was started by Georgia under president Mikheil Saakashvili when he ordered Georgian army to shell civilians, mostly Russians, in South Ossetia.

The TV news reports are even more one-sided. ABC, CBS and NBC all seem to make this out to be a pure case of Russian aggression against democracy in a small defenseless nation. Has Charles Gibson ever included the fact that Georgia started the war by attacking civilians and killing up to 2,000?

Ivanova writes:

"American newspapers have run story after story about how "evil" Russia invaded a sovereign neighboring state. Many accounts made it seem as though the conflict was started by an aggressive Russia invading the Georgian territory of South Ossetia. Some said that South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali, was destroyed by the Russian army. Little attention was paid to the chronology of events, the facts underlying the conflict.

"Last week, Georgia's president invaded South Ossetia during the night, much as Adolf Hitler invaded Russia in 1941. Within hours, Georgian troops destroyed Tskhinvali, a city of 100,000, and they killed more than 2,000 civilians. Almost all of the people who died that night were Russian citizens. They chose to become citizens of Russia years ago, when Georgia refused to recognize South Ossetia as a non-Georgian territory.

"The truth is that, in this case, Russian aggression actually made some sense. Russia defended its citizens."

But Ivanova notes as I have above that hardly any stories in the American press or TV mention that Russia acted to protect its citizens from the missiles raining down on civilians in South Ossetia. Bush portrays Saakashvili and Georgia as the bastion of democratic government in eastern Europe, but this can hardly be true, given their attitude to people in Ossetia who would rather be Russian than Georgian. Instead of bombing and shooting them, has Saakashvili together with his nationalistic Georgians ever thought of allowing the Ossetians to vote in a free referendum on which country they wish to join?

Ivanova notes:

"Yet American newspapers published stories that omitted mention of the Georgian invasion. And American media as a whole have been disturbingly pro-Georgian. The lead photograph on the front page of Sunday's Post showed two men -- one dead, the other crying -- amid ruins in Gori, Georgia. Many other images could have been used. Monday's Wall Street Journal, for example, contained several stories about the conflict and even an op-ed by Saakashvili. Where was the Russian response?"

BUSH/CHENEY/RICE PUT U.S. IN DIRECT DANGEROUS CONFRONTATION WITH PUTIN AND RUSSIA

This whole fiasco of Bush foreign policy with regard to Russia and Georgia reemphasizes how inept and incompetent the Bush people are, and I mean Bush himself, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice.

Having encouraged Georgian president Mikheil Saskhasvili sub rosa to oppose Russia in South Ossetia, the Americans have placed themselves face to face against Vladimir Putin and his new president Medvedev.

That Russia and the U.S. are on different sides of this Georgia conflict reduces the possibility of Bush mounting an attack against Iran, but opens the very real possibility that Bush and Cheney, being shown the losers in their bankrupt policy towards Saakashvili, will lash out and get themselves and the U.S. into a much more serious military confrontation with Putin and Russia.

Bush and Cheney have less than six months left, but these guys are capable of all sorts of mayhem and mischief. The questions must be, what would they not do to rescue their tattered legacy in foreign affairs? Starting another world war is not out of the question for those guys.

BUSH/CHENEY THREATEN RUSSIA FOR REACTING AGAINST GEORGIAN ASSAULT ON CIVILIAN POPULATION IN SOUTH OSSETIA

How does the Bush regime make foreign policy? Take Georgia. It supports Bush's war in Iraq by sending 2,000 soldiers to Iraq. It names a principal thoroughfare in Tbilisi after George W. Bush. Georgian president Saakhasvili fawns all over Bush during a Bush visit last year.

The end result: Bush and Cheney are outraged when Russia sends tanks and troops into South Ossetia to protect civilians, mostly Russians, from a Georgian assault.

Does it matter to Bush or Cheney that Saakhasvili ordered the Georgian army and air force to shell homes and apartment buildings, or that the Georgian assault was directly and intentionally against the Ossetian population? Not in the least. Last night Cheney placed a call to Saakhasvili telling him America stands behind him and threatening Russia with reprisals for trying to protect its own citizens against the indiscriminate Georgian bombing and shelling.