EU REPORT FINDS SAAKHASVILI & GEORGIA STARTED RUSSIA-GEORGIA WAR

Here's another area where U.S. foreign policy seems to be based on bad information: the American support for Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in his ongoing war of words against Russia. For the last year, Saakashvili has been blaming Russia for starting the Russia-Georgia War in South Ossetia, a break-away province of Georgia that seems to want to belong to Russia.

But now the EU has published a report of its findings: Saakashvili and Georgia are the ones who started the war by firing shells into civilian areas in South Ossetia.

Ian Traynor reports for website of The Guardian:

"An investigation into last year's Russia-Georgia war delivered a damning indictment of President Mikheil Saakashvili today, accusing Tbilisi of launching an indiscriminate artillery barrage on the city of Tskhinvali that started the war."

So how come VP Joe Biden visited Georgia last month and publicly stated the backing of the U.S. for hot head Saakashvili? And why hasn't the U.S. publicly come out and condemned Saakashvili and Georgia for starting the war? Surely the U.S. State Department has had all of the information that the EU obtained in its investigation.

The EU's report however, does not let Russia escape blame for the subsequent fighting. Traynor reports:

"The EU-commissioned report, by a fact-finding mission of more than 20 political, military, human rights and international law experts led by the Swiss diplomat, Heidi Tagliavini, was unveiled in Brussels today after nine months of work.

""There is no way to assign overall responsibility for the conflict to one side alone," the report found.

"But the conclusions will discomfit the western-backed Georgian leader, Saakashvili, who was found to have started the war with the attack on Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, on the night of 7 August last year, through a "penchant for acting in the heat of the moment"."

REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA ONCE AGAIN THREATENING RUSSIANS IN SOUTH OSSETIA

The Republic of Georgia and its hot-head president Saakashvili are again threatening South Ossetia. The Ossetians claim that two mortars were fired by the Georgians into Ossetia. Saakashvili is a dangerous player in the region, and this is the same guy for whom Biden recently expressed effusive admiration. Does anybody in Washington know the real story?

Philip P. Pan reports for The Washington Post in tomorrow's edition:

"Russia accused Georgia on Saturday of firing mortars and grenades into South Ossetia and warned that it would defend the separatist territory with "all available forces and means" as tensions mounted ahead of the anniversary of last year's war.

"Georgia condemned Russia's assertion as "groundless and misleading," saying it was aimed at "further destabilizing the situation and causing the unfolding of a dangerous scenario of events.""

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.

BIDEN REIGNITES WAR OF WORDS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND GEORGIA

Why must VP Joe Biden stir up the pot all over again about Georgia, Russia, NATO and Georgian Pres. Saakashvili?

Luke Harding writes for The Guardian's web page today:

"Biden has made a point during his visit of reaffirming Washington's strong support for Georgia's territorial integrity and its attempts to join Nato. "We, the United States stand by you on your journey to a secure, free, democratic and once again united Georgia," he said, adding that the US would not recognise Georgia's Moscow-backed rebel republics."

Recall that it was last August that Georgia and Saakashvili launched a barrage of artillery shells at South Ossetia, home to many who favor Russia over Georgia. Saakashvili tried to say that it was Russia which started the war but there is no evidence for that, all the evidence showing that it was Georgia that initiated the fighting.

Writes Harding:

"The US administration is currently holding talks with Russia over a new nuclear strategic arms reduction pact following Barack Obama's visit to Moscow two weeks ago. It is also seeking the Kremlin's cooperation on Iran, and logistical assistance for US troops in Afghanistan.

"Today, however, the US vice-president made clear that any strategic accommodation with Moscow would not take place at the expense of Georgia, or other pro-western allies such as Ukraine. He also rejected Moscow's doctrine that it has "privileged interests" in post-Soviet states."

BIDEN HAVING DRUNK BUSH'S KOOL-AID DEFENDS WAR IN AFGHANISTAN AS JUSTIFIED AND NECESSARY

Why is it that so many Washington insiders think that American wars are "justified" and "worth" the casualties? All this sounds so much like Bush-speak. Now we have VP Biden saying the same rubbish about the war in Afghanistan.

Mark Tran writes on The Guardian's web page today:

"Speaking in the deadliest month for British troops since the US-led invasion in 2001, Biden insisted that the current offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province was worth the effort and was a "prerequisite" to get the country ready for presidential elections next month.

"In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme Biden said: "In terms of the national interests of Great Britain and the national interests of the United States and Europe, it is worth the effort we are making and the sacrifice that is being felt and more will come.""

No war is worth the lives of any soldiers or of any civilians. This applies to the war in Afghanistan. There is no such thing as a "justified" war. Soldiers never solve anything because, at the root of all wars, is a political problem that statesmen just don't want to solve diplomatically.

Biden is in effect saying that U.S. and British soldiers must first kill the Taliban in order to get Afghanistan ready for elections. This is outrageous bull and pure sophistry. The Taliban are Afghanis, they know their own country, they have their own social system. Foreign armies of the U.S. and Britain are never going to defeat them or make them change their views. So Biden would have Afghani villagers killed, members of the Pashtun tribe eliminated, women and children bombed, all in the cause of preparing for Karzai's re-election.

Reports Tran:

"With the British government under increasing political pressure as casualties mount, Biden restated the case for Nato's presence in Afghanistan.

""This is the place from which the attacks of 9/11 and all those attacks in Europe that came from al-Qaida have flowed – between Afghanistan and Pakistan … It is a place that, if it doesn't get straightened out, will continue to wreak havoc on Europe and the United States.""

Biden wants to straighten out 20-year Afghani villagers who think they are waging a holy jihad in trying to kill American and British troops. Frankly, I don't see members of the Taliban boarding an airplane in Kabul and flying to London or New York to carry out some mayhem or havoc on Europe or the U.S.

Everything that Biden said about justifying this foolish war seems wrong and short-sighted. And this is a guy who opposed Bush's bellicose foreign policy. Now he himself has come under the spell of defending a misguided war.