Bush on the Russia-Georgia Conflict

August 13, 2008 - President George W. Bush on the Russia-Georgia Conflict

False hope for Georgians? This is an excerpt from the New York Times article on US involvement in Georgia:

In Georgia, President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has sharply criticized what he called a failure of the West to support his country, declared the [US] relief operation a “turning point” in the conflict, which began on Thursday when Georgian forces tried to establish control in the breakaway region of South Ossetia, only to be routed by the Russians.

“We were unhappy with the initial actions of the American officials, because they were perceived by the Russians as green lines, basically, but this one was very strong,” he said in a telephone interview after Mr. Bush’s statement in Washington.

Mr. Saakashvili interpreted the aid operation as a decision to defend Georgia’s ports and airports, though Bush administration and Pentagon officials quickly made it clear that would not be the case. A senior administration official said, “We won’t be protecting the airport or seaport, but we’ll certainly protect our assets if we need to.”

Mr. Bush spoke in the Rose Garden of the White House, flanked by his secretaries of state and defense, Condoleezza Rice and Robert M. Gates. He said that Ms. Rice would fly to France to support its mediation efforts and then to Georgia “to continue our efforts to rally the free world in the defense of a free Georgia.”

State Department officials said there were no plans for Ms. Rice to go to Moscow.

Read the CNN.com accounts of developments surrounding the Bush speech on the Russia-Georgia conflict here and here.

Read the New York Times account of developments surrounding the Russia-Georgia conflict here.

Read an interesting New York Times Q&A on Soviet Georgia here.

plez sez: so george w. bush DEMANDS that russia leaves georgia. or else...

or else, the US will send even MORE humanitarian aid to georgia!

we have neither the will nor the might to tangle with the russians. in bush's speech (and subsequently in responses from administration & pentagon officials), he made it abundantly clear that our troops are not going to georgia to fight, our troops are there to hand out blankets and hot cocoa.

thanks to george bush's failed foreign policy and his illegal war in iraq, we don't have a military capable of backing up bush's hollow demands. at this point, without the threat of military intervention, bush's words are nothing more than a sternly worded suggestion! and i'm afraid that sending the gap-toothed secretary of state of the lamest of lame duck presidents over there won't change much either.