Yet another of the international clusterfucks we’ve grown to expect from the Bush administration:
TBILISI, Georgia — It was nearly 2 a.m. on Wednesday when President Nicolas Sarkozy of France announced he had accomplished what seemed virtually impossible: Persuading the leaders of Georgia and Russia to agree to a set of principles that would stop the war.
Handshakes and congratulations were offered all around. But by the time the sun was up, Russian tanks were advancing again, this time taking positions around the strategically important city of Gori, in central Georgia.
It soon became clear that the six-point deal not only failed to slow the Russian advance, but it also allowed Russia to claim that it could push deeper into Georgia as part of so-called additional security measures it was granted in the agreement. Mr. Sarkozy, according to a senior Georgian official who witnessed the negotiations, also failed to persuade the Russians to agree to any time limit on their military action.
By mid-morning, European officials were warning of the risks of appeasing Russian aggression, while Georgian officials lamented the West’s weak leverage.
“I’m talking about the impotence and inability of both Europe and the United States to be unified and to exert leverage, and to comprehend the level of the threat,” said the senior Georgian official, who had sat in on the talks between Mr. Sarkozy and Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
The senior Georgian official later made a copy of the deal available to The New York Times with what he said were notes marking changes the Georgians had asked for but failed to attain.
I blogged about this yesterday and this morning.
this is all from the department of no doy (or “no duh” as non-rhode islanders speak).
We wasted all our leverage in Iraq and letting our dollar crash and refusing to get the oil monkey off our backs. meanwhile europe depends on russia for their natural gas heat.
we literally have no cards. Nothing. Thanks neo-cons!
B at MoonofAlabama.org has several very good posts about this mess, as does The Agonist. Sean-Paul has a couple longish quotes from the Nelson Report. Moon tends to discount the MCM (Mainstream Corporate Media) take on things, which seems to be the BushCo Narrative.
I’ve leaned several things: Saak. (saving typing for prez of Georgia) had declared on Georgian state media that there was a ceasefire beginning then and there, the evening of Thursday, 8/7–then hours later launched a massive assault on Tiskhivali (sp?), capital of South Ossetia, using armaments meant for wide destruction on the field of battle, but sent into a crowded city. (Supposedly a war crime, btw). Great destruction and loss of life. Seemed to be designed to create maximum fear and panic and lead to mass evacuation of Ossetians into Russia’s North Ossetia. Blitzkrieg ethnic cleansing, per one description.
After the assault began, the Russians immediately went to the UN Security Council; emergency meeting Friday evening, 8/8, for a resolution calling for cessation to fighting and no further fighting lead to US and UK saying no, as Georgia did not want to promise to cease military moves against the breakaway regions.
Quite a mess.
There’s a tick-tock for 8/8 through 8/14 toward end of this post:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2008/08/putin-rules-doe.html
http://www.moonofalabama.org
http://www.agonist.org