Now Russia is being accused of invading Georgia for oil. Does this remind anyone besides myself of........?

Question

Bush having America invade Iraq, when Bin Laden is supposedly in Afghanistan?

Don't take me wrong. I am against Russia's actions. But did the Bush administration give Russia ideas.

"Look, America did this to Iraq, why don't we do the same criminal act to Georgia? They pulled it off. So can we".

I get the sense that Bush's criticitizing Russia is like the pot calling the

kettle black.

Answer 1

Ryan M. It is ok to empathize, but there is a time and place for that kind of thing. In a war, empathizing can get you killed. Likewise, we shouldn't stop giving ourselves all advantages that we can because of empathizing with a country that we are not on the best of relations with. I assure you, they wouldn't make that mistake if they were in our position.

In the end, this will really come down to whether Russia tries to annex Georgia or not.

Answer 2

When exactly did this become a Russian invasion of Georgia?

I don't mean to belittle those who may believe Russia wants to: reintegrate Georgia (impossible); or wants a regime change to have someone who is not a lunatic (likely); or control the pipeline that runs through Georgia (maybe). BUT everyone seems to have forgotten that the Georgian president STARTED this entire conflict by using massive military force to clear the Ossetians from their province (read ethnic cleansing). On the day of the Olympics, the Georgian force killed an estimated 2000 (Out of a population of 70,000) civilians and 12 Russian peacekeepers. The Russian response is not surprising - but our response and reading of the situation is.

It's taken a week to clear the Georgians out of S.Ossetia, and secure the area to prevent further conflict - Standard practice for peacekeepers. Unless something else happens to make the situation worse, nobody should be thinking about furthering the conflict any more.

If we were half way sane or decent, the moment Saakashvili invaded S.Ossetia out of the blue and killed Russian citizens, we should have offered RUSSIA our help and humanitarian aid to S.Ossetians, NOT the cretin who started it. That would have solved all our problems of present and future conflicts in the region in one go. Supporting Saakashvili now will only make the man try the same stunt again.

Answer 3

Does your knowledge of history goes as far back as what you see on TV?

Pretty much all wars are for gain. There hasn't been a single war in human history fought without some sort of monetary gain.

Don't like it? Well deal with it thats the way the world is. Sucks but thats life. We fight wars for the same reasons people 3,000 years ago did.

Answer 4

Russia did not invade because of Oil, where the heck did you get that from? Putin is trying to regain Georgia in his attempt at resurrecting the Soviet Union, Oil what a laugh.

Answer 5

No, Russia = bad, America = good. Now go to sleep you freedom hating leftist.

Answer 6

Next time catch the entire news cast. Georgia has an oil pipeline running through it's country. that's why France is involved with the negotiations, if that pipeline gets messed up then Europe's oil supply is screwed. Gas prices will go from $3-4 a liter (that's $9-12 a gallon) if something happens to it. If Russian gets control of that pipeline then they have all of the EU by the balls.

BTW that pipeline also runs through Turkey, hence the reason everyone is nervous about the Kurds in the south.

Answer 7

Russia didn't invade Georgia for oil. They invaded Georgia to keep them under Russian influence. Georgia used to be a satellite of the USSR and then broke off and declared independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union, as did many other former Soviet satellite countries. The Russians still consider these countries to be their sphere of influence though. Recently Georgia has been trying to join NATO, which if you don't know what that is it's basically an alliance formed back in the Cold War between various Western nations to combat the Soviet threat. It's also widely viewed as group that is for all intents and purposes controlled by the USA.

Russia does not like NATO.

To understand how Russians feel about an ex-satellite like Georgia joining NATO, imagine how Americans would feel if Mexico started allowing the Russians to build military bases near the US-Mexico border. We wouldn't stand for it and would immediately take action. Same thing goes for Russia and Georgia. Russia doesn't want a hostile force setting up base right next to their border and has thus started a war with Georgia as a way to deter NATO from accepting Georgia into the alliance (since by NATO's charter if any member nation is attacked every other member nation must aid that country. For that reason it's in NATO's best interests to not accept countries that are liable to be involved in recurring conflicts with countries that have the capability to turn half the world into a glowing crater).

There's also a longstanding conflict between Russia and Georgia (there's a reason why there were Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia before the war broke out) which also contributed to the current situation, but I won't get into that here.

While it is true that there is a major oil pipeline that runs through Georgia, that's not Russia's motivation for invasion. It also isn't the main motivation for NATO's consideration of accepting Georgia into the alliance. While the oil certainly provides a secondary benefit for either side having access to Georgia, the main benefit is Georgia's proximity to Russia. NATO likes them because they can build bases and missile systems right on the Russian's doorstep and Russia wants control of Georgia in order to prevent exactly that.

Also, while this does show one of the negative political repercussions of the US's invasion of Iraq (it's sad and funny at the same time watching US leaders say things like "countries don't invade other countries in the 21st century"), this conflict is actually more of a showcase of one of the major potential fallouts of the Bosnian War (a conflict in which civil war broke out in Yugoslavia when the province of Bosnia tried to declare independence). Russia was against recognizing Bosnia as a sovereign nation as they said that it would set a precedent that would allow foreign powers to invade other nations, aid resistance movements, and thus split up a country into new multiple new ones. However, the UN did vote to recognize Bosnia as a new nation anyway. Now this new conflict is pretty much Russia's way of saying "we told you so" (Russia's stated reasons for invading Georgia mirror those given by NATO when it intervened in the Bosnian War).

Answer 8

If Russian objective was for Georgian oil, it would be only to strangle Europe (NATO). And certainly not because Russia needs the oil. The oil pipelines out of Georgia feed the oil needs of Europe.

Should Russia decide that it will stay put without firing another bullet, and at the same time cut back on the oil flow out of Georgia, Europe would pay the consequences. Plus so would the rest of the world. Price per barrel oil prices would exceed anything we have experienced this past. Maybe that $200 per barrel would become a reality.

Answer 9

Maybe the Russians are also looking for "weapons of mass destruction" lol

Bush has a lot of nerve criticizing Russia.

I don't approve of Russia's action, but Bush has no business talking about anyone invading anyplace.     That seems to me to be hyprosy in its most blatant form.

Answer 10

Bush is a hypocrite...as is anyone who is being critical of Russia and support the Iraq war...and even more so support bombing Iran.

Answer 11

Georgia is very poor(and Cheap ) country, and  hasn't oil!!!!

this remind only Kosovo