Russia's Army Invades Georgia in Force: How should the US Government React??

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By the way, it is Georgia who moved first. It just looks bad because Russia is still seen as the USSR and it's an underdog story for Georgia. Those pics that Lance posted really send that point home. Modern jets vs troops riding in Toyota pickups.

That breakaway region was pretty much autonomous, and Georgia attacked it.

I would say the catalyst was Kosovo gaining independence, so now there will be similar moves from places looking to distance themselves from their former recognized statehoods.

ETA: Yeah, we've been sending money and training for quite some time now. They should be using M4s as I recall seeing the story where they were handed brand new ones to replace their current weapons, but the pics above clearly show either AK74 or AKS74 rifles.

Another thing I'm willing to bet $ on is that many Americans are just finding out now that Georgia is also a country and not just a place where they grow peaches. :D
 
Very astute Lance ...

You know, didn't Hitler win Time's MAN OF THE YEAR just before WWII broke out?? Is history perhaps repeating itself???
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... and a good analogy relating to time and place.

Just another small step toward Armageddon my friends.
 
Russia remains a problem and opposes the US whenever it can. We should do everything behind the scenes we can to help anybody who fights Russia. Just like Iran does to us. We don't like it coming from Iran, but it's a good strategy and we should use it on Russia.
 
I do not believe that an army equipped with Toyotas has ever been defeated.
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That may well be true, but I wouldn't want to be a Georgian soldier about to face Russian armor from the comfort and security of the ol' Hi-Lux.
 
By the way, it is Georgia who moved first.

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That breakaway region was pretty much autonomous, and Georgia attacked it.
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If the region was attempting to break away from Georgia and Georgia moved to stop it I fail to see how Georgia could be claimed to have moved first in a confrontation with Russia.

Georgia may have moved to stop an internal insurrection, which is their right. Russia though has used Georgia's internal dispute as grounds to invade and attempt a rebuilding of the Soviet Union.

What do we do?

I do not know. I know what we should NOT do! We should not send in our troops. Let the Germans and French who have the most to loose from a resurgent Russia take the lead on this one.
 
Actually, this is all very similar to the war fought between Russia and Georgia in 1992-1993. Most folks probably don't remember it.

In that case too, a part of Georgia wanted independence. Georgia fought to keep the land as part of Georgia, but then the 1,000 lb gorilla Russia joined the fight. That region in the south, called Abkhazia, now is formally independent of Georgia.

So Georgia is sort of being whittled away here as a nation by Russia, one piece at a time.

For the history of this previous war between these nations, checkout this web page:

http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_282.shtml

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What do we do?
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Actually, as I have pointed out, this is a very similar repeat of an earlier war between these countries. And what did th USA do then? Absolutely nothing.

Most likely the world will do nothing again, and Georgia will just end up with less land, and lose another region.

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Yeah Musketeer, I guess that is another way to look at it. It is a Georgian civil war, and Russia stepped in. The only difference is, that region has been independent for some time now...

I agree with you concerning our actions, but realistically, it is much too late for that, because we can't start taking back all the actions we shouldn't have been involved with for the past century or so. However, there isn't much for us to gain in this one, like Lance said, we'll probably not do more than public announcement that "condemns" Russia's actions.

Publicly announcing that you condemn something seems to be like a magic spell. You say it, and then you don't worry yourself over the issue ! Everybody uses it.
 
ETA: Yeah, we've been sending money and training for quite some time now. They should be using M4s as I recall seeing the story where they were handed brand new ones to replace their current weapons,
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Here is a recent photo of Georgian soldiers serving in Iraq.

Those don't look like M4's that they are carrying.

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We may be thin with ground forces (some say), but we can certainly pound the hell out of anyone from the sky.
 
No Lance, they are definitely not M4s haha, but the info is out there. I tried to find it just now, but it was so long ago, all the news pages are no longer available. Georgia did "officially" replace their combloc rifles with the M4.

I wonder what happened to them...
 
Here is a link to a news update video, that also gives some further political background on this.

Russia had offered people in this region of Georgia the option to become Russian citizens. Because of this, 90% of the people in this region now have Russian passports, and Russia thus now considers them to officially be their citizens, even though they live inside Georgia.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europ...ia/index.html?eref=rss_topstories#cnnSTCVideo

Let's say in another 20 years Mexico states that most of the citizens in certain US states are Mexican citizens. Could they then not make a similar claim, just as the Russians are doing here in Georgia??

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First off ...

... We do not want a direct war with Russia.

Don't forget Papa Bear is quite capable of planting a few nuke's in Cuba and Venezuela or to supply a few nasty insurgent groups on our southern border just to name a few and you don't even want to know how many Boomers are off our coast at any one time.

A proxy war could offer a few advantages such as the "carrot or the stick" to gain political advantage and IOU's for the US.

On the other hand, my neighbor for the last three years, has been employed by a "certain" US Corp which provides "services" to "friendly" countries and Georgia's military has received substantial "resources" for qualified "help" in various "endeavors".

We actually have a very deep stake in keeping Georgia "Pro Western" especially in view of it's geographical location in regards Papa Bear if you get my drift.
 
Here is more news coverage from Russia's state controlled TV channel 1, showing Georgian Army armored vehicles destroyed by the advancing Russian Army:

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Hopefully there are no infantry troops still inside them.

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We actually have a very deep stake in keeping Georgia "Pro Western" especially in view of it's geographical location in regards Papa Bear if you get my drift.
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Could this pro-Western stance by Georgia possibly be why Russia seems so very interested in weakening them??

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I would prefer if the US spent its time defending current nations instead of invading already stable nations and attempting to rebuild them once destroyed.

We don't have soldiers or equipment to deal with whats happening in Europe because were stuck in the Middle East.
 
The US has stuck its unwanted nose into too many Countries already. It has brought us nothing but grief over and over again. We have ENOUGH problems in our own Country than to try to be a Police force for the entire world.
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Why do we stick our nose everyone's buisness??? Because no one else will step up and do it. Because the US has the fortitude to stand up and say "That's not right, back off or we will push you off the cliff". The US is called upon by the UN everytime there is an injustice in the World. But no one complains and shouts out about all the aid we provide to disasters. Isn't that "Our noses in others buisness"? But no one sees the UN involvment, it's only the US. And why is that you ask? Because no one else ever sends enough troops/aid/support to make it on radar.

Yes, we have our own problems, but we will be just fine(unless BHO wins), so why not help the hopeless. I don't think of us as the World's Police, more of the Big Bad-Ass referee. If you step out of line too many times, we will take you out.
 
Not only yes...

... Hell yes.
"Could this pro-Western stance by Georgia possibly be why Russia seems so very interested in weakening them?"
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For the last five and a half years Georgia's military bases have provided staging and storage points for US assets. Russia considers this a thorn literaly in their side. Georgia has also been trying to join NATO and build relations with Europe. NATO has resisted the Georgian overtures politically under the pretense of the disputed territory that's in limbo.

The "ethnic cleansing of Russians" purportedly by Georgia, is a Bugaboo Euro scare tactic pretense employed by Russia for action now and "we'll all sort it out later thinking". Unfortunately, Russia is in no mood to negotiate with Georgia and is using this event to build Russian pride and flex it's muscles for the world to go "Oh...what strong fellows they are".

This is a push back for all practical purposes.
 
Lance, here is a link that shows an unusual assortment of small arms fielded by Georgians, M4s are among them http://english.pravda.ru/photo/report/ossetia-3717

As far as this whole thing is concerned, I am reading a thread on another forum right now who has a few Russian speakers translating updates by the minute. It goes back a long time, and I honestly don't know enough history of the region dating back to when Georgia asked Russia for assistance in defending against Turkish/Ottoman invasion to comment any further as to what is going on now.

The bit by bit updates even say that the Georgian radio sources state that Georgia started the attack.

The separatist area is very tight with Russia and Russia does consider them to be good citizens, and they do have Russian papers. However, North Ossetia does not look upon the region called South Ossetia in the same fashion it seems. North Ossetia considers them traditionally Georgian...
 
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