Am I evil for laughing at this?

"When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk. " ~ Tuco, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

(edited because I got the quote wrong. :p)

Enough of The Bullshit.

We, the peoples of the West, have no business in intervening in the Caucasus. Period.

Much has been said about the conflict going on in Georgia--and for the most part, it has been bullshit. Some of the same people who got us involved in Iraq (and who have been pushing us to "do something" about Iran) are calling for "intervention" in the Georgian-S.Ossetian-Russian conflict. The proposal is that we don't let the Russians get away with it--that we do "something" to punish the Russians....

...Well, punish them for what--stopping a massacre in South Ossetia? Because on August 8th, that was exactly what was happening; talks between S.Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Georgia broke down over the fears that the Russians were about to sell the Ossetians and Abkhaz out to the Georgians (in return for a Georgian pledge to not join NATO). The S. Ossetians sent some artillery Georgia's way, and the US-trained-and-equiped army invaded in a decidedly medieval fashion, complete with large-scale civilian casulties. You didn't see that part reported in the front section of the Western media--not sexy enough.

After what happened in Kosovo in 1999, the Russians had no choice. The loss of the Southern Caucasus would have a blow too severe for not-too-steady-state to have survived. The South Ossetians were their clients; to allow them to be massacred would have doomed any diplomatic credibility left after Kosovo. All this should have been obvious to the various players on the geopolitical field--including the US State Department, who have been caught with their pants down around their ankles so many times in the last 20 years that they should be better known as "The Bare-Ass Society", and whose primary function these days seems to be making our government look like a bunch of dolts.

Georgia is not an ally--and never will be. The suffering in Georgia will be bad--but nowhere near as bad as what the Ossetians were suffering at their hands. The US has no strategic interest in the Caucasus, the Europeans are too dependent on Russia for fuel, and the Central Asian republics have no force projection capability. The Us and Russia have far more in common than not, and we have both benefited as friends far more than we ever did as enemies. We owe the Russians for our actions in Kosovo--we are responsible for the poisoning of that relationship, not they. And last, but not least, the cherry-on-top-of-the-sundae reason to stand back:

Russia has 20,000 functioning nuclear warheads, and the means to deliver them anywhere in the world.

Enough of the Bullshit! I will not advocate a course of action that will leave my country--and a good portion of the world--a radioactive dustbowl. I have lived through one Cold War, I have no desire to die in a second.

Sympathy for the Devil--Well, for Dr. Horrible

If you haven't seen it yet:



If that doesn't work, then go to the source at http://www.drhorrible.com

Leave to Joss Whedon to leave you rooting for the bad guy. Or was he? Lord knows, I was eager to see Capt. Hammer get thrashed by the end of the 1st act, and by the third act, I wanted him severely hurt--as in maimed, son. You can't help but sympathize with Dr. Horrible, even though you know you shouldn't.

Don't you just love moral conflicts.

In Memoriam- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Poet of the Gulag

This article by Canadian writer David Warren is one of the best salutes to Solzhenitsyn that I've seen on the web since that literary giant passed last week. The Gulag Archipelago was a hard but worthwhile read, and a persuasive testament to the horrors of the Soviet Empire.

Rest ye well, O mighty spirit.

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