BRUSSELS (AFP) - Russian and US officials ramped up the diplomatic war of words on Monday on the eve of an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss the crisis in Georgia.
The 26 NATO foreign ministers will hold their emergency meeting at the Alliance headquarters in the Belgian capital on Tuesday where they are set to offer help and support to Tbilisi while sending a strong message to Moscow over its military intervention there.
The extraordinary meeting was called by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who is seeking a comprehensive review of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s relations with Moscow.
“Our long-term goal is not to have an adversarial relationship with Russia but it cannot be business as usual,” a senior US official in Brussels said.
Meanwhile, Russia claims they’re withdrawing from Georgia, but they’re doing the opposite.
Russia is in Georgia, because Georgia possess an oil pipeline which feeds Europe. If Russia occupies that pipeline, then Europe has no choice but to go along with the Russia/China/ME Axis which has developed in the United Nations Security Council.
So, you can expect to see more of the same with Russia: They will continue to cry "Peace, peace, we will pull out." And then, they will not pull out. It's called Cheat And Retreat. They will do this because they have seen that it works on Europe. Europe has put up with this with regards to the Iranian nuclear situation for over five years now.
If NATO doesn't break this cycle, the power center of the world will be handed from West to East, or there will be a terrible, terrible war.
7 comments:
I repeat my plea, though it falls always on deaf ears: We need to stop being oil dependant. That can only be done by a joint political effort, both left and right working together. However, I don't think they will be able to get over their mutual hatred and cooperate. Instead the left will call the right warmongers, and the right will call the left treehuggers, and neither will admit that they should be working towards the same objective of ending oil dependance even if they seek the same goal for quite different reasons.
Epanminondas agrees with that point of view.
I generally agree with you.
Paris Hilton, like, totally agrees with you.
:)
So, you've got a constituency of three.
No actually, I think there are a lot of people who would agree. But, of course, not our House or Senate.
make that a constitency of 8 . . .my family doesn't agree on much else - but here we are on the same page.
NATO will send Russia a strongly worded letter.
Shuddah !!
If NATO doesn't break this cycle, the power center of the world will be handed from West to East, or there will be a terrible, terrible war.
Well, NATO is doing a piss-poor job of getting Russia to back down and back off.
Just how can NATO force Russia to stop making this power play? Consider the following from the first link in this posting:
Despite the US official's assurance that "I think you'll see a NATO more united than you might expect," other diplomatic sources said the subject of Russia's role in Georgia had split NATO members.
Britain, Canada, the United States and most eastern European member states are in one camp seeking a tough stance on Russia's actions, the sources said.
Meanwhile most of western Europe, led by France and Germany and backed by Hungary, Slovenia and others, were more cautious of further hurting ties with Moscow.
Russia clearly has the upper hand right now. Europe doesn't want to risk war (can't blame 'em really), but doesn't seem to understand that the alternative is just as bad.
I think a realistic plan would include,
1) unlimited drilling
2) a focused Apollo space mission-like effort on new energy technologies
3) a return to the days of real Western imperialism ...
AOW,
See my post at:
http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2008/08/russia-georgia-1938.html
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