Proper Perspective On Russia Summit - We Are All Georgians! Expel Russia From G-8!

[TomCADem]

The current narrative is that President Obama's trip to Russia achieved helpful, but modest results. However, President Obama failed to bridge the gap of distrust between ordinary Russians and the United States. However, I think such a perspective is overly narrow, and it ignores the environment that was created by the previous administration AND by the previous Republican candidate, John McCain. Indeed, Georgia shelled Ossentia with U.S. military personnel on the ground and acting as advisors to to Georgia. So, President Obama's trip really did represent a sea change in that it does represent a significant departure from Neocon orthoxy.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/13/candidates.georgia/

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On Wednesday, McCain continued his tough line against Russia, saying its potential membership in the World Trade Organization should be reviewed as a result of its actions in Georgia, as well its relationship with the G-8 nations, which represent the world's largest industrial economies.

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[TomCADem]

1. Quick Follow-Up - Post-Election Reports That Georgia Started The War Largely Ignored

One more thing that our media has largely ignored is that after our Presidential election, reports surfaced that confirmed that Georgia, not Russia, started the Georgia/Russia conflict contrary to McCain's heated assertions that Russia was the aggressor, and that the conflict was in large part due to the inexperience of Georgia's military. Other news reports also question the extent of the involvement of the U.S. military in Georgia's efforts to reclaim Ossentia.

So, Russia purported coolness towards the U.S. has to be viewed through the prism of what took place in August 2008 with John McCain trying to escalate tensions between Russia and the U.S. You also have to wonder what would the state of U.S.-russian relations be of McCain was President, and Palin waiting for Putin to rear his head over Alaska.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/world/europe/07georgia.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin

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Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.

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