I blame the Russian invasion on Liberal idiots who have so demoralized this country that Russia now thinks it can do anything it wants because we have no stomach to defend our allies….

Russia continues to attack Georgia itself by air while its troops now have undisputed control of South Ossetia. Russia had already devastated the port city of Poti and it intensified its attacks today with bombing missions against military targets outs…

Ta!

re: your message to Major Kirk

Now I understand. You deal in absolutes – math and science. Assumptions make you uncomfortable because you think of them as ethereal. They aren’t. They are educated guesses.

The brain is a computer; it absorbs a multitude of facts about many diverse things. When you ask a “what if” question, Bang! You get an instant answer based on known facts, taking into account all the odds, pro and con. That’s an educated guess. (It’s sometimes called “intuition.”)

You could also try thinking of “acting on assumptions” as a chess game.

Then there’s always Einstein. His theory of relativity came to him in a brilliant, intuitive flash. He worked out the math later.

Hope I made sense. It’s bedtime, and I’m a bit sleepy. I wish you a good evening.

Y’all have fun at Seaworld!

On August 13th, 2008 at 5:39 pm, Little Ma said:

I hope oyu are right. i too doubt he would use nuclear weapons. However, consider this. If we did have to fight them, and I am sure we would if we back them into a corner on this issue, do you really think Russia would ever surrender to the us? And even if he did not use nukes, he most certainly could inflict very heavy casulties on our military. Make no mistake about it. I am not willing to take the chance that putin is bluffing and a bully. Too much to lose.

Well, at any rate, I hope we can resolve this without escalating to a point of open hostilities. I have faith it will work out in time.

Well, as major said to relax, I am getting ready to take my kids to Seaworld tomorrow. i think that will be more fun than arguing politics. Have a good evening.

On August 13th, 2008 at 4:42 pm, Major Kirk said:

Asuumptions are all any of us have at this point. That’s the bad thing. I like to deal in absolutes (math and science is my thing). All anyone can do, including our own leaders is devise solutions based on assumptions of the likely outcomes. Otherwise, leading the free worlkd would be a cake walk (I wouldn’t want that terrible potitcal job, yuk). Easier to monday QB it. LOL.

I was not trying to tell you what you could say. Your original post was certainly slanted to demeaning anyone who had an oppinion that was different than yours, which got my dander up (shouldn’t have just caught me wrong). Anyway, peace taco. I hope this all works out for the best. my wife and family are from czechoslovakia and i sure would hate to see them have to scramble out of there to avoid antoher occupation. That worries me a great deal. Stay safe and hope you get to relax for a while wiht your family and Iraq/Afghanistan are stabilized so you you never have to go back. Good luck.

My considered opinions:

It is impossible to “reason” with Russia. Putin, et al, speak the language of force, not of reason. From Putin’s point of view, reason bespeaks weakness. He does not respect weakness; he respects the strength inherent in forcefulness.

There is no risk of Russia using a nuclear weapon against the United States, if that is what you fear. Putin is a bully, but he isn’t stupid.

Western Europe kisses Putin’s feet for fear he will cut off their supply of oil. But if he did, it would cut off the flow of money into Russia. I cannot believe he wants that.

I fervently hope our country will stand up to Russia and the diabolical Putin. I pray we will force the Russians to get out of Georgia. As a civilian, I do not know how that can be done; but our military people know, and I trust them to do it. We owe it to the Georgians.

Scots Wha Hae

I never once singled you out until you attacked me first. Go back and look at my post and you’ll see that I didn’t address you.

In other words- relax and enjoy life a little. Stop being so thin skinned. I said in my last post that as an American, you’re born with rights that others don’t have. Enjoy them. Just don’t make a habit of telling me what I can and can’t talk about. That’s a liberal/leftist technique and it’s just plain rude.

Frankie sez relax.

We can provide material support to the country’s defenders.

Blackstone, I like that idea as well. Fight a proxy war like we did during the cold war. This is where I would need a much better understanding of the region, topograhy and people to form an opinion. For that plan to work you need radicals, like the islamic taliban, to win (or draw out the war indefinitely). Regardless, we could try but I think the one drawback would be, we lose our ability to reason with Russia and convince them to ever pullback out of the region. Which is why I still beleive we need to give them a little time to abide by the cease fire treaty they just signed. Which calls for them to withdraw back to the origainal territories they were in. If they don’t then all other options should be considered. Ossetia and the other region is gone fro all intents and purposes. We should focus on saving the rest of georgia form Russian rule. Wait and see is all I am saying. I just am firmly against anything that is overtly provocative (ie anything we can not deny) as it sounds liek you are. That is just too dangerous to bet our nation on at this point.

I earned the right to say that with over 1,100 days deployed in three different combat tours in Iraq since 2003. You may not respect the Iraq War or our reasons for going in, but you owe your basic freedoms to guys like me whether I make you angry or not

Ok. But I earned the right to say what I want by being an American citizen and mainly thanks to the generosity of our hostess on this BLOG. I owe my basic freedoms to every person who fougth for those freedoms over the course of our history. My father, Marine infantry WWII, 5 battle stars (including iwo jima) for storming the beaches, 2 purple hearts, a total of 36 wounds, and more. My father did not want me to join the military but wanted me to get an education (1st in family to receive grad degree). So he sacrificed for me, his family to do what he thought best for us (frankly I wish I had served sometimes).

You seem to have this belief I dislike military or the Irap war and somehow that is a personal attack on you. Not even close to the truth. And a huge chip on your shoulder that seems to say I MUST respect you. No I don’t have to respect you personally. I respect your job and your chosen career, but I don’t have to respect someone who starts screaimng that everyone is basically an idiot, except you of course, and that we should not say anything if we don’t serve in the military. I am not a recruit in basic training. That is BS. Respect is earned at a job or in a persaonl setting. I am about as pro military as you get. You can have your opinion on how “soft” or whatever you think I am, but I will express my opinion no matter what. I HAVE earned that right as well.

Now, enough of the personal stuff. I still beleive provoking Russia or backing them into a corner is not a wise move at this time. Let things cool down and give them an out of the situation before we poke them in the eye. But, hey, I could be completly wrong and this becomes the domino effect. But ony history will prove either of us out.

The question I would have is, what word exactly did we give to the Georgians?

We live in a democracy not a private country club where the gold star patrons dictate the rules. That is no small part of what so many paid in blood for. It isn’t up to the Rockefeller Republicans or Democratic Party insiders to be giving assurances and alliances out without public knowledge and debate.

So what alliance or agreement did we sign with Georgia? Some have suggested that they sent troops to help us in Iraq. Well Syria sent the 9th Armored Division, and a separate Brigade, 19,000 troops in total to help us in 1991 against Iraq. Is Syria now our ally? Are they ten times the ally that Australia is? Australia only sent 1,800 troops in 1991.

Russia backed the Northern Alliance in the fight against Al’Qaeda and the Taliban, and helped us with over-flight and airbases. They did that when we needed it. Why doesn’t that make them our ally? Mongolia has troops in Iraq right now. Are we obligated to them if they make trouble with China over Inner Mongolia?

Just a bit of advice, though. Don’t preach to people about having the right to an opinion, but in the same post, tell someone to “But please spare me the “I fight for the free speech you used on this BLOG” crap.” It kinda takes the air out of your argument.

I earned the right to say that with over 1,100 days deployed in three different combat tours in Iraq since 2003. You may not respect the Iraq War or our reasons for going in, but you owe your basic freedoms to guys like me whether I make you angry or not. Talk on the internet is cheap- you’ve gone to great lengths to remind me that you have the basic right to an opinion, but then you turn around and slap me in the face with your comments. Like it or not, I, along with countless others (including members of your own family), *am* responsible for your right to do and say what you want without being held accountable by some higher power or government.

You’re obviously passionate about your ideas, so I’ll leave it at that. But just understand one thing- if I want to say that I’m fighting for your freedoms I will, and I don’t need you to sanctimoniously tell me that you need to be spared of that view. I earned the right to say that, and I’ll not have it taken away by the likes of you.

If mexico was killing civilians and we moved to stop that by invading mexico and the russians sent a battle group off Baja what would we do (even if we provoked the incident)?

Let’s just clear something up. Georgia was not wantonly “killing civilians”. It was putting down an insurrection. Now you’re saying what if we openly provoked a separatist group in Mexico for the blatant purpose of annexing Mexican territory, and then followed up by making war on Mexico ourselves? It’s hard to say what our reaction would be to a Russian naval response, because to do something like that we’d have to be a very different country than we are now. We’d be, well, more like Russia is today.

Now as for the right response to this situation, you have a point that if we do anything at all with our own military, we should be prepared to go all the way, no half-measures, no bluffing. You mention other things like sanctions. There is a third option, though, such as what we did last time Russia unjustifiably invaded a neighboring country, during the 1980s. We can provide material support to the country’s defenders.