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Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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Russo-Georgian War Update and Perspective

August 11th, 2008 • Richard Cochrane

Not againThe United Nations continues its League of Nations imitation fritters and fiddle while people are dying in the hundreds.

The Pentagon said it has finished flying some 2,000 Georgian troops back home from Iraq on C-17 aircraft at Georgia’s request. The U.S. flew the Georgians out of Iraq as part of a prior agreement that transport would be provided in case of an emergency. Georgia has been and is a stalwart U. S. ally.

The U. S. informed the Russians about the flights before they began in order to avoid any mishaps, but Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin harshly criticized the step, saying it would hamper efforts to resolve the situation by reinforcing Georgian assets in a “conflict zone.”

President Bush called the invasion brutal and called for a cessation of the fighting.

Former Carter national policy adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski says Russia’s Georgian invasion is reminiscent of its attack on Finland in 1939-1940. Two months after Stalin’s cynical alliance with Hitler and their joint invasion of Poland, Stalin ordered the Red Army to crush the Finns. Everybody expected a walk-over: the odds were 10:1 in Stalin’s favor. Massing a million men and thousands of guns the Soviets forced the Finns to accept terms after exacting a high price in Soviet dead and wounded.

The spectacle of the Soviets invading a sovereign, peaceful neighbor shattered the left-wing political parties ((although the communist DAILY Worker’s headline on the opening day of the invasion was ‘HEROIC RED ARMY SMASHES MARAUDING FINNS). Stalin blunder convinced the Nazi the Soviets were a bumbling lot leading to the 1942 Nazi invasion that killed 20 million Soviets.

A Defense Department spokesman said Pentagon officials said Monday that U.S. military was assessing the fighting every day to determine whether less than 100 U.S. trainers should be pulled out of Georgia.

There had been about 130 trainers, including a few dozen civilian contractors, but the civilians had been scheduled to rotate out of the country and did so over the weekend, Whitman said. The remaining uniformed trainers were moved over the weekend to what officials believe is a safer location.

The U. S. has promised humanitarian aide to help more than 20,000 refugees fleeing the fighting. At least 2,000 Georgians have been killed by Russian invaders. Georgian forces have been fighting fiercely knocking out Russian armor and shooting down its warplanes.

Georgia has called for a ceasefire but, at this writing Russia has continued its advance and combat operations.

McCain demanded action and a cease fire. Obama declared his Rodney King-like in effect.

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  1. Comment by Ivan Risidin on 11 August 2008:

    A flat map on a round globe—league of nations, united nations, anything global.A flat surfaces can contact a sphere at only one point,the nearby points being infinitesimally close,a little further away you leave the surface, but get to the equator and you have infinite divergence. Same with global political solutions. Local and regional work, global not likely. Much bending needed which never happens without force, cutting and glue–topologically speaking.

    By the way as you are aware, Finland smacked the Russians around, lost, then partially allied with Germany–BUT would not cross into Russian territory and take Leningrad, preserving their sovereignty after the war. Better yet, Finland serviced profitable items not makable under Soviet socialism for sale to the Soviets at a profit–ball point pens to ice breakerswhere Armand Hammer got dollars for oil,pizza,pepsiand pipelines out of Russia [the icebreaking fleet].
    Ivan

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