09-10-2008, 08:08 AM
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Risk of U.S. War with Russia all too Real</b>
By MIDDLE EAST TIMES
Published: September 09, 2008
Veteran Russian admiral Eduard Bautin was outspoken last week. He noted that there were more U.S. and NATO warships operating in the Black Sea than ever before but he assured reporters in Moscow it was no problem â They could all be sunk by the Russian Black Sea fleet and its land-based support aircraft within 20 minutes.
On Monday, shrewd old American political columnist Pat Buchanan looked at the growing tensions between the United States and Russia over ballistic missile defense and the conflict in the Caucasus republic of Georgia and compared it to the obscure crisis in the Balkans which erupted after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. That crime lit the fuse that set off World War I.
Is it therefore possible that after all the worries over the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, an even more dangerous conflict could break out between the two giant thermonuclear nations of America and Russia over an issue as obscure to most people in Russia, the United States, the Middle East and Europe as Georgia?
The Georgian conflict is certainly generating a totally unexpected Middle East dimension. Russia is now furious at Israel for recklessly sending so much military aid to Mikheil Saakashvili, the pro-American, dictatorial and exceptionally erratic Georgian president. For all the criticisms that U.S. leaders have thrown over recent years at the current and past leaders of Iran, the Iranians have yet to upset the status quo by sending their army to crush quasi-independent neighbors, as Saakashvili did to the Russian-supported secessionist region of South Ossetia on Aug. 7.
The Russians are now so furious at Israel that they have signaled they would be prepared to sell Iskander solid-fuel, quasi-ballistic missiles to Syria, a move that could tilt the delicate balance of power between Israel and Syria significantly in Syria's favor.
The idea of a non-nuclear, but still very serious war between the United States and Russia being sparked over the crisis in Georgia is still totally inconceivable to policymakers in Washington.
The only figure on the American political scene who has in recent days anticipated the pressing need to defuse tensions between Washington and Moscow as an absolutely crucial national priority is Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. But unfortunately Sen. Obama has been suffering a remarkable reversal of fortune in many, though not all, U.S. national polls over the past week.
Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have exported the recklessness that Middle Eastern nations have learned only too well of them to the Caucasus too. They have pledged a huge aid package of $1 billion to prop up the dangerously unpredictable and uncontrollable Saakashvili in Russia's own backyard.
Yet Georgia was a constituent part of Russia for 190 years from 1801 to 1991. It entered the Russian Empire before any of the states of the Mississippi Valley had even joined the United States. The Russians do not appear to be in the mood to back down over it.
The risk of catastrophe could be much more serious than anyone thinks.
Risk of U.S. War with Russia all too Real</b>
By MIDDLE EAST TIMES
Published: September 09, 2008
Veteran Russian admiral Eduard Bautin was outspoken last week. He noted that there were more U.S. and NATO warships operating in the Black Sea than ever before but he assured reporters in Moscow it was no problem â They could all be sunk by the Russian Black Sea fleet and its land-based support aircraft within 20 minutes.
On Monday, shrewd old American political columnist Pat Buchanan looked at the growing tensions between the United States and Russia over ballistic missile defense and the conflict in the Caucasus republic of Georgia and compared it to the obscure crisis in the Balkans which erupted after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. That crime lit the fuse that set off World War I.
Is it therefore possible that after all the worries over the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, an even more dangerous conflict could break out between the two giant thermonuclear nations of America and Russia over an issue as obscure to most people in Russia, the United States, the Middle East and Europe as Georgia?
The Georgian conflict is certainly generating a totally unexpected Middle East dimension. Russia is now furious at Israel for recklessly sending so much military aid to Mikheil Saakashvili, the pro-American, dictatorial and exceptionally erratic Georgian president. For all the criticisms that U.S. leaders have thrown over recent years at the current and past leaders of Iran, the Iranians have yet to upset the status quo by sending their army to crush quasi-independent neighbors, as Saakashvili did to the Russian-supported secessionist region of South Ossetia on Aug. 7.
The Russians are now so furious at Israel that they have signaled they would be prepared to sell Iskander solid-fuel, quasi-ballistic missiles to Syria, a move that could tilt the delicate balance of power between Israel and Syria significantly in Syria's favor.
The idea of a non-nuclear, but still very serious war between the United States and Russia being sparked over the crisis in Georgia is still totally inconceivable to policymakers in Washington.
The only figure on the American political scene who has in recent days anticipated the pressing need to defuse tensions between Washington and Moscow as an absolutely crucial national priority is Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. But unfortunately Sen. Obama has been suffering a remarkable reversal of fortune in many, though not all, U.S. national polls over the past week.
Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have exported the recklessness that Middle Eastern nations have learned only too well of them to the Caucasus too. They have pledged a huge aid package of $1 billion to prop up the dangerously unpredictable and uncontrollable Saakashvili in Russia's own backyard.
Yet Georgia was a constituent part of Russia for 190 years from 1801 to 1991. It entered the Russian Empire before any of the states of the Mississippi Valley had even joined the United States. The Russians do not appear to be in the mood to back down over it.
The risk of catastrophe could be much more serious than anyone thinks.