Should the U.S. intervene in South Ossetia?

The US shouldn’t do anything, but the UN should. You don’t want to stir up another cold war (too late).

now if they mess with norway… halp!

With what resources? The armed forces are already overextended, and Georgia isn’t technically a NATO or other strong ally, so probably not.

I think the United States should stay out of it for the most part. If we really cared we would of pushed harder for them to be in Nato. We need russias help on much bigger issues (like iran) so even supplying weapons to georgia might not go over well. Besides, it seems like georgia instigated this by sending troops into south ossetia. I guess they felt like testing russias will to do something about it. and now they are being made an example of.

Russia is being very opportunistic here. They’ve been smarting from their loss in world prestige and land over the last couple of decades or so. They’ve lost all their satellite nations. They were poor. NATO and the EU made inroads into their former colonies.

But now the worm has turned. The US overextended itself, and got bogged down in two middle eastern wars. They have nothing left. Russia turned it’s oil into a national resource, and the value of that resource has skyrocketed recently. So Russia is flush, and smarting from recent insults to their nation. The US is weak, with a weak dollar, and no additional military power to expend.

So Russia is being a little adventuresome. Let’s take this provocation from Georgia, and respond by snapping up Ossetia and maybe even some of Georgia, just like the Bushies have done in Iraw, and see what happens.

The US won’t respond. They can’t. The UN will do nothing, because Russia sits on the Security Council and will veto any UN action they don’t like. World opinion may condemn them, but they consider the nations surrounding them to be in their sphere of influence, just as the US says that any nation in the Western Hemisphere is in their sphere of influence.

There’s nothing the US can do. As to whether it should do something if it could…

I don’t know enough about the issues of Ossetian separatism to say.

On a sidenote.

daloon, what is your avatar? I don’t want to draw any conclusions to what it is before you tell me what it really is, but it looks disgusting… heh.

No, I don’t think we should be any more involved than helping their troops get home from Iraq. We are overextended in Iraq and Afghanistan and don’t have the resources. This is not our war or our business.

My avatar is a map of the world. Anything else you think you see is purely your imagination. I use a map of the world because I am fairly knowledgeable about many things that happen outside my country.

Look, it is not because the US is over-extended, and it is not because the US is weaker now than before, and it is not because Russia has veto power in the security council.

None of these are consequential.

Georgia is a small country right next to the gigantic Russia, nobody would want to engage battles with Russia at their front door. Nobody wants to escalate this into a bigger war.

The Georgian leader was stupid, that is all.

Nobody should help them in the war. The best the West and the US can and should do is to help preserving the democracy and sovereignty, after a truce is secured.

Do you think, boxing, that Russia is going to stop at Georgia’s borders? Or will they just go straight on through and retake Georgia and install a friendly leader? There is, after all, that one independent oil pipeline crossing Georgia and going to Turkey, and if Russia controls that, they control all the oil from the East going to Europe. Well, except for that in trains and boats.

I can see Putin thinking that Bush entered Iraq to control oil, so why should Russia respond with it’s own attempt to control oil. Russia is very cagey. Well, Putin is, anyway. And he has a big chip on his shoulder. Russia wants to make it a bipolar world again.

Damn. In high school or college I read a book called something like “International Relations in a Bipolar World.” Back then, I don’t think it was the pun that it is now. A very unfortunate pun!

Nuh, if I were Putin I would not stop at the borders, let’s run some distance and then force some kind of favorable agreement, and there is nothing others can do about it. Nothing.

I agree, boxing. I agree.

But here’s a question. Even if Bush had not invaded Iraq, could the US have done something about it?

The U.S. must use all the diplomatic means to stop the conflic, and support Georgia the way Georgia (being a developing country with not much economic means, and a stronghold of Democracy) has supported the U.S. in Iraq & Afghanistan…

no, daloon.

I don’t think we should get involved but I admit I have very limited knowledge on this subject and I’m just basing this off of the few articles I read.

One thing to remember though is even though the US is going through hard times their military still puts Russia’s to shame. The US accounts for half of the worlds military spending and what they lost in man power they more than make up for in technology (gen 5 warplanes, massive intelligence satilites, big smart bombs, etc…)

In my opinion, the US army is not designed for policing like what is being done in Iraq but more seek and destroy. But I’m getting off topic, I think we should stay out of other’s affiars especially when others get caught with their hands in the cookie jar…

Here’s a take that suggests that the US is using the Georgia conflict to try to prevent Russia from more directly interfering with “America’s” plan to attack Iran.

Let’s be real. All those croaking for intervention give a crut about the country and people, but really think about the oil pipeline.

Obviously there is a number of Osettians that feel more Russian than Georgian. Separatist movements all over the Region of Osettia prove that.

This issue is in Russia’s backyard, it is their fight.

We should learn from history, every time we got involved because we wanted to secure our “geopolitical” and “security” interests, the ones we “helped” were left so pissed at us that they turned on us after being helped. (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq).

Obviously American “help and intervention” is usually performed in such egoistic manner that you can’t hide it for long once our interests are served, resulting in severe consequences somewhere down the line when the “helped” become so frustrated that they direct their anger against us and not the original culprit.

Compare it, if any South American country would move in the direction of limiting our access to South American oil we’d be the first to invade, so no double standards please. Hugo Chavez knows that all too well, which is why despite all his Anti-Americanism he still very much enjoys selling us his oil at modest rates.

This is Russia’s business and security concern, not ours, stay out of it.

@TaoSan: We wouldn’t intervene on Russia’s behalf. It would be on Georgia’s behalf.

@lefteh

Of course. Russia has been portrayed as agitator / bad guy / invader in US media.

Georgia has bee portrayed as being “invaded”, when in fact it was the Georgian government that started to take Ossetian Police stations and Government buildings because of an ever increasing number of Ossetian separatists that feel more Russian than Georgian.

Georgia, after participating in Bush’s ridiculous “Coalition of the Willing”, has taken an ever anti – Russian stance of the last few years.

It is their problem if they start a piss-contest with their next door neighbor (Russia), who will then see them as security risk and respond. Any western intervention would be highly risky. Russia is not necessarily a country one wants to mess with, even in post Soviet Union times.

Russia offered citizenship to Ossetians. If that isn’t poking the bear, I don’t know what is.

Dunno, if we do it it’s called liberation…...