Blogs For Victory

As I write this the latest news from Georgia indicates that Russia intends a complete subjugation of that nation and the imposition of a puppet regime.

While all decent people are disgusted with the Russian action, there is not much we can immediately do, at this point, unless we are prepared for full scale war with Russia. While Georgia is only about 300 air miles from northern Iraq, the real limiting factor on sending US forces to Georgia is the difficulty in getting American air power established in the area. The effort to do so would essentially mean challenging the Russians directly including, perhaps, bombing of Russian airfields near Georgia. A war between the United States and Russia would only have one conclusion – the utter defeat of Russia. Russia is playing the Great Power game but really lacks the military and economic wherewithall to play such a role – Georgia, quite honestly, is about the largest thing Russia can handle at the moment. Such a war, however, even with its foregone conclusion would be a long and costly struggle, with the risk that someone who is proving himself as insane as Putin might actually pull the nuclear trigger. So, while we must try to save an independent Georgia, our tasks for the future is to treat Russia in light of Russia’s actions.

It appears from Russia’s actions that Russia has embarked upon an attempt – in one form or another – to revive the Russian Empire. Given our ability to swallow hypocrisy these days, the Russians would present their new empire as a collection of independent States, just as the USSR pretended that the east European States were independent, and we went along with the fiction. In the year of 2008, we must not allow the world to slip back into a place and time where larger nations preyed upon smaller nations and made them colonies or protectorates – nor can we allow large countries to carve out spheres of influence amongst other nations. Russia is indicating it wants an empire, our task is to thwart them in this effort.

First and foremost is the exposure of the UN as entirely useless – if one member of the Security Council, wielding a veto over UN action, is determined to violate the UN Charter in letter and spirit, then the whole thing becomes an entire waste of time. There is no purpose in being in an international body which cannot do what it was designed to do. Of course, those who know realise that the UN long ago became moribund, but now its actually counter-productive, and its time for it to go. In its place should be – as long ago suggest by myself, and more recently by Senator McCain – a Leage of Democratic Nations. This would be a grouping of free nations and free peoples, pledged to the defense and expansion of freedom around the world – and most emphatically nations like Russia (and China, and Iran, etc, etc, etc) would have no place in it. Only by so doing will we have an international body which we can act for good in the world.

Secondly, we’ll want a larger military. Russia is feeling expansive, and so is Iran – meanwhile, China modernises its military and greedily eyes the wealth of Taiwan as a means of cutting its way out of the sea of bad debt China floats upon. We have to be prepared for a two front war requiring very large military establishments on opposite ends of the world. This will require several more active divisions for the army, at least one more for the Marines, quite a large number of aircraft for the Air Force and a major beefing up of the US Navy so that we can ensure absolute command of all the world’s seas no matter what combination of enemies we fight. Essentially, we’ll have to rebuild our military size to about where it was at the end of the Cold War, and perhaps even larger.

Third, we need to quickly strengthen the military side of our alliances in eastern Europe and do whatever we can to induce former Soviet Republicans to join NATO. We must surround the aggressor with such a large number of potential enemies that whatever military force he has at his disposal will be insufficient to meet all needs, and thus we can secure a cold peace. We’ll also give pause to Iran, China and other potential threats that we retain the power to deal with all contingencies.

As to why Russia has embarked upon this insanity, I don’t know – I hope they come to their senses, but we cannot rely on that. Russia has ranged itself, sadly, as an enemy of liberty, justice and basic human decency, and it is the task of the United States to contain this as far as possible and hope that some day the Russians will wake up and take full charge of their own future, no longer turning themselves over – body and soul – to whatever Czar promises to raise them to the peak of power in the world.

UPDATE: Richard Beeston at Times Online tells the true state of Russia in 2008, and it ain’t a pretty picture.

He might be the Obamessiah to his kook left supporters, but he’s political kryptonite in Louisiana, it would seem – from Political Punch:

The Baton Rouge Advocate reports that Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., the only Senate Democrat in a competitive race this year, was listed as a co-host for a $100-per-person DC fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, until suddenly, she wasn’t.

The event, “Girls Night Out: Lipstick, Laughter and Libations,” (you can see the cached version which includes Landrieu’s name HERE) is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, August 18.

Landrieu campaign spokesman Scott Schneider told the Advocate that she was never supposed to be listed as a co-host.

“I believe it was a clerical mistake where some finance assistant confused who was going to the event with who was hosting the event,” Schneider said.

Yeah, right – whatever.

This is a sign of Obama’s weakness – his inability to really expand beyond African-American and upper-class white voters. It seems that Obama is so unpopular in Louisiana with everyone other than hard core Democrats that Landrieu made the calculation that “Obama who?” is the best way to save her political hide.

Thing for the GOP to do? Tie her as tightly as possible to Obama and his Democrats.

Obama may have thought that taking a scripted trip to the Middle East was enough to boost his nonexistent foreign policy experience, but when a an actual international crisis occurs, Obama does little more than issue a vague, watery response, so he can get back to swimming and soaking up sun on the beach, while John McCain demonstrated which of the two contenders for the White House is truly ready to lead.

John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, on Monday upstaged George W. Bush’s administration over the Georgia crisis with his strongest statement so far calling on the US and its allies to come together in “universal condemnation of Russian aggression”.

Mr McCain, who gave his first response early last Friday several hours before any official word from the Bush administration, said the US should take steps to assist Georgia and other democracies in the region that he said were threatened by Russia’s actions.

“Russia’s aggression against Georgia is both a matter of urgent moral and strategic importance to the United States,” said Mr McCain. “The implications go beyond their threat to . . . a democratic Georgia. Russia is using violence against Georgia, in part, to intimidate other neighbours such as Ukraine, for choosing to associate with the west.”

Mr McCain’s statement – his third since the crisis began – stood in clear contrast on Monday to the relatively low-key response of the Bush administration and the Obama campaign. Barack Obama himself issued a statement on Saturday but remains on vacation in Hawaii. President Bush, at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, expressed “grave concern” about Moscow’s “disproportionate response” in South Ossetia, but did not follow Mr McCain in portraying the crisis as a watershed moment for democracy in the region.

Threats of war in the Caucusus, prospects of large US withdrawals from Iraq with victory secured, probably a necessity of sending 15,000 or so additional troops to Afghanistan, oil bubble might have burst, Democratic jitters over Obama’s clear weaknesses…

Yeah, not much to talk aobut…

We can trust that a veteran who suffers from war wounds will do what is right for our veterans:

John McCain Believes We Must Provide Our Veterans With World-Class Health Care. We must fully fund the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care budget in a timely and predictable manner. Those who have risked their lives in service to their fellow citizens deserve nothing less than the best medical care in the world.

When The VA Cannot Meet Our Veterans’ Needs, Our Veterans Must Be Given Alternative Means Of Access To Health Care And Freedom Of Choice. Too many veterans are unable to obtain health care through the VA because of geographical constraints, unreasonably long waiting lists, or the lack of specialized facilities at local VA hospitals. John McCain will develop and enforce demanding new standards for veterans’ access to health care for injuries or illness related to military service: no more than an hour’s drive for care, routine care within a week, urgent care within 24 hours, and specialty care within a month.

Veterans’ Care Access Card: John McCain has proposed a Veterans’ Care Access Card, which would expand access and choice for those veterans with illness or injury incurred during military service, as well as low-income veterans. This supplement to ordinary VA care — which would not replace or privatize existing programs — would permit those veterans unable to obtain timely and appropriate VA care under the standards set out above, to receive care at a private facility.

That last one is a good idea – its not always possible to get to the VA clinic and I can tell you from personal experience with my father, there are some things the private insurance either doesn’t cover or doesn’t cover as well as the VA, but the VA can be at times an onerous bureaucracy in getting things done. The more flexibility and choice in VA benefits, the better for the veterans and their families.

Outside of that, I also have a proposal of my own, in line with this:

As our veterans get really up in years (75 or older) the amount of care they need expands quite a bit, what I think we should do for our veterans as they enter their final years is ensure that they really do have everything they need. Right now, the old man gets some VA benefits because he was injured during war service, but the father-in-law doesn’t get them because his injury in service wasn’t directly war-related – that plus the records from that time are sketchy and he’s having a hard time convincing the VA that his hearing loss is service-related. Both were once upon a time very young men who joined, and both are now 81 with various service-related injuries made worse by the ravages of age.

What I think we should do is just work out an amount that veterans might need for the time 75 until death and just give it to them. In a three trillion dollar Federal budget, it won’t be that much extra a burden and a lot of the cost might be offset by other VA benefits going unused as the veterans and their families use the stipends to work out their own care arrangements. I understand that after a certain time our World War One veterans were given such a benefit, pretty much no questions asked – and this benefit came in handy for my grandfather in his last few years of life. Anyways, we can never fully repay those who fought for us, and I think this is one of those “least we can do” sort of things.

This is getting rather threatening:

Russia sent forces into Georgia on Friday to repel a Georgian assault on the breakaway South Ossetia region and Georgia’s pro-Western president said the two countries were at war.

South Ossetia’s rebel leader Eduard Kokoity said there were “hundreds of dead civilians” in the main town Tskhinvali, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

A senior Russian military commander said parts of Russia’s 58th army were approaching the rebel capital, where fighting raged between Russian-backed separatists and Georgian forces sent in on Friday to seize it.

A senior Georgian security official said Russian jets had bombed the Vaziani military airbase outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi, and President Mikheil Saakashvili said 150 Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles had entered South Ossetia from neighboring Russia.

“Russia is fighting a war with us in our own territory,” Saakashvili told CNN, calling on Washington to help.

Given that Russia is a dying nation, you’d think that Russian imperialism would be a dead letter – but the effects of Putin are far reaching and disasterous in the extreme. Russia, for Lord only knows what reason, seems to have imperial ambitions in the tiny, insignificant territory of South Ossetia and thus has backed a rebel movement in the area – the Georgian government, which is backed by the United States, has had enough of this and has moved agains the rebels, and now the Russians are moving in. Does Russia want war? Or is it that the Russian leadership doesn’t realise the level of contempt Russia’s military is held in (couldn’t even take Grozny without levelling the town) and thus they don’t realise that the world isn’t over-awed by Russian units on the move?

It is to be hoped that Russia will come to its senses soon as this is the sort of idiotic, blind but typical Russian move which in the past has led to large wars.

UPDATE: McCain weighs in with the exact right policy – from NRO’s The Corner:

Today, news reports indicate that Russian military forces crossed an internationally-recognized border into the sovereign territory of Georgia. Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory. What is most critical now is to avoid further confrontation between Russian and Georgian military forces. The consequences for Euro-Atlantic stability and security are grave.

The government of Georgia has called for a cease-fire and for a resumption of direct talks on South Ossetia with international mediators. The U.S. should immediately convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to call on Russia to reverse course. The U.S. should immediately work with the EU and the OSCE to put diplomatic pressure on Russia to reverse this perilous course it has chosen. We should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to assess Georgia’s security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation. Finally, the international community needs to establish a truly independent and neutral peacekeeping force in South Ossetia.

UPDATE: Russia is acting entirely insane:

Georgia demanded a cease-fire Saturday in the separatist province of South Ossetia, with the Georgian leader calling Russian attacks there “annihilation of a democracy on their borders.”

“This is 100 percent, unprovoked brutal Russian invasion,” Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC. “We on our own cannot fight with Russia. We want immediate cease-fire, immediate cessation of hostilities, separation of Russia and Georgia and international mediation.”

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s office said Saturday evening that Russia had not received the Georgian cease-fire proposal.

A defiant Russia is defending its actions in South Ossetia as fighting there threatens to escalate into a full-scale war between Russian and its fellow former Soviet republic, with at least 1,500 people reported dead.

Russia, which has close ties with South Ossetia, has sent hundreds of tanks and troops into the separatist province and bombed Georgian towns Saturday in a major escalation of the conflict, while Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, has fought to regain control of the province.

This is the authentic Muscovite of old – demanding, brusque and determined to get his way regardless of the justice of his cause. That a dying Russia would try this indicates a level of desperation and paranoia in Moscow – South Ossetia is nothing to a Russia in terms of territory or wealth and certainly Russia could by international pressure get a lot for the South Ossetians in terms of automony, if that is really what Russia was after here. The worst thing about this is that Russia might not even know what it wants – this might just be an insane lashing out.

The world teeters on the brink of a large war, and I hope we can defuse this quickly – but Russia must leave Georgia.

UPDATE: It just gets worse and worse. At this point, I think that its time for NATO to present a demand to Russia to case forthwith their attacks on Georgia. There is no need for Russia to be bombing anything outside Ossetia, and no reason to be in Ossetia as the Georgian troops have withdrawn. This is now becoming a crime, pure and simple, on the part of Russia.

UPDATE: President Bush weighs in:

BEIJING (AP) – President Bush on Monday sharply criticized Moscow’s harsh military crackdown in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, saying the violence is unacceptable and Russia’s response is disproportionate.

The United States is waging an all-out campaign to get Russia to halt its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Bush, in an interview with NBC Sports, said, “I’ve expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia.” He said he did so directly to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who’s here for the Olympics, and by phone to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney told Georgia’s pro-American president that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States,” Cheney’s office reported.

While Georgia said its troops have retreated from South Ossetia and are honoring a cease-fire, Russia disputed the claim, and U.S. officials said Moscow was only expanding its blitz into new areas.

“I was very firm with Vladimir Putin,” Bush said. “Hopefully this will get resolved peacefully.”

Cheney spoke Sunday afternoon with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Cheney press secretary Lee Ann McBride said. “The vice president expressed the United States’ solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” McBride said.

Europeans Moslems can’t seem to decide if gays should be executed, or not; rather run of the mill stuff for Moslems these days, but the real problem is how the government of Norway reacts:

For a case in point, I will refer the reader to an episode I’ve mentioned previously in this space — an Oslo debate last November at which the deputy chairman of Norway’s Islamic Council, Asghar Ali, refused to reject the death penalty for gays. When Senaid Kobilica, the head of the Islamic Council (which represents 60,000 Muslims), was asked where he stood on the question, he replied that he couldn’t give a definitive answer until he got a ruling from the European Fatwa Council. This week it was reported that he’s still waiting…

…What’s most chilling about all this, however, is not the positions of these Muslim leaders but the reactions of the Norwegian establishment. Or, one should say, the lack of reaction.

Consider this. After last November’s debate, it emerged that Asghar Ali not only was deputy chairman of the Islamic Council but was also on the board of the Oslo Arbeidersamfunn, the largest and most influential association within Norway’s ruling Labor Party. Asked about Ali’s views, the head of the Oslo Arbeidersamfunn, Anne Cathrine Berger, lamented that some people “can’t see the difference between a board member’s views and the organization’s views.” Despite scattered calls for his dismissal, Ali remained on the board. (When a new board election was held in February, Ali chose not to run again.)

That’s not all: Ali is, in addition, secretary of the 37,000-member Electricians’ and IT Workers’ Union…

…As for the Norwegian government, there has been no serious effort, as far as I know, to rescind from the Islamic Council its half million kroner a year in state support.

Does anyone in Europe realise that these peoples’ intentions are serious? They do propose to out-breed and out-immigrate non-Moslems and eventually take over and force through Islamic law. While European governments put the final touches on gay marriage the Islamists look forward to the day when they can hang all the gay people – the decision Europe made after World War Two to entirely secularise and welfarise Europe has proven disasterous on all levels, but the worst part of it seems to be that the will to live has gone out of the European population (or is it that during two world wars the best and bravest sacrificed themselves so much that there wasn’t enough physical strength to continue?).

There still is a living remnant in Europe – that small segment of the population which refused to surrender its Christian European identity. What remains to be seen is whether this remnant will be able to take over from dying secularism before the Islamists do. And we’ll also find out whether the United States will have to come to Europe’s rescue, again.

Al Gore’s new boat – the B.S. One:

But the question persists as to whether he (Gore) actually buys into what he is selling. His own behavior clearly indicates that he doesn’t believe we are at a “tipping point” of worldwide environmental destruction. While he preaches that the rest of us must dramatically change our lifestyles and lower our standards of living to “save the planet” he lives by another set of rules himself.

It happens in the air, where he jets about in private planes that consume massive amounts of energy to spread his message of “conservation.”

His hypocrisy is revealed on land, where he travels in fleets of limos and SUVs to deliver speeches about the dire consequences of ignoring “man-made global warming” — and leaves the cars running throughout his entire speech in order to ensure that they will be nice and cool when he exits the building and returns to his gas-guzzling vehicles.

His supposedly “green” mansion consumes electricity that dwarfs the consumption of the typical family home.

And now, in order to complete his hypocrisy trifecta, Al Gore may now be extending his excessive consumption to the water as well. In an amazing display of conspicuous consumption, even for Al Gore, his new 100-foot houseboat that docks at the Hurricane Marina in Smithville, Tennessee is creating a critical buzz among many of his former congressional constituents. Dubbed “Bio-Solar One,” which may reflect some latent Air Force One envy, Gore has proudly strutted the small-town dock claiming that his monstrous houseboat is environmentally friendly. (Only Al Gore would name his boat B.S. One and not get the joke. Or perhaps the joke is on us?)

There really is a sucker born every five minutes and these days they are easily identifiable – they are all leftwingers.

There’s a reason that I call them “Junior-League Leninists” – Michelle Malkin has the details of a letter sent to GOP donors which threatens them with criminal penalty regarding donations to non-party, non-candidate election activities.