PoliticalCitizen

Are you talking about that Croatian crap post?

Does Gov. Schwarzennegger have these? Aaahhh, if he could only run for President...

I got a laminated card in the early 90's

I guess you're right - it is still better than to name it "Peace"ship and deliver weapons...

I am more Canadian than you - fluent in both English and French Besides, I may have been in Canada for longer than you are alive Thank god for that Here I have to agree with you for the first time. Some of these new Canadians don't speak and don't care to learn English (or French). Others drive and behave like their back in their homeland - with no respect to people arond them. Some are racist, some are supremacist... Oh boy... But that's a different topic.

Can you give me a link? I'd like to educate myself

Isn't that the purpose of a "war"ship?

Yes, Angus, I agree. It would be foolish not to recognize that NATO (an alliance of 26 countries, G7 included, at least half are highly developed and industrialized with their own powerful military) is stronger than a single country Russia (even with whatever little satellite countries it may have. So there's no question as to who's stronger. The question is: Why is NATO needed? To protect who from whom? Or to attach who?

It is noted that usually people care about politics in poorer countries... with no big-screen TVs what can be better than than talk to your neighbor about how both of you are smarter then the world leaders

LOL You sound like the embodyment of the stereotype American: ignorant, insolent, arrogant, and proud. There are lies being told by both sides, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. I may sound devote pro-Russian but I am not. I am pro-balance. I am Canadian and hope my country (Canada) will grow up and get its own political voice, not just bark at the command of the master. US has definitely done and continues to do GOOD to the world, which by far outweighs the BAD and the UGLY it has done so far. But if you respect your citizens - tell them you screwed up when you do BAD, don't try calling it GOOD or you'll be called on it. When one of your allies does something UGLY - don't call it GOOD. Russia has done a lot more UGLY than US, especially to its own people. But in the Caucasus region it has definitely done more GOOD than BAD.

A necessary sacrifice... Nothing like supersonic torpedoes to sink those behemoth aircraft carriers I think China has them on their subs too now. Chinese subs should be more expendable The rest are conscripts... wouldn't want to be one of them...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206..._8&refer=us Georgia War Shows Russia `Force to Be Reckoned With' (Update1) By Sebastian Alison Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- When British General Sir Michael Rose commanded United Nations forces protecting Bosnia in the mid-1990s, he gained first-hand knowledge of Russia's army, which participated in the mission. ``They were worse than useless,'' the 68-year-old retired officer said in an interview. Not any more. Russia's five-day drubbing of the U.S.-trained and equipped Georgian military this month followed a 5 trillion ruble ($200 billion) buildup undertaken in 2006 and lessons learned from misadventures in Afghanistan and Chechnya. ``Today they're a reinvented institution and a military force to be reckoned with'' after ``10 years of humiliation and pressure from NATO,'' Rose said.

Well, you know what happened to the country of Yugoslavia... Same can be said about NATO. Well, actually NATO does much, much worse... It is an alliance that picked on little countries and ripped them appart... f*cked them up real good... hanged them out to dry... while Russia was watching madly and helplessly. It's payback time.

If you choose to see only black noone can make you believe it is white or there are colors...

Of course... Let's use some commentaries from FOX News as well - those shoud also be objective and unbiased. Oh yes - ask Miliband if the Iraqis voted for UK and Georgian soldiers on their land...

Status update: Georgia has severed all diplomatic ties with Russia. Earlier Georgian parliament ruled to consider all Russian troops on the territory of Georgia "proper", South Ossetia and Abkhazia "occupational".

Enlighten me, August. What does Scientific Method mean and how is it related to evidence? It is dark in my cave... can barely make out the markings on the wall... Did you believe in 9 / 11? It seems absurd to many foreigners... How did US Administration expect the world to believe it? Did you believe in Osama in Afganistan? How about WMD in Iraq? Now the last we all know now was a lie... What did the Scientific Method say about that? The link is not some obscure site - this is what the Russian Government sais to the world. Even if it would be a lie - do you believe there were no Americans involved in the onslaught on Tshinval? 1000 military trainers on Georgian territory - and none involved? You appear to be a knowledgeable and intelligent person, therefore it shouldn't be impossible for you to just admit that there is most likely no TRUTH in either US or Russian interpretation of things - the TRUTH is in between.

Not literally one man, and Bush Jr. less than anybody... but the collective brain behind his administration, making all the other NATO countries dance to its tune. You and others keep saying "Bush will go" as if it changes anything. Absolutely nothing will change and things can only become worse if McCain wins. Whatever complications happen now can only play into Republicans' hand (We told you we're at war! We told you they're the enemy! Now you need us and our militaristic politics even more!) But frankly, I'm not sure if Barak will have the desire, the gut or the possibility to really change things around. It started before Bush Jr., during Clinton time - that's when NATO bombed Serbia. As Paul Wolfowitz said: "We've got to take the war to the enemy. We've got to keep surprising the enemy with things that they're not expecting." And of course, with this kind of foreign policy there will be more and more "enemies", and then more "terrorists" trying to defend their homeland. At least with Putin you know who exactly is running the country. He's not a puppet manipulated by shadowy figures linked to oil and weapons production. He's calling the shots. He's been running the country for over 8 years and so far - so good. Let's see where the recent escalation takes us... Oh yeah - he's also not afraid to speak directly to Western media (as in give exclusive interviews), and speaks his mind. He has not changed constitution like Lukashenko to stay President indefinitely, so at least he makes an honest effort to play by the "democratic" rules.

Just for you, my friend - a Chinese source (not Russian): http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/...ent_9727998.htm As you can see, there's almost NOTHING about Abkhazia or South Ossetia, but there's a lot about friendly relations between Russia and China. That's what I call (you are correct - it's an opinion that can be considered personal) silent agreement. As in: "We both know sh*t happened, it doesn't matter whose fault it was, you did what you needed to do. When it will be our turn to do what we need we expect you to be silent about it as well. "

From Russia Today: August 29, 2008, 2:29 U.S. citizen was among Georgian commandos - Russian Military A U.S. passport was found in a building in South Ossetia occupied by Georgian troops, a Russian military spokesperson revealed on Thursday. After Russian peacekeepers cleared the heavily defended building, a passport belonging to a Texan named Michael Lee White was discovered inside. Deputy Chief of Russia's General Staff Anatoly Nagovitsyn showed photocopies of the passport to media in a press briefing on Thursday. “There is a building in Zemonekozi - a settlement to the south of Tskhinval that was fiercely defended by a Georgian special operations squad. Upon clearing the building, Russian peacekeepers recovered, among other documents, an American passport in the name of Michael Lee White of Texas," said Nagovitsyn. Neither the owner of the passport nor his remains were found at the scene, despite a thorough search. "I do not know why he was there, but it is a fact that he was in the building, among Georgian special forces troops,” Nagovitsyn said. The briefing was delivered on the same day Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told CNN, "We have serious reasons to believe that American citizens were right at the heart of the military action". Putin said the conflict in South Ossetian may have been planned to benefit one of the U.S. presidential candidates.

As I said before, according to both Russian media and an analysis published by Reuters, Abkhazia can do it on its own (with Russia being the biggest and for now the only economic partner). Its economy is mostly fueled by tourism to the Black Sea resorts. South Ossetia is to small and lacks the necessary structures to make it on its own. In the future it may opt to join North Ossetia within Russian Federation.

Sad indeed. The whole NATO appears to be a one-man show. There were reports of US envoys that instructed countries - members of NATO on how it is correct to react to the Georgian conflict. Uncle Sam sais BARK!! - Bow, wow, wow... Why was Schroder replaced with Merkel? Why was Chirac replaced with Sarkozi? They dared having their own opinions, even barked up the wrong tree sometimes... Russia, on the other hand, is not forcing any country to recognize Abkhazia or South Ossetia. They believe governments are intellingent enough to make their own decisions. What's even sadder is that members of this forum - who are mostly thinking people - accept the polarization that your "free" press gives to anything it reports as natural. Just think about it for a second... Iraqi "INSURGENTS" (not fighters for the liberation of their homeland) Palestinian "TERRORISTS" (not fighters for the liberation of their homeland) Russian "AGGRESSION" (not defence of civilian citizens) War on "TERROR" (not civilians, not local population, not DELIBERATE AGGRESSION AND CONTINUED OCCUPATION OF SOVEREIGN COUNTRIES") Black and White...

They appear to be on a planned exercise (let's hope that's what it really is): http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2008/p08-110e.html NATO ships in Black Sea on routine visit, unrelated to Georgia crisis The Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1), a group of NATO warships, conducts routine port visits and exercises with NATO member nations bordering the Black Sea since 21 August. This deployment is routine in nature and has been planned for over a year, notification of the requirement to transit the Turkish Straits was given in June well before the current Georgia crisis and is completely unrelated. In accordance with the terms of the Montreux Convention, the ships will stay no longer than 21 days in the Black Sea. SNMG 1 currently comprises the Spanish SPS Adm Juan de Borbon, the German, FGS Luebeck and the Polish, ORP General K Pulaski and the US frigate, USS Taylor. A fifth member of SNMG1, the Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec, was recently detached from the group to escort World Food Programme shipping off the coast of Somalia under Canadian national authority. The ships are currently in Constanta, Romania and will conduct exercises with Bulgarian and Romanian ships as well as paying a port visit to Varna, Bulgaria before leaving the Black Sea. SNMG 1 is one of NATO’s standing elements, a group of member nations' frigates and destroyers, who exercise together year round to promote interoperability. Vice-Admiral Pim Bedet, Deputy Commander Allied Maritime Component Command Headquarters Northwood stated “SNMG1, as a standing core element of the NATO Response Force, is conducting a pre-planned routine visit to the Black Sea region to interact and exercise with our NATO partners Romania and Bulgaria, which is an important feature of our routine planning in order to maintain high levels of interoperability and cohesion within the Alliance."

Old Russian offencive equipment can still penetrate most modern US defensive systems, so there's no point in modernizing it yet. 30% of Russian army (which is over 1 Mil) are professionals.

China silently agreed to Russia's actions (a big power has to do whatever the hell it needs to do) but there's NO WAY China will openly support recognizing break-away regions as states (Tibet anyone?)