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Rochey wrote:Personaly I think the entire Georgian government should be awarded honourary Darwin Awards. They might not be dead, but it isn't from lack of trying.

I wouldn't go that far. They responded to an attack in the same way any country would - by counter-attacking. The downside was that the lot who attacked them had some rather large friends, who'd been orchestrating the entire campaign from the get-go specifically to provoke the Georgians into attacking and providing an excuse to invade and (re)establish their sphere of influence over the area.

I'd consider filling an area full of rockets when you already knew there were Russian troops in there to be pretty damn stupid, regardless of what happened before that. Regardless of whether the Russians stirred up the conflict in the area, it was the Georgian government who eventualy decided "hey, let's go lob some bombs at the Russians". I have sympathy for the Georgian people stuck in the middle of this, but none for the idiots who started it.

The short version is that the Georgians were responding to artillery fire from South Ossetia - can't really blaim them for that. The problems were caused by a) the South Ossetians (literally) hiding behind Russian troops and b) the fact that most of the drama merchents in question were Russian citizens thanks to the Kremlin handing out Russian passports like confetti.

Still the Georgians were kinda stupid about it. If they didn't "level the town" they should have somehow tried to get western media involved so Russia couldn't claim they did. The provoke a response and then use it as an excuse to come down hard isn't exactly a new and shocking tactic.

Though interestingly it sounds like the Russians lost planes in all this. The exact number is disputed. But Georgia didn't have advanced American systems, just the old Russian stuff our F-16s found they could deal with easily in Serbia and Iraq.

That makes me feel better that Russia is still in the late 80s with their military technology.

Monroe wrote:That makes me feel better that Russia is still in the late 80s with their military technology.

An ICBM is an ICBM is an ICBM...

KuvahMagh wrote:

Monroe wrote:That makes me feel better that Russia is still in the late 80s with their military technology.

An ICBM is an ICBM is an ICBM...

Don't burst my bubble!

Well lets hope your next President can figure that out. Russia wants back in on things and they have an arsenal that can let them back in, not to mention the rest of the world has been aiding their economy by jacking up oil prices... 3 superpowers at once, I wonder which will fall first...

Russia isn't a super power and I don't see them becoming a super in the near future. Its between the US and China right now. In truth I think its going to stay that way for a while to. China is the up and coming and the US is the empire in decline. Russia is a has been.

KuvahMagh wrote:

Monroe wrote:That makes me feel better that Russia is still in the late 80s with their military technology.

An ICBM is an ICBM is an ICBM...

Except when it's shrapnel flying through outer space. Which is why they don't like the intercepters we're tying to plant up their butt and why they're trying to get nuclear bombers set up closer to the US.

The want superpower type respect and they can only afford to use nukes to get it.

Though they may come back. They're still big, have a populace that is willing to fall in line, and they've got oil money flooding in. In a future that might feature the US having to drop the ball in order to deal with our massive debt, and the rest of the west being indavidually weak and unable to work together meaningfully Russia and China could be the new superpowers.

I guess here's hoping that India can join them at some point.

Russia starts up trouble and you just block their oil and natural gas sales. They'd fall right back into that pit they came from. They are still 20 years behind NATO and China is using its massive trade funds to play catch up. The Russians are what China has been for the last 50 years. A local power, a major local power but still nothing more then local.

Their airforce is still living in the early 80's. Their navy not even that good. Their ground forces are at best not much better then they were during Vietnam.

Deepcrush wrote:Russia starts up trouble and you just block their oil and natural gas sales. They'd fall right back into that pit they came from. They are still 20 years behind NATO and China is using its massive trade funds to play catch up. The Russians are what China has been for the last 50 years. A local power, a major local power but still nothing more then local.

Their airforce is still living in the early 80's. Their navy not even that good. Their ground forces are at best not much better then they were during Vietnam.

Block their oil and gas that's on their land huh? How do you expect to do that and not screw over Europe who buys the majority of their heating fuel from Russia.

Russia starts up trouble and you just block their oil and natural gas sales. They'd fall right back into that pit they came from.

Yeah thats not gonna happen.

Russia starts up trouble and you just block their oil and natural gas sales. They'd fall right back into that pit they came from.

You do realise that most of Europe gets their fuel from the Russians, right? Stop the Russians selling it and you f*ck your allies in Europe up.

Rochey wrote:

Russia starts up trouble and you just block their oil and natural gas sales. They'd fall right back into that pit they came from.

You do realise that most of Europe gets their fuel from the Russians, right? Stop the Russians selling it and you f*ck your allies in Europe up.

When has that ever stopped the US... but seriously, the way the world depend on Oil you can't do that. Even if Europe could get it from elsewhere that will just spike the prices to crazy levels, you think the economy is bad now... wait till you take an entire continents oil supply away and give them part of ours...The real kicker is that you do that and places like Iran & Saudi Arabia, the ones who are actually financing the terrorists make even more money... Not even Bush is that retarded... well maybe...