The Colonel wrote:ILWL wrote:The Colonel wrote:myron myron wrote:ILWL wrote:myron myron wrote:ILWL wrote:myron myron wrote:It now appears that Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Georgia that necessarily entailed advance planning.
As I stated in the thread about Georgia (albeit in different words), I believe this is only the first step, a dress rehearsal if you will, in an orchestrated Russian revanchism by military aggression that Putin and his former KGB cabal have been planning for years.
Interesting use of 'Full Scale' - what does that actually mean?
In this context, it means invading beyond the territory at issue with troops and weaponry in numbers obviously intended to achieve a broader objective that what has been represented.
So Troop numbers can be set in exact proportion to the (Stated) goal?
Where did I state or suggest that?
I should add that the United States and NATO fully deserve this for their illegal aggression against Serbia and forcible secession of Kosovo.
What tosh.
Why?
NATO acted as a body. Russia acts alone.
NATO stands for peace and just results. Russia is only self-interested.
NATO did not stand for peace vis-a-vis Serbia in Kosovo.
The NATO invasion of Serbia patently violated the NATO Charter, which defines NATO as a purely defensive alliance. Serbia had not attacked or initiated any military hostilities against any NATO member.
The NATO invasion of Serbia was an act of unprovoked aggression against a democratically elected government of a sovereign country that had never committed aggression outside its internationally recognized borders.
The NATO invasion of Serbia was an act of unprovoked aggression against the democratically elected government of a sovereign country that was fighting a terrorist insurgency within its internationally recognized borders. NATO fought on the side of the insurgent Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which was listed at that time as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
The NATO invasion of Serbia patently violated the UN Charter Article 2, ¶ 7, which provides that neither the UN nor any member state may interfere with what a sovereign does in its own territory, with the exception of enforcement of UN Security Council Resolutions. There was not a single UN Security Council Resolution against Serbia regarding Kosovo, so there was no issue of violations of same.
The United States/NATO made no attempt to obtain a single UN Security Council Resolution condemning Serbia or authorizing any military action against Serbia because the United States/NATO knew no basis existed for any such resolution.
The NATO invasion of Serbia was an act of unprovoked aggression that included 73 continuous days and nights of aerial bombing of civilian targets in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, even though the conflict was in Kosovo, nowhere near Belgrade.
Then NATO illegally and unjustly forced the secession of Kosovo from Serbia. The UN's
post facto imprimatur to the illegal NATO aggression against Serbia and forcible secession of Kosovo was naked winner's justice.
Precedent applies in international law. The U.S./NATO established a bad precedent with Serbia and Kosovo. The Russians can now rightly stick that precedent in the faces of the U.S. and NATO, and not only in the case of Georgia. And the Russians are right to do so.
In any event, even at full strength, I do not believe the U.S. and the UK could defend Georgia from Russian military takeover at a palatable cost in blood and treasure given the geostrategic realities.