The South Ossetian War of 2008 begun eight days ago.
I've seen, heard or read about statements by the governments of Russia, Georgia, USA, Germany and France. Hey - I even heard the statements about this war of two wannabe-presidents from another continent.
Reality check: Have a look at the map!
That huge marked country south-west of tiny Georgia is Turkey.
Germany is barely visible, France and USA not at all - and this map covers a pretty large chunk of the earth's surface.
Germany, France & the USA have little to say in the conflict.
One really, truly important country in this conflict - especially in the long term - is Turkey.
Maybe I had bad luck and missed its government's statement, but Turkey surely wasn't mentioned as influential power in any discussion about the war that I observed.
Turkey has a combined military personnel strength of more than a million man, comparable military technological level as Russia and it has the majority of the NATO bases that could be used to exert any influence in Georgia.
The conflict happens in its backyard and certainly touches its interests more realistically than the interests of many other NATO nations.
It does also control the Bosporus and is certainly indispensable as base for any credible long-term guarantees if Western countries intended to give any.
Seriously, I want to know the Turkish government's take on this conflict.
Their position and intents concerning Georgia are more interesting and relevant than German, French and U.S. American ones combined.
S O
I've seen, heard or read about statements by the governments of Russia, Georgia, USA, Germany and France. Hey - I even heard the statements about this war of two wannabe-presidents from another continent.
Reality check: Have a look at the map!
That huge marked country south-west of tiny Georgia is Turkey.Germany is barely visible, France and USA not at all - and this map covers a pretty large chunk of the earth's surface.
Germany, France & the USA have little to say in the conflict.
One really, truly important country in this conflict - especially in the long term - is Turkey.
Maybe I had bad luck and missed its government's statement, but Turkey surely wasn't mentioned as influential power in any discussion about the war that I observed.
Turkey has a combined military personnel strength of more than a million man, comparable military technological level as Russia and it has the majority of the NATO bases that could be used to exert any influence in Georgia.
The conflict happens in its backyard and certainly touches its interests more realistically than the interests of many other NATO nations.
It does also control the Bosporus and is certainly indispensable as base for any credible long-term guarantees if Western countries intended to give any.
Seriously, I want to know the Turkish government's take on this conflict.
Their position and intents concerning Georgia are more interesting and relevant than German, French and U.S. American ones combined.
S O
Those important bases in Turkey would be the ones you didn't even know about until a few days ago. Right?
ReplyDeleteThe USA has a lot of influence in the area, the C-17s arriving in Georgia from Iraq and Ramstein are beyond the capabilities of almost every other country. Germany and France, as well as most of the rest of western Europe, traded away their influence to secure heating oil and natural gas supplies. Good luck with that deal.
Who does Joeschke Fischer work for currently? Probably the same people he was always working for.
No, the important bases in Turkey are Turkish and NATO bases as well as civilian infrastructure, not the marginal present U.S. presence there. 1,550 U.S. troops based in Turkey have no influence to speak of.
ReplyDeleteEspecially not in comparison to more than a million Turkish soldiers.
Some C-17's flying from airport to airport with some passengers is no greater demonstration of capability than what most 3rd World Civilian airlines are capable of.
Your attempt to misguide concerning the capabilities of non-U.S. airlift fleets is pretty poor.
I can't exactly remember what political influence Germany and France (or any other country) ever really had on Russia.
The close trade relations are lines with two ends. The Russians couldn't do very well without their gas/oil income, but we can easily generate enough electricity and cook without natural gas imports. Heating would be a bit more challenging, but only during winter.
It's especially funny to get comments about Russian gas for Europe if one considers the oil addiction of the USA.
The politician that you wanted to snipe on was Gerhard Schröder, not Joschka Fischer.
Just in case you're American; better don't snipe at foreign ex-politicians who work in supervisory boards of foreign gas companies with loyalty to their own country as long as the oil business is so strong in your own government. ;-)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI deleted a post for being offensive to Europeans in general and the German government in particular.
ReplyDeleteDon't waste your time here, troll.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe truth has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSome offensive texts that were probably chargeable as libel have been removed. That's actually an admin's legal duty
ReplyDeleteBtw:
http://defense-and-freedom.blogspot.com/2008/05/comment-policy.html.
Sven you asked;
ReplyDelete“Is this obvious option (to reduce the requirements) really a rare position?”
Paying attention to the retoric
out of Washington DC about Iran,
Syria, Russia, China, Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq, Afganistan etc.
If you follow the headlines,
Amoung those currently
calling the shots, thier quite
obviously is no concept what-so-ever of the limitations of US military abilities.
Now if you're asking if the average
"schmuck" on main street USA actually believes and subscribes
to all that, the answer is only a percentage believe as those currently in charge, that the US is virually and potentially at war with the entire world.
M
Why are people so damn rude to those who host blogs? Have they no etiquette? Or do they need to have offensive e - mails forwarded to them? To HELL with nationalism or what they call "patriotism" in some god!@#$ countries.
ReplyDelete