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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Not about Ray



This post has nothing to do with Ray, Christianity or any other forms of fiction. But potentially, this is situation that could dramatically effect us all (hopefully not). There’s plenty of minds around here I’ve grown to respect and appreciate, so I was just interested if anyone has any opinions on this situation.

Do you think that US military presence, even if only in the form of humanitarian aid will be a serious potential problem?
Should we intervene even on a humanitarian level? Should we intervene militarily?

Is it all really just about this (quote below) again?


“The pipeline that crosses Georgia can pump slightly more than 1 million barrels of crude oil per day, or more than 1 percent of the world's daily crude output. The 1,100-mile pipeline carries oil from Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea fields, estimated to hold the world's third-largest reserves. Its potential vulnerability was already in the spotlight after it was sabotaged this week, apparently by Kurdish separatists.”

Reference:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/09/MNDG127U55.DTL

6 comments:

  1. Well, if you want to go political, we'll have to meet at an undisclosed destinatation.

    And fight each other for the next two thousand years..

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  2. If Georgian President Sakashvili (sp?) thinks the US can pull his nuts outta the fire then he should look up "Hungary 1956" or "Iraq 1991." Russia set a trap and that poor fool walked right into it. He and his countrymen will be lucky to survive.

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  3. I'm against intervening in any way other than on a strict humanitarian level. Bush said that our humanitarian aid will be 'vigorous and ongoing' and when he uses those words about almost anything anymore, even his morning dump, I get nervous.

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  4. Maryanne,

    I would agree. The US government (all nations, really) don't act out of moral obligation, but self-interest. But I guess the question in this case is how much ineterst do they have in protecting that oil?

    BTW, to all you non-believers, this situation was predicted in the bible...

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  5. If it was any other country but the US of the past seven years, I wouldn't view it so badly.

    But their actions have just continued to show a blatant disregard for any actual desire for peace, so I can't imagine this is the right thing.

    Otherwise, if Russia is illegally attacking a foreign country, then the UN does have the right to step in.

    I need to brush up on the issue.

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  6. Well, politics can cause even more rancor than religion, but here goes..

    That oil pipeline is a major part of the issue. After all, we all use oil, right?

    Georgia is a sovereign nation, with a democratically elected government. They, along with Ukraine, and most of the former Soviet Satellite nations want to be part of the "liberal, democratic west".

    Russia is becoming more and more authoritarian, less liberal and democratic. Putin would like nothing better to reassert Russian control over those former satellite nations.

    There isn't a lot the United States could do militarily even if we were so inclined. So, the Georgians are probably fucked.

    The one thing that keeps popping up in my head is George Bush saying he knows Putin is a good man, because he wears a cross his mother gave him. And they call Obama inexperienced and naive.

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