95km
I obviously haven’t been paying close enough attention. I just found out the distance from Ergneti in South Ossetia to the Georgian capital Tbilisi is about 95 kms. That’s like a war between Hamilton and Auckland with Pukekohe trying to breakaway from the northern Bombayians to join the Waikato. (South Ossetia has a slightly smaller population than Hamilton.) Now I know any proud Hamiltonian will tell you about the troublesome differences in culture and language that can develop over 100 kilometres, but tanks and warfare?
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August 12th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
well obviously it’s superpower games that turn it into a war
August 12th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Keith is strangely quite on this one frog, I can just imagine how he would be all over this story if the Yanks were involved.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
big bro
Its a fraction tricky to pick a side for politically correct hand wringing on this one! as Flanders would say “its a dilly of a pickle”
August 12th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Hamilton! Well, that is the one and only issue I have ever agreed with Paul Henry on. I’ve never worked out why Nandor wanted to live there.
If we ever have a civil war in New Zealand, I’ll be backing the side that promises to bring more life to Hamilton.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I would have thought the outcome of war was less life Toad.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Yes, BB. Well said, which is why we should avoid it. Now do you have a direct line to Dubya or Putin!
As for Hamilton, well, enough said!
August 12th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
big bro - The Yanks are actually very much involved, albeit behind the scenes. Georgia’s closest ally is the U.S and I have no doubts it is the U.S that is supplying Georgia with the majority of her military aid…the real agenda here is no different to Iraq - U.S desire for control over global energy resources, and Central Asia is very much part of that geographical jigsaw puzzle. This one could get very nasty if Russia refuse to “co-operate” with Uncle Sam.
I’m not in the socialist camp, however this article (and previous ones on the same subject on this website) sum up the situation rather well.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/cauc-a12.shtml
August 12th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Interesting article, Boot. I had been assuming the US government would be unhappy about it - they’ve pledged to support Georgia, but they’ve really got too many troops tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan at the moment to do so properly at the moment. But I was forgetting the upcoming presidential election - this will whip up useful fear, if they can convince the ‘american people’ to be worried by a Russian invasion of a small, remote (from the US) country whose only significance is that it has the same name as a state of the US.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:30 am
kahikatea, Georgia’s only significance to the USA is the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline which carries oil to the West from Asia.
http://wellingtonhive.blogspot.com/2008/08/russian-targets-oil-and-gas -pipe-line.html
Expect the USA to slip this one sideways into NATOs lap, for the reasons you gave.
August 13th, 2008 at 4:09 am
The western european nations will talk and yell and scream for Russia to leave Georgia but the reallity is that they along with the US are powerless to do anything and Russia knows it.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:49 am
My hopping friend, 50 km can, and has, caused far more strife than this.
From Liverpool to Manchester, a mere 30 miles,a dn yet a world apart.
The language (accent most no6ticably but actual word usage as well).
The warfare! The oonly battle more hotly contested than a Liverpool vs Manchester ( any two from two on each side) would have to be a local derby.
Tanks! Well, if you’d seen how many tanks of local ale make their way along the East Lancs road between the two cities on match day, you’d be amazed!
Like all local contests, this is about land and bragging rights. To see how it works out, a study of the history of “The Irish Problem” or “The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam” will suffice.
More from me on this in a decade or so
August 13th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Kahikatea - yes indeed with regards pre-election fear mongering…you will hear lots of this from McCain & republicans in the next few months. The main significance of Georgia to the U.S gov’t (and the oil companies who helped elect the republicans) is “as an American bridgehead into the oil and gas-rich Caspian Basin and as a strategic transit route for funneling energy supplies out of the region, while bypassing Russia”.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:29 am
# boot Says:
August 13th, 2008 at 9:17 am
> The main significance of Georgia to the U.S gov’t (and the oil companies who helped elect the republicans) is “as an American bridgehead into the oil and gas-rich Caspian Basin and as a strategic transit route for funneling energy supplies out of the region, while bypassing Russia�.
The existence of this pipeline is precisely why it doesn’t make sense for the US to want a war. The pipeline is entriely in Georgian-controlled territory, and the Georgian president is such a close ally of the US that he even pretends to admire President Bush. From an economic point of view, provoking Russia to invade and possibly damage or seize control ov the pipeline is exactly what they wouldn’t want to do.
August 13th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Strings: “My hopping friend, 50 km can, and has, caused far more strife than this. From Liverpool to Manchester, a mere 30 miles,and yet a world apart. ”
Actually, I’d note you only have to go half way down the East Lancs Road to get from people who speak Scouse (a recognisable form of English) to any of those little towns where they speak degraded wollyback, an accent so thick I cant understand what the heck they say!!!
The East Lancs Road, for the benefit of those who have never travelled it, its the (non-motorway) road that connects Liverpool and Manchester. Mancunians, of course, have the accent best understood by Kiwi’s because of Coronation Street…
August 13th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
good point kahikatea, boot’s article would seem to imply the usa was quite willing to lose georgia to russia as a pr stunt, this seems to ignore the crucial value georgia has.
i would have thought (however mccain tries to spin it, & however the democrat candidate weakly fails to capitalize on it) that this event is an absolute disaster for the republicans, it reveals the catastrophic folly of bush/cheney-regime foreign policy.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
M. Buckley
a lot of truth in that - though how they gained the name ‘woolybacks’ is still a conundrum as there were never any sheep farms in the area.
Nevermind. Those who remember the British Citizen’s guide to benefits (aka Bread) on television will have a good appreciation of speaking Scouse, if not, the book “Lern yerselve Scouse ya git” is still sold in disreputable bookshops. Those of us from West Derby Village are also available as translators for a small fee.
August 13th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
West Derby? Good heavens, its a small world. For a few years I was in a band based in that very locale, and commuted over via public transport from the Wirral a few nights a week. The father of one of my bandmates was a member of the local Conservatives Association, which enabled us to get access to the West Derby Conservatives Association’s cut price bar……