Massive artillery and air strikes, and maybe a naval blockade. Belmont: Cheney talks tough, but Russia wants regime change in Georgia now that they have taken South Ossetia.
It's half-amusing to hear the Russians speak of Georgian attacks on the Russian "peacekeeping forces." Georgians ask: “Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?”
Seems to me to be a complicated puzzle composed of South Ossetia's separatism, oil pipelines - "the West's jugular", and geopolitics.
Related: Bobby Jindal on Georgia (h/t, Insty). Jindal basically says that Obama doesn't know what he is talking about.
And a quote from EU Referendum:
Ukraine has plenty to worry about, being the next on the shopping list. After all, former President, now Prime Minister, Putin has always made it clear that he intended to restore the Soviet geopolitical territory and, in particular, he was anxious to take back the two biggest ones that got away: Ukraine and Georgia. Obviously, he meant that, if necessary, it will be done by force.
Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, has demanded a very strong response from the European Union. That will be a little hard to achieve with Germany being so dependent on Russian gas and with other West European states being more anxious "to stand up to America" than pay attention to what is going on next door to it. Well may Ukraine and the Balts worry.
And Strategy Page puts the whole mess in perspective.
