Bush's role in the Georgia-Russia Conflict

I noted earlier Brendan O'Neil's observations on how Bush's insane policies helped trigger this crisis. It will be a while before such analysis will be openly presented in the US--after all, people have been called unpatriotic for ordering "french fries" instead of "freedom fries" :-)

Here is Fred Kaplan, one of the best analysts around:
Regardless of what happens next, it is worth asking what the Bush people were thinking when they egged on Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's young, Western-educated president, to apply for NATO membership, send 2,000 of his troops to Iraq as a full-fledged U.S. ally, and receive tactical training and weapons from our military. Did they really think Putin would sit by and see another border state (and former province of the Russian empire) slip away to the West? If they thought that Putin might not, what did they plan to do about it, and how firmly did they warn Saakashvili not to get too brash or provoke an outburst?

Stalin in the Russia-Georgia war

Russia has now full control of the city of Gori in Georgia, according to reports. Gori's other notoriety comes from Stalin--"Joseph Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis Dzhugashvili in Gori, ", says Wikipedia.

So, where were some of the Soviet leaders born? (all from Wikipedia)
Lenin: (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) Born in Simbirsk (renamed Ulyanovsk after its most famous son), in the Russian Empire
Trotsky: born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (alternative English spelling: Bronshtein) on November 7, 1879, in Yanovka, Kherson Province of the Russian Empire (today's Ukraine)
Khrushchev: born in Kalinovka (Russia/Ukraine border)
Brezhnev: born in Kamenskoe (now Dniprodzerzhyns'k) in Ukraine
Andropov: born in Stavropol --way southwestern tip of Russia
Chernenko: born in the village of Bolshaya Tes (now in Novosyolovsky District, Krasnoyarsk Krai).
Gorbachev: born in Stavropol. (hey, the same place as Andropov, or are these two different Stavropol?)
Yeltsin: born in the village of Butka, in Talitsky District of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.
Putin: born in Leningrad (well, St. Petersburg now)

Now you know :-)

The coming complete breakdown in Pakistan

Musharraf faces impeachment proceedings. I can't imagine him exiting quietly if the impeachment process successfully goes through all the constitutional steps. I bet American, Indian, and Afghan leaders are charting out possible scenarios, and preparing themselves on diplomatic and military fronts.

While that is slowly unfolding, Der Spiegel reports on the mystery that the nuclear program of Pakistan is. In discussing it, the report observes, The Islamic Republic, flanked by crisis-torn Afghanistan and its eternal rival India, faces international criticism as a hotbed of Islamist violence. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier recently accused Pakistan of often being a "starting point for terrorism in Afghanistan." US presidential candidate Barack Obama has said that he would launch military strikes without consulting with the regime in Islamabad if he had precise information about the whereabouts of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.Even the Bush administration, long soft on Musharraf, is now taking a tougher approach.

Along with complaints about Musharraf's treatment of the notorious AQ Khan, his wife asks, "why is it even called the "Islamic Bomb"? Was the American one a "Christian Bomb"? The Israeli a "Jewish Bomb"? Was the Chinese a "Buddhist" or "Atheist" bomb? Was the Indian one a "Hindu Bomb"? Right from the time it first became known that Pakistan had a nuclear program, the whole Western world, with America and Britain at the forefront, were up in arms and did all they could to prevent our success.
I think she raises good questions.

But, at the end of the day, it is not AQ Khan who needs to tell all--it is Musharraf. And, the tough ex-commando that he is, Musharraf will not utter a word. And, definitely, he will not provide the answer to the question that Jon Stewart asked him :-)