That Was No Small War in Georgia - It Was the End of the American Empire

[Truth2Tell]

From: http://www.70news.com/2008/12/14/that-was-no-small-war-in-georgia-it-was-the-end-of-the-american-empire/">70News.com

This article was published in the final issue of Radar magazine, which was bought out and shuttered just as this issue went to print. This (70News) is the first online publication of this article. It has been updated by the author.

By Mark Ames, Radar
December 13, 2008

Tskhinvali, South Ossetia — On the sunny afternoon of August 14, a Russian army colonel named Igor Konashenko is standing triumphantly at a street corner at the northern edge of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, his forearm bandaged from a minor battle injury. The spot marks the furthest point of the Georgian army’s advance before it was summarily crushed by the Russians a few days earlier. “Twelve Georgian battalions invaded Tskhinvali, backed by columns of tanks, armored personal carriers, jets, and helicopters,” he says, happily waving at the wreckage, craters, and bombed-out buildings around us. “You see how well they fought, with all their great American training — they abandoned their tanks in the heat of the battle and fled.”

Konashenko pulls a green compass out of his shirt pocket and opens it. It’s a U.S. military model. “This is a little trophy — a gift from one of my soldiers,” he says. “Everything that the Georgians left behind, I mean everything, was American. All the guns, grenades, uniforms, boots, food rations — they just left it all. Our boys stuffed themselves on the food,” he adds slyly. “It was tasty.” The booty, according to Konashenko, also included 65 intact tanks outfitted with the latest NATO and American (as well as Israeli) technology.

<snip>

But listening to Colonel Konashenko, it becomes clear to me that I’m looking at more than just the smoldering remains of battle in an obscure regional war: This spot is ground zero for an epic historical shift. The dead tanks are American-upgraded, as are the spent 40mm grenade shells that one spetznaz soldier shows me. The bloated bodies on the ground are American-trained Georgian soldiers who have been stripped of their American-issue uniforms. And yet, there is no American cavalry on the way. For years now, everyone from Pat Buchanan to hybrid-powered hippies have been warning that America would suddenly find itself on a historical downslope from having been too reckless, too profligate, and too arrogant as an unopposed superpower. Even decent patriotic folk were starting to worry that America was suffering from a classic case of Celebrity Personality Disorder, becoming a nation of Tom Cruise party-dicks dancing in our socks over every corner and every culture in the world, lip-synching about freedom as we plunged headfirst into as much risky business as we could mismanage. And now, bleeding money from endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re a sick giant hooked on ever-pricier doses of oil paid for with a currency few people want anymore. In the history books of the future, I would wager that this very spot in Tskhinvali will be remembered as both the geographic highwater mark of the American empire, and the place where it all started to fall apart.

http://www.70news.com/2008/12/14/that-was-no-small-war-in-georgia-it-was-the-end-of-the-american-empire/">Continued...

...suffering from a classic case of Celebrity Personality Disorder, becoming a nation of Tom Cruise party-dicks dancing in our socks over every corner and every culture in the world, lip-synching about freedom as we plunged headfirst into as much risky business as we could mismanage.

Daaayam.

[David Dunham]

1. Russia is going on a steep downslope as oil and gas prices tumble

Putin's troubling making will soon be at an end

[thunder rising]

4. Oh? Really? And, why pray tell are you not at the horse races with that crystal ball

[Truth2Tell]

6. Which "trouble making" would that be?

Stepping in to defend the Russians in South Ossetia from Georgian aggression? Or something else? Do tell?

[Selatius]

2. We treated Russia like Weimar Germany after the Cold War ended.

We got in their backyard and in their face. It's perfectly reasonable to think they'd respond by opening relations with Latin American countries like Bolivia, Peru, or Venezuela to pay back the favor.

[David Dunham]

3. Russia's economic fall will end their international hijinx in Latin America

[thunder rising]

5. 2nd only to crash of the Great American Empire!

[Truth2Tell]

7. The Russian economy has seen a temporary dip

due to the temporary dip in commodity prices, primarily oil.

Our economy is in a long-term collapse due to unsustainable and corrupt systems.

Russia is on the way up and we are on the way down. The sooner we can grasp that and adapt to it the less it will hurt us.

[Selatius]

8. About as long as it takes for speculators to once again run up crude oil.

That will happen once the recession is finished. The long-term trend lines still point upward as far as crude prices go, and you know it.

[KakistocracyHater]

9. Bush had to do it-all the mistakes of the British Empire

what a history student! But he has always suffered from his troubles....& we got dragged along. I hope the 2 trillion wasn't our last good dollars, never to be seen or heard from again......

[Hippo_Tron]

10. It's an interesting theory, but...

It's not like that was the first time since the end of the Cold War that we haven't been able to execute our will with either actual military force or the threat thereof.