Your days of Democracy may be numbered.  The Soviets,  run by Vlad the Impaler, may come after you next.  

All kidding aside, world wars have started for less than what's now happening in Georgia.

What do you expect after that nit whit Bush said he planned to build defensive missile sites in former Soviet block countries just hundreds of miles from Russia?  Isn’t that kind of like the Soviet missile crisis?

Big difference from the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.  Defensive vs. offensive.  Now if we were going to put nukes in Poland, then I would agree with you.

what if?: the Russian invasion of Georgia begins to worry the Iranians, and allows for a moderation in their [Iranian] public declarations, leading to some sort of  detente between them and us?

Russia, be it Imperial Russia, Commie Russia, or capitalist lackey/mafia Russia has a history of not always friendly intentions toward Iran, and in 1946 the Soviet refusal to withdraw from the Iranian province of Azerbijan [spelling?] was one of the primary causes leading to the beginning of the Cold War

was one of the primary causes leading to the beginning of the Cold War??  If so, what the heck was the Berlin Airlift about..


By 1948, it became apparent that the Western Powers (Great Britain, France, and US) plan to rebuild Germany differed from the Soviet Union's plan. Currency, German Unification, Soviet War reparations, and mere ideology were among the many differences the two sides had. There would be no compromise. As a result, Stalin wanted them out of Berlin.  In early 1948, tensions between the once former Allies climaxed.  On April 9, 1948, Stalin ordered all American Military personnel maintaining communications equipment out of the Eastern Zone (Soviet controlled Berlin).  Trains were halted on June 1and June10.  On June 21, the Soviets halted a US Military Supply Train and refused it passage to Berlin.  On the 22nd, they placed armed guards aboard, attached a Soviet engine and hauled it back to Western Germany.  In a final move to spurn the Americans, British, and French out, on June 24, 1948, all land and water access to West Berlin was cut off by the Soviets.  There were to be no more supplies from the West.  What was going to happen?  Where were the necessary supplies going to come from for the Occupation Forces?  For that matter, where were the supplies for the 2,008,943 Berliners going to come from?  It was a grave situation.

What if this makes the Iranians think... oh look another problem for the Americans... let's take advantage of that opportunity.

but perhaps misdirected. I think the bigger fear is that the Iranians will cozy up to the Chinese. A PRC supported Taliban would be more than happy to allow an overland pipeline accross Afghanistan that would allow the Iranians to transport their oil without ever having to traverse the Straits of Hormuz.

Wouldn't that be wonderful? The Iranians could shut down the Straits of Hormuz through which almost 40% of the worlds oil flow without ever costing themselves a dimes worth of interrupted sales of their own crude.

At 17,075,400 square kilometers, Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than an eighth of the Earth’s land area; with 142 million people, it is the ninth largest by population. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning 11 time zones and incorporating a great range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's greatest reserves of mineral and energy resources, and is considered an energy superpower. It has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's unfrozen fresh water.

Russia has the largest known natural gas reserves of any state on earth, along with the second largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves. It is the world's second largest oil producer and, from time to time, overtakes Saudi Arabia as the world's number one.

Russia is also the world biggest natural gas producer with 22.3% of global natural gas production and also the biggest exporter with 24.0% of global natural gas export. In recent years Russia has identified the gas sector as being of key strategic importance. Many private oil and natural gas companies, most notably Yukos and Sibneft have been consolidated under the control of the state-controlled Rosneft and Gazprom respectively.

What was the little Ant of a President of Georgia thinking by firing at Russian Peace Keepers and at the citizens of a break away region holding Russian Passport. He thought the US and NATO is coming to his aide. The minute they do, it is World War III, Rusian tanks rolls into Eastern Europe, including previous East Germany.

Nice to howl from a distance, but reality is something else. Youm can't isolate them any longer, Western Europe gets most of the Natural Gas from Russia and has solidified and fortified Russian economy.

which is exactly why China is the wildcard not Russia. Russia might "want" Iran's oil, China "needs" it, and the chinese are not exactly bashful in pursuing resources deemed necessary to their national interests.

maybe i'm a victim of pinko profs, but pretty much every non-revisionist [those that do not place the burden of the cold war primarily upon the US] cites this as a cause.  probably not the biggest one, as the are is peripheral to the main area of contention in Europe, but US officials at the time definitely saw it that way. [ the Berlin blockade was probably the final straw from whichthere would be no turning off the road to the cold war. but even during the war]. when the Soviets installed puppet gov'ts in the countries they occupied as they pushed the German armies out of Eastern Europe [Poland being the best known case], and made it clear that the US?UK would have little say in the political reconstruction of EE, things ahd been slowly deteriorating.  and just like today, opinion was divided as to what it meant and what if anything could be done.