Bush warns Russia; Medvedev orders halt to action…

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush consulted Tuesday with fellow leaders in Eastern and Western Europe about the crisis in the former Soviet republic of Georgia while aides scrambled to evaluate a Russian promise to stop attacking its neighbor. The White House also rejected a Russian call for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to step down.

Earlier, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered a halt to its military action in Georgia, saying the campaign had brought security in its South Ossetia region that is close to Moscow.

“The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses. Its military has been disorganized,” Medvedev said in a nationally televised statement.

His order came just hours after Bush’s strongest statement on the fighting since it began at the end of last week. He demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from Georgia, end what he called a “dramatic and brutal escalation” of violence, and accept international mediation to end the crisis. Bush said Russia’s actions had “substantially damaged Russia’s standing in the world.”

SNIP

Attacks continue…

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) – Russia ordered a halt to military action in Georgia on Tuesday, after five days of air and land attacks sent Georgia’s army into headlong retreat and left towns and military bases destroyed.

Georgian officials insisted that Russia has continued the bombings despite the pledge, but Russia denied that.

Hours before the Russian announcement, Russian forces bombed the crossroads city of Gori and launched an offensive in the part of separatist Abkhazia still under Georgian control, sending in 135 military vehicles – including tanks – and tightening the assault on the beleaguered nation.

Gori was all but deserted late Monday – most remaining residents and Georgian soldiers fled ahead of a feared Russian onslaught.

SNIP

Once again Russian aggression has reared its ugly head and as usual the Russians appear to be saying one thing while doing something else entirely.

If Georgia is allowed to fall who’s next, the Baltic States, the Ukraine, or some other nation poor in military assets?
 
Russia is beginning its quest to reassemble the empire it lost when the USSR went out of business.  If we don’t stop this PDQ, then we’ll have once again shown that our word is worthless and as an ally we suck.

Some say there should be a NATO response to this naked aggression.  Well the US is NATO and if we don’t lead the way no one other nation is going to step and do what should be done.  (We won’t even get into how useless the UN is at time like this, because that is a self evident fact)

We told Georgia we were their friend and Georgia did send troops to Iraq.  The US has the military power and the technology advantage to help Georgia.  Let’s see we have the balls to meet Russian aggression head on or we’re only able to kick around 4th and 5th rate nations like Iraq and Afghanistan.  And no I don’t want to hear that the US doesn’t have a dog in this fight because we most assuredly do have a dog in the fight.