By that you mean to include, of course, the fact that there were NOT thousands dead in Tshinvali, thus completely undermining your entire theory of the conflict. I assume you also mean to include the fact that the Russians have not pulled their troops out of Georgian territory (outside of South Ossetia and Abkhazia) and have, instead, announced they *will not* pull their troops out of Georgian territory - despite the agreement they signed. I assume you also mean to include the fact that the Russians decided to sink the small Georgian coast guard - which posed, of couse, absolutely no danger to the South Ossetians but does make controlling Poti - which the Russians are dug in to do - a lot easier. I assume also you mean to reference the fact that after many, many pronouncements by the Kremlin that the clearly-profitable BTC pipeline was "un-economic" the Kremlin has, in fact, MADE that pipeline un-economic by showing they can and will shut it down whenever they feel like it.
I assume you mean those facts.
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> --- On Sun, 8/24/08, Max B. Sawicky <sawicky at verizon.net> wrote:
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>> Talked to a guy in the Gov who knows about this stuff.
>> The Russians threw some bombs at an airbase that was
>> near the pipeline. The pipe there is buried deep enough
>> so that those types of bombs would not have affected it
>> anyway. There were easier things the Russkies could have
>> done if they wanted to mess with the pipeline. All the oil
>> pipeline talk is rubbish.
"All the oil pipeline talk is rubbish" - eh?
What pipeline talk, exactly would that be? The Kremlin has said a lot of things about that pipeline that were clearly rubbish, but they contradict other things people have said about the same pipeline. So is everything anyone says about the BTC pipeline rubbish? Is oil no longer a strategic asset in your world? Is it your contention that oil had nothing at all to do with this conflict? Because it's odd, the Russians were so upset about the pipeline before and they seem so much less upset now. Why do you suppose that is? Is the leadership of the Russian nation completely content and all other issues subsided for them now that they have "saved" seventy thousand Persians?
Come on.
It would obviously be totally idiotic for the Russians to destroy the pipeline when they can control it. They are in the oil business, remember?
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