But the best part was his discussion of US media. Putin says:

Let’s recall, for example, the interview with that 12-year-old girl and her aunt, who, as I understand, live in the United States and who witnessed the events in South Ossetia. The interviewer at one of the leading channels, Fox News, was interrupting her all the time. All the time, he interrupted her. As soon as he didn’t like what she was saying, he started to interrupt her, he coughed, wheezed and screeched. All that remained for him to do was to soil his pants, in such a graphic way as to stop them. That’s the only thing he didn’t do, but, figuratively speaking, he was in that kind of state. Well, is that an honest and objective way to give information? Is that the way to inform the people of your own country? No, that is disinformation.

Now, this is not to say I’d like to live in Russia, given that Putin and his government (and anyone who thinks they’re not purely authoritarian, needs to have their head examined), but he puts Bush to shame.

And, for those interested, they should go read a diary I posted over at Talkleft on this matter – “Georgia on my mind”. It seemed fairly obvious to me weeks ago – absent reading or receiving any commentary from the media – that the Georgian war was purely a confection of Bushco trying to bolster their own position and start a new Cold War to benefit their arms-making, arms-dealing buddies in corporate America. After all, a high-tech development-pushing Cold War against a first-world economy is insanely more profitable than a low-level insurgency against a bunch of guys living in caves, where the work is done and money spent on shoe leather and rifle ammunition.

Interesting op-ed today from one of those colorless establishment opinionator’s the Post features, Jackson Diehl.

He refers to Saakashvili as “The Troublemaker In Chief”

He’s evidently the responsible wing of our establishment, i.e., the kind of op-ed writer they hedge bets with, as he crafts a narrative that makes out Saakashvili to be a lone hothead:

The irony is that, beneath that overweening campaign to contain Russian belligerence, American officials are still seething at Saakashvili. His impulsive and militarily foolhardy attack on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 8 opened the way for Putin’s aggression.

HRW has alleged that
a) Russia used cluster bombs against civilians,
b) and has rejected claims by Russia that Georgia was carrying out “genocide” in South
Ossetia.

comment:
a) I posted upthread MoA’s discussion of this. There are 2 alleged incidents of cluster bomb use. The 1st HRW originally attributed to Russia. They have subsequently corrected that, identifying said cluster bomb casing as Israeli made. Russia still is attributed with the 2nd incident, although there is dispute about identification of those as well. What I haven’t seen is any evidence of damage from Russian cluster bombs.

b) From everything I’ve been able to gather, that’s true: genocide is much too strong a word, and doesn’t describe SAAK’s (Cheney’s?) motive. But Georgia most certainly targeted civilian areas initially & w/out provocation. Unless Russia’s significant investment in improved transportation from their interior to South Ossetia are legitimate “provocation”. And if they are, then provocation has become another humpty-dumpty “means what I want” word.

I would also point out Russia has had peacekeepers in North Ossetia since the early 90s. Ossetia’s “independence” has been internationally recognized since then, with statements from the UN acknowledging such and also acknowledging SOUTH Ossetia’s implied association with it’s northern half.

There’s a lot of good info out there on the Georgia & Ossetia cultures/history/etc., and they are very much distinct. Both Ossetia’s have, by choice, declared their desire to be associated w/the Russian Federation. Point being, from everything I gather (and I’m sure no expert… just tried to piece together a coherant picture of all this) all the stuff I’ve read from r-wing/Town Hall/WSJ OpED (etc.) suggesting the resurrection of Russian Soviet style expansion is just provocative bull shit: The Ossetians want this relationship w/Russia, and do now want to be dominated by a Georgian state.

On August 8, Russia appealed to the UN (immediately after SAAK’s bombing began) asking for the council to issue a renunciation of Georgia’s use of force. A draft statement was rejected by US/UK/France:

Following the first, midnight meeting at which a three sentence press statement proposed by Russia was rejected by the U.S., France, the UK and others due to its reference to renouncing the use of force, Inner City Press asked Amb. Alasania if all was quiet on the Abkhaz front. “I hope so,” he answered.

Less than 24 hrs later, Russian troops were in South Ossetia.

Bernard also documents US/Gondaleeza/US DOS shenanigans and outright falsehoods regarding the ceasefire agreement here. DOS statements that graced US headlines I saw completely distorted the actual agreement, citing instead DOS wishlists never agreed to by Russia. CNN reported (and I saw this same headline & quote in WP/NYT/ABQJournal etc etc.):

An immediate concern expressed by all sides involved buffer zones outside of two Georgian breakaway provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia insists it has the right to create these zones under the cease-fire deal, but (U.S. Deputy State Department spokesman) Wood said, “Establishing check-points and buffer zones are definitely not part of the agreement.”

Well, it was. (Again Bernard documents this in yeoman’s fashion. I know he pokes his head in here now and again, be nice if he showed up and said his piece).

My own opinion: just another BushCo keystone cops (lack of) diplomacy imbroglio… one of many littering his presidency.

I’m a programmer/tech guy, for many years now. I participate on a number of tech forums, all well represented by similar professionals from all over the planet. Because of the volatility invoked by Bush (Iraq) these geo-political consequences have woven into what used to be exclusively tech talk on most of these forums.

Most of these folks are smart, informed, intelligent folks. Almost to a person, utter scorn for US policy/actions is the norm. The European folks I know (going back 15+ yrs now) from these groups, representing Germany/Scandevia/Norway/Russia/Ukraine (eg. all of it) pretty much have harmonious view of this event consistent w/what I’ve had to say in this thread. And in these international episodes, US press has gotten so bad (almost mythological) that I routinely spend endless hours (what a waste, as consequence of unbelievable media) scouring international sources for more realistic view of things.

FWIW, I’m quite disappointed that Obama jumped forthright into the accepted US storyline on this Georgia thing. He’s done that on other stuff as well. From my POV it greatly dillutes his standing, particularly when confronting Palin’s “I lived next to Russia” foreign policy experience.

(apologies if I’ve gotten longwinded on this one. This one’s very high on my own “state of the nation point-o-meter”, and another big plot on the line of BushCo’s “leadership” right into 3rd world country status.)