Brace Yourselfs for Cold War II

If Cold War II is coming, who started it?

The swift and decisive action of Russia's army in running the Georgian forces out of South Ossetia in 24 hours after Georgian President Saakashvili began his barrage and invasion suggests Russia's power man Vladimir Putin knew exactly what Saakashvili was up to and dropped the hammer on him.

Had Georgia been in NATO when President Saakashvili invaded South Ossetia, the U.S would be eyeball to eyeball with Russia, facing war in the Caucasus, where Russia's superiority is as great as U.S. superiority in the Caribbean during the Cuban missile crisis. If the Russia-Georgia war proves nothing else, it is the insanity of giving erratic hotheads in volatile nations the power to drag the United States and NATO into war.

How all this started?

The arrogant folly of the architects of U.S. post-Cold War policy is today on display. By bringing three ex-Soviet republics into NATO, they have moved the U.S. red line for war from the Elbe almost to within artillery range of the old Leningrad.

Should the U.S admit Ukraine into NATO, Yalta, vacation resort of the Russian czars, will be a NATO port and Sevastopol, traditional home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, will become a naval base for the U.S. Sixth Fleet.

This is altogether a bridge too far. Should Russia sits idly by while U.S and NATO encircle Russia? Should Russia allow it's territory to be within striking range of U.S and NATO forces?

Oil and Gas from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan belonged to Russia since during the Cold War. Can we not understand why Russia would smolder as avaricious Western powers built pipelines to siphon the oil and gas of the Caspian Basin through breakaway Georgia to the West?

For a dozen years, Russia watched as U.S. agents helped to dump over regimes in Ukraine and Georgia that were friendly to Moscow.

If Cold War II is coming, who started it, if not the U.S?

The war in Georgia has exposed the dangerous overextension of U.S. power. There is no way America can fight a war with Russia in the Caucasus with their army tied down in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S must decide whether it wants a partner in a flawed Russia or a second Cold War. For if the U.S want another Cold War, they are, by cutting Russia out of the oil of the Caspian and pushing NATO into her face, going about it exactly the right way.

A resurgent Russia is no threat to any vital interests of the United States. It is a threat to an American Empire that presumes some God-given right to plant U.S. military power in the backyard or on the front porch of Mother Russia.