"US ship arrives in Georgia with food, support; Warship would worsen tension, Russia suggests" by David Rising, Associated Press | August 25, 2008
ABOARD THE USS MCFAUL - A US Navy destroyer loaded with humanitarian aid reached Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi yesterday, bringing baby food, bottled water and a message of support for an embattled ally.
Before the warship arrived, a Russian general suggested US ships moving across the Black Sea would worsen tensions already driven to a post-Cold War high by a short but intense war between Russia and Georgia.
"The population of Georgia will feel more safe from today from the Russian aggression," David Kezerashvili, Georgia's defense minister, said on the aft missile deck of the McFaul after greeting US Navy officers in crisp white uniforms on shore.
"They will feel safe not because the destroyer is here but because they will feel they are not alone facing the Russian aggression," he added. Local children offered the Americans wine and flowers.
You mean, like the one in Gaza, MSM?
(Blog author thinking "fuck you, MSM assholes.")
The guided missile cruiser USS McFaul, carrying about 55 tons of humanitarian aid, is the first of three American ships scheduled to arrive this week. It brought baby food, diapers, bottled water, milk, and hygiene products. Sailors in a chain on deck passed the supplies up from the hold to be lifted by a crane for transport to shore.
The commander of the US task force carrying aid to Georgia by ship, Navy Captain John Moore, downplayed the significance of a destroyer bringing aid. "We really are here on a humanitarian mission," he said.
Then WHY the FIREPOWER?
The McFaul, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, is outfitted with an array of weaponry, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads, and a sophisticated radar system. For security reasons the Navy does not say whether ships are carrying nuclear weapons, but they usually do not.
But we don't know, huh?
See: U.S. Planning Nuclear Strike on Russia?
The deputy chief of Russia's general staff suggested that the arrival of US and other NATO ships in the Black Sea would increase tensions.
That's also the impression I got when I saw the story.
Russia shares the sea with NATO members Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria as well as Georgia and Ukraine, whose pro-Western presidents are leading drives for NATO membership.
"I don't think such a buildup will foster the stabilization of the atmosphere in the region," Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn as saying Saturday.
A US official said the American ship anchored in Batumi, Georgia's main oil port on the Black Sea, because of concerns about damage to the Georgian port of Poti - not because Poti is closer to Russian forces in Abkhazia and Georgia proper.
That's why we are there -- oil pipeline!!!!
Russian troops still hold positions near Poti, and Georgian port officials say radar, Coast Guard ships and other port facilities were extensively damaged by Russian forces. AP journalists there have reported on Russians looting the area.
Given the AP's shit record on reporting, I will dismiss this as propaganda -- either that, or Georgian forces in Russian uniforms.
Not falling for that shit no more, MSM!
Adding to the tension, South Ossetian officials alleged that Georgia was building up military forces in an area along the edge of the battered region and had fired sporadically at villages overnight.
Oh, I see!! It is O.K. for GEORGIA to BUILD UP THEIR MILITARY FORCES!!!!!
As Moscow's military moved to redraw de facto borders on the ground, Russia's parliament today was planning to consider renewed requests from South Ossetia and Abkhazia for recognition of their claims of independence from Georgia.
I LIKE the IDEA!!! Think KOSOVO, American shit-sucker!
--more--"
And then the foreboding fleet:
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine - Russia's guided missile cruiser Moskva appeared suddenly on the horizon, dark and imposing like a fortress in the twilight, and steamed Saturday into this Black Sea port, where its sailors were given a hero's welcome.
Is the biased propaganda something else or what?
"Russia! Russia!" chanted hundreds of supporters from the embankment, as fireworks burst. The ship, more than 600 feet long and bristling with guns and missile launchers, was one of several from the Black Sea Fleet that patrolled the coast of Georgia during the conflict between it and Russia.
As opposed to the HUMANITARIAN U.S. destroyer!!! Do I even have to say it?
The fleet - which the Russians say sank a Georgian gunboat that fired on them - is based here in Sevastopol, a city populated mainly by ethnic Russians.
The next day, in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, President Viktor A. Yushchenko presided over the first military parade in years - with a massive display of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and missile launchers - to celebrate his country's 17th year of independence from the Soviet Union.
Drawing Ukraine intio the battle and ADVANCING the WWIII AGENDA!!!!
Russia's willingness to send troops into Georgia, another former Soviet republic, to settle their territorial dispute this month has made Ukraine jittery, and the pro-Western Yushchenko used the celebration to again push for inclusion in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
"We must speed up our work to achieve membership of the European system of security and raise the defense capabilities of the country," Yushchenko said in a televised speech to thousands gathered in the city's main Independence Square. "Only these steps will guarantee our security and the integrity of our borders."
The dueling celebrations, one rejoicing in Russia's military might and the other overshadowed by it, underscore the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, where leaders had hoped the days of Russian dominance were long over. They also highlight Sevastopol's status as something of a fault line between the two countries.
There is ANOTHER WAR FRONT in the WWIII!!!
Though it is in Ukraine's southern Crimean peninsula, Sevastopol is ethnically and culturally very much a Russian town.
Independence, independence, independence!
Crimea, connected to Ukraine by a slender causeway, was in fact considered a part of Russia, until Nikita S. Khrushchev, the Ukrainian-born Soviet leader, bequeathed it to Kiev as an act of good will in 1954. What was considered a purely symbolic gesture at the time, however, assumed monumental importance with the breakup of the Soviet Union. Crimea - wrested from the Turkic Tatars in the late 18th century under Catherine the Great - was now a part of Ukraine.
And with it went Sevastopol, the strategic base for the Black Sea Fleet for more then 200 years and a city of deep emotional resonance for Russians. After the Soviet breakup, Moscow and Kiev wrangled first over the ownership of the fleet - of which the Kremlin finally took the lion's share. Then they argued over the terms by which Russia could continue to use the base. The two countries agreed on a 20-year renewable lease in 1997.
Then WHY a PROBLEM?
The Russians HAVE A CONTRACT to be there!!!!
With the ascension of Yushchenko's pro-Western government after the 2004 Orange Revolution, and with Russia's new assertiveness as petrodollars flow into its coffers, Sevastopol has once again been thrust under the klieg lights.
CUI BONO?
Btw, I have ot on good sourcing that Yuschenko stole that election with CIA help.
Russian nationalists have begun agitating to reclaim Sevastopol and Crimea, although taking such an action is far from a mainstream sentiment. The mayor of Moscow, Yuri M. Luzhkov, raised Ukrainian hackles in May when he called for Russia's western neighbor to return "what doesn't belong to it," the Associated Press reported.
The Ukrainians, for their part, have struck back. Yushchenko, who traveled to Tbilisi in a display of solidarity with the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, threatened to ban Russian warships from returning to Sevastopol, saying their movements were subject to Ukrainian approval. Yuriy Yekhanurov, the country's defense minister, later said that the fleet could move unhindered.Translation: The Ukranians backed down!
--more--"
I don't know about you, America, but I am sick of the anti-Russian propaganda passing itself off as "news."
Probably why I'm in such a snit today over the war dailies.
