(Above Miss Georgia ‘01 Tiffany Fallon)

Not our Georgia, the European one. From MSNBC:

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Georgia is “very close” to a war with Russia, a Georgian minister said on Tuesday, citing Moscow’s decision to send extra troops to the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

“We literally have to avert war,” Georgian State Minister for Issues of Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili told a news briefing during a trip to Brussels.

Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: “Very close, because we know Russians very well.

“We know what the signals are when you see propaganda waged against Georgia. We see Russian troops entering our territories on the basis of false information,” he said.

Russia has said the troop build-up is needed to counter what it says are Georgian plans for an attack on breakaway Abkhazia and has accused Tbilisi of trying to suck the West into a war — both of which are allegations that ex-Soviet Georgia rejects.

An extra Russian contingent began arriving in Abkhazia last week. Moscow has not said how many would be added but said the total would remain within the 3,000 limit allowed under a United Nations-brokered ceasefire agreement signed in 1994. Diplomats expect the reinforcement to be of the order of 1,200.

Georgia, a vital energy transit route in the Caucasus, has angered Russia by seeking membership of NATO.

Georgia’s hoping the E.U. will help them “reduce tensions” with Russia, but I’m betting the E.U. will leave Georgia out for the wolves, or the bear in this case.

Publius Pundit debunks Russia’s claims of “peacekeeping” in a great post that puts Putin’s actions in context:

Do you dare to imagine Russia’s reaction if NATO tanks and troops crossed the Russian border and took up a similar “peacekeeping” role in Chechnya? It’s simply inexplicable how Russians can demand that the world stay out of Chechnya and yet feel itself free to inject Russian forces into Georgia whenever it sees fit. A powder keg is brewing in Georgia and the Western governments are about to light the fuse. If they don’t immediately send a message loud and clear to Russia that it must respect Georgian borders, there will be an explosion.

Putin has two goals in Georgia: First, to destabilize it internally so that it does not qualify for NATO membership. Second, to nibble away at Georgia’s frontiers until Georgia is forced to respond militarily, then to invade and re-annex Georgia as a part of Russia, just as it was in Soviet times. After that, Ukraine will be the next target as Putin, a proud KGB spy, systematically seeks to recreate the USSR.

La Russophobe has plenty of reading for those of you wanting to catch up with Putin and his campaign to turn Russia into the U.S.S.R. 2.0.

G.S.G.F. has a great post about Russia’s deepening military ties with Iran which helps put Russia’s general aggression in Europe in a clearer light. Russia seems to be building up its superpower credentials again, and a quick and one-sided war against a former Soviet Bloc country would give Putin’s New Russia a nice boost.

Which reminds me, I’ve been concentrating on crime so much I haven’t been able to link to some of my favorite political blogs. Maybe I’ll start a World News Wednesday or something.

Hot Air has the news of Bush’s continuing blindness on this issue.

Russia’s ex-KGB agent leader is probably not happy with the free world’s defiance of his neo-Sovietism. From Fox News:

BUCHAREST, Romania — NATO leaders have agreed to fully endorse President Bush’s plan to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe and to urge Russia to drop its objections to the shield, senior American officials said Thursday.

The endorsement is contained in a communique that the leaders of the 26-nation military alliance will adopt Thursday during their summit being held here, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the statement’s release.

The document will state that “ballistic missile proliferation poses an increasing threat to allied forces, territory and populations.” It also will recognize “the substantial contribution to the protection of allies … to be provided by the U.S.-led system,” the officials said.

The statement calls on all NATO members to explore ways in which the planned U.S. project, to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic, can be linked with future missile shields elsewhere. It says leaders should come up with recommendations to be considered at their next meeting in 2009, the officials said.

The document calls on Russia to accept U.S. and NATO offers to cooperate on the system, the officials said.

Russia vehemently opposes the plan, believing it will threaten its own deterrent force and upset the balance of power in Europe. The backing from NATO provides Bush with a powerful leg up in his negotiations with Moscow over the issue.

Putin had hoped he could threaten Eastern Europe into acquiescence so the NATO countries’ decision to move forward is a slap in the face of the bellicose leader. It also comes on the heels of an American resolution by the House of Representatives that in essence accuses Putin’s government of orchestrating a state sanctioned murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

Russia meanwhile is still planning to block recognition of Kosovo in the United Nations, a fight we don’t need frankly and NATO has thrown Russia a bone by stalling on membership for Georgia and the Ukraine.

If all this sounds almost Cold War-ish to you that’s because it is. The problem is our government doesn’t seem to see it. We’re treating our problems with Russia as some sort of friendly disagreement and not as rising tensions with a man dedicated to re-birthing the Soviet Union and destroying our way of life.

Kosovo declared independence amid the kind celebration that should shame American supporters of the Albanian Muslims:

In the capital, Pristina, the mood was jubilant. Thousands of ethnic Albanians braved subfreezing temperatures to ride on the roofs of their cars, singing patriotic songs and chanting: “KLA! KLA!” the acronym for the now-disbanded rebel Kosovo Liberation Army. They waved American flags alongside the red Albanian banner imprinted with a black, double-headed eagle.

The Kosovo Liberation Army is a jihadist group that that even Human Rights Watch, who are supportive of the Albanian Muslim cause, describes as a violent terrorist group who murdered and raped Serbs, Christians and Albanians both before and after the Kosovo conflict:

As presented in the Background chapter, the KLA was responsible for serious abuses in 1998, including abductions and murders of Serbs and ethnic Albanians considered collaborators with the state. In some villages under KLA control in 1998, the rebels drove ethnic Serbs from their homes. Some of those who remained are unaccounted for and are presumed to have been abducted by the KLA and killed. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, ninety-seven Kosovo Serbs who went missing in 1998 were still missing as of May 15, 2000.

The KLA detained an estimated eighty-five Serbs during its July 19, 1998, attack on Orahovac. Thirty-five of these people were subsequently released but the others remain missing as of August 2001. On July 22, 1998, the KLA briefly took control of the Belacevac mine near Obilic. Nine Serbs were captured that day, and they remain on the ICRC’s list of the missing.

[…]

Elements of the KLA are also responsible for post-conflict attacks on Serbs, Roma, and other non-Albanians, as well as ethnic Albanian political rivals. Immediately following NATO’s arrival in Kosovo, there was widespread and systematic burning and looting of homes belonging to Serbs, Roma, and other minorities and the destruction of Orthodox churches and monasteries. This destruction was combined with harassment and intimidation designed to force people from their homes and communities. By late-2000 more than 210,000 Serbs had fled the province; most of them left in the first six weeks of the NATO deployment. Those who remained were increasingly concentrated in mono-ethnic enclaves, such as northern Mitrovica, Kosovo Polje, or Gracanica.

Most seriously, as many as one thousand Serbs and Roma have been murdered or have gone missing since June 12, 1999. Criminal gangs or vengeful individuals may have been involved in some incidents since the war. But elements of the KLA are clearly responsible for many of these crimes. The desire for revenge provides a partial explanation, but there is also a clear political goal in many of these attacks: the removal from Kosovo of non-ethnic Albanians in order to better justify an independent state.

In other words terrorism works. The Roma mentioned above are what we’d call Gypsies and were largely innocent by-standers in the conflict. Islamists target them because of their unorthodox views and lifestyles.

The wide spread desecration of Churches and attacks on Christian minorities is under reported by our media. The fact the the crowd chanted “KLA!” at the celebration should indicated to us that they embrace the K.L.A. ideology, which includes fealty to Al-Qaeda and Islamism in general.

The K.L.A. and their ties to terror is no secret and the end result of Kosovo becoming a Muslim country with a small Christian minority is well summed up in this interview:

The K.L.A. is also supported by various Communist groups who approve of their “revolutionary violence” just as they approve of Al-Qaeda’s in Iraq, Afghanistan and across the world. They also must support the policies they believe the K.L.A. backed government would institute. Policies like the destruction of churches:

The Desecration of Christian alters and relics:

Or maybe just participating in the long standing Islamic tradition of forced sexual slavery.

In addition to the death sentence we have helped hand the Orthodox Christians in Kosovo, a belligerent Russia has seemingly decided to make it’s stand against the U.S. over this issue. Kosovo’s independence could be used as a pretext for Russian military operations in Europe, the establishment of bases in Serbia or just a return to cold war footing for our to nations, but no matter the outcome the much vaunted “blow back” of the libertarian left is on display for all the world to see.

Many on the right are straddling the fence on Kosovo, falling back of the leftist Majoritarian argument that “the will of the people” must be respected regardless of whether or not that will includes exterminating Christians and setting up the capitol of the Caliphate that Jihadists have been hoping for. We have nothing to celebrate and much to be ashamed of.

And we should be afraid. The gratitude of the American loving Albanians only goes so far after all:

We have granted the enemy a victory and created a future rogue state.

Like any leftist worth their salt these days, the Kremlin’s attack propaganda machine is working overtime to convince the world that criticism of Putin’s brutal suppression of civil rights is part of a Neo-Con plot. Meanwhile, Russian human rights groups are begging the EU to “intervene” on their behalf.

While America’s distracted by the show, the Russians are trying to dig a tunnel under the Bering Straight that would lead to Alaska. The Russians and the commie loving traitors from America who want to partner with Putin explain that the tunnel would be for “trade”, by which they mean their Spetsnaz forces will be trading small arms fire with Americans during their invasion.

The only thing I have to say is “Wolverines!“