Monday, August 11, 2008

08.08.08 and the Texas Solution

. . . the geopolitical situation in the post-Soviet south Caucasus has been seismically changed, and there is no going back to the ‘western’ year zero of 1991.

The seventeen year hiatus of independence enjoyed by Georgia since the collapse of the USSR might seem longer than the 1918-21 period of sovereignty, but the results are starting to look strikingly similar: A resurgent Big Power provokes a Smaller Power to do something stupid, such as defend itself against aggression by appearing to become the initial aggressor, and then brings the hammer down.

In some circles, we call this the ‘Texas Solution,’ only today the Alamo is called South Ossetia, and President Polk is Prime Minister Putin.

Russia is back, and Georgia is effectively gone.

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