Did Nixon prevent a Soviet nuclear strike on China?

Well, according to Liu Chenshan, a Chinese historian writing in an officially-sanctioned Chinese publication. According to his claim, during a 1969 border war, the Soviets told the United States that they wanted to stop the Chinese threat with a nuclear strike, and they wanted the US to remain neutral.

The US responded that we'd launch a nuclear strike of our own against the USSR if they did so, and this threat worked, sending the Soviets to the negotiating table.

Interesting. Probably a controversial claim, or at least an aspect of history we haven't heard before. I'm curious to see how this holds up.

Ted Kennedy's Soviet Gambit, again

Commentary by Investor's Business Daily here. They bring up the 1799 Logan Act and ask if Kennedy violated it, even though the Soviets didn't take up his offer of help.

I'm still amazed this man wasn't drummed out of office for his behavior.

Ted Kennedy's Soviet Gambit

Article here. This is astonishing. A Soviet memorandum from 1983 documents how Ted Kennedy tried to make a deal with the Russians to undermine Reagan's foreign policy and give the Soviets the advantage in nuclear negotiations...and to help Kennedy run for president.

It's a tribute to our free and open system that this man was still walking around free, despite having done this.

North Koreans apparently conduct nuclear test

To quote Gomer Pyle, Surprise, surprise, surprise! Actually, the surprise for me is that Russia has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting.

Charles Krauthammer on Obama and diplomacy

Wow. Krathammer doesn't spare Obama the blunt terms:

On President Obama’s secret letter to Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev proposing a deal on missile defense:

This is smart diplomacy? This is a debacle. The Russians dismissed it contemptuously.

Look, if we could get the Iranian nuclear program stopped with Russian's helping us in return for selling out the Poles and the Czechs on missile defense, I'm enough of a cynic and a realist to say we would do it the same way that Kissinger agreed to delegitimize and de-recognize Taiwan in return for a large strategic opening with China.

But Kissinger had it done. He had it wired. What happened here is it was leaked. The Russians have dismissed it. We end up being humiliated. We look weak in front of the Iranians, and we have left the Poles and Czechs out to dry in return for nothing.

The Czechs and the Poles went out on a limb, exposed themselves to Russian pressure, and we have shown that Eastern Europe is not as sovereign as it appears if the Russian influence is there, and we will acquiesce in what they consider their own sphere of influence.

This administration has prided itself, flattered itself on deploying smart diplomacy. "Smart diplomacy" is a meaningless idea, but if it has any meaning at all, it is not ever doing something as humiliating, amateurish, and stupid as this.

Frank Schaeffer goes nuts on Orthodox-on-Orthodox violence

I'd never read anything by Frank Schaeffer until today. I don't think I'll bother reading him again. This whole article is just nuts. It's got the hallmarks I've seen elsewhere of a convert (political, religious, or in this case, both) who loses his rationality when discussing the group he left.

Here, he's writing about the Russian invasion of Georgia and essentially defending Russia (at least excusing them). I don't know if I want to bother refuting too many of the...um, "points" he tries to make, because he isn't very consistent and doesn't seem to have thought really hard about it.

Sigh. OK, I just need to say a couple or three things. He seems driven in all of his arguments here by a desire for pan-Orthodox dignity, centered on Russia. If the US (and the West, generally) make contacts with former Soviet republics and satellites, helping their struggling democracies and extending NATO membership, he makes that out as us "encircling" the Orthodox world. That implies that we're threatening the Orthodox world. Somehow, this excuses Russian threats against fellow Orthodox countries like the Ukraine and Moldova, and a flat-out invasion of Orthodox Georgia. Yet when we aid Orthodox countries like Greece, Romania (both NATO members), the Ukraine, and Georgia (both being considered for NATO membership), that's a "threat" to the Orthodox world. The only Orthodox country we've attacked this whole time has been Serbia, and that's only because of the deliberate attacking of civilians and ethnic cleansing.

Does the non-Russian-allied Orthodox world see themselves as under attack from the West? Not from what I can tell. Rather, they see themselves as under attack from Russia. Where would they get that idea? Mostly from Russia attacking them. (Or threatening to attack them.) So is the rest of the Orthodox world as disdainful as he towards America and Bush? Again, not from what I can tell. In fact, these same sorts of places tend to be where Bush is quite popular (Romania, Georgia, and the Ukraine, in particular--not so much in Greece, though). My Orthodox in-laws in Romania tell us how popular Bush and America are there.

Somehow, Schaeffer spins this all into a web of anti-Orthodox bigotry on the part of the West, and he throws a bit of snide remarks against President Bush's being an American Protestant. I don't buy into much psychoanalysis, but "projection," anyone?

What's funniest is that this is all supposed to explain why Russia invaded Georgia, a fellow Orthodox country. I'm tempted to do a take-off on that joke from some late '50s liberal comedian whose name I can't remember: "Every time America attacks an Orthodox country, Russia decides to retaliate by attacking an Orthodox country."

How many South Ossetian civilians dead?

2,100 (Russian claims) or 40 (recorded in Tskhinvali's main hospital)? You think the Russkies might have been...exaggerating to justify their little invasion?

'Way to go, big 'U'!

(I felt like paraphrasing a "Hunt for Red October" quote just now.) The Ukraine has just told Russia that the Russkies have to inform the Ukraine of all ship movements out of the Russian-leased, Ukrainian-owned base of Sevastopol...or else. Russians must get permission from Ukrainian authorities at least 24 hours in advance of any ship movements, or the Ukraine can expel the Russian ship from its port.

You think Russia over-played its hand in Georgia? Hmm?

Cold-War-style paranoia in Moscow

Dick Cheney got Russia to invade Georgia to keep Obama from getting elected! I thought Karl Rove did it, actually.

The Russians are convinced Cheney made them invade?! That's like the lefties here thinking Rove faked the Texas Air Nat'l Guard memos and convinced Dan Rather to run with them.

What we should do for Georgia

John McCormack on Max Boot on the Russo-Georgian War. I especially think that there should be absolutely no Russian "peacekeepers" within South Ossetia under any circumstances. They're a party to the war, not neutral peacekeepers. And I'd love to see some of those shoulder-fired US "Javelin" anti-tank rockets knocking out the Russian columns advancing into Georgia...

Is Russia really losing, in the end?

Classical values thinks so. I'm not so encouraged, but I'd like for it to be true.

Russian tanks moving towards Tbilisi

The BBC News is reporting a column of Russian tanks moving on the road from Gori towards Tbilisi. They can't say where they're intending to wind up. There's a cease-fire in place which was made on the Russian terms, and the Russians say their military operations are over. But this is the Russians we're talking about. They were also bulldozing a Georgian military base recently.

One BBC reporter suggested that although the Georgian artillery is well south of the disputed zone, they're within firing range of it, so the Russians might simply be going down to clear them out. Well, that would be the Russian argument.

The most despicable thing of this whole war is the Russian attempt to get rid of Georgian president Saakashvili. They've absolutely refused to deal with him personally, and in terms that shock me to hear. What exactly do they have against him? They're making a claim of war crimes, but come on...this sounds simply like made-up propaganda, which the Russians are experts at. For their part, the Georgians have made the same accusation in return, which is smart, whether or not it's true.

From last night: Georgia "overrun" by Russian troops

This is a little out of order, but it's a useful article still.

One thing I'm worried about for the US (and just raised by the BBC reporter) is how our reputation will be affected by this. I was hoping for a stronger response (sheesh--the Georgians were sure hoping for more!), but as far as any outside country's actions have gone, we were/are leading whatever diplomatic opposition there is to Russia.

The reporter in Gori said that Georgians there were disappointed in the lack of military support from the US. We'll see if our help in shuttling their troops from Iraq to Georgia, or our diplomatic efforts count for anything. It's best not to let your allies down when they're being invaded.

South Ossetian war blog

"Russia and Georgia at War". It's from a Georgian perspective.

Russia calls halt in military operations

BBC news is reporting now that Medvedev has called a halt to Russia's invasion of Georgia. I haven't seen anything on the web (or at least, not linked by Drudge--I'm lazy).

One thing I've been thinking of: Those ethnic Georgian villages within South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Assuming Russia just gets to keep their little prizes there, will the borders include those ethnic Georgian towns? If it's OK to invade Georgia to "protect" the Ossetians...if we can carve up Georgia to separate the ethnic groups into different borders, then wouldn't Georgia be just as justified in claiming the Georgian towns there as its own?

This is the sticky part of popular sovereignty, and there's probably no really satisfying solution. And I'm saying this as someone in favor of the principle.

OK, it's probably the latter explanation

Accusations Russian hackers are launching a cyber war against Georgia.

Servers in [European] Georgia not responding

Or at least not the one I tried. Not surprising, I reckon, but that tells you how widespread the damage is. I wonder if this is physical damage to the hosting site, heavy traffic, or if it's Russian hackers doing a bit of cyber warfare.

Russians take Gori

Gori's just 60 miles from the capital in Tbilisi. Georgian troops are supposedly pulling back to a town just 15 mi. from Tbilisi.

I've got a good friend there in the capital--my college roommate. Gerry Fernandez, I hope you and the family are safe!

Why Georgia lost the war

The one over in Europe, of course. Strategy Page has a useful article.

"They seem to have gone beyond the logical stopping point"

No kidding.