avatar4321
08-18-2008, 11:55 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080818/wl_mcclatchy/3021530
Despite assurances that it would withdraw troops from Georgia starting Monday, the Russian military operated with impunity as its forces moved convoys in and out of the city of Gori and plowed through a police roadblock in this town some 25 miles northwest of Tbilisi , the capital.
In Washington , senior defense officials cited "troubling" intelligence that Russia had set up short-range ballistic missile launchers in South Ossetia . The SS-21 missiles have a range of 40 to 70 miles, meaning they can reach the capital from practically any part of South Ossetia , which Russian forces now occupy.
The officials, who refused to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, also said there was no significant Russian movement out of Georgia .
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday the United States and its allies will not allow Russia to gain a strategic victory in Georgia . She also warned Russia that it is playing a "very dangerous game" by resuming Cold War-era strategic bomber patrols off the Alaskan coast. Rice was en route to an emergency meeting of NATO on the Georgia crisis.
I know I am grossly understating the situation when I say this, but this is not a good sign.
Despite assurances that it would withdraw troops from Georgia starting Monday, the Russian military operated with impunity as its forces moved convoys in and out of the city of Gori and plowed through a police roadblock in this town some 25 miles northwest of Tbilisi , the capital.
In Washington , senior defense officials cited "troubling" intelligence that Russia had set up short-range ballistic missile launchers in South Ossetia . The SS-21 missiles have a range of 40 to 70 miles, meaning they can reach the capital from practically any part of South Ossetia , which Russian forces now occupy.
The officials, who refused to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, also said there was no significant Russian movement out of Georgia .
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday the United States and its allies will not allow Russia to gain a strategic victory in Georgia . She also warned Russia that it is playing a "very dangerous game" by resuming Cold War-era strategic bomber patrols off the Alaskan coast. Rice was en route to an emergency meeting of NATO on the Georgia crisis.
I know I am grossly understating the situation when I say this, but this is not a good sign.