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I am not a Bush fan but want to be in alignment with him on major foreign policy issues as the US is our ally.

I am not a gung ho, up and at 'em interventionist. But I think Bush, or perhaps Cheney, is playing this all wrong.

If the Georgians deliberately shelled a largely Russian ethnic civilian area, a full scale bombardment not a misplaced shell, then that justified going into South Ossetia in my world.

Its questionable whether going beyond that border was a good idea. But if the Georgians had been hoping to embroil Nato and the US maybe it really drove home the point that they weren't going to do that.

If that had been British citizens being targeted by a full scale military assault I don't think we would have sat idly by.

In fairness Bush did use the phrase "disproportionate" which could imply they realise the Russians had a case and they will "sort" the Georgians behind the scenes.

The missile shield is causing tensions and I think, I am no expert, that we are not reading the Russians correctly. We should be making more of an effort to see their point of view.

nhs manager sacked over laptop with patient records stolen from parked car. the message isn't getting through.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained 10 Georgian intelligence service officers who were preparing terrorist attacks, including in Russia, the head of the security service said on Monday?

Russian intelligence services have disabled the information and governmental websites of Georgia through the past two days? Russian hackers by the tip of Russian intelligence services have undertaken an unprecedented attack against the servers of the Azerbaijani Day.Az news agency.
?

The IRA has not disbanded. have they nothing else to do?

RAPE: THE FIRST DRINK, TAKEN SOBER, IS NEGLIGENT.

Unless the drinker is from an alcohol-free planet, having no idea of its disinhibiting properties. Taken with car-keys in your pocket it is also negligent - on the way to culpable. Taken while on medication - hungry - exhausted - or a female and on the town among male-drinkers?
But British Culture is interwoven with alcohol. (Small wonder we cannot persuade the kids not to bend their heads 'by mouth'.)
And we are a disingenuous bunch when facing up to our inconvenient truths. Now politically correct feminism has got mixed in, it will be cloud-cuckoo all the way to nowhere. I might as well drink to that.

Not forgetting the annual problem of some British tourists abroad ...

And the total inability of the Have Your Say team to use the correct noun for people from Britain:

Briton - NOT Brits!

And £1000 pounds for a Welsh telly? What will Welsh AMs spend our hard worked taxes on next?

And how about an offbeat one?

While the advertising industry takes an economic hit with the rest of the retail market, how honest is our advertising, despite being regulated?

Does emphasising the word "the" to make a company sound like a market leader qualify as misleading? And how many other advertising producers are playing fast and loose with the rules?

Re #1.G of 1.
"I'm not a Bush fan,but I want to be in alignment with him ......" Too hilarious for words. I can see why you take "Searchlight" seriously. Your best work since your little ode to the moderator, just before he dumped your next post. More please.

NOT AN APRIL FOOL

Georgia - It's now stating the obvious perhaps, but recent events really have been an excellent illustration of just how backed eastward expansion of the EU and NATO actually is.

some commodity traders reckon the georgia thing is about energy control around the caspian as the russian response [in speed, numbers, targets] looks planned and how can you plan an 'unforseen event'?

GEORGIA'S CHUTZPAH: REMEMBER CUBA?

bookhimdano (#7) One can safely assume that the Russian military will have planned for this scenario for at least a decade, just as they will have rehearsed contingency/scenario plans for a NATO invason of any of their Warsaw Pact neighbours for decades. The arrogance/aggression of the EU/USSA in recent times is really quite . Just imagine Scotland, a few years hence, electing to join the counterweight to NATO, the Shanghai Group (SCO). If Georgia and Ukraine were to have joined NATO recently, what's the betting that ? This is the dangerous game which is currently being played.