In his Aug. 23 article, "Payback time for Russia," Ramesh Thakur gives way too much credit to Russia in its invasion of Georgia, and ignores the actual results. Russia's action will accelerate the expansion of NATO into former Soviet Union states as they look for protection from Russian bullying and brutality. While Georgia has taken a beating, it will now arm itself with the proper mix of weapons that will do serious damage to any further Russian adventures.
In the years ahead as oil earnings decline and the Russian economy suffers, we will see that it was a mistake for Russia to have invaded Georgia, forcing an arms race and a collective security problem on former Soviet states. These states will now band together and arm themselves with superior American weapons and training, while Russia will find that it was too ambitious in trying to rebuild its military and that it can no longer afford the military it has rebuilt.
Russia suffers from a number of handicaps; among them are the inefficiencies of an authoritarian government (due to the natural corruption of such governments), inferior weapons systems, inferior military systems (due to poor development of noncommissioned officers), and exacerbated national hatreds. In conclusion, Russia has overreached, and the law of unintended consequences has been invoked.
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