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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808...uth_ossetia;_ylt=AnI5Ethsfpp8oQzMMY7oMXKs0NUE
This is frankly pretty frightening.
This is frankly pretty frightening.
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So true, it really sucks that a conflict in the Caucuses is stealing some of the limelight from that athletic festival that is being politicized and abused by the Chinese authorities to white wash their human rights abuses. I mean how dare those dastardly Georgians react to separatist and Russian aggression like that, when the only thing everyone wants right now is some corporate sponsored entertainment. I mean the gall of those guys down there, seriously Mikheil Saakashvili what seems to be the problem? Couldn't they have waited till after the games? I mean let the Chinese pull of their propaganda stunt in peace with full media coverage, instead of having some news agencies divert attention from the parade! Way to piss in their cheerios guys!A sad thing to happen as the Olympic Games get underway.
That's not actually true Georgia never ever chose to fight Russia. They didn't even pick a fight with them so I am not sure why you came to that conclusion. Russia invaded as part of a so-called intervention on behalf of South Ossetia and not because Georgia started shooting at them.
Source (The Guardian)What do the Russians want? The world does not yet know. Possibly the Russians do not know either; their tradition is to enter a crisis with several contrary game plans and then to play it by ear. But some short-term purposes are already clear.
They want to destroy Georgia's military hardware so thoroughly it will take a decade to rebuild. That is what the roving armoured units are doing. They want to upgrade their 'peacekeeping' forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia so Georgia will never dare to attack across their borders again. They want to discredit President Mikheil Saakashvili so utterly that the Georgian people will depose him. They want to show the world the sort of price which would be paid for taking Georgia into Nato and also to suggest that Georgia is too erratic to be a Nato partner.
But Russia may also have plans for a new relationship with Georgia. While Condoleezza Rice and other Western leaders try to implement the cease-fire, President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin would like to get rid of all these international mediators, above all the Americans. They would almost certainly prefer to impose on defeated Georgia a new bilateral treaty with the Russian Federation. Any such treaty may well include returning to Russia one or more of the military bases in Georgia which they reluctantly evacuated a few years ago.
Furthermore no country has the right to protect it's citizens living in other countries by sending tank batallions over the border like that. In the words of the Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt: "No state has the right to intervene militarily in the territory of another state simply because there are individuals there with a passport issued by that state or who are nationals of the state."
Russia invaded as part of a so-called intervention on behalf of South Ossetia and not because Georgia started shooting at them.
The Russians do not give a damn about the South Ossetians and their wish for freedom and self-rule and determination. This was a way of flexing military muscle and a warning signal to places like Ukraine that are attempting to turn away from the Russians and towards the West.