GEORGIA: FIGHTING RAGES IN S. OSSETIA, RUSSIAN TANKS HEAD FOR BATTLE

[Cobra]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1043428/COMMENTARY-So-did-Georgia-blunder-trap.html

A most interesting commentary in The London Mail about the Russo-Georgian War. The article declares that Saakashvili is a political fool, who will pay for his folly with his political career, but it argues that the essence of Saakashvili’s folly is his walking into a carefully-staged Russian trap. Thus the commentary presents Russia as the real villain of the piece, even though all of the pieces of evidence introduced in the commentary build a case --- at least to me --- that Russia really had no choice but to respond in the way in which it did. A most interesting commentary, I repeat, one in which the perspective and the facts appear to clash, heavily.

I don't think the article is as off as some may think.
The long term goal of Russia was the ouster of Sakhashvili and the return of Georgia into Russia's sphere of influence.

Maybe they were looking for this exact provocation.

I follow Russian news all the time and it's a known fact that Russia does militarily aid the separatists in Ossetia. The separatists in Ossetia could not function without Russian approval.

[joequinn]

I have just read in another forum a piece of gossip that disturbs me greatly. According to what I read, Chinese television focused on Bush after he had his impromptu conversation with Putin at the Olympics. Supposedly, Bush was shaking violently as a result of the conversation, so violently that it was noted by casual onlookers.

[Cobra]

I have just read in another forum a piece of gossip that disturbs me greatly. According to what I read, Chinese television focused on Bush after he had his impromptu conversation with Putin at the Olympics. Supposedly, Bush was shaking violently as a result of the conversation, so violently that it was noted by casual onlookers.

There's a reason why it's gossip.

[Capt. Obvious]

I have just read in another forum a piece of gossip that disturbs me greatly. According to what I read, Chinese television focused on Bush after he had his impromptu conversation with Putin at the Olympics. Supposedly, Bush was shaking violently as a result of the conversation, so violently that it was noted by casual onlookers.

Maybe this?

Kevin Rudd reveals Bush-Putin argument at Opening Ceremony
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd witnessed a heated discussion between US President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, over Russia's invasion of a tiny neighbouring country as athletes paraded before them in the Opening Ceremony on Friday night.

Mr Rudd revealed in an interview with Beijing Now in Beijing on Saturday that he was sitting just two rows behind Mr Bush when an "animated" discussion between he and Mr Putin broke out over Russia's advance into South Ossetia, a breakaway region in neighbouring Georgia.

"The President and Mr Putin were in animated conversation two seats in front of us and I imagine they had a few things on their agenda," Mr Rudd said.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/beijing_olympics/story/0,27313,24156469-5014124,00.html

[adissenter2]

The truth about South Ossetia War, Georgia attack, and Russia's response
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhhyZjNApBg

[cathiasus]

BTW, Bush speaking on Olympics right now. Crazy, just insane. On the peacock station.

[joequinn]

Interesting video, adissenter2. My question: if Saakashvili thought that the Russian "peacekeepers" in South Ossetia were undermining Georgia's territorial integrity, then why didn't he bring the matter to the U.N. Security Council? Even if Russia were able to undermine his protest, Saakashvili still would have gained the high moral ground in the dispute. As things stand, news reports state that a thousand South Ossetians (most of them ethnic Russians) died before Russia sent in any troops.

Saakashvili is toast, any way that you cut the bread. I just hope to God that Bush did not give him the OK for his unwise, and desperate, venture.

[Cobra]

A Spokesmen for the Georgian ministry of interior has stated that Russian jets destroyed a military base on the outskirts of the capital, Tbilisi.

lenta.ru

[adissenter2]

Bush is to busy with his fun and games, not like he makes the call on much of anything beside public relation stunts

Bush seeks to contain violent conflict in Georgia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080811/ap_on_re_as/bush_asia_23



 BEIJING - President Bush sought to contain the explosive conflict in Georgia on Sunday as the White House warned that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered."
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The crisis over a breakaway province, South Ossetia, appeared to ebb as Georgian troops began retreating and honoring a cease-fire, a claim Russia disputed. U.S. officials said Moscow was only broadening its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the region.

The sheer scope of Russia's military response has the Bush administration deeply worried. Russia on Sunday expanded its bombing blitz in areas of Georgia not central to the fighting.

Vice President Dick Cheney spoke Sunday afternoon with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Cheney press secretary Lee Ann McBride said. "The vice president expressed the United States' solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity," McBride said.

Cheney told Saakashvili that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community," McBride said.

A Russian official said more than 2,000 people had been killed in South Ossetia since Friday; the figure could not be confirmed independently.

The president was to end his weeklong stay to Asia by attending a baseball game and other events Monday at the Beijing Olympics. The trip was meant mostly for fun and games — there have been plenty of both. But the fast-moving conflict in Georgia has grabbed his attention.

Bush, pressing international mediation, reached out Sunday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads the European Union. The two agreed on the need for a cease-fire and a respect for Georgia's integrity, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

In Washington, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the United States must work closely with Europe in condemning Russia's actions.

"We cannot just go out alone on this and talk and act unilaterally. We don't have much impact, I believe, in terms of our unilateral declarations anymore with the administration's approach to the world," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "We've got to stand together with European allies."

Georgia, whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, began an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight Friday, launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes that pounded the provincial capital, Tskhinvali. In response, Russia launched overwhelming artillery shelling and air attacks on Georgian troops.

"We're alarmed by this entire situation, and every escalatory step is a further problem," deputy national security adviser Jim Jeffrey told reporters.

The U.S. military began flying 2,000 Georgian troops home from Iraq after Georgia recalled the soldiers following the outbreak of fighting with Russia. The decision was a timely payback for the former Soviet republic that has been a staunch U.S. supporter and agreed to send troops to Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition. Georgia was the third-largest contributor of coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain, and most of its troops were stationed near the Iranian border in southeastern Iraq.

The risk of the conflict setting off a wider war increased when Russian-supported separatists in another breakaway region of Georgia, Abkhazia, launched air and artillery strikes on Georgian troops to drive them out of a small part of the province they control.

Also, Ukraine warned Russia it could bar Russian navy ships from returning to their base in the Crimea because of their deployment to Georgia's coast.

"If those Russian ships leave that port in the Black Sea and if Ukraine decides that it is not going to allow those ships back into that port ... that is a potentially much greater conflagration involving a wider regional area," Levin said.

The White House sought to reassure that the administration — including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen — were talking to parties on both sides and trying for a diplomatic solution.

"We hope that there is no further bloodshed. There has been too much bloodshed already," Jeffrey said.

Asked about the possibility of sending the U.S. military or other aid to Georgia, Jeffrey said, "Right now our focus is on working with both sides, with the Europeans and with a whole variety of international institutions and organizations to get the fighting to stop."

Levin, too, did not see the chance of U.S. military involvement, though he said the U.S. needs to make clear to Russia that its action "is way out of line."

"It has to be condemned and the world needs to stand against it," Levin said.

Bush also tended to relations with China, again raising raised concerns to President Hu Jintao about how the host of the summer Olympics treats its own people.

Bush worshipped at a Beijing church and declared China has nothing to fear from expressions of faith. The message had the added punch of coming on China's turf, as Bush has done before.

He managed time for a couple of marquee sporting events. With first lady Laura Bush, daughter Barbara and former President George H.W. Bush, he cheered from the stands of the Water Cube Olympic swimming venue. American Michael Phelps claimed the first of an expected string of gold medals by smashing his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley.

"God, what a thrill to cheer for you!" Bush told Phelps afterward.

At night, Bush watched the eagerly anticipated U.S.-China men's basketball game.

Before the contest, he huddled with U.S. players in a corridor of the Olympic arena, putting his hand in with theirs and joining in a cheer, "One, two, three, U.S.A, go!"

[joequinn]

Tomorrow's Washington Times editorial: "Russian Aggression":

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/11/russian-aggression/

I wonder what The Washington Post will say...

I am truly surprised that Bush has not cut short his stay at the Olympics. Putin certainly did. What does this mean?

But I am not surprised that Bush has enlisted Sarkozy to help save Saakashvili. There have been rumors, for quite some time, that the Rose Revolution in Georgia was CIA-spearheaded, and within the last two weeks or so, questions about the validity of Sarkozy's election in France have begun to surface...

[Sasha]

12 minutes ago




Bush says violence in Georgia is unacceptable
By BEN FELLER – 13 minutes ago

BEIJING (AP) — President Bush on Monday sharply criticized Moscow's harsh military crackdown in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, saying the violence is unacceptable and Russia's response is disproportionate.

The United States is waging an all-out campaign to press Russia to halt its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Bush, in an interview with NBC, said, "I've expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia."

On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney said that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States."

The crisis over South Ossetia appeared to ebb as Georgian troops began retreating and honoring a cease-fire, a claim Russia disputed. U.S. officials said Moscow was only broadening its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the region.

The sheer scope of Russia's military response has the Bush administration deeply worried. Russia on Sunday expanded its bombing blitz in areas of Georgia not central to the fighting.

Cheney spoke Sunday afternoon with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Cheney press secretary Lee Ann McBride said. "The vice president expressed the United States' solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity," McBride said.

Asked to explain Cheney's phrase "must not go unanswered," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, "It means it must not stand." White House officials refused to indicate what recourse the United States might have if the military onslaught continues.

A Russian official said more than 2,000 people had been killed in South Ossetia since Friday; the figure could not be confirmed independently.

The president was to end his weeklong stay to Asia by attending a baseball game and other events Monday at the Beijing Olympics. The trip was meant mostly for fun and games — there have been plenty of both. But the fast-moving conflict in Georgia has grabbed his attention.

Bush, pressing international mediation, reached out Sunday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads the European Union. The two agreed on the need for a cease-fire and a respect for Georgia's integrity, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

In Washington, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the United States must work closely with Europe in condemning Russia's actions.

"We cannot just go out alone on this and talk and act unilaterally. We don't have much impact, I believe, in terms of our unilateral declarations anymore with the administration's approach to the world," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "We've got to stand together with European allies."

Georgia, whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, began an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight Friday, launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes that pounded the provincial capital, Tskhinvali. In response, Russia launched overwhelming artillery shelling and air attacks on Georgian troops.

"We're alarmed by this entire situation, and every escalatory step is a further problem," deputy national security adviser Jim Jeffrey told reporters.

The U.S. military began flying 2,000 Georgian troops home from Iraq after Georgia recalled the soldiers following the outbreak of fighting with Russia. The decision was a timely payback for the former Soviet republic that has been a staunch U.S. supporter and agreed to send troops to Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition. Georgia was the third-largest contributor of coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain, and most of its troops were stationed near the Iranian border in southeastern Iraq.

The risk of the conflict setting off a wider war increased when Russian-supported separatists in another breakaway region of Georgia, Abkhazia, launched air and artillery strikes on Georgian troops to drive them out of a small part of the province they control.

Also, Ukraine warned Russia it could bar Russian navy ships from returning to their base in the Crimea because of their deployment to Georgia's coast.

"If those Russian ships leave that port in the Black Sea and if Ukraine decides that it is not going to allow those ships back into that port ... that is a potentially much greater conflagration involving a wider regional area," Levin said.

The White House sought to reassure that the administration — including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen — were talking to parties on both sides and trying for a diplomatic solution.

Asked about the possibility of sending the U.S. military or other aid to Georgia, Jeffrey said, "Right now our focus is on working with both sides, with the Europeans and with a whole variety of international institutions and organizations to get the fighting to stop."

Levin, too, did not see the chance of U.S. military involvement, though he said the U.S. needs to make clear to Russia that its action "is way out of line."

Bush also tended to relations with China, again raising raised concerns to President Hu Jintao about how the host of the summer Olympics treats its own people.

Bush worshipped at a Beijing church and declared China has nothing to fear from expressions of faith. The message had the added punch of coming on China's turf, as Bush has done before.

He managed time for a couple of marquee sporting events. With first lady Laura Bush, daughter Barbara and former President George H.W. Bush, he cheered from the stands of the Water Cube Olympic swimming venue. American Michael Phelps claimed the first of an expected string of gold medals by smashing his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley.

"God, what a thrill to cheer for you!" Bush told Phelps afterward.

At night, Bush watched the eagerly anticipated U.S.-China men's basketball game.

Before the contest, he huddled with U.S. players in a corridor of the Olympic arena, putting his hand in with theirs and joining in a cheer, "One, two, three, U.S.A., go!"

Associated Press writers Mark S. Smith and Paul Alexander contributed to this report.


--emphasis added

[Optimus]

On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney said that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States."

Sounds like Cheney is warmongering again.
The only way he knows how to answer aggression is with aggression.

[RonPaulRocks]

12 minutes ago




Bush says violence in Georgia is unacceptable
By BEN FELLER – 13 minutes ago


On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney said that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States."

OH that's rich!

[Cywar]

Sounds like Cheney is warmongering again. The only way he knows how to answer aggression is with aggression.

yes he is - he is out of his freaking mind.  A fat old man trying to get young men killed for his profit.

[Wanted]

The Kremlin Surge
http://pacificfreepress.com/content/view/2930/1/




As events move swiftly, and ominously, in the conflict between Georgia and Russia, an understanding of the background of the conflict is essential. Several pieces have appeared just today providing some good context and analysis.

First, Ellen Barry (with whom I once worked at the Moscow Times) gives an overview of South Ossetia's history and the tensions that have stalked the region since the break-up of the Soviet Union in this analysis piece from the New York Times. (The NYT's news roundup of the latest events  is co-written by Anne Barnard, yet another former colleague from the Moscow Times.)

Over at the Guardian, David Hearst provides an excellent analysis of the current conflict. Here's an excerpt:
 
Observers had little doubt the operation to take South Ossetia back under Georgian control bore the hallmarks of a planned military offensive. It was not the result of a ceasefire that had broken down the night before. It was more a fulfillment of the promise the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, made to recapture lost national territory, and with it a measure of nationalist pride.

The assault appears to have been carefully timed to coincide with the opening of the Olympic games when the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, was in Beijing. Tom de Waal of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and an expert on the region said: "Clearly there have been incidents on both sides, but this is obviously a planned Georgian operation, a contingency plan they have had for some time, to retake [South Ossetia's capital] Tskhinvali.

"Possibly the Georgians calculated that with Putin in Beijing they could recapture the capital in two days and then defend it over the next two months, because the Russians won't take this lying down."

(Tom de Waal is, yes, yet another Moscow Timesnik from my days there in the mid-1990s. In addition, The Times of London's front-page print piece on the war was written by Kevin O'Flynn, whom I knew as a laid-back, long-haired youth on the sports desk at the Moscow Times. It's been like old home week for the MT crowd of that era.)

Hearst further notes:
The Russians are far from blameless. They have a long and dirty history of dividing and ruling, fomenting strife to weaken opponents in a critical frontier zone. But Russia could claim in the UN security council to be defending its own citizens and its own peacekeepers. Sabine Freizer, Europe programme director of the International Crisis Group said: "Russia should not be blamed for the fighting, but Russia should now be pressured not to go beyond its peacekeeping mandate, and to ensure that armed militia do not cross the border into South Ossetia."

However, the fighting is rapidly spreading beyond the "peacekeeping mandate," with Russian planes bombing targets in the Georgian city of Gori (Stalin's birthplace), killing several civilians. This brutal assault -- including a murderous airstrike on an apartment house -- only underscores the savagery that awaits if the conflict cannot be tamped down quickly.

It seems clear at this point that Georgia has taken an enormous gamble in launching the initial attack into South Ossetia, hoping for a quick knock-out blow and then strong support from Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's Terror War pals in Washington, as Jim Heintz notes in an insightful piece for the Associated Press (You'll be relieved to know that I did not work with Heintz at the Moscow Times):


With Vladimir Putin in Beijing for the Olympic opening ceremony and the world's attention fixed on China, Georgia may have been betting it could pounce on an opportunity to quickly wrest control of its breakaway province. But the gamble may backfire: Washington hasn't endorsed Georgia's power play, and Moscow's counteroffensive has brought the two sides into a fight it will be hard for Georgia, a former Soviet state, to win...

One analyst suggested Georgia's unexpected assault may have been rooted as much in a sense that its NATO bid was faltering as in antagonism with Russia. Earlier this year, NATO quashed Georgia's drive to get a so-called road map for alliance membership amid alarm that President Mikhail Saakashvili was backtracking on democracy with his violent suppression last year of opposition rallies.

Georgia got assurances that it could eventually join, but "this pushed Georgia into a philosophy of self-reliance — the idea that Georgia will be able to regain breakaway entities only by its own means," said Nicu Popescu of the European Council on Foreign Relations. "The elephant in the room behind this whole story is Georgia's NATO prospects."

He also speculated the timing of the attack, hours before the opening ceremony in Beijing, could be a signal from the Georgian government. The Russian resort region of Sochi, just miles from the border of Georgia's other separatist region of Abkhazia, will host the 2014 Winter Games.

"It might be a signal to the Russians saying that the Sochi Olympics will not go the way Russia wants if there is no progress on the settlement in Abkhazia," Popescu said.

Heintz also notes a fact that seems to be slipping away from many media narratives on the conflict: that Saakashvili ordered the heavy bombardment of the South Ossetian capital just hours after declaring a supposed "cease-fire," and that Georgian forces targeted and killed several Russian peacekeeping troops that had been stationed in the region for years. These brutal and boneheaded moves provided the perfect excuse for the Kremlin to flex its muscles and secure an even tighter hold on Georgia's breakaway regions:

Georgia's withering artillery barrage came hours after Saakashvili declared a unilateral cease-fire ahead of negotiations set for the next day — and the separatists reportedly agreed to follow suit.
If Georgia violated its own cease-fire, it could be a crushing blow to its drive to integrate with the West.

Heintz also notes a point we mentioned yesterday: that the West's recognition of Kosovo's illusory "independence" helped spark the recent rise in tensions and cross-border incidents that Georgia used to justify Saakashvili's long-declared intention to bring all of what was Soviet Georgia under his control. Heintz further notes that almost every South Ossetian considers their region part of Russia; another fact frequently overlooked in the resurrection of Cold War rhetoric that has greeted the conflict:

South Ossetia was trouble waiting to happen for years — a "frozen conflict" with tensions building just below the surface. Georgia's thunderous assault may have been a go-for-broke move by a country that felt it was out of options amid Russia's growing dominance in the region. Or South Ossetia's separatists may have provoked Georgia once too often.
A grudging cease-fire that ended a separatist war in 1992 left the region mostly under control of an internationally unrecognized government, but dappled with areas held by Georgian forces. South Ossetia longed to be incorporated into Russia, whose province of North Ossetia contains their ethnic brethren. Georgia firmly rejected the prospect: Ceding the territory would bring Russia within 50 miles of the Georgian capital.
Negotiations were sporadic, often foundering on who should participate. Clashes broke out, especially near the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, which is in a pocket nearly surrounded by Georgian-held territory.
Tensions rose markedly this year after South Ossetia basked in Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia, calling it an international precedent that legitimized its own refusal to remain part of Georgia. Moscow boosted ties with the separatist government — and with a similar regime in Georgia's other separatist region, Abkhazia — and repeatedly denounced Saakashvili's push to join NATO.
None of the previous clashes this month had been anywhere close to the magnitude of the explosions that shook Tskhinvali throughout the night.


II.

Neither side has nor will cover themselves with glory in this bloody episode. The depredations of the Putin regime are well-known; there is little to be expected from that quarter but power politics at its most brutal. Putin is a war criminal responsible for vast atrocities in Chechnya and a security apparat that uses black ops, assassinations and terrorism with as much aplomb as their American counterparts.

Meanwhile, Saakashvili's tenure in Tblisi -- which began as a self-proclaimed reformist revolution -- has deteriorated into a regime marked by much of the same kind of corruption, cronyism and repression that it puported to overthrow. One of Saakashvili's partners in the revolution, Irakli Okruashvili, had a dramatic falling-out with the boss last year.
 
When he announced he was running for president against Saakashvili, he was arrested "and taken to Tbilisi’s notorious Isolator Number 7, the scene of well-documented torture of political prisoners since 1991," as Mark Almond of Oriel College, Oxford, noted in an article last year. After subjection to "strenuous interrogation techniques," Okruashvili "recanted" his charges against the president, and coughed up $6 million in shakedown "bail" money to win his release.

And what were Okruashvili's charges? Almond provides this quote from the former defense minister in Saakashvili’s government:

“The style of Saakashvili’s governance … has made dishonesty, injustice and oppression a way of life. Everyday repression, demolition of houses and churches, robbery, ‘kulakization’, and murders, I would stress, murders, have become common practice for the authorities.”

You can see why George W. Bush has embraced Saakashvili so enthusiastically. Saakashvili is also a war criminal, albeit at a much smaller level than his patron Bush or his enemy Putin. Saakashvili has eagerly taken part in the greatest war crime of our still-young century (I'm sure we ain't seen nothin' yet): the war of aggression against Iraq, which has already led to the slaughter of at least a million innocent people. No one forced Saakashvili to be an accomplice to this horrendous crime; he chose to do it willingly, and he cannot escape the guilt.

There are no white hats in this conflict; but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to see the reality of what is happening. In Saturday's Guardian, Almond gave this view of the background:

Back in the late 1980s, as the USSR waned, the Red Army withdrew from countries in eastern Europe which plainly resented its presence as the guarantor of unpopular communist regimes. That theme continued throughout the new republics of the deceased Soviet Union, and on into the premiership of Putin, under whom Russian forces were evacuated even from the country's bases in Georgia.
To many Russians this vast geopolitical retreat from places which were part of Russia long before the dawn of communist rule brought no bonus in relations with the west. The more Russia drew in its horns, the more Washington and its allies denounced the Kremlin for its imperial ambitions.....
In 1992, the west backed Eduard Shevardnadze's attempts to reassert Georgia's control over these regions. The then Georgian president's war was a disaster for his nation. It left 300,000 or more refugees "cleansed" by the rebel regions, but for Ossetians and Abkhazians the brutal plundering of the Georgian troops is the most indelible memory.
Georgians have nursed their humiliation ever since. Although Mikheil Saakashvili has done little for the refugees since he came to power early in 2004 - apart from move them out of their hostels in central Tbilisi to make way for property development - he has spent 70% of the Georgian budget on his military. At the start of the week he decided to flex his muscles.
Devoted to achieving Nato entry for Georgia, Saakashvili has sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan - and so clearly felt he had American backing. The streets of the Georgian capital are plastered with posters of George W Bush alongside his Georgian protege. George W Bush Avenue leads to Tbilisi airport. But he has ignored Kissinger's dictum: "Great powers don't commit suicide for their allies." Perhaps his neoconservative allies in Washington have forgotten it, too. Let's hope not....
Saakashvili faces a domestic economic crisis and public disillusionment. In the years since the so-called Rose revolution, the cronyism and poverty that characterised the Shevardnadze era have not gone away. Allegations of corruption and favouritism towards his mother's clan, together with claims of election fraud, led to mass demonstrations against Saakashvili last November. His ruthless security forces - trained, equipped and subsidised by the west - thrashed the protesters. Lashing out at the Georgians' common enemy in South Ossetia would certainly rally them around the president, at least in the short term.
Last September, President Saakashvili suddenly turned on his closest ally in the Rose revolution, defence minister Irakli Okruashvili. Each man accused his former blood brother of mafia links and profiting from contraband. Whatever the truth, the fact that the men seen by the west as the heroes of a post-Shevardnadze clean-up accused each other of vile crimes should warn us against picking a local hero in Caucasian politics...
The question now is whether the conflict can be contained, or whether the west will be drawn in, raising the stakes to desperate levels. To date the west has operated radically different approaches to secession in the Balkans, where pro-western microstates get embassies, and the Caucasus, where the Caucasian boundaries drawn up by Stalin are deemed sacrosanct...
Given its extraordinary ethnic complexity, Georgia is a post-Soviet Union in miniature. If westerners readily conceded non-Russian republics' right to secede from the USSR in 1991, what is the logic of insisting that non-Georgians must remain inside a microempire which happens to be pro-western?
Other people's nationalisms are like other people's love affairs, or, indeed, like dog fights. These are things wise people don't get involved in. A war in the Caucasus is never a straightforward moral crusade - but then, how many wars are?


Indeed. The ultimate outcome of this war will be, as always, death and ruin for multitudes who have nothing to do with the violent aggression of corrupt elites on every side.

[thadividedsky]

Could the answer to the Russia advance be an attack on either Pakistan or Iran? How convenient it is a number of carrier battle groups are on their way to the Persian Gulf, India and the U.S. airforce are doing training exorcises monday in Nevada and we have Camp Pendleton in Cali. loading up warships with military vehicles painted in a green/black/grey paint scheme rather than the desert tan used for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I can't see things getting any better. Especialy with the carrier groups on the move, which btw have french and english warships in the armada. I pray this is just a bad dream.

[Sasha]

The Kremlin Surge
http://pacificfreepress.com/content/view/2930/1/

Wanted, you rock.  I was just gonna post that article.  It is quite a clear article on the build up, deceptions, and info control by the msm.

That article is a must read.  

[Sasha]

Sounds like Cheney is warmongering again.
The only way he knows how to answer aggression is with aggression.

too true.  he's every bit the Straussian inhumanist.

[Muggl3z]

That super armada headed to the mid-east scares the shit out of me. I always figured something was about to happen when they left, or put as many ships as would fit in there.

[Sasha]

That super armada headed to the mid-east scares the shit out of me. I always figured something was about to happen when they left, or put as many ships as would fit in there.

me too.  no ones moves hardware on that scale without reasons.

[joequinn]

Yes, Wanted, an excellent posting. I was not aware of the extent to which the Rose Revolution has degenerated over the past year. The big question: did Saakashvili do this on this own or did Bush and Cheney egg him on? I wouldn't put it past Saakashvili to have done this on his own in order to blackmail America into supporting him militarily.

I am listening to Alex Jones interviewing Bob Chapman. Chapman says that the Russians are taking DNA samples from the dead to see whether some of the dead are foreigners. And what about those dead black bodies? And what about those commandos in black that have been seen in the area? Are they Blackwater operatives? What gives here, folks?

[Aerioch]

That super armada headed to the mid-east scares the shit out of me. I always figured something was about to happen when they left, or put as many ships as would fit in there.

Is that Super Armada the very same fleet that was loading up at Camp Pendleton for past Four or Five months?  If so.. then we have the smoking gun that this is Georgie's pre-planned final act.

Check this Video... notice the friggin camo on the military hardware being trucked in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOvCFhQ18R8

[Optimus]

Cuba backs Cold War ally Russia on Georgia actions
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN1030086820080811?sp=true
Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:23am BST

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba sided with its old Cold War ally Russia on Sunday when President Raul Castro issued an official statement supporting Russia's military actions in Georgia's breakaway enclave of South Ossetia.

He backed a Russian demand that Georgia unconditionally withdraw its troops from the pro-Russian area that Georgia tried to reclaim militarily on Thursday.

"It's false that Georgia is defending its national sovereignty," Castro said in the statement that appeared to reflect recent steps toward renewing Cuba-Russia relations.

"The request for a previous withdrawal of the invaders is just and our government supports it."

The conflict began on Thursday when Georgia sent troops into South Ossetia, and Russia, which had peacekeepers in the province, responded by sending in tanks and heavy armour to drive back the Georgians. Russia previously had provided support to the separatists.

On Sunday, Russia took control of the province's capital, Tskhinvali, while Georgia offered a cease-fire and peace talks after pulling back its troops.

Castro said South Ossetia shared neither nationality nor culture with Georgia and had maintained its status as "an autonomous republic."

"The Autonomous Republic of South Ossetia historically formed part of the Russian Federation," he said.

Castro charged that Georgia had launched its action on South Ossetia "in complicity with the United States," Cuba's long-time enemy.

The U.S. has heavily criticized Russia, saying its actions in Georgia were "disproportionate and dangerous."

Castro's statement follows a visit to Cuba last week by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin in which the publicly-stated aim was to "reactivate" old ties between the former Communist allies.

Before that, news reports said Russia, angry at a U.S. plan to put a missile defence system in eastern Europe, may use Cuba as a refuelling stop for nuclear-capable bombers.

Such a move, said a top U.S. Air Force general, would cross a "red line."

The report has since been denied but the dust-up brought back memories of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the U.S. and Soviet Union nearly went to war when Soviet missiles were placed on the island 90 miles (144 km) from the U.S.

Russia, then the Soviet Union, was Cuba's benefactor during the Cold War, giving it billions of dollars in aid before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

A large Russian embassy looms over western Havana, a reminder of the years of Russian dominance here.

[Optimus]

Is that Super Armada the very same fleet that was loading up at Camp Pendleton for past Four or Five months?  If so.. then we have the smoking gun that this is Georgie's pre-planned final act

It's the armada that was having training exercises in the Atlantic just off the east coast.

[Aerioch]

Confirmed... check the camo out.

They were loading this shit up since May!  Perfect Camo for a Georgian Theater.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOvCFhQ18R8


What is the fastest route to Georgia, East or West Coast U.S.

[Optimus]

Georgian Snipers Hunting Russian Journalists
http://www.vostokmedia.com/n22207.html
06:05, 11.08.2008 | Приморский край
4 journalists are wounded

VLADIVOSTOK. 11 August. VOSTOK-MEDIA. South Ossetia continued to deliver truthful information. In the battle area worked Russian journalists. Then Georgian military personnel gained an order to liquidate unnecessary witnesses. They started firing at Russian journalists and Georgian snipers started hunting correspondents and camera operators. By now 4 journalists are wounded.
 
In Tbilisi other journalists are working. But Russians are not allowed to broadcast their news to Moscow while Western colleagues have a go. For three days Tbilisi is so used to broadcast in English that even now they broadcast does not sound Georgian.

Another front of information war has opened in Moscow. In Russian capital a few speeches were told in English because some things are better be delivered without interpreters. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, was interviewed by BBC. Minister of Foreign Affairs Deputy Grigoriy Karasin held a meeting with Western Mass Media. He declared: “Georgia should move back to the line of 1992 according to Dagomisk treaties. Treaty of non-violence should be signed. Talks can not happen without a non-violence treaty”.
 
Sergey Lavrov on August, 8 discussed the situation in South Ossetia with French Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernar Kushnar, German MFA Frank-Volter Steinmaier, Supreme Spokesman on general external politics of European Union, Havier Solana, Finlandian MFA Alexander Stubb and Condoleezza Rice. As Information and Publishing Department of RF State Secretary of USA noticed Georgian administration saying about regulation operation, for long time has been preparing the use of force against ossetinian people. Now it has become evident that Rice knew about planning operation. Also Western powers do not accentuate a fact that in South Ossetia 2000 people were killed. Last time America witnessed such violence on September, 11 2001. And Russia was the first one to say condolences to American people. Washington is not going to say any condolences.
 
There is another eloquent example of double standards. What happened with former Yugoslavia when western powers accused Serbians in genocide? American and Nato Air Forces bombed all movable and immovable on the Serbian territory: military divisions, cities, bridges, humanitarian column and Chinese Embassy. Now South Ossetia. Less than a day Georgian forces needed to raze to the ground Tskhinvali and townships in the vicinity. Georgian military command could not but know that in those townships and cities lived thousands of civilians.
 
Those who commanded in Yugoslavia were accused and thrown to prison. Now it is time for thoroughgoing judges to pay attention to those who are sitting in Tbilisi. “International Tribunal about South Ossetia needs to be launched. All facts, all names, all victims must be told out and accused”, - said on Sunday Grigoriy Karasin.
 
It is unlikely that Western powers will judge President of Georgia. Then the accused will have to tell everything and it is evident all truth will be told.

[Optimus]

US issues Russia stern warning over Georgia
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=90481
11th August 2008, 9:45 WST
 
The United States has warned Russia against continued “aggression” in Georgia.

President George Bush said he had told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the violence in Georgia was “unacceptable” and Vice President Dick Cheney has told Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili that Russia's aggression "must not go unanswered".

“The Vice President praised President Saakashvili for his government’s restraint, offers of ceasefire, and disengagement of Georgian forces from the zone of conflict in the South Ossetian region of the country,” a spokeswoman for Mr Cheney said.

“The Vice-President told President Saakashvili that Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community.”

Russian planes bombed military targets in the suburbs of the Georgian capital Tbilisi today, an interior ministry spokesman said after an explosion was heard in the centre of the city.

“At least two bombs were dropped,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili.

The first bomb struck the village of Kodjori some 10km from Tbilisi where the base of a special forces battalion is located, he said.

The second bomb struck an air traffic control centre located 5km from the centre of Tbilisi, he added.

Overnight the Georgian city of Gori was under massive attack from Russian artillery.

“There was massive bombing of Gori all evening and now we are getting reports of an imminent attack by Russian tanks,” said spokesman Shota Utiashvili.

“Gori is being bombed massively from the air and from artillery as well.”

He said Russian troops “are not there yet but it looks like they are getting ready for it”.

Georgian forces were returning fire on Russian positions, he said.

A spokesman for Russia’s defence ministry said he could neither confirm nor deny the report.

[Freeski]

Let me guess, "Grave consequences"?

[The_lizard]

That super armada headed to the mid-east scares the shit out of me. I always figured something was about to happen when they left, or put as many ships as would fit in there.

where is the news on this fleet move.. please if you could point me in the right direction.

[Wanted]

On Capital's Streets, A Sense of Patriotism
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081002363.html?hpid=topnews

TBILISI, Georgia, Aug. 10 -- Russian forces had just routed Georgia's army from the capital of the disputed territory of South Ossetia, but on Sunday night the mood here in the Georgian capital was almost festive as tens of thousands of people streamed through the streets, waving flags and singing the national anthem in what some called defiance of the Russians.

"This is our field of battle, this is what we can do," said Vakho Babunashvili, 41, a musician who helped organize the rally. It started at 8 p.m. and lasted late into the night, with protesters gathering in a central square, holding a silent vigil in front of U.N. headquarters and finally descending on the Russian Embassy.

Men, women, children, and even a few dogs amassed in front of the embassy. People shook their fists and chanted " Sa-kart-ve-lo!"-- Georgian for "Georgia" -- at its darkened windows as if to remind those inside that the small country still existed. "They have a lot of artillery and tanks, but we have heart," said Gvantsa Katsiashvili, 37, who held a candle in a plastic cup. "We are a brave people."

Until 1991, Georgia was a Soviet republic, dominated by the faraway communist government in Moscow. The war here has roused patriotic feelings among government supporters and opposition alike, who see it as a bid by Russia to reassert the influence it lost with the Soviet collapse.

The rally took place on the third night in which Tbilisi residents looked to the skies, fearing their city could be bombed. Earlier in the day, a nearby airfield was hit, and for much of the day, the streets were eerily empty.

Many Georgians said their allies abroad have not done enough to help them. Some pointed to the 2,000 Georgian troops in Iraq, now being recalled to defend against the Russians, and asked why Georgia was not getting similar support from foreign soldiers. Others said that if the NATO alliance had not denied Georgia a formal plan toward membership this spring, Russia would have been less likely to attack.

Many Georgians feel they are being ignored because their country is small and poor. "We're feeling very alone," said Lado Meshveliani, 25, a lawyer who attended the rally. "Everybody left us. Because Georgia has no gas or oil."

Near Gori, a city targeted by Russian bombs, some Georgian troops vented similar frustration.

"Where are Georgia's friends?" asked one major, who refused to be quoted by name. "The United States and the European Union spat on Georgia."

Some Russian soldiers were curious about the West's perception of their country's actions, and seemed uncertain if the escalating campaign was justified. "What does the world think?" asked one Russian peacekeeper who, despite the war, has continued to man a checkpoint at the South Ossetian border. "Is Russia guilty?"

Many at the Tbilisi rally said that, despite the retreat from Tskhinvali, the war was far from over.

"There is still a big danger that Russia might decide to do the complete job, but it's not something that people are going to stand for," said Humphrey Abbott, 61, a Briton who recently became a Georgian citizen. As he spoke, an airplane rumbled overhead, but it could hardly be heard over the chanting and the honking of car horns.

A few miles away, the mood was more somber. Outside a state hospital, people scanned lists of the injured, looking for friends and relatives. In front of the city hall, Georgians who had fled South Ossetia and Gori prepared to spend their second or third night on the sidewalk.

As evening fell, several hundred people milled around, comparing stories and occasionally collapsing into tears. They were haggard and sunburned, and their clothes were stained with sweat. Many had fled with nothing more than what they were wearing; some described towns strewn with the dead bodies of soldiers.

Of the Georgians who had lived as members of an ethnic minority in South Ossetia, many said they had had good relations with their Ossetian neighbors. But some said those neighbors had been evacuated several days before the conflict started, which made them believe Russia had planned an attack.

"The Russians came in and started taking busloads of women and children," said Sigho Maghaladze, 51. "We were suspicious, because in the last 20 years, we've never seen any mobilization like this."

While most of the anger was reserved for Russia, many in front of city hall also placed blame on the Georgian government.

After fleeing her town in South Ossetia, Ina Lomauri, 42, said she and 20 people are now sharing a room in a former hotel that houses refugees from an early 1990s secessionist war in the Abkhazia region.

"We thought that this year, all the refugees would be returned to their places, but now there are 20 times more refugees," she said. "We believed our president," Mikheil Saakashvili.

Trucks had come earlier in the day to distribute bread, cheese, sausages and water. But some of the refugees complained that no officials had come out to talk to them. "I have been lying here for three days and I need shelter," said Yoseb Gogidze, 69, who was looking for his son among the crowd. He said it should have been clear to the government that a battle with Russia over South Ossetia was not winnable.

"The government ended up in the hands of babies," Gogidze said. (Saakashvili is 40, and many members of his government are known for their youth.) "They can't run this state, they can't recover from this situation . . . The army is in disarray, they have no leadership, they are going from one place to another without any direction. I'm not a prophet, but I have a lot of experience. We won't be able to go back there. It's impossible. It's finished."

But most people echoed Georgian politicians who put aside their differences this week. "I'm not thinking about this kind of thing," Babunashvili, the rally organizer, said when asked about what the war might mean for the current administration. "We're in a war and our first goal is to survive and win."

[Optimus]

where is the news on this fleet move.. please if you could point me in the right direction.

http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=53098.0

[The_lizard]

http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=53098.0

Awesome, thanks!

[Optimus]

Russian ground forces and tanks entering Georgia proper!


Russian ground forces assault vital Georgian city
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/11/europe/11georgia.php
By Anne Barnard Published: August 11, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia — Russia expanded its attacks on Georgia on Sunday, moving tanks and troops through the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and advancing toward the city of Gori in central Georgia, in its first direct assault on a Georgian city with ground forces after three days of heavy fighting, Georgian officials said.

The maneuver — along with aerial bombing of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi — suggested that Russia's aims in the conflict had gone beyond securing the pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to weakening the armed forces of Georgia, a former Soviet republic and an ally of the United States whose Western leanings have long irritated the Kremlin.

Russia's moves, which came after Georgia offered a cease-fire and pulled its troops out of South Ossetia, sparked widespread international alarm and anger and set the stage for an intense diplomatic confrontation with the United States.

Two senior Western officials said that it was unclear whether Russia intended a full invasion of Georgia, but that its aims could go as far as destroying its armed forces or overthrowing Georgia's pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.

"They seem to have gone beyond the logical stopping point," one senior Western diplomat said.

The escalation of fighting between Russia and the former Soviet republic raised tensions between Russia and its former cold-war foes to their highest level in decades. President George W. Bush has promoted Georgia as a bastion of democracy, helped strengthen its military and urged that NATO admit the country to membership. Georgia serves as a major conduit for oil flowing from Russia and Central Asia to the West.

But Russia, emboldened by windfall profits from oil exports, is demonstrating a resolve to reassert its dominance in a region it has always considered its "near abroad."

The military action, which has involved air, naval and missile attacks, marks the largest engagement by Russian forces outside its borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia also escalated its assault Sunday despite strong diplomatic warnings from President George W. Bush and European leaders, underscoring the limits of Western influence over Russia at a time when the rest of Europe depends heavily on Russia for natural gas and the United States needs Moscow's cooperation if it has any hope of curtailing what it sees as a nuclear weapons threat from Iran.

Russian officials say Georgia provoked the assault by attacking South Ossetia last week, causing heavy civilian casualties. But Western diplomats and military officials said they worried that Russia's decision to extend the fighting and to open a second front in Abkhazia indicated that it had sought to use a relatively low-level conflict in a conflict-prone part of the Caucasus region to extend its influence over a much broader area.

There was heavy fighting Sunday on two fronts. Russian artillery shells slammed the city of Gori, a major military installation and transportation hub in Georgia. In the separatist region of Abkhazia, Russian paratroopers and their Abkhaz allies battled Georgian special forces and tried to cross the boundary into undisputed Georgian territory, Georgian officials said.

Russia bombarded Tbilisi's international airport shortly before Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France, who was sent by the European Union to attempt a mediation, was due to land. It twice bombed a factory in the capital. Russia's Black Sea Fleet patrolled the coast of Abkhazia, and its Ministry of Defense said Russian warships had sunk a Georgian gunboat that fired on them.

The Kremlin declined to say whether its troops had entered Georgia proper but said all its actions were intended to strike at Georgian military forces that had fired on its peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia. Russia denied any intention of occupying Georgia.

"We have enough territory to think of," a Kremlin spokesman, Aleksei Pavlov, said. "We don't need Georgia."

The Bush administration said Sunday that it would seek a resolution from the United Nations Security Council condemning Russian military actions in Georgia.

And in a heated exchange with his Russian counterpart at the United Nations, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad of the United States accused the Kremlin of seeking to oust Saakashvili.

He charged that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had said as much during a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday morning.

"In that conversation, Foreign Minister Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Rice that the democratically elected president of Georgia 'must go,' " Khalilzad said. "I quote again: 'Saakashvili must go.' :"

Khalilzad said the comment was "completely unacceptable."

In Washington, American officials reacted with deepening alarm. They said that Georgian troops had tried to disengage but that the Russians had not allowed them to.

[Sasha]

24 minutes ago


Russia Navy ships repel attack of Georgia missile boats.
11.08.2008, 00.52

MOSCOW, August 11 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Navy ships on Sunday repelled attacks of Georgian missile boats.

“Georgian missile boats today made two attempts at attacking Russian warships,” a spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry said. According to him, “Russian Navy ships opened retaliatory fire as a result of which one of the Georgian boats that staged the attack sank.”

Russian Navy commander-in-chief’s aide Igor Dygalo told the Vesti news television channel later that “four quickly moving sea targets were spotted today during the Russian ships’ patrolling near the Abkhazian coast, they violated the border of the declared security zone and were not reacting to warnings. These targets were approaching our ships. The Russian ships fired warning shots and then opened artillery barrage fire. As a result of the quick sea battle one target was hit and three others turned and sailed towards Poti.”

Dygalo said once again that the “Russian fleet is not blockading Georgia, all its tasks are linked with peacekeeping.”

[joequinn]

The Russian Foreign Minister called Condi Rice on Sunday night and told her that Saakashvili has to go as a preliminary for a cease-fire.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081002311.html?hpid=topnews

Wow, dem Russkies are really playing hardball, aren't they?

[Optimus]

Russian ground forces and tanks entering Georgia proper!


Russian ground forces assault vital Georgian city
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/11/europe/11georgia.php
By Anne Barnard Published: August 11, 2008

Whoops! Didn't realize this article had 3 pages.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/11/europe/11georgia.php?page=2

"The Georgians told them, 'We're done. Let us withdraw,' " one American military official said. "But the Russians are not letting them withdraw. They are pursuing them, and people are seeing this."

The official added: "The Russians have gained all of their military objectives. This is not about military objectives. This is about a political objective — removing a thorn in their side."

Tensions with Saakashvili escalated when he made a centerpiece of his presidency the reunification of Georgia with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, pro-Russian regions that won de facto autonomy in fighting in the early 1990s after the Soviet Union fell apart.

Russia has issued passports to many residents in the territories and has stationed peacekeeping troops in them. Heavy fighting broke out last week in South Ossetia when Georgian troops tried to take its capital in what now appears to have been a major miscalculation.

Russian officials say that up to 2,000 people have been killed in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, as Georgia pounded the city with missiles, and that 30,000 have fled the territory into Russia. Refugees arriving in southern Russia reported devastation in Tskhinvali.

Russia says it is acting to protect residents there and to punish Georgia for the assault, which Georgia says was to protect Georgian enclaves in the territory from attack and to push out illegally deployed Russian troops.

But Georgian officials expressed alarm on Sunday that Russia might be aiming to take Gori, about a 45-minute drive south from Tskhinvali. Gori, a major staging area for the Georgian military, sits in a valley that is the main route connecting the east and west halves of Georgia.

Shota Utiashvili, an official of the Georgian Interior Ministry, said the Russians had moved tanks and troops to within a few kilometers of Gori and were "trying to cut the country in half."

He said that if they tried to occupy Georgia, "there will probably be guerilla warfare all over the country."

Utiashvili said: "We need large supplies of humanitarian aid, because we have thousands of wounded. And weapons. We need weapons. We are not going to surrender. We will take this to the end."

Artillery and tank fire could be heard from the outskirts of Gori on Sunday evening. Later, during a pause in the fighting, Georgian military personnel appeared to be flowing into the city. Georgian officials said they would defend it.

Ambulances with flashing red and blue lights roared back and forth on the highway between Gori and Tbilisi, along with military troop transports and families fleeing from Gori in cars and donkey carts.

"The whole family is running away. There is nowhere for us to take shelter," said Ketevan Sunabali, 40, who had left home in a pair of red Winnie the Pooh slippers. She said she had heard the bombs exploding at the outskirts of the village and seen the smoke and just jumped in the car with her husband, without stopping to take any of her belongings.

"I had a home. I had a father," said Gogita Kazahashvili, 29. "My father died today from the bombing. I've seen with my own eyes. My house was destroyed. I buried my father myself, by where the house was."

A refugee who said he was fleeing from Kakhvi, which he described as a Georgian-controlled enclave squeezed between parts of South Ossetia along the winding border, said Russian forces were in the village.

He said Russian soldiers had come to his house, and he had run away. Along the road, refugees carried their possessions in wheelbarrows and plastic bags.

A New York Times reporter saw artillery being fired from Russian-controlled areas into Georgian territory near the villages of Eredvy and Prisi, about two miles from Tskhinvali. Grassy fields were burning in the villages and clouds of dust rose with the impact of the shells.

Even one close Russian ally expressed alarm about the possibility of Russian troops moving on Gori and clashing with Georgians on unchallenged Georgian territory.

"If it happened, then it's a big mess, it's a big problem, because it is direct confrontation," said Maksim Gvindzhiya, deputy foreign affairs minister for the de facto government of Abkhazia. "It's going out of the conflict zone."

Fighting escalated in Abkhazia as well, Gvindzhiya and Georgian officials said.

Russia doubled the number of its troops in Abkhazia to about 6,000 early Sunday, landing paratroopers at an airport in Sukhumi on the Black Sea coast. There was heavy fighting in the Kodori Gorge, the only area in Abkhazia that Georgia controls, with Russian paratroopers ferried in by helicopter.


http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/11/europe/11georgia.php?page=3

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice worked through the night Saturday with other Bush administration officials on a Security Council resolution. American diplomats said that they did not want an actual Security Council vote on the resolution until Tuesday or so, the better to draw out the debate and publicly shame the Russian government. While the resolution will carry no punitive weight, and is almost sure to be vetoed by Russia, a permanent Council member, the hope is that it could create more pressure for a cease-fire, officials said.

Meanwhile, Georgian and Western diplomatic officials said that Georgia had offered a cease-fire proposal to Russia, though Russian officials did not acknowledge receiving such an offer.

This article was reported by Andrew E. Kramer, Anne Barnard and C. J. Chivers, and written by Barnard.

[Sasha]

The Russian Foreign Minister called Condi Rice on Sunday night and told her that Saakashvili has to go as a preliminary for a cease-fire.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081002311.html?hpid=topnews

Wow, dem Russkies are really playing hardball, aren't they?

Wouldn't you at this point, knowing full well who armed and trained the Georgians and put their puppet leader in place.

Frankly though, I'm kinda suprised they ask a US dilomat 2 remove a US puppet, but then again, who else could do it?  Gaul is a large part of war, hunh?

[Protean]

Webster Tarpley is on a re-broadcast of the Jeff Rense show (aired earlier this week) right now; GCN Live - Network 3--Amazing, what Tarpley laid out earlier in the week, about Zbigniew Brzezinski's plan for Russia, is echoing in this current Georgian/Russian conflict.

http://www.gcnlive.com/Schedule_Sunday.html

For members:
Network 3
http://www.gcnlive.com/Listen_Live.html

[Sasha]

Whoops! Didn't realize this article had 3 pages.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/11/europe/11georgia.php?page=2

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/11/europe/11georgia.php?page=3

Suprising article.  Usually the Inter Herald Tribune is pretty well rounded in its facts.  That article reads like a bobble headed MSM publication.  It really makes Russia out to be the aggressor.  

Who owns the Herald?  Naughty half-truths.

[Optimus]

Suprising article.  Usually the Inter Herald Tribune is pretty well rounded in its facts.  That article reads like a bobble headed MSM publication.  It really makes Russia out to be the aggressor.  

Who owns the Herald?  Naughty half-truths.

I wouldn't be surprised if Rupert Murdoch bought it. He's been buying up a lot of media outlets lately.

I believe that if Russia is sending troops into Georgia itself is because Georgia is forcing their hand to do so by continuing their genocidal attacks in S. Ossetia.