Russia invades province of Georgia, after Georgia attacks Russians. VIDEOS

[dogmadestroyer]

If saddam was involved we would be calling for a coalition to repel them.....since it's russia we dont have to worry, because the US doesnt fight armed countries...

I was agreeing with you. The part in the vid I'm posting it for is 4:30 but the whole thing is gold.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG3TwjjfhBU

[doublethink]

Folks, I do not trust the Gov. there is more behind this than meets the eye. Georgia would not begin Massacres of civilans (ethnic cleansing)knowing Russia would step in without an ulterior motive.

exactly, just wait for a bomb to kill some americans, or a ship gets sunk by the russians, so we can jump in, and then the Neocons will have destroyed us completely, leaving us with a thin veil of military defense back here in the US.

[mr anderson]

Russia takes control of capital of South Ossetia

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24151856-401,00.html

By staff writers and wires
August 09, 2008 07:32pm



    * Russia accuses neighbour of ethnic cleansing raids
    * As many as 1600 killed in fighting in South Ossetia
    * Russian forces claim to have taken control of capital

RUSSIA has "liberated" the capital of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia after President Dmitry Medvedev warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the area.

Russian and Georgian forces have been engaged in battle in the region for two days, after Georgia launched a large-scale offensive to restore control over the province.

Russia has accused Georgia of launching a "policy of ethnic cleansing" in the region, which lies below the Russian region of North Ossetia.

South Ossetian separatists say up to 1600 people have been killed in the fighting so far, with reports of Russian warplanes bombing a civilian building in the town of Gori.

Late today Russian forces claimed to have taken control of the South Ossetian capital.

"Tactical groups have fully liberated Tskhinvali from the Georgian military and have started pushing Georgian units beyond the zone of peacekeepers responsibility," said Russian ground forces commander Vladimir Boldyrev, according to local media.

Soon afterwards Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said the country was in a "state of war" and accused Russia of bombing civilian areas.

"I have signed a decree on a state of war. Georgia is in a state of total military aggression," Mr Saakashvili said in a televised statement.

Reporters at the scene said Russian planes had carried out up to five bombings in Gori, with one strike hitting an apartment building and killing at least two people.

Russian authorities had earlier warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the region and accused Georgia of driving people from their homes.

"We are receiving reports that a policy of ethnic cleansing was being conducted in villages in South Ossetia, the number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people are trying to save their lives," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

News agencies said that up to 140 buses carrying refugees from South Ossetia had arrived in North Ossetia following the alleged attacks.

Georgia, which accuses Russia of launching a war against it, said it would withdraw its 2000 soldiers stationed in Iraq to battle separatists in the region.

"We are actually in the stage of preparing our departure," said the chief of Georgia's military operations in Iraq, Colonel Bondo Maisuradze.

"We are waiting for the green light from Tbilisi to leave Iraq today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

The US, a main backer of Georgian leader Mr Saakashvili, has urged Russia to halt military operations in the area.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the country's forces had entered the region to enforce peace.

"Our peacekeepeers and reinforcement units are currently running an operation to force the Georgian side to (agree to) peace," he told local media.

"They are also responsible for protecting the population. That's what we are doing now."

Most of the roughly 70,000 people living in South Ossetia are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now want to exercise their right to self-determination.

The region broke from Georgia as the Soviet Union neared collapse in the 1990s.

Georgian authorities said Russian warplanes had "completely devastated" the Black Sea port of Poti during the fighting.

Poti is a key port and staging post for moving oil and other energy from the Caspian Sea to the West.

Georgia also claimed today to have shot down a Russian fighter jet and captured its pilot.

Russian authorities said two planes – a Su-25 fighter jet and a TU-22 bomber – had been lost in the fighting.

"The fate of pilots is now being investigated," a defence spokesman told news agency Interfax.

US President George W. Bush is due to make a statement on the situation tonight.

With AFP and Reuters

[Biggs]

this is what the pieces on a chessboard look like in real life (this is the clean censored version we are allowed to see')

[Biggs]

this is what geopolitical power games from scum like Brzezinski & co really look like

short video -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7551291.stm

[Triadtropz]

It looks like the russians are mainly targeting civilians...i guess a kinder gentler war is on the back-burner..if the US was there. they could hand out candy to the locals.

[ramallamamama]

JonTheSavage,
Would you give us a another view of this map? I think this one is most interesting, showing which companies are controlling specific areas and specific pipeline paths. Please show the area that connects Russia and Iran. Thanks, Brother.

[Brocke]

2,000+ dead

[Amishism]

Seems to me even if there are oil interest between allies this would be no logistical justification for a separatist movement and dropping of bombs. No, it takes a Muslim migration.

More likely the country of Georgia is under attack and targeted for occupation by NATO forces. Georgia is majority Orthodox Christian. The USA sided with the Muslims in the former Yugoslavia.

The USA appears to be siding with "Georgia", but it's not that simple. Wash DC said they would put missiles in Georgia causing friction with Russia, escalating the need for NATO. Only a soldout politician would do this. The people of Georgia are likely the real targets, as it was in Yugoslavia.

We can armchair it until all is said and done, DC is going to do whatever they want, I'm just not going over there too another unjustified war racket.

[larsonstdoc]

   If the US military did things like the Russians do,  we would have been done in Iraq 5 years ago!

[gabba2k7]

technically cant watch this video

It looks like the russians are mainly targeting civilians...

maybe georgian put their fire positions near civilians? cauze, u know, saakashvilly are fighting against his nation in fact, then against osetians, then - against russians...

[TimeLady]

Personally I feel it may have been a tit for tat situation, a trade: Russia can attack Georgia if America can attack Iran.

Oh, and @ chris jones: Saddam actually telephoned the US Ambassador to Iraq beforehand to see if he had "permission" to invade Kuwait. The ambassador said he could. Look what happened there.

[gabba2k7]

Personally I feel it may have been a tit for tat situation, a trade: Russia can attack Georgia if America can attack Iran.

Russia DO NOT attack Georgia. Russian army forces + S.osetian army defending S.Osetia territory. They are NOT in the georgia territory. They defence the territory. This territory (of S.osetia) cannot be attacked by georgians. cauze of official agreement. 

But as u can see. USA (+Uk,Israel +prostitues like official ukraine) gives Saakashvilly green light to do it. give money and instructors. give informational and political support

 

[EthanAllen_TruthNet Radio]

Some raw combat footage, recorded from a mobile phone inside the hot zone. What times we live in. Go to war, record in on your cell phone, and have it uploaded to youtube before the battle is even over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SdZfhukZA

[Optimus]

Georgia Commits Genocide
Georgia commits genocide in S. Ossetia. Georgia burns down church full of civilians. Two bodies of black soldiers (10-11 minutes into the report), possibly American, are found in S. Ossetia.

http://www.supernovatube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4231a9962e3914f4f1f8

[Amishism]

Georgia Commits Genocide
Georgia commits genocide in S. Ossetia. Georgia burns down church full of civilians. Two bodies of black soldiers (10-11 minutes into the report), possibly American, are found in S. Ossetia.

http://www.supernovatube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4231a9962e3914f4f1f8

That is terrible. It shows who was the target and it wasn't the Muslim majority of Ossetia.


The Pentagon is behind the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia.


Soldiers from Georgia and the U.S. rest before the opening ceremony of "Immediate Response 2008" at the Vaziani military base, outside Tbilisi, July 15, 2008. Forces from the U.S., Armenia and Georgia will take part in the international military exercise. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili (GEORGIA).

United States soldiers held a military exercise with Georgian troops training them for a cowardly sneak attack on Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080715/114022994.html

To this end, the Jesuit general has appointed 2 fanatical Fatima crusaders to the top jobs in the Pentagon.

Admiral Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the head man in the Pentagon under the Jesuit general.

General Patrick J. O'Reilly is responsible for surrounding Russia with weapons of mass destruction.
www.reformation.org/pentagon-madmen.html

[Optimus]

American Blames US and Georgia For Starting War
Joe Mestas, American citizen living in South Ossetia, who witnessed everything that happening in the region, talked to RT and blamed U.S. and Georgian leaders for the outbreak of violence.

http://www.supernovatube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=43f9537dae01e96458ff

[GoodBush]

http://europe.theoildrum.com/story/2006/11/18/102426/08

[GoodBush]

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Caspian/images/closeup%20of%20Kaz%20field%20map.pdf

[GoodBush]

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/georgia_pol99.jpg


Map google won't show you.

[EchelonMonitor]

I'm waiting for Russians to identify the supposed American bodies.

They've promised a full investigation of the war crimes committed by the Georgian forces, including the murder of children.

[bigron]

South Ossetia: Inside Georgia but dependent on Russia

By The Irish Times
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2008/0809/1218206290341.html

09/08/08 "The Irish Times' -- South Ossetia is a territory of around 4,000sq km (1,544sq mls), situated about 100km north of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on the southern slopes of the Caucasus mountains.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s spurred a separatist movement in South Ossetia, which had always felt more affinity with Russia than with Georgia.

It broke away from Georgian rule in a war in 1991-92, in which several thousand people died, and continues to maintain close ties with the neighbouring Russian region of North Ossetia, on the north side of the Caucasus.

The majority of the roughly 70,000 people are ethnically distinct from Georgians, and speak their own language, related to Farsi.

They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now want to exercise their right to self-determination. The separatist leader is Eduard Kokoity.

In November 2006, villages inside South Ossetia still under Georgian control elected a rival leader, former separatist Dmitry Sanakoyev. He is endorsed by Tbilisi, but his authority only extends to a small part of the region.

Around two-thirds of South Ossetia's annual budget revenues of around $30 million (€19.9 milllion) come directly from Moscow. Almost all the population hold Russian passports. They use the Russian rouble as their currency.

A peacekeeping force with 500 members each from Russia, Georgia and North Ossetia monitors a supposed truce. Georgia accuses the Russian peacekeepers of siding with the separatists, which Moscow denies.

Sporadic clashes between separatist and Georgian forces have killed dozens of people in the last few years.

© 2008 The Irish Times

[gabba2k7]

for your use, fellaz.
http://www.vesti.ru/videos?cid=2 ->video
http://www.russiatoday.ru ->video
http://war.georgia.su  -> video,statements

[bigron]

The War in Georgia Is a War for the West

By MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI
President of Georgia

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20490.htm

11/08/08 "WSJ" -- - As I write, Russia is waging war on my country.

On Friday, hundreds of Russian tanks crossed into Georgian territory, and Russian air force jets bombed Georgian airports, bases, ports and public markets. Many are dead, many more wounded. This invasion, which echoes Afghanistan in 1979 and the Prague Spring of 1968, threatens to undermine the stability of the international security system.

Why this war? This is the question my people are asking. This war is not of Georgia's making, nor is it Georgia's choice.

The Kremlin designed this war. Earlier this year, Russia tried to provoke Georgia by effectively annexing another of our separatist territories, Abkhazia. When we responded with restraint, Moscow brought the fight to South Ossetia.

Ostensibly, this war is about an unresolved separatist conflict. Yet in reality, it is a war about the independence and the future of Georgia. And above all, it is a war over the kind of Europe our children will live in. Let us be frank: This conflict is about the future of freedom in Europe.

No country of the former Soviet Union has made more progress toward consolidating democracy, eradicating corruption and building an independent foreign policy than Georgia. This is precisely what Russia seeks to crush.

This conflict is therefore about our common trans-Atlantic values of liberty and democracy. It is about the right of small nations to live freely and determine their own future. It is about the great power struggles for influence of the 20th century, versus the path of integration and unity defined by the European Union of the 21st. Georgia has made its choice.

When my government was swept into power by a peaceful revolution in 2004, we inherited a dysfunctional state plagued by two unresolved conflicts dating to the early 1990s. I pledged to reunify my country -- not by the force of arms, but by making Georgia a pole of attraction. I wanted the people living in the conflict zones to share in the prosperous, democratic country that Georgia could -- and has -- become.

In a similar spirit, we sought friendly relations with Russia, which is and always will be Georgia's neighbor. We sought deep ties built on mutual respect for each other's independence and interests. While we heeded Russia's interests, we also made it clear that our independence and sovereignty were not negotiable. As such, we felt we could freely pursue the sovereign choice of the Georgian nation -- to seek deeper integration into European economic and security institutions.

We have worked hard to peacefully bring Abkhazia and South Ossetia back into the Georgian fold, on terms that would fully protect the rights and interests of the residents of these territories. For years, we have offered direct talks with the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, so that we could discuss our plan to grant them the broadest possible autonomy within the internationally recognized borders of Georgia.

But Russia, which effectively controls the separatists, responded to our efforts with a policy of outright annexation. While we appealed to residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with our vision of a common future, Moscow increasingly took control of the separatist regimes. The Kremlin even appointed Russian security officers to arm and administer the self-styled separatist governments.

Under any circumstances, Russia's meddling in our domestic affairs would have constituted a gross violation of international norms. But its actions were made more egregious by the fact that Russia, since the 1990s, has been entrusted with the responsibility of peacekeeping and mediating in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Rather than serve as honest broker, Russia became a direct party to the conflicts, and now an open aggressor.

As Europe expanded its security institutions to the Black Sea, my government appealed to the Western community of nations -- particularly European governments and institutions -- to play a leading role in resolving our separatist conflicts. The key to any resolution was to replace the outdated peacekeeping and negotiating structures created almost two decades ago, and dominated by Russia, with a genuine international effort.

But Europe kept its distance and, predictably, Russia escalated its provocations. Our friends in Europe counseled restraint, arguing that diplomacy would take its course. We followed their advice and took it one step further, by constantly proposing new ideas to resolve the conflicts. Just this past spring, we offered the separatist leaders sweeping autonomy, international guarantees and broad representation in our government.

Our offers of peace were rejected. Moscow sought war. In April, Russia began treating the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as Russian provinces. Again, our friends in the West asked us to show restraint, and we did. But under the guise of peacekeeping, Russia sent paratroopers and heavy artillery into Abkhazia. Repeated provocations were designed to bring Georgia to the brink of war.

When this failed, the Kremlin turned its attention to South Ossetia, ordering its proxies there to escalate attacks on Georgian positions. My government answered with a unilateral cease-fire; the separatists began attacking civilians and Russian tanks pierced the Georgian border. We had no choice but to protect our civilians and restore our constitutional order. Moscow then used this as pretext for a full-scale military invasion of Georgia.

Over the past days, Russia has waged an all-out attack on Georgia. Its tanks have been pouring into South Ossetia. Its jets have bombed not only Georgian military bases, but also civilian and economic infrastructure, including demolishing the port of Poti on the Black Sea coast. Its Black Sea fleet is now massing on our shores and an attack is under way in Abkhazia.

What is at stake in this war?

Most obviously, the future of my country is at stake. The people of Georgia have spoken with a loud and clear voice: They see their future in Europe. Georgia is an ancient European nation, tied to Europe by culture, civilization and values. In January, three in four Georgians voted in a referendum to support membership in NATO. These aims are not negotiable; now, we are paying the price for our democratic ambitions.

Second, Russia's future is at stake. Can a Russia that wages aggressive war on its neighbors be a partner for Europe? It is clear that Russia's current leadership is bent on restoring a neocolonial form of control over the entire space once governed by Moscow.

If Georgia falls, this will also mean the fall of the West in the entire former Soviet Union and beyond. Leaders in neighboring states -- whether in Ukraine, in other Caucasian states or in Central Asia -- will have to consider whether the price of freedom and independence is indeed too high.

Mr. Saakashvili is president of Georgia.

[TimeLady]

Also um, it's not like Russia has oppressed Georgia for centuries and the Georgians might be royally pissed at the Russians, right?

[Loungin]

Also um, it's not like Russia has oppressed Georgia for centuries and the Georgians might be royally pissed at the Russians, right?

I'm not familiar with Georgian history, but from what we've seen, South Osetia favor's Russian control over Georgian.  If they are so oppressed, why this choice?  Russian propeganda lead them to this decision or was it made based on harsh Georgian actions towards the region.

[TimeLady]

I'm not familiar with Georgian history, but from what we've seen, South Osetia favor's Russian control over Georgian.  If they are so oppressed, why this choice?  Russian propeganda lead them to this decision or was it made based on harsh Georgian actions towards the region.

I said Georgia, not S. Ossetia.

Georgia was conquered by the Russian Empire, and then for 70+ years it was part of the USSR.

I'm sure you can understand that there'd be some resentment over it.

[gabba2k7]

history

- if not russia - world will not know where georgia is situated
- if not russia - turkey can destroy them for example. so it is big question - was the georgia conquered by russia...or maybe NOT?... i use turkey as an example - cauze they were one of the georgia helpers in this invasion... its istorical ironical incident...

[phigsy]

Georgia was conquered by the Russian Empire, and then for 70+ years it was part of the USSR.

I'm sure you can understand that there'd be some resentment over it.

There might also be some resentment the other way about Stalin being a Georgian and his tendency to dispose of the odd Russian (or a million) when the mood took.

[dogmadestroyer]

There might also be some resentment the other way about Stalin being a Georgian and his tendency to dispose of the odd Russian (or a million) when the mood took.

Yeah... although Stalin treated Georgia very badly fearing they might secede.

[TimeLady]

history

- if not russia - world will not know where georgia is situated
- if not russia - turkey can destroy them for example. so it is big question - was the georgia conquered by russia...or maybe NOT?... i use turkey as an example - cauze they were one of the georgia helpers in this invasion... its istorical ironical incident...

Yes, Georgia was conquered by Russia.

And not the state that's famous for it's peaches, either...

[Irobot]

VIDEO HERE:
http://fightingtyranny.ning.com/video/video/show?id=2103698%3AVideo%3A23624

AND

VIDEO OF THE GEORGIA / RUSSIAN CONFLICT THE US DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE

http://fightingtyranny.ning.com/video/video/show?id=2103698%3AVideo%3A23628

AND
http://fightingtyranny.ning.com/video/video/show?id=2103698%3AVideo%3A23569

[la Resistance]

This is just a testament to how utterly corrupt our News system is and how stupid our journalists are.

They all say that Russia is advancing the hostilities; they are not.

It was Georgia who stuck their nose in, their bastard president, fascist tyrant.

S. Ossetia has been autonomous for years, since 1990, like Abkhazia; and Georgia's jackass president was elected because he said he would re-unite the territories. He was the initiator of the conflict and he is the real terrorist.

This is Georgian nationalism and fascism at its' finest.

They think that the US will jump in.

You know, I hate to say it, but in this case I fully support the Russian involvement on the behalf of S. Ossetia - they are not the ones who were murdering in the autonomous region - even our news reports stated that they were attacking Georgian positions.

I mean here you are, this region which seek their freedom and liberty, not provoking Georgia, and Georgia's prick of a president initiates a brutal and bloody assault out of basically nowhere after being REPEATEDLY told by the international community NOT TO USE FORCE and now the stupid bastard looks to the US with his finger up his arse and a puppy-dog look on his face expecting a nation that is over-extended and in a recession to come to aid his stupid ass.

I mean seriously, he is responsible for bringing this on Georgia.

I can imagine Putin doing everything in his strength to not directly attack Georgia to make a point.

I'd have the black ops team in place gunning for Georgia's president, the fascist tyrant.

And all our putsy media are busy telling us how bad Russia are for getting involved - forgetting that they have the peacekeeping force, S. Ossetians are commonly Russian citizens, and GEORGIA initiated the hostilities.

I hope Russia repels the Georgians back to their huts, and brings death to the tyrants.

All the while we're probably selling the bullets to both sides.

[Brocke]

Who's to blame for the Russian Georgian conflict?

VIDEO
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2042

Pepe Escobar: Georgia is a strategic client state of the US with close ties to the Bush administration

Georgian troops launched an aerial bombardment and ground attack on its separatist province of South Ossetia on Thursday. South Ossetians want to join up with their ethnic brethren in North Ossetia, an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation. Seeing this as an act of aggression Russia launched bombing raids against Georgia, vowing to defend its citizens. More than half of South Ossetia's citizens are said to have taken up Moscow's offer of a Russian passport. Pepe Escobar believes that "the hypocrisy of the international community knows no bounds for if the West forced the issue of Kosovar independence then the independence of South Ossetia should also be on the cards."

[bigron]

Russia and Georgia mourn their dead


Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:39am EDT
By Michael Stott and Matt Robinson
http://links.reuters.com/r/7EU6K/WZCSX/V1M7V/7WVJN/HAXNP/YT/h

MOSCOW/TBILISI (Reuters) - Russia and Georgia proclaimed a day of mourning on Wednesday for the dead in five days of fighting over separatist South Ossetia before difficult negotiations on the details of an EU-brokered peace plan.

The breakaway region and adjacent areas of Georgia were reported quiet overnight after the warring sides signed up in principle to a six-point plan delivered on Tuesday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Agreement was clinched hours after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to military operations in Russia's ex-Soviet neighbor.

In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers will hear a report from France's Bernard Kouchner on the peace mission and are expected to endorse the plan for a ceasefire and a return to relative stability in the volatile region.

In Moscow, flags flew at half mast for a day of mourning after the loss of life in fighting that erupted last week when Russia rolled tanks and troops into breakaway South Ossetia to halt a Georgian offensive to retake the separatist region.

In and around South Ossetia's main town of Tskhinvali, occasional small-arms fire resounded but there were no major incidents on the frontline.

The Interior Ministry said it was "relatively quiet." But persistent rumors circulated through the town, with unconfirmed reports of Russian tanks rolling towards the town of Gori, 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Tskhinvali.

Tens of thousands of Georgians rallied on Tuesday night to denounce the Russian operations, which included bombing raids against mainly military installations across the country. Russia was unbowed.

"The aggressor has been punished and suffered great losses," the Russian daily Izvestiya declared on its front page.

The EU-brokered peace plan, once approved in Brussels, would then provide the basis for a U.N. Security Council resolution.

But analysts said Georgia may yet have to make painful concessions, having been routed on the battlefield and forced to concede precious ground in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a second separatist region to the west on the Black Sea.

The self-styled president of Abkhazia said on Wednesday that the region had formally taken control of the disputed upper reaches of the Kodori gorge on the region's boundary with Georgia proper. The region's forces had pushed Georgian troops out of the area a day earlier.

The West indicated it would call for a multinational peacekeeping force in place of the Russian-Georgian joint force, and a new process to settle disputes that have simmered since both regions broke away from Georgian rule in the early 1990s.

"We don't yet have peace," Sarkozy told a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday alongside Medvedev. "But we have a provisional cessation of hostilities. And everyone should be aware that this is considerable progress."

REPUTATION AT STAKE

The United States, which has taken a back seat to EU efforts to end the conflict, has accused Russia of a heavy-handed and brutal offensive aimed at toppling Western ally Saakashvili.

The United States on Tuesday cancelled a Pacific Ocean naval exercise set for next week involving Russia, Britain and France.

"There is no way in good conscience that we could proceed with a joint naval exercise given the state of this crisis," a senior U.S. defense official said on the condition of anonymity.

A senior official in Washington said events could weigh on Russia's bid for WTO and Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation membership, and its current presence in the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Moscow's reputation and role in the international community "is very much at stake".

A senior EU official in Brussels said foreign ministers were likely to tell Moscow its use of military force in Georgia would affect EU-Russian relations, without spelling out how. They will also consider how to send in more humanitarian aid.

While some EU countries have called for European peacekeepers or monitors for Georgia's two rebel regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, there was no indication Russia, which has the upper hand militarily, would accept such a move.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again questioned NATO's commitment to extend membership to Georgia, a move that has angered Moscow.

"For decision-makers in the NATO countries of the west, it would be worth considering whether in future you want the men and women of your armed services to be answerable to Mr Saakashvili's declarations of war in the Caucasus," he told the Financial Times.

(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming in Washington, Francois Murphy, Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi, Oleg Shchedrov in Moscow and Paul Taylor in Brussels; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

[bigron]

Propaganda And Presstitute Alert:

Brzezinski: Russia's Invasion of Georgia Is Reminiscent of Stalin's Attack on Finland:

By Nathan Gardels:

Fundamentally at stake is what kind of role Russia will play in the new international system. Unfortunately, Putin is putting Russia on a course that is ominously similar to Stalin's and Hitler's in the late 1930s. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has correctly drawn an analogy between Putin's "justification" for dismembering Georgia -- because of the Russians in South Ossetia -- to Hitler's tactics vis a vis Czechoslovakia to "free" the Sudeten Deutsch.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20496.htm






Brzezinski: Russia's Invasion of Georgia Is Reminiscent of Stalin's Attack on Finland
 August 10, 2008 | 03:49 PM (EST)

 
On Sunday I talked with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the elder statesman who was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, about the Russian invasion of Georgia. He long tangled with Soviet power. Now he takes on Putin:


Nathan Gardels: What is the world to make of Russia's invasion of Georgia?

Zbigniew Brzezinski: Fundamentally at stake is what kind of role Russia will play in the new international system. Unfortunately, Putin is putting Russia on a course that is ominously similar to Stalin's and Hitler's in the late 1930s. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has correctly drawn an analogy between Putin's "justification" for dismembering Georgia -- because of the Russians in South Ossetia -- to Hitler's tactics vis a vis Czechoslovakia to "free" the Sudeten Deutsch.

Even more ominous is the analogy of what Putin is doing vis-a-vis Georgia to what Stalin did vis-a-vis Finland: subverting by use of force the sovereignty of a small democratic neighbor. In effect, morally and strategically, Georgia is the Finland of our day

The question the international community now confronts is how to respond to a Russia that engages in the blatant use of force with larger imperial designs in mind: to reintegrate the former Soviet space under the Kremlin's control and to cut Western access to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia by gaining control over the Baku/ Ceyhan pipeline that runs through Georgia.

In brief, the stakes are very significant. At stake is access to oil as that resource grows ever more scarce and expensive and how a major power conducts itself in our newly interdepedent world, conduct that should be based on accommodation and consensus, not on brute force.

If Georgia is subverted, not only will the West be cut off from the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. We can logically anticipate that Putin, if not resisted, will use the same tactics toward the Ukraine. Putin has already made public threats against Ukraine.

Gardels: What, if anything, can the West do to contain this revived Russian behavior?

Brzezinski: Not only the West, but the rest of the international community, must make it clear that this kind of behavior will result in ostracism and economic and financial penalties. Ultimately, if Russia continues on this course, it must face isolation in the international community -- a longer range risk to its own well-being.

The United States, particularly, shoulders the major burden of mobilizing an collective international response. This invasion of Georgia by Russia is a very sad commentary on eight years of self-delusion in the White House regarding Putin and his regime. Two memorable comments stand out. First, when Bush first met Putin and said he looked into his soul and could trust him. Second, not long ago, Condi Rice claimed that American relations with Russia have never been better in history!

Gardels: John McCain has already suggested that Russia be expelled from the G8. Is that something you would contemplate?

Brzezinski: The G8 is an impotent fiction anyway. But It has to be much more than
that. It has to be a concerted effort on all levels -- at the United Nations, in the Atlantic Council, in the EU or in NATO, in consultation with the Japanese, the Chinese and others -- to convey to Russia that, whatever grievances it may have, it cannot resolve them by a deliberate policy of dismembering an adjoining state and
trying to obtain political domination over it.

Gardels: Is the West obliged to help Georgia resist the Russian attack with some kind of military support?

Brzezinski: The question is not what obligation the West may have at the moment. The question is about our longer term interest. If a Russia, which misjudges its power and its capacities embarks now on a blatantly nationalistic and imperialistic course, we will all suffer.

Therefore it is all the more important that Russia be stopped now by mobilizing a concerted, global effort to oppose and condemn the Russian invasion. Ultimately, that could lead to economic and financial sanctions, though one would hope that other Russian leaders, including its business elite, will have cooler heads and be more aware of Russia's own vulnerabilities. Russia is not ready to sustain a new cold war.

Gardels: Should the Atlantic Alliance urgently induct Georgia into NATO as one response?

Brzezinski: The West desisted from extending the NATO "membership action plan" to Georgia -- a preparatory stage for becoming a member -- out of deference to Russian objections. It is now clear that the deference shown to Putin, in the face of his obvious ambitions, has been counterproductive. In view of what has happened, NATO ought to extend the membership action plan to Georgia, therefore reinforcing the commitment NATO made in Bucharest last March
to the effect that NATO intends, at some future point, to include Georgia.

Gardels: You haven't mentioned Dmitri Medvedev, the the Russian president, once, but only Putin. Does Medvedev have any function in this?

Brzezinski: As much to do with it as the formal head of state of the Soviet Union in 1950 had to do with the running of the Soviet government. Does anyone remember his name? But the real ruler of the Soviet Union had a name that most still remember -- and it rhymes with Putin.....

Russia
On Sunday I talked with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the elder statesman who was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, about the Russian invasion of Georgia. He long tangled with Soviet power.
On Sunday I talked with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the elder statesman who was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, about the Russian invasion of Georgia. He long tangled with Soviet power.

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'Poor Little Georgia' – Not!

Bill Kristol and the Menshevik myth of democratic Georgia


by Justin Raimondo
August 13, 2008

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13292


The commander in chief of America's laptop bombardiers, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, can always be counted on to reveal not only the content of the neoconservative party line, but also, in so many words, the impulse that motivates it. In his latest peroration from his perch at the New York Times, the intellectual architect of our disastrous war in Iraq lays out a rationale for yet another catastrophic blunder in the foreign policy realm, this time in the Caucasus:

"In August 1924, the small nation of Georgia, occupied by Soviet Russia since 1921, rose up against Soviet rule. On Sept. 16, 1924, The Times of London reported on an appeal by the president of the Georgian Republic to the League of Nations. While 'sympathetic reference to his country's efforts was made' in the Assembly, the Times said, 'it is realized that the League is incapable of rendering material aid, and that the moral influence which may be a powerful force with civilized countries is unlikely to make any impression upon Soviet Russia.'

"'Unlikely' was an understatement. Georgians did not enjoy freedom again until 1991."

You get the idea: in Kristol's world, Putin's Russia is Stalin's USSR, and poor, doe-like little Georgia – a bastion of freedom – is in danger of being devoured by the insatiable Russian bear. Meanwhile, the world stands by, helpless, as appeals are made to a nation impervious to the very concept of morality.

To begin with, Kristol's historical analogy is misleading: Georgia in 1924 was very far from a democracy. What he doesn't tell you is that it was under the control of the Mensheviks, a faction of the Russian Social Democrats (later renamed the Communist Party) that lost out to Lenin's Bolsheviks but was in fact very little different from its factional rivals. As the British writer Carl Bechhofer described Georgia's Menshevik regime:

"The Free and Independent Social-Democratic State of Georgia will always remain in my memory as a classic example of an imperialist 'small nation.' Both in territory-snatching outside and bureaucratic tyranny inside, its chauvinism was beyond all bounds."

George Hewitt, a professor of Circassian languages at London University, cites the colorful and well-traveled Bechhofer in an illuminating essay that lays out the grave error underlying American policy in the region:

"In the hope of avoiding a proliferation of an unpredictable number of small states, the international community in its collective wisdom decreed that it would recognize only the USSR's constituent union-republics and would, thus, not give any encouragement to the yearning for self-determination that characterized some ethnic minorities living in regions endowed with only lower level autonomy according to the Soviet administrative system (such as the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia and the Autonomous Region of South Ossetia, both lower-status entities within the union-republic of Soviet Georgia). It was a huge irony that, in adopting this stance, the West was effectively enshrining the divisions created for his fiefdom by none other than the Soviet dictator Iosep Besarionis-dze Dzhughashvili, a Georgian known to the wider world as Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin."

Aside from memorializing Stalin's policy of imprisoning ethnic minorities within larger administrative entities, refusing to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states allows the U.S. and the European community to maintain the fiction of Russian "expansionism." According to Washington, the Russians invaded "Georgia"; Saakashvili's invasion of South Ossetia doesn't qualify as aggression, since how can you invade your own country? South Ossetia and Abkhazia are part of Georgia, you see. Just like a small mammal is part of the anaconda that swallowed it whole.

Hewitt goes on to point out:

"Had the Soviet Union collapsed during the first decade of its existence in the 1920s before Abkhazia was reduced in status by fiat of Stalin in February 1931 from being a fully-fledged republic, which entered the Transcaucasian Federation on 13 December 1922 in treaty-alliance with Georgia, to that of an autonomous republic within Georgia, and had the then League of Nations adopted the same principle of recognition later practiced by its successor, the United Nations, then Abkhazia would for decades have enjoyed independence and membership in its own right of the said international community."

The same goes for Ossetia, which is today split into North and South, with the latter under the Georgian heel – as placed there by the half-Ossetian (on his father's side), half-Georgian Stalin.

Readers of Hewitt's 1998 book, The Abkhazians: A Handbook, will note how effectively he explodes Kristol's myth of poor little Georgia, whose supposedly "democratic" history reflects its present "pro-Western" orientation and general worthiness:

"The aggressive politics of the government of Georgia towards Abkhazia occasioned extreme displeasure among the local Abkhazian, Armenian, Russian, Greek, and a significant proportion of the Kartvelian peoples, which actually helped to facilitate the establishment of Soviet power in the region on March 4th, 1921."

The fall of Menshevik communism in Georgia was celebrated by the captive mini-nations of the region "as a deliverance from the repression and meddling of the Georgian Republic." Things have remained pretty much unchanged since 1921 – albeit not in the way Kristol would have us believe.

While Kristol sentimentalizes the old Georgian republic, its Menshevik founders and leaders were, as Hewitt points out, unapologetic authoritarians:

"The politics of this state was quite accurately characterized by one of its eminent activists, the jurist-internationalist Zurab Avalov (Avalishvili). In his book The Independence of Georgia in International Politics, 1918-1921 (Paris, 1924), he remarked, 'At the start of 1921, Georgia had in the person of its government and in the shape of the Constituent Assembly a simple creature of party organization … Georgian democracy 1917-1921, a form of social-democratic dictatorship (i.e., of the right wing of Marxism), was a period of preparation for the triumph in Georgia of Soviet dictatorship."

This dictatorial tradition is today carried on by President Mikheil Saakashvili, who unleashed police on demonstrators, injuring 500 people, during the hotly contested elections and shut down independent media with the same alacrity displayed by his Menshevik predecessors. It is little short of astonishing that Kristol holds up this smarmy regime of small-time hoodlums with big-time regional ambitions as some kind of model, the ideal U.S. ally whose fate we might even go to war over.

Georgia, in Kristol's view, is worthy not only of U.S. support, but of membership in an imaginary "League of Democracies," a neocon project touted by John McCain and pushed by the neocon-dominated wing of the GOP as the "conservative" answer to the United Nations. In short, NATO writ large, albeit with an ideological gloss such as only Kristol (or a Marxist) could bring to it.

No, that's not a misprint: I wrote Marxist, and meant it. The whole flavor of Kristol's screed calling for U.S. support to Georgia, with its appeals to emotion interwoven with bogus historical analogies, reeks of the ideologue's sweaty-browed rhetoric. He is like a little Lenin, exhorting us to follow the bright flag of "democratic" internationalism to the very ends of the earth, which is surely where South Ossetia is located, as least as far as Americans are concerned. One hears, in Kristol's exhortations, the hectoring tone of the old Soviet commissar, albeit of the Menshevik rather than the Bolshevik variety, and this brings to mind a point made by the late Murray N. Rothbard in his justly famous 1992 speech to the John Randolph Club:

"When I was growing up, I found that the main argument against laissez-faire, and for socialism, was that socialism and communism were inevitable: 'You can't turn back the clock!' they chanted, 'you can't turn back the clock.' But the clock of the once-mighty Soviet Union, the clock of Marxism-Leninism, a creed that once mastered half the world, is not only turned back, but lies dead and broken forever. But we must not rest content with this victory. For though Marxism-Bolshevism is gone forever, there still remains, plaguing us everywhere, its evil cousin: call it 'soft Marxism,' 'Marxism-Humanism,' 'Marxism-Bernsteinism,' 'Marxism-Trotskyism,' 'Marxism-Freudianism,' well, let's just call it 'Menshevism,' or 'social democracy.'

"Social democracy is still here in all its variants, defining our entire respectable political spectrum, from advanced victimology and feminism on the left over to neoconservatism on the right. We are now trapped, in America, inside a Menshevik fantasy, with the narrow bounds of respectable debate set for us by various brands of Marxists. It is now our task, the task of the resurgent right, of the paleo movement, to break those bonds, to finish the job, to finish off Marxism forever."

Of course, the neoconservatives, of which Kristol is the ringleader, came from the left side of the spectrum and trace their historical antecedents all the way back to the schismatic Marxist sects of the 1930s and the epic battles between Trotsky and Stalin (they were partisans of the former). They were, in short, the American Mensheviks of their time. In their hegira from the far left to the neocon right – a more fully documented odyssey exists only for that undertaken by Ulysses – they yet retain the telling characteristics of their Menshevik heritage, which Kristol proudly upholds to this day.

At a time when people are losing their homes and economists are beginning to talk about another Great Depression, Kristol's proposal to send millions more in "aid" to Georgia is obscene. Now that's real anti-Americanism – sending taxpayer dollars to a Georgian despot while people in this country are hurting. It's also political suicide for the Republicans to raise the prospect of intervening in Georgia's internal problems when we're already bogged down in the Iraq quagmire, from which there seems little hope of early extrication. So much for Kristol, the grand strategist of the GOP. He and his fellow neocons are dragging down the Republican Party along with their own sinking credibility.

The myth of poor little Georgia, a newborn and promising "democracy" threatened, bullied, and battered by Putin-the-reincarnation-of-Stalin is bogus from beginning to end. It is a Bizarro World rendition of what is really happening in South Ossetia and the wider region: that is, a curiously and consistently inverted version of reality in which up is down, black is white, and the Georgians did not invade South Ossetia, killing thousands and driving many more northward.

According to our "free" media, the Georgians didn't invade the land of the Ossetians – they merely tried to "retake" it, as a child would bloodlessly and even quite playfully retake a shiny red ball from a playmate. Those evil Russkies, on the other hand, invaded, plunged into, and escalated their attack on Georgia. At least, those are the words our "reporters" are using. As George Orwell emphasized, the corruption of language is a form of control, and the American media in collusion with the government is expert at this, especially in its war reporting.

That's why Antiwar.com's continued survival is such a value for our growing audience: we give you the facts without the Washington-centric spin that comes with "mainstream" media coverage. You know you can come here to find out what's really happening out there in the wide world. You also know that we aren't afraid to fly in the face of the conventional wisdom. Maybe you remember how often that collective "wisdom" has been wrong.

The news media – and, not coincidentally, the War Party – isn't interested in reporting the facts. All they care about is the "narrative" – one not necessarily based on reality, designed to convince the public that what our rulers are doing and planning is right and just. The Kristolian narrative of poor, little, pro-Western Georgia is a tall tale. Georgian "free market democracy" exists in the same alternate universe as Iraq's famed "weapons of mass destruction" and the Piltdown Man, but you won't see many other media outlets saying that.

I want to urge all of my readers, especially those who log in with some regularity, to contribute to our end-of-summer fundraising drive, which, as I write, is in its second day. We still have a very long way to go, and I can't impress upon you the urgency of our appeal. The foreign policy crisis has been ongoing ever since 9/11, and it still shows very little sign of letting up. We seem to be approaching the breaking point, where the various crises in different parts of the world are seeming to converge into one mega-crisis: the threat of a new world war, involving most of the world's major powers, is a real possibility. And it is a near certainty as long as the neocons are anywhere near the levers of power in the U.S.

Please, consider giving more than you usually give, considering how grave the prospects for peace have become. The world, I fear, is slowly but surely darkening, with the bright promise of the post-Cold War era now just a distantly flickering memory, the echo of a lost peace.

Let us pray that peace is not lost forever, and that, once lost, it can be recovered. We can do it, and you can help – but we can't do it alone. Contribute today.

~ Justin Raimondo
Copyright Antiwar.com

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Playing with Fire

by Doug Bandow

08.11.2008
http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=19538


As war rages between Georgia and Russia, some NATO advocates argue that peace would reign had the Western alliance offered Georgia a Membership Action Plan last spring. Actually, Georgian and Russian perceptions of potential NATO support for Georgia almost certainly radicalized both sides, making war all but certain. In practice, alliances can be destabilizing as well as stabilizing.

When the cold war ended, many people understandably expected a radical rethinking of America’s global security commitments. Without the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, there seemed little need for NATO, at least an American led and dominated NATO. Without a Soviet Union and Maoist China to back North Korea, there seemed little reason for America’s promise to defend South Korea. With no red navy, from either the USSR or China, circling the Pacific, there seemed little cause for American forces on station to defend Japan.

However, instead of dismantling or even shrinking its cold-war alliance structure, the United States has expanded its defense commitments. Former Warsaw Pact and even Soviet republics have now been inducted into the “North Atlantic” Treaty Organization. The bilateral security guarantees to Japan and the Republic of Korea remain in place. Early in his term President George W. Bush made explicit—until reined in by his aides—America’s promise to defend Taiwan. Iraq has joined Israel as a Middle Eastern country on the Pentagon’s “to defend” list. The number of such nations is more likely to increase than contract under either President John McCain or President Barack Obama.

The common argument for expanding America’s alliances all over the world, irrespective of America’s actual security interests, is stability through deterrence. If Poland, Estonia, Georgia and other Eastern European states become members of NATO, the theory runs, Russia won’t dare attack them. (Washington might claim that expanding the alliance has nothing to do with Moscow, but the Russians are not stupid. Nor are the countries seeking membership in what originated as the quintessential anti-Soviet alliance.)

The same claim is used for making formal such informal commitments as U.S. support for Taiwan. Tell China that the United States would intervene in any conflict and Beijing would have no choice but to back off.

Oddly, proponents of this strategy do not take it to its logical conclusion. If the argument is right, then America should ally with every nation. Offer a security guarantee to any country threatened or potentially threatened by another, thereby ensuring that the world’s superpower will come to its defense. The result will be an era of world peace. The lion will lie down with the lamb. People will circle the globe holding hands and singing kumbaya.

Unfortunately, alliances can promote war as well as peace. Perhaps the best example is the pre–World War I lineup of the Entente versus the Central Powers. Competing alliances created for the purpose of ensuring security turned into transmission belts of war, transforming the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s heir apparent into a global conflagration that killed upwards of 20 million people.

First, the military connections ensured that the dominant empires would go to war when the minor partners quarreled. Germany and Russia (and France and Great Britain, less directly) lost the flexibility to say no to war. Second, by offering military backing the German and Russian empires encouraged their allies to take irresponsible gambles, presuming that their bigger partners would bail them out of any resulting difficulties. The Russian Empire backed the terrorist state of Serbia to maintain the former’s Balkans influence; the German Empire offered Austria-Hungary the famous “blank check” for use in confronting Russia. As a result, both empires unintentionally encouraged allied irresponsibility, world war, and their own destruction.

The expansion of NATO up to Russia’s borders risks having a similar impact. The original NATO had a clear purpose: to protect Western Europe from Soviet aggression, which could result in a hostile power controlling much of the Eurasian land mass. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, that threat disappeared. There was no longer any necessity for an American security guarantee for the Western Europeans; there was no conceivable reason to expand American defense commitments up to Russia’s border.

Doing so has proved to make the world more rather than less dangerous—at least for the United States. The former Eastern Europeans possess subpar militaries which do nothing to help defend America and which actually cost the United States money to train and equip. Manpower contributions to Afghanistan and Iraq range from a score or two of soldiers from countries like Albania and Estonia, to a few hundred from Poland, to two thousand from Georgia—more symbolic than real.

Worse, all these nations bring their bilateral and regional quarrels with them into NATO. And America’s security guarantee only encourages irresponsibility. The previous government of Poland did its best to offend everyone, starting with NATO ally Germany. Estonia created a bitter quarrel with Russia by moving a World War II memorial. Georgia has sparked a war by misplaying a geopolitical game of chicken with Moscow over two insignificant territories, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The issue is not whether all these governments had the legal right to act as they did. The question is whether it was prudent for them to do so. Living next to the Russian bear might not be pleasant, but it is a reality for numerous countries. Common sense dictates dampening rather than inflaming conflict.

The last government of Taiwan exhibited similar irresponsible tendencies. President Chen Shui-bian believed that the United States would defend the island state from any Chinese attempt at forcible reunification, so he pushed hard to promote Taiwan’s separate and independent identity, while cheerfully irritating Beijing whenever possible. He may have had the legal right to do so. Perhaps he had the moral right to do so. But he surely was not prudent in doing so.

Washington attempted to rein in Taipei, but had few effective tools for doing so. American officials muttered about not intervening if Taiwan sparked a crisis with China, but begging off Taiwan’s defense in a crisis based on arbitrary juridical niceties would leave Washington’s international reputation in tatters. Beyond that the United States could do little other than punish Chen by limiting his opportunity to visit America while transiting to other nations. Not a bad deal from Taipei’s standpoint.

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili is following in similar footsteps. Although denied approval of a Membership Action Plan by NATO, Georgia still has an Individual Partnership Action Plan, which provides for cooperation with the alliance, and has been strongly backed by the Bush administration, which helped train and equip Georgia’s military and pushed to bring Georgia into the alliance. Saakashvili’s hope for allied aid and support if Georgia was attacked by Russia likely encouraged him to strike South Ossetia, which triggered Moscow’s intervention.

Ironically, the prospect of Georgian membership in NATO essentially forced Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to respond to Tbilisi’s attempt at a blitzkrieg conquest of South Ossetia. If Georgia eventually enters NATO, any Russian military action would create a crisis for America and Europe: playing the international game of chicken then would be far more dangerous for all concerned. However, responding violently and overwhelmingly today will demonstrate to America and Europe the risks of inviting Georgia to join the alliance. It is one thing for NATO to accept a country with simmering conflicts with its big neighbor; it is something else entirely to include a nation at war with its big neighbor.

Indeed, imagine Georgia as a member of NATO. Then the United States would be a permanent hostage to Mikheil Saakashvili’s domestic political machinations and foreign-policy ambitions. His attack on South Ossetia was extraordinarily foolish, a convenient invitation to a hostile government desirous of teaching him a lesson if not overthrowing him to retaliate dramatically and devastatingly.

Russia is unlikely to emerge well from the present conflict. Even military victory will yield diplomatic isolation. The United States needs Russian cooperation elsewhere, but is likely to push more firmly its missile-defense program and perhaps other military measures against Moscow. The fractious Europeans will find renewed fear of Russia to be a source of unity—and perhaps even an impetus for a more serious defense effort.

But Georgia will lose under any scenario. Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be permanently detached. Georgia will be wrecked economically and cowed militarily. The country may even be occupied and Saakashvili ousted. Tbilisi’s policy was mad, but, thankfully did not commit the West because Georgia is not a member of NATO.

While Georgia as a member of NATO might have deterred Russian action, it would have ensured NATO involvement had Moscow nevertheless intervened. And membership would have encouraged Tbilisi to be even more irresponsible. That would be a dubious enough deal if Georgia was strategically important to America. It would be a disaster given Tblisi’s marginal relevance to Western security.

Conflict in the Caucasus should be a wake-up call for Washington to stop promiscuously distributing security guarantees as if they were free. They are not. Alliances are not a panacea to stop war. In fact, for America they have increasingly become potential transmission belts of war. As would have NATO membership for Georgia.

 

Doug Bandow is the Robert A. Taft Fellow at the American Conservative Defense Alliance. A former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author of Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire (Xulon Press).

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Key numbers from the Georgia-Russia conflict

Georgia-Russia by the numbers: key figures in the conflict

The Associated Press
AP News
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=292921

Aug 12, 2008 15:37 EST

LENGTH OF WAR: Six days of fighting in Georgia and two separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abhkazia, from Aug. 7 through Aug. 12 before a cease-fire was declared by Russia.

MILITARY: Russia has 1.1 million soldiers, Georgia has 37,000. The Russian armed forces have about 6,000 tanks and some 1,700 combat aircraft. Georgia has 230 tanks and 12 combat aircraft.

_ Russia sent 20,000 troops and 500 tanks into Georgia, according to the Georgian president. In Abhkazia alone, Russia estimated it had at least 9,000 troops and 350 armored vehicles.

_ The U.S. helped Georgia bring about 2,000 Georgian troops from Iraq during the fighting.

DEATH TOLL: About 2,000 people, most of them with Russian passports, were killed in South Ossetia as of Aug. 12, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Georgia's Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili said more than 100 Georgians died, including civilians and soldiers.

DISPLACED: The U.N. Refugee Agency estimates almost 100,000 people were displaced, according to figures provided by both governments. Georgian officials say a few thousand fled south into Georgia proper from South Ossetia, and up to 12,000 were estimated to be displaced within South Ossetia. Russian officials in North Ossetia suggest 30,000 people from South Ossetia remain in Russia.

OIL: Two pipelines were shut down. British energy group BP said Aug. 12 that it closed a pipeline in Georgia carrying "a limited amount" of gas and oil because of the conflict. Another pipeline operated by the London-based oil company in Georgia was out of action after a fire last week in Turkey.

MILITARY BASES: Russia seized a Georgian military base in the town of Senaki. At least four other Georgian air bases were bombed, including a base on the outskirts of Gori, the Vaziani military base on the outskirts of Tbilisi, the Marneuli air base, and another base in Bolnisi.

TOWNS HIT: Tskhinvali, Zugdidi, Senaki.

AMERICANS EVACUATED: More than 170 American citizens evacuated from Georgia to Armenia by the U.S. State Department.

JOURNALISTS KILLED: Three. Dutch TV correspondent Stan Storimans, and photojournalists Alexander Klimchuk and Grigol Chikhladze of Caucasus Images, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists. The group reported at least eight journalists were injured and two were missing.

WAR PRISONERS: The International Committee of the Red Cross said they visited two wounded Russian pilots detained by Georgian authorities.

___

Sources: AP reporting and UNHCR - http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/48a15c0d2.html

Compiled by AP's News Research Center.

Source: AP News

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Russian convoy advance flares Georgia tensions

(posted minutes ago !)


Story Highlights:

NEW: Russian military convoy moved deeper into Georgia

NEW: Russian: Troops not heading for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi

Georgian president claims Russia is "rampaging" through Gori

Georgia, Russia accuse each other of violating cease-fire agreement



TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Tensions continued to run high in Georgia Wednedsay after an advancing Russian military tanks sparked concerns of a major breakdown in a day-old cease-fire in hostilities over Georgian breakaway republics

A spokesman for the Russian government said the convoy was not bound for the Georgian capital but was demilitarizing the area near the South Ossetia border so that Georgia could not launch new attacks.

The troops, which had been on Georgia's main east-west highway between Gori and Tbilisi, "never had plans" to travel to the capital, the spokesman said.

The Russians' final destination and objective were unclear, CNN correspondent Matthew Chance reported.

Chance, who was riding in the convoy, said there was no resistance from Georgian soldiers, and it was possible that the Russians were on a scouting mission to choose a buffer zone between the breakaway region of South Ossetia and Georgian territory. Chance described the flag-waving Russians as relaxed. Watch more on the cease-fire accusations »

He said most soldiers refused to comment, but one told him: "We have come here with the approval of the Georgian people."

Earlier Wednesday, a Georgian official told CNN the troops were headed to the abandoned military base Uplistsikhe, which they intended to destroy. The base is six miles (10 km) east of Gori. Watch more on the convoy outside Gori »

A cease-fire agreement reached Tuesday between Georgia and Russia through the mediation efforts of France called for both forces to return to the positions they held on Aug. 6.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told CNN Wednesday that Russian forces "are encroaching upon the capital" in violation of a cease-fire agreement. He said the Russians never intended to hold up their end of the truce agreed to Tuesday.

"This is the kind of cease-fire that, I don't know, they had with Afghanistan I guess in 1979," Saakashvili said. "There is no cease-fire, they [Russian forces] are moving around." Watch Saakashvili speak »

The column of Russian military vehicles, including armored personnel carriers and trucks carrying Russian troops, had been traveling slowly toward the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, and was about 30 miles away, Chance said, before it turned. The convoy was about 10 miles from Gori, he said.

The Russian General Staff in Moscow accused the Georgians of not honoring the cease-fire, saying Georgia troops should return to their barracks.

Saakashvili told CNN Western leaders had "failed to analyze Russia's intentions" before it invaded Georgia and "are partly to blame" for the current situation. iReport.com: Share your story of how the crisis is affecting you

"The response has not been adequate," Saakashvili said. "Not only those people who are committing all those atrocities are responsible, but those who don't react to that, I think they also share responsibility."

The six-point deal agreed between the sides was meant to end the fighting over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Watch more on push for peace »

However Saakashvili, flanked by the leaders of Lithuania, Poland, Estonia and Latvia in a media briefing early Wednesday, said Russian tanks were attacking and "rampaging" through the Georgian town of Gori despite the cease-fire.

However journalists in Gori, the birthplace of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, said they had seen no Russian tanks. Residents there told the journalists they had earlier seen "some," but not in large numbers.

A Russian military official said its forces were at an abandoned Georgian artillery base near Gori, but not inside the town itself. Watch more on battle-ravaged South Ossetia »

"I tell you with full responsibility that there are no Russian tanks in Gori today and there is no reason to be," because Gori authorities have fled the city, said General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff.

Nogovitsyn said the conflict had killed 74 Russian troops, wounded 171 and left 19 missing in action. Officials have estimated at least 2,000 civilians were killed in South Ossetia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for international observers to help ensure peace and "prevent any aggressive ambitions on the part of the Georgian leadership." Watch more from the frontline »

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said an international force would be the only way to stop violence and ensure Georgia's territorial integrity.

"Let the world finally wake up and take the action and provide the real security for the region," Adamkus said. Interactive map: See how far the Russians advanced »

Fighting has raged since Thursday when Georgia launched its crackdown on separatist fighters in autonomous South Ossetia, where most people have long supported independence.

Russian troops and tanks moved into South Ossetia on Friday and quickly pushed back the Georgian forces. Russian forces also moved into Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region.

Russia called a halt Tuesday to its military incursion, insisting it had been aimed at stopping Georgian military actions against its peacekeepers and citizens in the breakaway regions.

Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

All AboutSouth Ossetia • Republic of Georgia • Russia • Mikhail Saakashvili
 

 
 
 
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Interactive map: See how far the Russians advanced »
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Associated Press
http://edition.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#AP
South Ossetia
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/South_Ossetia
Republic of Georgia
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Republic_of_Georgia
Russia
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Russia
Mikhail Saakashvili
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Mikhail_Saakashvili

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/13/georgia.russia.war/index.html