Any thoughts on this Russia/Georgia thing?

I personally don\'t really care. Anyone else feel this is a big deal or potentially part of a much bigger and disturbing picture?

[Viper_Fujax]

i dont even get why russia decided to attack now, let alone what the big picture is.

all i\'ve heard is that russia doesn\'t like them because they are a democratic state, and friendly with the US. doesnt seem like enough of a reason to launch a full-on assault

the one positive thing im taking from this is that the news is finally reporting something outside of the US..but i think the only reason it\'s being brought up is because of the olympics, and how the announcers brought it up during the opening cerimonies..if it wasnt olympics time, it\'d be a 4 second story between paris hilton and britney spears

[clips]

I don\'t know the whole story, but from what i understand, i heard that georgia started all of this by invading a country that is part of russia....this has nothing to do with us.... and trust the u.s. does not need to and does not want to start anything with russia....the russians are not as weak as they used to be, and the u.s. doesn\'t need to be sticking it\'s nose in other country\'s business...


I heard that goeorgia invaded this country, russia responded,..russia is currently whoopin that ass and then the georgian military retreats.....but russia kept the pressure on and continued to bomb parts of georgia, then georgia turns around and asks the int\'l community for help.....if georgia was actually the aggressor in the first place, then they deserve everything they are getting from russia....and it\'s wrong for the u.s. to criticize them....I\'ve heard Bush,McCain & Obama criticize russia for what it did, and again if georgia started all of this, then the georgian gov\'t is being a huge hypocrite...

From what I understand...the Georgians were attacking Russian citizens in Ossetia(sp?) Which again from what I understand is Georgian territory.

I don\'t know the whole story, but from what i understand, i heard that georgia started all of this by invading a country that is part of russia....this has nothing to do with us.... and trust the u.s. does not need to and does not want to start anything with russia....the russians are not as weak as they used to be, and the u.s. doesn\'t need to be sticking it\'s nose in other country\'s business...


I heard that goeorgia invaded this country, russia responded,..russia is currently whoopin that ass and then the georgian military retreats.....but russia kept the pressure on and continued to bomb parts of georgia, then georgia turns around and asks the int\'l community for help.....if georgia was actually the aggressor in the first place, then they deserve everything they are getting from russia....and it\'s wrong for the u.s. to criticize them....I\'ve heard Bush,McCain & Obama criticize russia for what it did, and again if georgia started all of this, then the georgian gov\'t is being a huge hypocrite...

wow clips are you getting your news from the same place as uni?
ossetia is part of Georgia always has been. russian loyalists are trying to separate violently from georgia in order to merge with russia or create their own country. there is a lot of ill will between georgia and russia because ever since they have gotten on there own feet as a country since the fall of the USSR they have wanted to become part of NATO and ally with western countries (i.e. US and UK) Russia doesnt like this because they want all of the former soviet republics to stay loyal to russia. russia is using this as an excuse to invade a foreign country.
imagine if montana wanted to be come its own country or merge with canada. so they attack all the federal buildings in their state. they rest of the country responds by sending troops in to hold off the attacks and evacuate loyalists. canada then takes that opportunity to invade montana and bomb north dakota while theyre at it. basically the same thing

From what I understand...the Georgians were attacking Russian citizens in Ossetia(sp?) Which again from what I understand is Georgian territory.

About South Ossetia and Abkhazia: Both breakaway regions declared independence in the early 1990s. That independence was not recognized by any nations, including Russia, but Russia has helped the regions maintain de facto independence from Tblisi by placing peacekeepers in both regions. Part of the reason Georgia moved on South Ossetia this week is because someone in the region has been shelling Georgian civilians.

Basically the Russians instigated it.

[clips]

wow clips are you getting your news from the same place as uni?
ossetia is part of Georgia always has been. russian loyalists are trying to separate violently from georgia in order to merge with russia or create their own country. there is a lot of ill will between georgia and russia because ever since they have gotten on there own feet as a country since the fall of the USSR they have wanted to become part of NATO and ally with western countries (i.e. US and UK) Russia doesnt like this because they want all of the former soviet republics to stay loyal to russia. russia is using this as an excuse to invade a foreign country.
imagine if montana wanted to be come its own country or merge with canada. so they attack all the federal buildings in their state. they rest of the country responds by sending troops in to hold off the attacks and evacuate loyalists. canada then takes that opportunity to invade montana and bomb north dakota while theyre at it. basically the same thing

About South Ossetia and Abkhazia: Both breakaway regions declared independence in the early 1990s. That independence was not recognized by any nations, including Russia, but Russia has helped the regions maintain de facto independence from Tblisi by placing peacekeepers in both regions. Part of the reason Georgia moved on South Ossetia this week is because someone in the region has been shelling Georgian civilians.

Basically the Russians instigated it.

Ahhh....thank you gentlemen for clearing this up, as i stated before i really didn\'t know the whole story, but for some reason i thought georgia started all of this....when the story first broke there were reports of georgia invading this and georgians instigating that...but within the early moments of fighting, there were alot of contradicting stories coming out of that area,..so i really didn\'t know what was goin\' on.

[GmanJoe]

I bet some dumbass rednecks in boonies of Georgia boarded up their windows and prepared for the Russians.

I bet some dumbass rednecks in boonies of Georgia boarded up their windows and prepared for the Russians.

i hope so cause if not then hillbillies arent as dumb as i thought

Very interesting read...

Moscow’s Sinister Brilliance

The new reality is that a nuclear, cash-rich, and energy-blessed Russia doesn’t really worry too much whether its long-term future is bleak, given problems with Muslim minorities, poor life-expectancy rates, and a declining population. Instead, in the here and now, it has a window of opportunity to reclaim prestige and weaken its adversaries. So why hesitate?

Indeed, tired of European lectures, the Russians are now telling the world that soft power is, well, soft. Moscow doesn’t give a damn about the United Nations, the European Union, the World Court at the Hague, or any finger-pointing moralist from Geneva or London. Did anyone in Paris miss any sleep over the rubble of Grozny?

More likely, Putin & Co. figure that any popular rhetoric about justice will be trumped by European governments’ concern for energy. With just a few tanks and bombs, in one fell swoop, Russia has cowered its former republics, made them think twice about joining the West, and stopped NATO and maybe E.U. expansion in their tracks. After all, who wants to die for Tbilisi?

Russia does not need a global force-projection capacity; it has sufficient power to muscle its neighbors and thereby humiliate not merely its enemies, but their entire moral pretensions as well.

*snip*

The Russians have sized up the moral bankruptcy of the Western Left. They know that half-a-million Europeans would turn out to damn their patron the United States for removing a dictator and fostering democracy, but not more than a half-dozen would do the same to criticize their long-time enemy from bombing a constitutional state.

*snip*

From what the Russians learned of the Western reaction to Iraq, they expect their best apologists will be American politicians, pundits, professors, and essayists — and once more they will not be disappointed. We are a culture, after all, that after damning Iraqi democracy as too violent, broke, and disorganized, is now damning Iraqi democracy as too conniving, rich, and self-interested — the only common denominator being whatever we do, and whomever we help, cannot be good.

*snip*

Russia understands that Europe needs its natural gas, that the U.S. not only must be aware of its own oil dependency, but, more importantly, the ripples of its military on the fragility of world oil supplies, especially the effects upon China, Europe, India, and Japan. When one factors in Russian oil and gas reserves, a pipeline through Georgia, the oil dependency of potential critics of Putin, and the cash garnered by oil exports, then we understand once again that power-power is beginning to trump both its hard and soft alternatives.

*snip*

Military intervention is out of the question. Economic sanctions, given Russia’s oil and Europe’s need for it, are a pipe dream. Diplomatic ostracism and moral stricture won’t even save face.