It's war.

[RGBVideo]

Originally posted by GePap
The US press can be counted to be pretty "anti-Russian." After all, CNN"s headline on the issue currently is "Russia Invades Georgia,", which is a headline of questionable accuracy.

how so? russian troops attacked the country and are within it's borders now. for me, that is the definition of "invasion".

[GePap]

Originally posted by VJ

how so? russian troops attacked the country and are within it's borders now. for me, that is the definition of "invasion".

Russian forces have been in South Ossetia since 1992, and whether S. Ossetia is part of Georgia or not is part of the whole conflict. Saying "Georgian forces Invade South Ossetia" would have been as valid, but then, that isn't the headline is it?

Which is why I said "anti-Russian" in the sense that the headline accepts the Georgian version of events, which is of course shared by others.

A measured headline would be "Fighting rages in S. Ossetia, Russia sends forces to intervene." Or the one for Wiki news: "Russian troops move across the border as Georgian military forces enter the breakaway republic of South Ossetia."

But my guess is that is too long, and most readers don;t have a clue about Ossetia, north or south.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by rmsharpe

That raises an interesting question... could Russia possibly be antagonizing Georgia to try and scare the price of oil back up?

I'd thought that as well. The pipeline through Georgia carries 1% of the world's oil supplies, so it shouldn't affect the price that much. Assuming the conflict doesn't spread.

[Solver]

Onodera: nice try

By request, I'll link to http://www.rambler.ru/news/events/georgia/13226048.html . Briefly, the article quotes an assistant to the commander of Russian ground forces who's saying that about 10 Russian peacekeepers are KIA and about 30 are WIA. He also says that Georgian troops have killed wounded Russians.

[onodera]

Originally posted by Solver
Onodera: nice try

I know I'm no Serb. I'll do my best, though.

[Solver]

You have no idea how much you have to learn

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Everyone other then Native Americans (Indians) came here from some where else and agreed to give up their old identities freely.

Se Senor. Es Verdad!!

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by Felch


You're right about that. We can't sue them or call the police. I think that this was a pretty stupid move on Georgia's part. That doesn't mean that I don't admire them for doing it, I just think that it was stupid.

Yeah, just admire them. The South Ossetian capital is now in ruins, plus an estimated 1000 of civilian casualties. And all this just in one day!

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Asher

The last I checked, the US is one of the countries not paying its full UN dues.

The US still owes the UN $1.3B in arrears, at last count.

That's right. We routinely refuse to pay them until they do what we tell them to do and then when they finally do the reforms we tell them then they finally get paid. It's just a matter of the UN getting broke enough before they agree to our terms.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Felch
Imran, pass that joint.

I like what it does it some instances, I'm not totally against the UN. Fighting disease, mediating conflicts, all that's good.

But when they prefer to bash on Israel than Sudan or Burma or North Korea, they lose their moral authority. Maybe keeping the more vile human rights abusers off of the Human Rights Council would also help. As it stands, I can't really take China, Saudi Arabia, or Cuba seriously when it comes to a "moral authority."

You'd probably get pissed if the US got kicked off the Human Rights Council for Gitmo, so its best just to have every country on it instead of making decisions who to boot.

And the US was the country that wanted it to have the most moral authority possible... especially back when we controlled it. We decided to initiate peacekeeping missions using the UN and went to it for Korea and Iraq War I. If the UN had little to no moral authority, it wouldn't matter if you were to ignore a Security Council resolution. But it turns out its a pretty big deal.

[The Vagabond]

Free Serb right now!! One hour of ban is quite enough for the minor offense he committed.

[Pekka]

Any good sites for this? I'd like to follow the developements, but so far no such site. Or possibly a feed?

I see this one dying soon, even though it doesn't look like it right now, but the other one is full scale war, which it is starting to look like very soon. So then we'll have NATO saying things like dippadidoodaah and UN going blaablaablaa, EU going "I'll get me coat" and US going "stop it, would you?". But I'm still putting my coins on this one dying soon. At least I hope so.

[rmsharpe]

Originally posted by Sandman


I'd thought that as well. The pipeline through Georgia carries 1% of the world's oil supplies, so it shouldn't affect the price that much. Assuming the conflict doesn't spread.

I'm thinking more of the "instability" factor in and surrounding Russia, not just the pipeline.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by onodera

c. Yes, problems in a sovereign country are none of our business. Whose business was Kosovo?

When ethnic cleansing is occurring then it is a serious breach of international law and countries have a valid reason to intervene. Nothing even close to that has been done by Georgia. Russia's involved for two reasons 1) they want to grab the rebel territory from Georgia 2) if the dispute remains unresolved then Georgia likely won't get approval to join NATO which the Russians really don't want.

[onodera]

Originally posted by The Vagabond
Free Serb right now!! One hour of ban is quite enough for the minor offense he committed.

Minor? I spewed my medication all over my laptop and Saras hasn't been able to reply since!