It's war. Part III

[chequita guevara]

Georgia tried to do in South Ossetia what Serbia did in Kosovo. So Russia did what NATO died. What's good for the imperialist is good for the other imperialist.

It's utter and total hypocrisy for Westerners or Chinese (cough, cough, Tibet) to criticize Russia.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Darius871
Who'd the AECCP lose DD?

I think I finally decoded the question It's 7AM and I think I need some rest now.

[Naked Gents Rut]

It's utter and total hypocrisy for Westerners or Chinese (cough, cough, Tibet) to criticize Russia.

Tibet is a part of the Chinese state and is internationally recognized as such.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Serb
By killing Russian peacekeepers?

Or by bombardment of Tskhinvali with his Grads?

Let's face it. Putin deliberately put Georgia in a no win situation. They let the South Ossetians fire off artillery, the Russians knew it/approved of it, and if Georgia responded to this attack then Russia would go after them militarily. It was either sit and watch you villages get destroyed or respond and then Russia had everything set up to attack.

I honestly don't know exactly how or if peacekeepers (I'm using the term loosely since they were obviously belligerents) got killed and what the sequence of events where but I do know Russia has been caught making bold faced lies with their propaganda so their version is not to be trusted at face value. Were the Georgians targeting other areas and the Russians opened fire on them in which case the Georgians had every right? Did no Russians die until after Russia became a belligerent? Did the South Ossetians fire from populated areas (from inside buildings) thus making returning fire perfectly legal under the laws of war? Right now no one knows exactly what occurred and in what order.

What is perfectly clear is that no where near 2000 civilians where killed in the first days of the war and since Russia has been caught red handed in a lie we cannot just accept their version of events. There have simply been to many lies coming out of the Kremlin.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Naked Gents Rut


Tibet is a part of the Chinese state and is internationally recognized as such.

This is true, unfortunate, but true. Tibet has been occupied for so long now everyone has given in to Chinese demands and recognized the borders.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Serb

Great, it's all Ossetian fault, they brought it on themselves, right?

Actually, I'd blame Russia since they are the ones who deliberately brought about this whole series of events because they were unhappy with Georgia joining NATO and they wanted to bully the Georgians into accepting Russian hegemony. The Russians wrongly believe all the former USSR is their "sphere of influence" when in fact they are independent countries who should have the ability to conduct their own foreign policy even if Russia doesn't like it.

Georgia is to blame only in that they decided to respond to Russian proxy attacks even after the US told them not to and that the Russians had set up an invasion force. Georgia was way over confident and didn't even bother to properly plan much of anything. In the end though it is their country, Russia is deliberately attempting to meddle where it does not belong (like giving citizenship to citizens of foreign countries in order to fabricate a causes belli), and the entire international community agrees this is a Georgian internal matter.

[Sirotnikov]

Glorious Russian troops:

First UN aid convoy reaches Gori
Aug 18, 2008 6:18 AM

A United Nations aid convoy managed to enter Gori on Sunday, the first time UN organisations have reached the Georgian town since fighting started last week, and found signs of "massive looting".

"While the buildings did not appear to be very damaged, there are clear signs of massive looting of both shops and private accommodations," the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.

UNHCR staff reported Gori was deserted except for 50 to 60 people gathered in the centre waiting for assistance and the agency was not sure if it would be able to bring more aid in the coming days.

The UNHCR, which said some 158,600 people had been displaced by recent fighting in Georgia, is also aiming to start airlifting non-food items to Batumi, on Georgia's Black Sea coast, on Monday.

And the Russians have already an explanation in place, to explain all the major looting of Georgian territory: The Georgians did it to themselves on purpose

Russia's defence ministry, underlining continued high tension between the two countries, said Georgia was planning a "major provocative act" in the city of Gori, captured by Russian forces on Tuesday.

It claimed Georgia was forming bands of mercenaries who would be given Russian uniforms and told to loot and pillage. Georgia issued a swift denial and accused Russian forces of destroying Georgian television and radio transmitters in the Gori region.

So who started this mess? Was it the Georgians, or the Russian lackeys?

Georgian refugees tell of attacks and looting

By Catherin Belton

Published: August 18 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 18 2008 03:00

In Gori, a key town just 60km from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, the other side of the "ethnic cleansing" charges Russia is levelling against Mikheil Saakashvili, the pro-western Georgian leader, is evident, writes Catherine Belton .

Georgians have fled there from the surrounding villages they say were attacked by pro-Moscow South Ossetian forces. Their accounts of the fighting that preceded the Georgian rocket attack on Tskhinvali could be key in unravelling the tangled claims over what led to the heaviest fighting this volatile region has seen.

Artur Babirua, a Georgian refugee from the Georgian village of Nikozi, near the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, said Ossetians had begun attacking his village before the Georgian army launched its attack on the capital. "The Ossetians started firing in the evening," said Mr Babirua, an elderly man. "They had weapons from the Russians . . . Now they are looting the village."

A Russian colonel with the troops occupying Gori at the weekend said Mr Babirua was confused, claiming the Ossetians could have only fired on the village after Georgia launched its attack on Tskhinvali. But Mr Babirua's claim echoed an assertion made by the Georgian leadership in trying to explain what made them launch the offensive against Tskhinvali.

A group of Georgian refugees from the village of Kurta brought to the town in buses on Saturday by Russia's emergency situations ministry said they had been hiding in their cellars for more than a week as rockets were fired at their houses.

"Every night they bombed," said one woman still in shock as she was brought to safe lodgings in a Gori school where broken glass still littered the ground. "They torched all the houses."

[SlowwHand]

Brave Russians. Blowing up houses. Looting. Pathetic.

[Dinner]

Between the Russians and the South Ossetians it's a wonder the whole country hasn't been looted. Russia has always been known for looting, which is a serious violation of the Geneva Convention (the requirement for the protection of civilians and their property), MSNBC has reported that Russians are looting just about everything not nailed down.

[Dinner]

It claimed Georgia was forming bands of mercenaries who would be given Russian uniforms and told to loot and pillage. Georgia issued a swift denial and accused Russian forces of destroying Georgian television and radio transmitters in the Gori region.

Our poorly paid conscript army is looting (as it has always done) and instead it was a secret Georgian plot! We people say they saw Russians looting it was really Georgians PRETENDING to be Russians!

[Julian Delphiki]

At least Georgian ties are yummy.



What does the reporter say?

[onodera]

I was thinking about replacing my pants-pooping Mishiko with a tie-chewing animated one.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Oerdin




Our poorly paid conscript army is looting (as it has always done) and instead it was a secret Georgian plot! We people say they saw Russians looting it was really Georgians PRETENDING to be Russians!

What about the paramilitary guy whom CCN showed stealing a camera from one reporter, walking off through some Russian tanks, and when a second reporter approached to ask him why he took the camera, the paramilitary guy pulled out a gun, threatened the second reporter, who turned and fled to the sounds of pistol shots. Was this thief a Georgian too?

[Lancer]

Yes. Deep cover operative. In fact, if you took away all the Geogians in Russian uniforms, there's no invasion!

Its all a Georgian plot to discredit Mother Russia.

[binTravkin]

Poor mother Russia, first Latvians with their Soviet Story, which gets the facts about victims of geno.. err the victims of The Great Patriotic War so wrong and talks about some vague "gulag" stuff, now these evil, evil Georgians!
Everyone's trying to make mother Russia look so bad.
Oh boy.