Alright, I have to admit, I was a little behind in this story – I don’t know why, I just hadn’t heard anything about it until Saturday, and this is my first opportunity to post about it.
Brief overview (for a really good, but still short overview, see Wikipedia’s page):
- August 1st – Georgian and paramilitary South Ossetian soldiers begin fighting, causing several deaths and injuries. Fighting continues.
- August 7th – Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili makes a statement: “A sniper war is ongoing against residents of the villages in the South Ossetian conflict zone and as I speak now intensive fire is ongoing from artillery, from tanks, from self-propelled artillery systems – which have been brought in the conflict zone illegally – and from other types of weaponry, including mortars and grenade launchers.”
- August 8th:
- Georgia attacks the city of Tskhinvali.
- The UN meets and expresses “serious concerns at the escalation of violence.”
- Russia attacks Georgian forces in cities in South Ossetia, and attacks the Georgian city of Gori.
- August 9th:
- Georgian/Russian fighting continues.
- Georigian South Ossetian fighitng continues.
- Abkhazian separatists bomb the Kodori Valley.
- August 10th – Georgia withdraws from Tskhinvali and other parts of South Ossetia.
- August 11th:
- Russia invade Georgia.
- Russia captures Gori.
- Georgian forces retreat to protect the capital, Tbilisi.
This is absolutely uncalled for. It doesn’t matter WHO started this, either Georgia or the separatists, but Russia has NO RIGHT to invade Georgia. President Bush said in a speech, “The United States takes this matter very seriously [...] Georgia is a sovereign nation and its territorial integrity must be respected.”
And that’s absolutely true – like I said, Russia has NO RIGHT to get involved here, especially not to the level of invading somebody who may not even be the aggressor. And why is Russia helping separatists here, when they continue to oppress the Chechnya?
Personally, I think the U.S. should stay out of this, other than helping with talks and the UN. But we ALL have to be careful here. Making Russia angry is not a wise move. The only countries capable of militarily stopping Russia are America and China. I don’t think America is stupid enough to get involved militarily, and I doubt China is either.
This being said, Russia should not be allowed to continue their invasion in Georgia. The UN and countries must step in and persuade (through sanctions and other non-military actions) Russia to stop.
Everybody was happy when the USSR ended, but all that really happened was a smaller giant emerged, a very dangerous giant named Russia.
Done Ranting,
Ranting Republican
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Tags: Abkhazia, Chechnya, China, George Bush, George W. Bush, Georgia, Gori, Mikheil Saakashvili, Military, President, Russia, Separatists, South Ossetia, South Ossetia War, Tbilisi, Tskhinvali, U.S., U.S.A., U.S.S.R., UN, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Nations, United States of America, Vladimir Putin, War
August 11, 2008 at 1:50 PM
Once again you completely disgust me as representing yourself as a republican and ranting like a school child parroting talking points you know nothing about.
August 11, 2008 at 3:43 PM
OK … care to elaborate on that?
August 11, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Putin had no right to invade Georgia.
Bush had no right to invade Iraq.
August 11, 2008 at 6:33 PM
I never said he did.
August 12, 2008 at 3:42 AM
Exotic Electron… Let the guy speak, not a bad blog
Kurt… You have no idea why we are in Iraq do you?
This is nothing compared to Iraq, matter of fact its totally opposite
August 12, 2008 at 11:48 PM
Thanks for the back-up Nick.
As for Kurt’s comment, I’m sure that you know I have one of the most complex views on Iraq out there (kinda a cross between Chuck Hagel and the McCain plan. Looking back, we either a) shouldn’t have gone in or b) had a MUCH better plan. Now that we’re there, we sould move troops to the borders to guard Iraq [Hagel plan], and let Iraq deal with the civil unrest that htey understand more than we do. This means that we have to make sure the Iraqis are getting trained [McCain plan]. It doesn’t matter how LONG we’re there, but how MANY of us are there – remember people, we’re still in Korea, but nobody’s complaining!)
But Kurt brings up a decent point: Russia has a good comeback to us saying, “You can’t do that.” The Detroit Free Press had an editorial saying basically that earlier today.
August 17, 2008 at 3:24 PM
It wasn’t a terrible blog by any means.
While Russia should probably have kept its nose clean here and stayed out of direct military conflict, I believe your assessment of what America should do is probably the best thing we could do. We are in no moral position to do anything after the invasion of Iraq (which you probably would have done yourself a favor by mentioning).
But what I think is lost here is that little ole’ Georgia isn’t that good of a country. Rumors of tortuous prisons and supposed oppression of the people in South Ossetian make me think that America would probably do that same thing in Russia’s position, whether it be right or wrong.
August 18, 2008 at 3:42 AM
Garrett, I disagree that America would do the same thing in Russia’s position. We’d go into Darfur before we went into Georgia. There are rumors of those things in Georgia, but we know the things that are happening in Darfur.
August 22, 2008 at 8:05 PM
I believe you neglected to mention the fact that the Russian military has been acting as a peacekeeping force in South Ossetia for nearly a decade now. Or the fact that the Georgians were attacking civilians whereas the Russian military attacked the Georgian military. And as for the statement that Russia has no right to invade Georgia I completely disagree. They are filling the same role that the United States had during the first Gulf War when they protected the nation of Kuwait by protecting the people of South Ossetia. Are the Russians acting in their own best interests? Yes, but wasn’t the U.S. acting in their best interest when they decided to defend Kuwait?
August 23, 2008 at 12:51 AM
There’s debate over whether or not the rebels or Georgians instigated the event.
August 23, 2008 at 11:13 AM
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