Russian Tanks and Planes invade Georga
<div class="IPBDescription">South Ossetia, Georga, that is.</div><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/08/georgia.ossetia/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/08...etia/index.html</a>
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/08/georgia.ossetia/index.html#cnnSTCVideo" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/08...tml#cnnSTCVideo</a>
World war 3 is neigh!
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/08/georgia.ossetia/index.html#cnnSTCVideo" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/08...tml#cnnSTCVideo</a>
World war 3 is neigh!
Comments
Also this is one of the most eventful days in recent history. If anything wants to happen, now is a heck of a day to happen.
Edit: Seems like google have removed the maps over Georgia and nearby countries, what's up with that?
<a href="http://maps.google.se/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=georgia&sll=56.096556,30.9375&sspn=19.043495,53.613281&ie=UTF8&ll=41.021355,45.560303&spn=3.203419,6.70166&z=8" target="_blank">http://maps.google.se/maps?f=q&hl=en&a...6.70166&z=8</a>
edit: correction, the sat maps are still there. I have a couple theories but none all that great.
Won't this deal a huge blow to Russia's reputation? I mean, by now I had pretty much assumed that they were peaceful cowards like the rest of us (war on terror notwithstanding) and mostly bothering with internal affairs, then this happens. Will anyone trust them again?
I was thinking of recent years, not forever, obviously.
...in one year after outbreak.
All this talk about peace and reducing armies had us completely fooled.
The hostage siege was 2002!
For starters, Georgia made the first move to invade the South Ossetia region. Sure it's a weak excuse for a Russian invasion, but so far the ground forces of Russia have only gone into the South Ossetia region.
Yes Georgia claims Russia has been airstriking elsewhere. The extra paranoid believe Russia is making a move to reclaim Georgia, a democratic and western friendly country.
I personally feel it's a subtle power play on the part of Russia. Kinda testing how the US will react. I doubt we're heading into a huge all-out war with Russia. After all, it's probably the worse thing possible for Russia and the US to go into all-out war, and I'm pretty sure both sides know this. The Russian just wants to see how much extra they can grab.
So yes, be concerned and watch the development, but I strongly doubt this in itself will escalate into all-out re-instated draft war, unless both sides start acting stupid.
Yeah, just saw that news. Now <b>that</b> is quite a cause for concern.
It's sketchy, as it always is, but here's what I've been able to come up with:<ul><li>Georgians enter South Ossetia to secure it.</li><li>Russian peacekeepers enter South Ossetia to fend them off.</li><li>Russia begins air strikes inside Georgian territory (Goti, etc)</li><li>Georgians offer some kind of ceasefire, not sure if this was formal, informal, a ruse, or a rumor</li><li>Russians ignore offer (if it existed at all) and start moving tanks into Georgia. They take Goti and Senaki (with a military base inside it)</li><li>Sarkozy brokers some kind of ceasefire sometime yesterday</li><li>Currently, some reports indicate that Russia is violating that ceasefire and sending tanks toward Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. I've seen two reasons for this. First, a Russian general said that the Georgian's weren't withdrawing fast enough from South Ossetia. Another is that the Russians are just taking a 70 tank convoy down to a NATO supplied weapons cache <i>near</i> Tbilisi in order to confiscate those weapons in the interest of peace in the region.</li></ul>
There was already a small Russian peacekeeping force in South Ossetia.
There was also a Russian military force supposedly conducting exercises just outside the South Ossetia border for 3 or 4 months leading up to the incident.
I read somewhere that most of the Georgian military had retreated to defend the capital some time ago.
This may be a bit OT, but while reading that article I saw this<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In Washington, President Bush said the United States planned a massive humanitarian effort involving American ships and aircraft, includiung a C-17 military cargo plane loaded with supplies that landed on Wednesday.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> and thought, "where the hell was that response time for Louisiana or the Midwest?" Third times a charm I guess?
Bloody bureaucracy. This is why we need to trim down the government a bit.
Yeah response times will go way up on C-17s if we eliminate all the C-17s.
Bill Clinton's way isn't the only way.
And, response times for humanitarian aid of 5 days is pretty damn good, if you sit and think about the logistics involved with something like that. I'm not sure what it means that there are actual US Military personnel over there now, though.