Georgia, Russia Go to War

"Georgia launched a major military offensive Friday to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia, prompting Moscow to send tanks into the region in a furious response that threatens to engulf Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, and Russia in all-out war."

Evidence of U.S. Military Presence in Georgia

Flashback: CIA Aided Georgia’s “Rose Revolution”
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Will NATO and the EU just sit idly by? Probably. How weak Europe is these days - both militarily and politically.
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Originally Posted by Westcountryman:
Will NATO and the EU just sit idly by? Probably. How weak Europe is these days - both militarily and politically.

Dont forget Sarky is running the show now and wants to protect little old Europe from big wide world.
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Originally Posted by Westcountryman:
Will NATO and the EU just sit idly by?

They will if they have any sense! It is unwise to enter a fight you know you won't win!
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Georgia is pro-EU and pro-NATO. Saakashvili is a US educated lawyer. Most Georgians I met, and I have lived there and worked there for a few weeks, are on our side. They expect us to be on there side It will be a hard call.
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Originally Posted by Westcountryman:
Will NATO and the EU just sit idly by? Probably. How weak Europe is these days - both militarily and politically.

America have miltary weapons bases in Georgia, Czech Republic and Ukraine.

Russia have threatened the west with retaliation prior to this with weapons being aimed at Russia from these bases.

Now American led forces attack Russia.

Hello ? Is anybody with half a brain out there ? :-)

Just so long as the British people think they know that's all that matters isn't it ?.....

No wonder we're in such a pathetic mess.

I don't know whether to be sick or cry.

How weak we are as a nation.
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ychtt,

Can you prove that the Georgian forces are American led as opposed to American trained? As I understand it, the training teams working with the south Caucasian forces are based in the Czech Repulic. They are NATO forces, as opposed to American, and certainly have a British element that I know of, if only because I chatted with some Royal Marines in Yerevan who are based in the Czech Republic and travelled to Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan as part of the training project.

I am very sad about what's happening. My Georgian interpreter was a quarter Osset and there were Osset villages in my AoR during observation of the Presidential elections. Georgia is one of these countries with centuries old intermingling of ethnic communities - we had Leki, Osset, Azeri and Armenian villages to observe. There were also Kisti, a Chechen sub-group, in the Pankisi Gorge, but for security reasons we didn't go there.

The Georgians were very hospitable and I have many happy memories of my time there, as I have happy memories of my time in Moscow and Ekaterinburg with the Russians.

I will be paying more attention to reports from Tbilisi than from Peking/Beijing. There is real potential for this conflict to expand beyond the currently limited area that is affected (look what happened when a Bosnian Serb teenager shot an Austrian aristocrat - a million Brits died). Allegedly, hundreds, if not thousands are already dead and Sakashvili is a friend of the USA.

The USA cannot allow Russia to reoccupy former Soviet states that are independent under the pretext of protecting Russians. There are substantial Russian minorities in 3 EU states - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. In Latvia and Estonia Russians do not have full civic rights and can't vote. That could lead to a pretext for invasion.

Russians live in all central Asian Republics. The Ukraine is seriously split between the pro-EU west and the pro-Russian east.

This conflict has to be stopped quickly, but Saakashvili has declared war. This is not a mouse that roared, this is someone who knows he has western support. Georgia has a border with NATO member and EU aspirante Turkey. I'll bet eqipment is already heading northwards from US bases in Turkey.
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dum Roma deliberat Saguntum perit (while Rome debates, Saguntum is in danger)
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Georgian president is just a pathological liar! He puts the blame for south Ossetia on the Russians. But I am back from South Ossetia (been engaged in the Red Cross mission) and I could see everything with my own eyes not by telly. Now look. It has been hell, which Saakashvili made! Key city of South Ossetia Tskhinvali has been ruined almost completely by Georgian howitzers and rocket complexes “Hailstones”. Several villages inhabited by Ossetins are have been razed to the ground by Georgian aircraft. Saakashvili just deliberately eliminated the civil population and the Russian peacekeepers who were hurdle on the way.
Now I am asking you only one question. Why is one criminal bearing responsibility for ethnic killings still occupying the presidential chair (Saakashvili) while the other one blamed in the same (Radovan Karazic) is staying in prison?
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Those Ossets who are not in south Ossetia have equal civil rights. Do the Georgians who live/lived in south Ossetia have the same rights as Ossets?
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