Relatively ancient and inactive
Well, Saakashvili seems to me like either a rather stupid nationalist who thinks he could keep South Ossetia as part of Georgia via war or someone trying to weaken Russia by bringing other powers into the war, which isn't really working out. Also making him rather stupid.
Here's from Saak himself; trying to get other powers into the war:
It concerns not only Georgia -it concerns the U.S. and its values. We are a freedom-loving country which is being attacked
Apparently, the death toll in South Ossetia is about 2000 people. Many have fled to southern Russia (30000) or other parts of Georgia such as North Ossetia.
I just checked again, Abkhazia also started a war with Georgia. Abkhazia is largely, like South Ossetia, trying to break away from Georgia. Seeing the offensive on SO, they must have decided they're next and struck first. 'Today it's South Ossetia, tomorrow it might be Abkhazia' from its president.
And, of course, everyone else, from Condo Rice to UN representatives and NATO representatives and country's presidents and all that are 'Very concerned' about this conflict and have all called for a 'Ceasefire and a beginning of direct talks'. Kind of sad, that no one has any imagination. Here's from ole' Bushy:
I’m deeply concerned about the situation in Georgia.
The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis.
The violence is endangering regional peace, civilian lives have been lost and others are endangered. We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops. We call for an end to the Russian bombings, and a return by the parties to the status quo of August 6.
I also caught a lot about how the US was supporting Georgia and is still telling Russia to leave and 'respect Georgia's territorial integrity'. Which I found humorous and extremely hypocritical, since Georgia had started the war against SO's territorial integrity... yeah. Also, I found this:
The conflict over Georgia’s breakaway republic is as much about information as it is about weapons. South Ossetia's press service claims Western media outlets can't be trusted because they haven't been operating in the region ”since the conflict began”.
“Only the Russian media and one Ukrainian channel have been filming in the breakaway republic. No western camera crews have been working in the conflict zone,” Suslan Bekoev, South Ossetian committee for information and press, said.
Oh, and I found this on BBC, which made me lol:
GEORGIA
Total personnel: 26,900
Main battle tanks (T-72): 82 <-- Russian-made, outdated T-72
Armoured personnel carriers: 139
Combat aircraft (Su-25): Seven <-- Russian-made, outdated Sukhoi-25
Heavy artillery pieces (including Grad rocket launchers): 95
RUSSIA
Total personnel: 641,000
Main battle tanks (various): 6,717
Armoured personnel carriers: 6,388
Combat aircraft (various): 1,206
Heavy artillery pieces (various): 7,550
Post has been edited 5 time(s), last time on Aug 10 2008, 1:00 pm by Centreri.