Hildegard

Thanks Killian, and yes, I agree with you that every news agency has its bias, it's unavoidable, we're all human with all our imperfections no matter how professional one tends to be. And I also agree, BBC is a news agency that tries to be unbiased as much as it can. But when it comes to Russian and Western relations, there is still a great void between the two that results with prejudice fueled by history as each one knows it, and it stretches not only to governments but to society as whole therefor on the media as well. Thus regarding the Georgian conflict both the Western and the Russian media bend a truth, some more some less.

First of all Walsh when you quote the BBC in attempt of pointing to the solution of the question whom started this conflict and why, in my opinion, that doesn't proved one an answer because BBC ain't unbiased at all, just an extension of prejudice by the West and Great Britain towards anything that has to do with the Russian leadership, their military and conflicts involved. Now I don't want to derail this discussion to BBC's credibility or any other from the west, just want to express my point of view when it comes to the Russian-Georgian conflict. hence forward... It is my stance that Georgia is by part a victim of Moscow-Washington geopolitical meddling and tampering. You can point fingers at me that I'm involving the US where there isn't any involvement by their part, but in fact this is the first indirect showdown between US and Russia in the 21st Century, although some will say that was in Kosovo. Russia first of all wants to show to the West that it has a strong position in Caucasus Mountain region, while on the other hand, US wants to strengthen its own influence in the Western-oriented country and the region in question. The ruling elite in Tbilisi wants to reintegrate all the population that feels Georgian, and to do so, an internal homogenization is needed which proved impossible to be accomplished through negotiations with the separatist parties in the disputed regions. So war is a powerful tool to carry out that homogenization of a nation, especially one that needs to reaffirm its identity and borders. You shouldn't forget that many Georgians still remember horrific scenes of bodies of Georgian soldiers lined up by the cost in the early 90's, killed by rebels from Abhazia or bunch of burned corpses of Georgian tank crews caught in ambushes by the rebels in Southern Ossetia which were armed by the Russians. Boris Yeltsin thought that Russian army doesn't need to defend Southern Ossetia and Abhazia, only that rebels from the disputed regions should be trained and armed, and the Georgians should be kept at a distance by a certain amount of Russian peacekeepers. That Eduard Shevardnadze, which was thrown from the position of president by Mikheil Saakashvili, was a week player. The current president is an American pupil, if he fails to maintain power I beat he can always return to Harvard and teach hehe, he is c o c k y and educated, and is obvious he spend a few years thinking what force is needed to eliminate anti-Georgian efforts in the disputed regions. He reformed Georgian armed forces, defense budget went up several times during his presidency. And he didn't rely just on Americans, but on Israel as well. It's from that country they bought state of the art UAVs, and then heavier weapons and systems. From that point onwards you conduct a familiar strategy: you pick out your best soldiers, bring together best available military hardware, activate your best pilots, bring your 8 Su-25 ground attack planes and 9 Mi-24 helicopter gunships from the hanger, 21 MLRS ('grad' system), 150 tanks, mostly modified T-72s, a few hundred APCs, including those from Israel, selected 20 000 soldiers out of total 35 000 active trained by the US and God knows whom else. Then you select a point that you hit from dusk till dawn, that was the town of Tskhinvali, the heart of Ossetian resilience to Georgia. Georgian army unleashed a firepower that surprised not only the rebels, but the Russians as well, sticking to the plan that Tskhinvali needs to be pounded hard in order to brake rebel moral and swiftly take control of entire region of Ossetia which only has around 70 000 people, and on the day of the Olympics, declare a grand victory. Yeah right, and it maybe would be so if Saakashvili wasn't impatient and underestimated a few things. Here in the Balkans in 1995 when we launched an attack on Serbian controlled so called 'Krajna', we did so with a force who could take on any armed forces in the attacked land while on the border with Serbia positioned nearly the same amount of forces in case of an counterattack. And what did Saakashvili do? He gambled, he gambled big time. He went forward with an attack without any reserve, little active troops and poor means to deal with possible contingency plans. But unfortunately for the Georgians Putin and Medvedev acted fast fast with the 58th Army Group equipped with 800 tanks, 2000 APCs, 900 MLRS and howitzers, counting 90 000 troops, supported by around hundred fighters and bombers, in fact, they acted so fast that is clear the Russians expected something like this could happen. Epilogue? Saakashvili suffered a military defeat, but got if nothing, support from the West, words I mean hehe...Russian inflicted heavy losses to the Georgian army and expanded ground around the disputed regions in which they have deployed thousands of soldiers, between 10 and 25 thousand soldiers, that allow Russia to keep a close eye on the Georgians. Americans now, have to work on restraining again powerful Russia in the region, securing local installations for fossil fuels and continue 'NATOzation' towards Asia which evidently includes Georgia. And the timing of the deal between Poland and US regarding the deployment of the third positioning missile defense area leaves little doubt that it is linked with the recent conflict in the Caucasus. Like Washington, Warsaw unreservedly backed Tbilisi at all levels, and eventually agreed to host US missile defense when the backing to the deal is ever higher according to the latest polls, due to the recent conflict, fear works wonders for politicians and rulers doesn't it hehe... In my opinion (hence no link ) Georgia is partly a victim of geopolitical tampering between Moscow and Washington, and somebody says it was a fight between David and Goliath, David lost this time, but nothing is solved here in the long run. Introspective - Heck, I started writing large posts again

Oh the Russian-Georgian conflict helped McCain, I also expect a 'terrorist' attack against US interests abroad, before the elections doubt it at home, and McCain wins. End of that story

Yeeeesss!!!! The Danish bullies are out of the handball contest, revenge for Norway!

*gives the webserver a shake* Damn thing is coughing up posts from 1934 again. Ideologies aside, his father was a brilliant architect, so is his son proving the same...

My congrats to Albert Speer, magnificent structure, it shows who was your father...

I've read somewhere...suggesting....sounds to me....prepositions, not facts. Georgia shelled the capital of S. Ossetia with MLRS and Howitzer, that is no surgical strike but an attempt to brake havoc and disarray in the capital while Georgian ground forces take control, in the process many civilians die due to rather unselective bombing. Russia was standing by in case something like this should happen, because violence started a few months earlier only to erupt recently, and sure you'll have a contingency in the form of the 58th Army group. Of course Russians aren't flowers, but main blame, when it comes to the starters of this conflict, lies with the Georgian nationalists backed by the West, mostly US and the interests around the Caspian pipeline.

No. Georgia has to put up with the invasion because they FIRST attacked S.Ossetia, they bombed cities with MLRS and howitzers thus trying to impose total control with brute force, too bad for them it backfired, now they're suffering the consequences of their own actions, what goes around comes around.

Why did you remind of this? I cried

US 'got away' with Iraq, I wonder who'll they gonna get away with next...but that's justified, because of liberty, justice, equality and other horse**** they 'stand for'...

Have you forgotten that Saddam was the western ally in the war with Iran. During that period he was getting arms form all around the world, and you can thank companies from the west for helping Iraq develop Biological and Chemical weapons. US and the west sold out the people of Iraq during the first gulf war and after, but it's nothing personal, just business, it's all business, nothing but business.

Georgia announces ceasefire So can we say that it is actually over, Georgia is defeated when it comes to their attempt to impose control over South Ossetia.

But of course, there aren't at all enough protests about brutal bombing of the capital of S. Ossetia with MLRS and howitzers by the Georgians, brutal. Well for the rest of the world it seems unimportant due to the Russian intervention.

And Americans didn't have a direct feed of the opening, NBC who bought the rights didn't air it at the time!!!!! Hahahahha I guess they still have the stance: it's just a thing taking place far away from the USA, very 1950 of you NBC

The massive amount of firepower by the Russians is show of force, typical Russian style. Georgia can blame themselves for this one, they engaged Southern Osetia and bombed its capital with MLRS, planes and entered with troops, during which they killed many civilians...and most of the people living there have Russian passports, I don't understand what did they expect? That Russians will just stay home and play stupid? lol Now I'm interested how are they going to transport those Georgians troops from Iraq back home, although those units have zero-military weight in a conflict with Russia.

The new Batman, it great, a big surprise for me

Well, it may seem foolish, but one of the main reasons why I prefer Obama to McCain, is because when I look at McCain I see a politician with all the disgust that comes with that, and when I look at Obama I can actually see a human being.

OMG OMG OMG ****ing cow

Just got up, I'm reading the news, oil is up to 144 dollars, must be due to the migration of the Antarctic penguins...oh well I'm off to the Island today

Yeah you won this time...but I'll be seeing you in 2010

Finally those Germans are eliminated, congratulations to Spain....

Germany [1] - Spain [3]

Words are just too precious to be wasted here so I'll just...

Well I mean the majority of the English team, all great names and individuals but you seem to lack what Germany has for an example, effective teamwork and discipline.

Well with that logic, no they wouldn't because if Eduardo played for Croatia Turkey wouldn't even be in the semifinals