South Ossetia // Current TV

Washington's hypocrisy

The U.S. administration is trying to stick the label of "bad guy" on Russia... more

Vierotchka
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Why the west has got it so wrong over Georgia

One minute you're looking for South Ossetia on a map; the next everyone's talking about nuclear confrontation. The escalation of the conflict in the Caucasus into a kind of post-modern Cold War has been breathtaking. But great international conflicts have a habit of starting in "far-away places of which we know nothing": Sarajevo, Poland, Pearl Harbour and now South Ossetia.

Fortunately, our diplomatic mechanisms are rather better at handling international crises than they were in 1914. But that doesn't mean we are out of the woods yet in the Caucasus. It's a sobering thought that, if George W Bush had had his way and Georgia had been a member of Nato, we would now be at war with Russia.

Nato is an alliance which, in theory at least, commits its signatories to react collectively to a military threat to any one of its members. Would we really have been prepared to lay waste to Europe in support of the unstable and unreliable Georgian leader, Mikhail Saakashvili, who launched a cowardly, brutal assault on the South Ossetian town of Tskhinvali under the cover of the opening night of the Olympic Games? I hope not, but we can't be sure. With someone like George W Bush supposedly leading the "free world", we can't be sure of anything, except that it will be a mess.

The war in South Ossetia has been a huge error of judgment by the west, and further confirmation of the imponderable stupidity of the Bush administration. It was a gamble that should never have been made, on a conflict nobody wanted, in the interests of a political leader who has no right to our respect. David Cameron will regret his hot-headed dash to Tblisi to be photographed with Saakashvili once it becomes widely known what actually happened in South Ossetia, where the Georgians used Grad missiles against apartment blocks and hospitals.

Now, I know we are supposed to see South Ossetia as a brutal land grab by the Russian Bear, crushing gallant little Georgia under the Moscow boot, etc. The western media has largely accepted the line put out by Washington that we have seen an attempted annexation of a sovereign nation by an imperialist superpower, in the manner of the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 or Czechoslovakia in 1968. But, as always in war, truth is the first casualty.

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Click on the link for the whole article.One minute you're looking for South Ossetia on a map; the next everyone's... more

Vierotchka
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Russia-Georgia Conflict Could Hurt U.S. Space Program

The U.S. government must now decide whether it will overlook Russia's skirmishes with Georgia.

Even though Russia and Georgia have officially signed a cease-fire agreement, the volatile situation between the two nations could jeopardize whether or not NASA astronauts fly to the International Space Station aboard Russian spacecraft in the future, U.S. officials warn.

NASA will be forced to rely on Russian spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS on the Soyuz spacecraft and transport supplies from Earth to the space station once the shuttle is retired in 2010. The next-generation Orion spacecraft is not expected to be done until 2015, at the earliest, NASA previously said.

"The new challenge we have is that for approximately five years, the plan — which is a very bad plan but is the only plan that NASA and the administration and Congress have approved — is to be dependent on the Russian Soyuz vehicle to get people to and from the international space station," said Tom Feeney, (R-FL). "And so now, with the political realities with Russia invading Georgia, we have a new wrinkle thrown in."

Furthermore, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D, FL) also said the situation between Russia and Georgia could greatly impact the space cooperation between the United States and Russia. Without the use of Russian spacecraft after the shuttle is retired, NASA astronauts will be unable to get to the ISS to help finish its construction.

Nelson also pointed out that a U.S. law signed in 2000 directly prohibits the government from entering contracts with any nation that gave assistance to North Korea and/or Iran with any nuclear programs -- Russia has helped the nations with their nuclear programs. Congress must now either reauthorize the waiver so a transportation agreement can be made, or will uphold the 2000 law and not work with Russia.

So far, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has supported the waiver, though it must now pass the House, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senate.

The French-brokered cease-fire that has been signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili forces both sides to return their troops to their original locations prior to the skirmishes. But even with an agreement in place, tensions between the United States and Russia, the two largest contributors to the ISS, remain high.

The U.S. government must now try and determine whether or not it will move forward and pay millions to the Russian government for ferrying astronauts into space, or delay the looming retirement of the space shuttle fleet a few more years.The U.S. government must now decide whether it will overlook Russia's skirmishes... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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Russian troops begin withdrawal from Georgia

Russian military forces are beginning their pull-out from the Georgian-South Ossetian... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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Russia begins to "pull back" troops

Russia's military says its withdrawal from Georgia has begun, but there has been... more

IndieArtist
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3 years ago
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Nato torn between threats and caution over Russia and Georgia

Diplomats say there is no hope of reaching a consensus on any strong action.... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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Russians checkmate US in Georgia

Eric Margolis: Tensions increase Georgia to Iran. Part 3 As contributing editor for... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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1 comment

Russian General threatens Poland over missile deal

Eric Margolis: US missile deal enrages Russia - Part 2 Russian President Dimitri... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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Saakashvili eats his tie...

No comment needed, the clip says it all.

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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14 comments

Medvedev signs six-point truce with Georgia

The problem is, the document that Georgia signed (which Condoleezza Rice brought to... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Former Reagan official: White House sanctioned Georgia-Russia conflict

Paul Craig Roberts, who was assistant secretary of the treasury during Ronald... more

ProgressiveBum
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3 years ago
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US missile deal enrages Russia

Eric Margolis: It's like August, 1914 - a movement of great powers towards war.... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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The war we don't know

Five days after Georgia invaded and seized the breakaway separatist region of South Ossetia, sparking a larger-scale Russian invasion to drive Georgian forces back and punish their leaders, Russia surprised its Western detractors by calling a halt to the country's offensive. After all, the mainstream media, egged on by hawkish neocon pundits and their candidate John McCain, had everyone believing that Russia was hellbent on the full-scale annihilation and annexation of democratic Georgia.

But then came Tuesday's cease-fire announcement--and we're now forced to ask ourselves serious questions about the recent conflict: what really started it, how dangerous was it and what, with serious careful consideration, could be done to prevent it from turning into a worst-case scenario?

Up until now, this war was framed as a simple tale of Good Helpless Democratic Guy Georgia versus Bad Savage Fascist Guy Russia. In fact, it is far more complex than this, morally and historically. Then there are two concentric David and Goliath narratives here. The initial war pitted the Goliath Georgia--a nation of 4.4 million, with vastly superior numbers, equipment and training thanks to US and Israeli advisers--against David-Ossetia, with a population of between 50,000-70,000 and a local militia force that is barely battalion strength. Reports coming out of South Ossetia tell of Georgian rockets and artillery leveling every building in the capital city, Tskhinvali, and of Georgian troops lobbing grenades into bomb shelters and basements sheltering women and children. Although true casualty figures are hard to come by, reports that up to 2,000 Ossetians, mostly civilians, were killed are certainly believable, given the intensity of the initial Georgian bombardment, the wanton destruction of the city and surrounding regions and the generally savage nature of Caucasus warfare, a very personal game where old rules apply.

But you don't hear about this story from the Western media. Indeed, you hear little if anything about the Ossetians, who seem to hardly exist in the West's eyes, even though their grievance is the root cause of this war. Five days after Georgia invaded and seized the breakaway separatist region of South... more

Chique
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3 years ago
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Georgians doing forced labor in South Ossetia

"Teams of ethnic Georgians, some under armed guard, were being forced to clean... more

DeliaTheArtist
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3 years ago
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Georgia and Russia declare ceasefire

The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has signed a ceasefire pact to end hostilities... more

TravG73
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3 years ago
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2 comments

12 year old American citizen caught in midst of South Ossetia conflict

Apparently she was running FROM Georgian troops!

aburninggiraffe
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3 years ago
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"Nato is pushing Russia into a new Cold War"

"As so often, the Americans are proving a menace on the international stage. And... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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Isolation of Russia not viable option for U.S.

Isolating Moscow over its incursion into Georgia is not a viable option for the Bush... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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4 comments

Georgia crisis frays web linking Moscow and West

The struggle over a tiny, impoverished part of the Caucasus mountains has erupted into a widening confrontation between Russia and the West, the worst since the Soviet Union collapsed.

The rift between Russia and the former Soviet state of Georgia over South Ossetia, a hilly land the size of Rhode Island, threatens a web of institutions spun since the end of the Cold War to tie Moscow to the U.S. and Europe. One by one, the strands holding the web together are fraying.

Even if the cease-fire holds in Georgia, the consequences of the crisis could be grim: Tensions might jeopardize Russian energy shipments to Europe, cut the U.S. off from access to the International Space Station, end intelligence cooperation between Washington and Moscow in the war on terrorism.

Western leaders are mulling expelling Moscow from the Group of Eight club of wealthy nations and denying it membership in the World Trade Organization.

Beyond denying Russia the privilege of participating in an alphabet soup of international groups, the escalating rhetoric threatens to resurrect the ugliest aspect of the Cold War: the doomsday brinksmanship between Russia and the West.

Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a top Russian officer, said Friday that Poland's agreement to accept a battery of U.S. missile interceptors has put Poland at risk of attack, perhaps with nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Russian foreign minister, meanwhile, warned that the Kremlin might halt cooperation on efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear program.

The Georgia conflict also could jeopardize several arms control agreements, including the Nunn-Lugar Comprehensive Threat Reduction act, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Russia for destroying, dismantling and securing its nuclear weapons.

Some U.S. lawmakers see risks to U.S.-Russia cooperation on the International Space Station, which could spell disaster for the program. After the U.S. space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010, Russia's Soyuz rockets will become the only way to get to the station for several years.

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Complete article at link.

The struggle over a tiny, impoverished part of the Caucasus mountains has erupted into... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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Georgia kills 2000 South Ossetia citizens before the Russians invaded.

Mainstream Media is makeing us all look like fools when it is really just the fools at... more

victimofcoal
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3 years ago
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