South Osetia under attack

[Rich46yo]

No... No... Boroda said it was 20 times less than that.

It was only 2 million.  Four times the American Civil War casualties for both sides.

Stalin was up there with Mother Teresa.

  Yeah, "It wasnt 6 million Jews ; It was 2 million tops".

I think Boroda is just busting chops in bad English. And he's doing a rather poor job of it. English is a difficult language to bust chops in, and it was only after decades of practice that I mastered it. But I wont unleash my high powered sarcasm on Boroda cause I have my reputation to think of. He's really so pitifull, here swining at all of you so blindly.

I dont think Russia will ever have the gift of a stable Democracy. I never thought they would and considered the years after the fall of the wall a Russian winter until they ushered in their next strongman. The Russians just dont do well when making their own decisions. They need another to do so for them. A pity really, for such a gifted nation.

And he is actually right about the Japanese we put in prison camps. However the Russian equivelant would have been starvation and working to death in Gulags. Its all a matter of degree really. Personaly I expect a resurrection of Joe Stalins memory with the current Russian mindset. And it would be fitting would it not?

[Maniac]

Back to topic then.

Russia had promised to pull their troops out of Georgia today (monday). Instead they are advancing back into Gori.

[Toad]

They're taking the long way home.

[REP0MAN]

Russia had promised to pull their troops out of Georgia today (monday). Instead they are advancing back into Gori.

This just in from Russian State News.....we go to Russian State reporter, Comical Ali....



"Russia is not attacking in Georgian provinces. Russia has pulled out and all of Armys are resting in barracks of Moscow. We sign for peace. We give back Georgias weapons and wish them good luck in their future endeavors".

Now, back to Vladmir's Funniest Home Videos....

[Dowding]

The Russians are setting up a buffer zone. It just happens to take in Tbilisi, Warsaw and half of Berlin. They also intend to build an 'anti-fascist barrier'.

Supposedy, Russians are barring Red Cross from entering South Ossetia. What have they got to hide?

[WMLute]

Saw this in the Telegratoejam and thought it interesting.

Link

Jist of the article is that the Russians are digging in appear to plan on sticking around, but the below quote is what I found most interesting.

Manning a checkpoint outside the Georgian town of Kaspi, 25 miles southeast of Gori, four young Chechen soldiers admitted that their South Ossetian allies had carried out reprisals against Georgian civilians - but insisted they were justified.

"Do you know what the Georgians did in Tskhinvali," demanded one fighter, who identified himself as Sulim. "They killed 2,000 people. Georgians were crushing small children with their tanks."

From the beginning of hostilities, officials in Moscow were quick to declare that "genocide" was taking place and that up to 2,000 people had been killed in attacks deliberately aimed at Tskhinvali's civilian population.

Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, went on television to claim that Georgian tanks were crushing children and Georgian soldiers were beheading civilians.

Yet the first independent human rights activists attempting to calculate the civilian death toll have so far only been able to confirm the deaths of 44 people according to records from Tskhinvali's only hospital.

According to Human Rights Watch, the respected New York-based body, the Kremlin's deliberate exaggeration of the civilian death toll was inevitably contributing to the scale of reprisals against Georgians.

Asked whether he had personally seen any children crushed by Georgian tanks, Sulim replied: "No, but I heard Putin say it so it must be true."

Russian propaganda has been so convincing that not even the few independent media outlets that normally criticise the Kremlin in Russia have spoken out against the Georgia war.

Instead, many Russians believe that the West has rushed to support Georgia, despite the fact that President Mikheil Saakashvili is, in their eyes, guilty of genocide.

Sulim and his fellow fighters are convinced that Ukrainians, Estonians and even Chinese and westerners were fighting against them in South Ossetia. They claimed that dents in the front of their tank were caused by a bomb dropped from an American jet.

Believing that the world is against them but that right is on their side, the Russian people are convinced that, ceasefire or no ceasefire, their army must stay in Georgia for as long as is necessary.

Two things stick out from the above.

1. So far only 44 people can be confirmed dead and no "genocide" took place what so ever.  There would be EVIDENCE if there was indeed a massacre that happened in Southern Ossetia and there is none.

2. I think Boroda has a long lost brother named Sulim



(edit: another great read from McClatchy Link

Highlights from the article...

The difference between Russian officials' description of Tskhinvali and the facts on the ground are profound.

Col. Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy head of the Russian military's general staff, said last Tuesday that "Tskhinvali doesn't exist, it's like Stalingrad was after the war."

But in fact, the city still does exist. While there was extensive damage to some structures, most buildings had front doors on their hinges and standing walls. For every building charred by explosions — the Georgians are accused of using multiple rocket launcher systems — there were others on tree-lined streets that looked untouched.

The doctor at the Tskhinvali hospital, Tina Zakharova, said she wanted to clarify that she wasn't disagreeing with the South Ossetian officials' numbers, adding that many bodies had been buried in gardens and cemeteries in outlying villages. She could not, however, explain how more than 2,000 dead — the difference between her hospital's count and the Kremlin-backed officials' tally — were buried in a relatively small area without any evidence such as stacks of coffins or mass funerals.

[Wmaker]

“We have always been a peace-loving state. Practically there is not a single occasion in the history of the Russian or Soviet state when we first started military actions. We have not attacked anyone, we only secured the rights and dignity of people as peacekeepers.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4557369.ece

It seems that Putin has forgotten to teach his new puppet some things about the 20th century.

[bongaroo]

Saw this in the Telegratoejam and thought it interesting.

Link

Jist of the article is that the Russians are digging in appear to plan on sticking around, but the below quote is what I found most interesting.

Two things stick out from the above.

1. So far only 44 people can be confirmed dead and no "genocide" took place what so ever.  There would be EVIDENCE if there was indeed a massacre that happened in Southern Ossetia and there is none.

2. I think Boroda has a long lost brother named Sulim



(edit: another great read from McClatchy Link

Highlights from the article...

Bush told us all about Saddams evil WMD's and we fell for it.  Just because a world leader says it doesn't mean its true.  This whole situation smacks of bad politics on both sides.

[Elfie]

But in fact, the city still does exist. While there was extensive damage to some structures, most buildings had front doors on their hinges and standing walls. For every building charred by explosions — the Georgians are accused of using multiple rocket launcher systems — there were others on tree-lined streets that looked untouched.

Boroda posted a couple links to a website with pictures of Tskhinvali. He tried to claim the city was destroyed, yet all the buildings were still standing. (Some were obviously damaged) He reasserted his claim of a massive artillery barrage and yet there were no shell craters to be seen.

With that in mind, it does not surprise me that casualty figures have been embellished for propaganda purposes.

[SkyRock]

Boroda posted a couple links to a website with pictures of Tskhinvali. He tried to claim the city was destroyed, yet all the buildings were still standing. (Some were obviously damaged) He reasserted his claim of a massive artillery barrage and yet there were no shell craters to be seen.

With that in mind, it does not surprise me that casualty figures have been embellished for propaganda purposes.

Let the russians do what they need to over there to feel safe, we would.

[33Vortex]

“We have always been a peace-loving state. Practically there is not a single occasion in the history of the Russian or Soviet state when we first started military actions. We have not attacked anyone, we only secured the rights and dignity of people as peacekeepers.”

Is that a quote of Putin? It is completely laughable.

[33Vortex]

Let the russians do what they need to over there to feel safe, we would.

It's just that russians take propaganda to a different level than what we in the west usually do. Russians are not shy of plain lies. If there is a propaganda action in the west, care is taken to try to cover up the facts that it's a lie (or modified truth), russians simply don't bother doing that.

[Wmaker]

Is that a quote of Putin? It is completely laughable.

Check out the link. Like I said, it's a quote by Putin's new puppet ie. Dimitry Medvedev.

[FrodeMk3]

Let the russians do what they need to over there to feel safe, we would.

Take a look at this, Mark. This is off of the Yahoo news' headlines' this morning:

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the Russian military moved SS-21 missile launchers into South Ossetia on Friday. From there, the missiles would be able to reach Tbilisi.

Nogovitsyn, the Russian military official, disputed the claim, saying Russia "sees no necessity" to place SS-21s in the region.

The war broke out after Georgia launched a barrage to try to retake control of South Ossetia, a Russian-backed separatist region that split off in the early 1990s. Russia had peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia and sent in thousands of reinforcements immediately, driving out Georgian forces. Georgian troops also were driven out of the small portion they had held in another separatist region, the Black Sea province of Abkhazia.

Russian troops also took positions deep into Georgia, including Gori, about 50 miles west of the capital, and in the Black Sea port of Poti. They also began a campaign to disable the Georgian military, destroying or carting away large caches of military equipment. An AP photographer saw Russian troops guarding rows of captured Georgian military vehicles Sunday in Tskhinvali.

An AP photographer also saw Russian troops Sunday in the South Ossetian village of Kikhvi. Houses in the mostly-ethnic Georgian village were burning days after most fighting had ended.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080818/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_russia

You don't need a Nuclear-capable SRBM to enforce a treaty withdrawal. Something's odd about this.

BTW, this is the same missile they used on Grozny.