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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Georgian claims on Russia war undercut |
| 2008-11-08 |
| TBILISI, Georgia: Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the long-standing Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression. Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia's inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on August 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm. The accounts are neither fully conclusive nor broad enough to settle the many lingering disputes over blame in a war that hardened relations between the Kremlin and the West. But they raise questions about the accuracy and honesty of Georgia's insistence that its shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, was a precise operation. Georgia has variously defended the shelling as necessary to stop heavy Ossetian shelling of Georgian villages, bring order to the region or counter a Russian invasion. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #6 Observers are often not really positioned to know what happened in the big picture. Who shot first disappears behind I saw them shoot. This doesn't really decide much in my mind. Putin acted like a savage before and after so I will assume the savage started it until there is some really decent evidence to refute that. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-11-08 15:22 |
| #5 Told you. I believe no Russian. |
| Posted by: Milton Fandango 2008-11-08 13:41 |
| #4 The fact that |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2008-11-08 13:20 |
| #3 I predicted the current crisis. I also now predict the next one. Send $10 and a SASE for a quality photo and a screen shot from October 1929. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-11-08 12:02 |
| #2 It is still way to early to determine the actual events of 8/6, 8/7 and 8/8. The article itself says the OSCE was conflicted in it's initial reporting. NO independent monitors are currently(OSCE, EU monitors, etc.) allowed inside South Ossetia unless they come through the Russian side with Moscow's blessing. What does appear obvious is Georgia may be getting sold down the river in order for Europe to mend its respective members Russian relations. This is clear in the recent diplomatic shift (last 2 weeks) by WESTERN european nations in their stance towards Russia, most notably Britian who has been in a tiff with Russia for a year plus. And surprise, surprise the main quoted source for the OSCE is a former British army captain. I smell something, and it ain't flowers. |
| Posted by: jefe101 2008-11-08 10:56 |
| #1 Told you. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-11-08 04:07 |