13 August 2008

The other side of the South Ossetia war

Many of us have been looking forward to the Olympics for some time and spend as much time as possible watching sport that we usually wouldn't be watching. Since the Chinese have a fetish for numbers, they decided to start off on the 8th of the 8th in 2008. Because eight is a lucky number.
Not for everyone. It was exactly that day that the Russians decided to stop the killings of hundreds, possibly thousands of South Ossetians and 15 Russian peacekeepers. Georgian troops started the conflict on the 1st of August and South Ossetians fled into Russian territory. On the 5th of August, Russia warned Georgia that if the killings would continue, it would take necessary action. Georgia cleverly offered a ceasefire, whilst continuing the killings. Russia did the expected and sent its troops into South Ossetia to restore the order.
Until that time, there was hardly any mention of the killings in South Ossetia. This changed when Russia got involved. The Russian invasion was all over the news and suddenly competed with the Beijing Olympics. Russia was the bad guy once again as it wanted to rebuild the former Soviet empire.
Many sources see things differently. Israeli intelligence source DebkaFile mentioned: Last year, the Georgian president commissioned from private Israeli security firms several hundred military advisers, estimated at up to 1,000, to train the Georgian armed forces in commando, air, sea, armored and artillery combat tactics. They also offer instruction on military intelligence and security for the central regime. Tbilisi also purchased weapons, intelligence and electronic warfare systems from Israel.
Russian newspaper Pravda stated that USA and Ukraine are partly responsible for the conflict as they supplied sniper armaments to Georgia.
Georgian President Saakashvili now claims that the US underestimated the Russian threat and that "the reputation that America has gained since the Cold War is going to hell right now". Saakashvili is clearly stirring things up and mentions that the US should now involve the West in the conflict, probably meaning Europe. This man is obviously trying the start a WW-III and all we can do is that the EU will have enough people opposing military action against Russia (and Iran, but that's a different story). But since France assumed EU Presidency, President Sarkozy is certainly taking an approach quite different from his US counterpart: dialogue.
Although Western media - exceptions are hard to find - show Russia once again as the aggressor and Georgia as the victim, an increasing number of people seem to point the finger at Georgia, including former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev and an American who happened to whitness the killings in South Ossetia.
In the end, it's all about oil again. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, transporting Caspian oil to the Mediterranean is certainly a hot item as the West has become a structural oil importer and the former Soviet Union being a net oil exporter. Quite similar to Iraq and Iran.
For those who really want to hear or read both sides of the story, keep an eye on Russia Today and Infowars, in addition to your usual Western media.

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