Lets not deceive our selves, this war might lead to world war III .


We don't always have to waiting generally on the press to tell us what is going on




( I rest my case )

Saakashvili overplayed his hand - in an attempt to prove 'strong', he has caused his nation unnecessary damage. Why attack the South Ossetians when you KNOW the Russians will fight back? Did they really think Germany and France and the others would sacrifice their natural gas for Georgia?

Speaking English and French will not make you more European, only in November this same dude was cracking down on his people and being as 'undemocratic' as they get. Now he's crying that if this isn't stopped, Russian tanks will roll into any European capital.

Russia went too far with its moves here, but simply put, Georgia has been used to send out a strong message - we will not be taken for granted, expand NATO all you want, but not right up to our borders.

The nation may be in terminal decline, but no reasonable power will want to be encircled by foes in their own backyard. I hope Saakashvili now knows that sending troops to Iraq will get you little more than harsh words from Bush. . . . people are too concerned about their own hides to stick their neck out too far for you.

I think Georgians should thank Sarkozy and embrace his peace plans.

All this tough talk by UK and US are just for record purposes, nobody will do anything significant to Russia.

Its a hard lesson to learn, but one that Saakashvili needed. An edgy Russia looking for a way to show it was still a power in the light of its failure to prevent the secession of Kosovo and the missile shield being implemented in Europe, not to talk of the unending expansion of NATO, was always bound to react forcefully and perhaps excessively to send a strong message.

Innocents as usual suffer the most from these complex power games.

Russia is nothing but a bully and given that Ossetia is not a part of it. Kosovo wanted to leave Serbia, russia said no, and they are there helping ossetia, does anyone really think they care about the Ethnic Ossetins?

russia knew this would happen and they are only happy to blow Georgia into pieces.

Agreed Sakashvili went too far but no one has actually proved, who started the madness of this war.

For all there is to it, russia has no friends, including its neighbouring countries. Even Ukraine is against the delibrate actions of russia and besides, Russians are using the same propanganda they use to erase Chechnya. Has anyone here ever been to Grozny? russia is only happy to flex its muscles in all parts of the former soviet union, Ukraine, Belarus and the host of them, !

You shouldn't become a bully even if you are  that strong. The most annoying thing is that only the innocents suffer most. All these little knuckle heads aspiring "Napeleons" should be sent to the gulag!

Agreed Sakashvili went too far but no one has actually proved, who started the madness of this war.

are you not reading the new?

Fighting flared last Thursday night when Georgia sent its army to regain control of South Ossetia- a region nominally part of Georgia, but with de facto independence and where a majority of people hold Russian passports.

Lesson for everyone: Do not punch a bear on the nose unless it is tied down.

Russia has done a good job, every other countries will behave and dont just follow WEST in their chess games.

I wish Nigeria could have done this to 'bakkasi cameroun' but alas we are bunch of lazy, coward & corrupt fellow.

Do we even have fighter jets??

Russia is just a bullying nation but Sakashvilli needs to stop acting like a baby as well!

Lives and properties has just been sacrificed for fun i reckon!

are you not reading the new?

which news? CNN or NTA or RTR?
I'm telling you that no one can say what and who started it. Innocent people just suffered for nothing. Russia is a bully.
Russia knew this would happen even before anyone thought of it. They evacuated many kids and women days before the madness started. Now you tell me, who started it?

the russians are just bunch of mischief.

LiquidMind:



Lets not deceive our selves, this war might lead to world war III .


We don't always have to waiting generally on the press to tell us what is going on




( I rest my case )

U're already deceiving yourself

And would you consider it right for France to be bombing Lagos all because it is protecting MASSOB against the Federal Govt of Nigeria?

distance between france and nigeria and politics of their earlier split doesnt make this good a good example here. bottom line is this sillyy georgian man misread the support of the americans and as bruce george said it back fired on his head. he made an error of judgement ang good old russia read him the riot act. go look at the mapof that area in colour and see how nato through these lunatics and lawless thieves masquerading as democrats wants russia to be surrounded by america in the name of nato.

all wars are ugly. nobody in his right mind should support any war. i believe too nobody in his right mind should start one by whatever means. he and his america paymasters were testing russians resolve to see what they will do. russia have showed them what they will always do.

i believe too nobody in his right mind should start one by whatever means. he and his america paymasters were testing russians resolve to see what they will do. russia have showed them what they will always do.

exactly.

wish Naija could have such resolve not to be pushed around

@joshjosh,

distance between france and nigeria and politics of their earlier split doesnt make this good a good example here. bottom line is this sillyy georgian man misread the support of the americans and as bruce george said it back fired on his head.

Distance is not the key factor here but the territorial integrity of one country versus another. Whether Russia is 1 mile away or 10,000 mile away does not give them the right to meddle in the internal affairs of Georgia, much less invading their neighbour.

most russians are maniacs and believe they know it all.
the act of blowing up georgia is just a shame, wicked people. bullies, nothing more nothing less.

if this was happening in Africa there was going to be so much noise about it, Bloody Europeans!!

lol
Naive comments are the rage here. I really don't think the Georgians had any hope or thought of American or western millitary aid. All they wanted to do was to put down the violent separatists in South Ossetia. Russia responded with force.

Only a naive Nigerian would imagine that NATO would airlift hundreds of thousands of troops into Georgia to fight a war. The Georgian president miscalculated and he's paid the price.

That said, the russians are clearly out of line here. All the Georgians have done is to mirror what Russia did in Chechnya in 1999. Nothing more. Apparently it is 'fighting terrorism' when fighting muslim chechens, but aggression when fighting South Ossetians.

This show of strength matters little in the long run. Georgia is a rather small country after all. The Russian nation has FAR less sway in Eastern Europe now than at the height of the cold war. It would be hard pressed to defeat a much larger and better armed ex-SovBloc country like Poland. And the world knows it.

By the way, it's funny how we excuse away Russia's excesses as a simple balance to the US. What this shows is that if tommorrow China invades Taiwan, you'll have landis, Blatant and the other other usual suspects will be crowing about enforcing millitary might.

of course, the token objections will be made. Emphasis on token.

Naive comments are the rage here. I really don't think the Georgians had any hope or thought of American or western millitary aid. All they wanted to do was to put down the violent separatists in South Ossetia.

You exposed yourself.

That place was under 'russia peace keeping force' since 1990.

80% population have Russia Citizenship.

Georgia knew exactly what they were doing when they invaded the place and Russia gave them what they deserved.

BBC put it exact:

Do not punch a bear on the nose unless it is tied down.


Did President Saakashvili miscalculate?

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili must have thought that Russia would not react strongly when he sent his forces in on the eve of the Olympic games to regain control of a territory he had insisted must remain part of Georgia, albeit with some form of autonomy.

Yet Russia was always likely to respond. It already had forces there, leading the peacekeeping force agreed back in the easier days of 1992 between President Boris Yeltsin of Russia and President Edward Shevardnadze of Georgia, himself the former Soviet foreign minister who helped bring the Cold War to an end.

Georgia , Georgia is the most gullible nation , when it comes to warfare ! Obviously they did not consult the BULLY
(USA) before their attack on OS , 'cuz if they did DEFINITELY , BULLY BABA will have told them that she does not want confrontation with Russia , Imagine a nation sending her BEST soldiers for peacekeeping missions , they took a BIG risk there , Lets face it BULLY BABA will keep mum. Europe WILL not fight Russia , else no OIL no them . Let Georgia come and rent OPC boys from 9ja , they can do better than what their army , ( the very best ) are doing now. Abeg leave 'em alone , we gat our own issues here , lets go bomb Yaounde ! before Cameroun comes to blow up Abuja !!!

President Saakashvili of Georgia will remain in history as one of the most idiotic person to ever grace the office of president.
What was this man thinking?
What would anybody expect Russia to do when Georgia attacked South Ossetian capital with artillery on thursday. This guy is stupid. He's looking for a way out now.

^^^ De guy na real mumu no be small. Even American senators are blaming him for trying to pit them against Russia.

Russia is just trying to flex muscles. They have no real case.

The nation may be in terminal decline, but no reasonable power will want to be encircled by foes in their own backyard. I hope Saakashvili now knows that sending troops to Iraq will get you little more than harsh words from Bush. . . . people are too concerned about their own hides to stick their neck out too far for you.

The absurdity of the bolded statement should be apparent. You can't curtail the emergence of foes in your own backyard by bombing your neighbors. Does Russian bombing of Georgia make Georgia and Georgians any less likely to be hostile towards Russia?

The reason why Russia is surrounded by nations that despise it is precisely because of historic Russian interventionist policies towards these neighboring states.

An unstable country like Russia has no business indulging in delusions of grandeur. We had this same problem with the Soviet Union and look where that ended up.

As for Sakashvilli,my view is that the ultimate interest of a politician is to stay in power and short of a war resulting in regime change, nothing benefits a politician more than his country being under attack.

This is an illustration of how military interventions often strengthens hostility and ultimately undermines the interventionist state:

President Victor Yushchenko raised the prospect of revoking an agreement that allows Russia to use the Crimean port until 2017 if Russian commanders defy the new restrictions. The presidential decree requires vessels blockading Georgia to ask Kiev's permission to return to the treaty port.
Reasserting control over its near neighbours is at the heart of Russia's foreign policy. It has ruthlessly cut winter energy supplies to secure compliance from Eastern Europe and used Russian-speaking minorities from the Baltics to Central Asia as leverage against states courting the West.
Mr Yushchenko joined the leaders of Poland and the Baltic states on a solidarity mission by a self-described group of "captive nations" of the USSR, to Tbilisi on Tuesday.
Even before yesterday's decree, Mr Yushchenko had faced domestic criticism for adopting positions that inevitably antagonise Moscow. Ukrainian political analyst James Hydzik said the president had put the country in Moscow's crosshairs. He said: "Protestations of neutrality from the Ukrainian government are not helped by the visit [to Tbilisi], at least from the Russian standpoint."
Russia has used a mixture of bluster and threats to resist efforts by Georgia and Ukraine to join Nato. But even states that are members of the EU are not immune from Kremlin intimidation. "In the Baltic states and Ukraine, independence is still seen as something fragile and not necessarily built to last," said Bartosz Cichocki, an expert at the Polish Institute for International Affairs. "So if it's not defended actively, it can't last."
In the aftermath of the Russian assault on Georgia, many former Soviet citizens doubt that the West can restrain Moscow. Even confidence in Nato's charter guarantee that all states will aid any member attacked from abroad has been shaken. "People are certainly afraid that Russia could attack Lithuania just like Georgia," said Lithuanian political scientist Kestutis Girnius. "And you see that kind of view among politicians," The legacy of Soviet domination still haunts Russia's relations with its former allies. "We came to fight since our old neighbour thinks that it can fight us," Polish President Lech Kaczynski said in Tbilisi. "This country thinks that old times will come back, but that time is over. Everyone knows that the next one could be Ukraine, then Poland."
Poland and the three Baltic countries yesterday raised objections to a French ceasefire plan, criticising it for not explicitly guaranteeing Georgia territorial integrity.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/2552925/Ukraine-imposes-restrictions-on-Russian-navy.html

4 Play:

The absurdity of the bolded statement should be apparent. You can't curtail the emergence of foes in your own backyard by bombing your neighbors. Does Russian bombing of Georgia make Georgia and Georgians any less likely to be hostile towards Russia?

*shrugs*

But if NATO knows that Russia is willing to attack a country like Georgia over this type of dispute, it will be hesitant in giving Georgia NATO membership to prevent direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. That alone serves as a deterrent to other close by nations joining NATO. In addition, being hostile to Russia alone is not the issue - its seemingly going to the 'other side' as it were.

This military action will alienate Russia a bit, but will cause a rethink with regards to NATO's expansion eastwards, which is one of the aims of Russia. Yes the Russians have historic interventionist practices, but you don't see them sabre rattling with Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan, simply because those nations are not angling for a more western tilt and are happy to let things remain as they are.

Saakashvili obviously used this to bolster his hold on power to some extent, and make himself look like the national defender.

so america can invade iraq and afgh but russian can't?  On what moral grounds is america standing on?

Russians live in the disputed regions of geogia and I think the stupid G eorgian president played into trap of russia,  what da hell was he thinking? You can't send troops to secure a russian zone of your country(those folks carry russians passports ) and to think that u can do anything because "the west "supports you is just stupid,

Abkhazia and South Ossetia. used to be a part of russia. As a matter of fact, russians live in these regions and they also carry russian passport. What was the georgian president thinking? Why did he send troops to secure a known russian territory.

Abkhazians and south ossetians don't believe they are part of georgia. They associate with russia , did I mention that these folks carry russian passports.?

aMERICA WOuldnt dare attack Russia,

Abkhazia and South Ossetia. used to be a part of russia. As a matter of fact, russians live in these regions and they also carry russian passport. What was the georgian president thinking? Why did he send troops to secure a known russian territory.

Abkhazians and south ossetians don't believe they are part of georgia. They associate with russia , did I mention that these folks carry russian passports.?

aMERICA WOuldnt dare attack Russia,

Abkhazia and South Ossetia. used to be a part of russia. As a matter of fact, russians live in these regions and they also carry russian passport. What was the georgian president thinking? Why did he send troops to secure a known russian territory.

Abkhazians and south ossetians don't believe they are part of georgia. They associate with russia , did I mention that these folks carry russian passports.?

aMERICA WOuldnt dare attack Russia,

TPS360:

Abkhazia and South Ossetia. used to be a part of russia. As a matter of fact, russians live in these regions and they also carry russian passport. What was the georgian president thinking? Why did he send troops to secure a known russian territory.

Abkhazians and south ossetians don't believe they are part of georgia. They associate with russia , did I mention that these folks carry russian passports.?

aMERICA WOuldnt dare attack Russia,

In what book did  you read that Abkhazia and South Ossetia used to be part of Russia? did you forget that even Georgia was part of USSR? Then it wasn't just russia, it was the Soviet Union and the stupid illogical borders drawn by Joe Stalin.
And please don't tell me that the ethnic people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia associate with russia. Do you know what russians do to anyone non slavic people or you are just reading newspaper and you think you know what is going on? we are the people on the ground here and can very much tell you more.

About them having russian passports, these was distributed to them since early 1990's for  the same reason we are facing today.

And you talking about US invading Afganistan, did you know russia actually invaded them first? russia is one of the main reason there is acute instability there?

and when Chechnya wanted to break away,( which by the way was never part of russia) what these bloody russians did? they completed erased grozny the capital city!

russians live everywhere and they seem to think that they can always impose their own man as president, ask the president of Ukraine and he will tell you how and why he was poisioned by the same russia.

If you ever lived in russia or georgia or any of these countries we talking about then you may understand what is going on.

russia is a bully, and a brainless one for that matter.

call russia whatever, on what moral grounds is america on right now? plz tell me @fbs,

TPS360:

call russia whatever, on what moral grounds is america on right now? plz tell me @fbs,

and who says america is right? did you read that in my post?

Saakashvili obviously used this to bolster his hold on power to some extent, and make himself look like the national defender.

He is a foolish man.

He should go and learn from all those who play puppert to UK/US; once you don't serve their interest anymore, you are gone.