Russia snubs George W Bush's call to pull troops out - 2,000 dead 30,000 refugees

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2531027/Georgia-Crisis-deepens-as-Russia-snubs-George-W-Bushs-call-to-pull-troops-out.html


By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor
Last Updated: 9:23PM BST 09 Aug 2008

The joint delegation, operating on behalf of Nato, the United States and the European Union, was called into action as Britain said it was "deeply concerned" about the fighting, which has left up to 2,000 dead.

The delegation included Sir Brian Fall, a senior diplomat who is Britain's special representative for the South Caucasus. As international pressure grew for a ceasefire, George W Bush, the American President, accused Russia of staging a "dangerous escalation" of the conflict.

Mr Bush held a telephone conversation with his Russian opposite, Dmitri Medvedev, and urged Moscow to halt its bomb attacks immediately.

However, Mr Medvedev said the "only way out" was for Georgian forces to withdraw from the main conflict zone in South Ossetia.

Russian officials said the death toll from two days of fighting was 2,000, while 30,000 refugees had fled across the border to Russia.





11 hours ago: A Georgian man cries near the body of his relative after bombardment in Gori, 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi, August 9, 2008. A Russian warplane dropped a bomb on an apartment block in the Georgian town of Gori on Saturday, killing at least 5 people, a Reuters reporter said. The bomb hit the five-story building in Gori close to Georgia's embattled breakaway province of South Ossetia when Russian warplanes carried out a raid against military targets around the town.

[seemslikeadream]

1. Small wars have a nasty habit of getting bigger

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article4493169.ece

Russia is playing with fire on its southern borders
A small war in the Caucacus would not normally be a cause of growing international concern. The region is only too familiar with conflict and the West would at this stage be more involved in discussing humanitarian aid to the innocent victims of old tribal feuds. But the fact that George W Bush’s picture is widely displayed across Georgia while the face of Vladimir Putin is on equal show in the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia suggests this conflict is not just another minor ethnic squabble and that it may not stay local for too long.

The danger in any war on the border of a great power is that others begin to meddle and before anyone can find Tskhinvali, the capital, on the map we have a full-blown crisis. History is full of seemingly minor events - Kosovo and the Falklands to name two recent examples - leading to international showdowns. It is no secret that the recently resurgent Russia has long resented Georgia’s breakaway from the Soviet Union and its blandishments to the West. Its latest bid to join Nato and the European Union is seen in Moscow as a calculated provocation. Mikhail Saakashvili, the Georgian president, is so pro-American that he won a State Department scholarship to study at the universities of Columbia and George Washington before returning to enter Georgian politics, initially under the patronage of Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister.

As would be expected in such a tumultuous region, Saakashvili has faced challenges from ultra-nationalists, regional warlords and separatists, all exploited by Russia. Although he has cracked down, suspending civil liberties, his policies have won praise in the West for being pro free market and he has been a stout ally to the United States, sending troops to Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Indeed, 2,000 Georgian soldiers were ordered home from Iraq yesterday because of the crisis.

All this is taking place against the backdrop of Russia’s resentment at what it regards as growing western encirclement. Russia believed that after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 it had an understanding that Nato would not expand into its back yard. Instead, former Warsaw Pact countries rushed to join the western military alliance and were accepted; Georgia and Ukraine are the latest to seek entry. When that is tied in with the United States wanting to site its missile defence shield against Iran in Poland and the Czech Republic, it makes the Russians feel particularly paranoid. In retaliation, Russia is talking of putting missiles aimed at Europe on its western boundaries and sending military officers to visit Cuba in a bizarre throwback to the missile crisis of 1962.

[Karenina]

2. Once the first shot is fired,

ALL BETS ARE OFF! :hide:

[madrchsod]

3. this is what it`s all about

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/caspian_pipelines_2002.pdf <-excellent map



oil and natural gas to the west

this is what the secret cheney meetings were about. this is why bill clinton made a few million in "consulting fees"

[seemslikeadream]

5. You got it babe

:hi:

[madrchsod]

9. i wish i was a "babe" but to much ware and tear

has kind`a cut into this old guy`s "babeness"! :rofl: :hi:

[scarface2004]

4. sort of like when we blew the shit out of falluja..

don t ya think?

[babylonsister]

6. Rec'd with great sadness that this is happening. David vs. Goliath? nt

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[seemslikeadream]

8. Georgia fears 'annihilation' after Russian assault

http://www.theage.com.au/world/georgia-fears-annihilation-after-russian-assault-20080810-3stl.html

Russian warplanes staged bombing raids across Georgia today as the conflict over South Ossetia escalated and diplomatic efforts mounted to halt what Tbilisi called a policy of "annihilation".

"What they are doing is nothing to do with conflict, it is about annihilation of a democracy on their borders," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in an interview with the BBC.

- Claims villages burnt, hundreds killed
- Woman and children flee
- Russia to 'force the Georgian side into peace'

He said Moscow's aim in entering the conflict over the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia is to show that "nobody ever will defy Russian rule in this part of the world".

France, which holds the current EU presidency, announced today it will host a meeting of European foreign ministers early next week and possibly an EU summit later.

The French presidency said Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will go to the region to present prosposals for ending the crisis which include "an immediate cessation of hostilities; the full respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia; (and) the re-establishment of the situation that existed before".

The UN Security Council was also expected to meet again today to agree on a call for an immediate ceasefire after talks failed a day earlier.

[spanone]

10. ...and putin is at the olympics with bu$h*....criminals in chief