Georgia pounds breakaway capital, ceasefire ends

reuteurs ^ | 07 Aug 2008 23:12:28 GMT | Margarita Antidze

[Flavius]

MEGVREKISI, Georgia, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Georgia pounded the capital of its breakaway South Ossetia province with heavy weapons on Thursday after a ceasefire broke down within hours and separatists said they were under siege.

"Georgian troops are storming Tskhinvali (the capital). They are bombing the city," South Ossetia's separatist leader, Eduard Kokoity, told Russian news agencies.

A Reuters reporter saw intense fire from heavy weapons at different locations skirting Tskhinvali. The reporter heard heavy fighting coming from the direction of the city.

The night sky was lit up blue and red by explosions and Georgian forces appeared to be firing Katyusha rockets.

"We have an operation under way to neutralise separatist positions from which they are shelling Georgian villages," a senior interior ministry official told Reuters in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

The commander of Georgian peacekeepers in South Ossetia, Mamuka Kurashvili, told Georgian television: "We are forced to restore constitutional order in the whole region."

[Flavius]

get it, no one cares, however there are Russian and USA troops in the theater. How good can that be.

[MinorityRepublican]

Reminds you of 24: Season 6 where Russian troops are threatening American troops in Central Asia.

[Alter Kaker]

In the theater? There are Russian and American troops just a few miles away from one another. This one has a real possibility of escalating into something really serious, if the Georgians start beating the Ossetians.

[Flavius]

Well i’ve been posting for last few days 0 interests from here.

The regular golfing news media and the rest of the clowns with bleached teeth also have no interest.

But Russians can pour lots more troops there then we could. Thats all.

Now obviously I don’t see anyone getting wacky about it, but Russians did say they would not just sit and watch this...

So will see.

[Alter Kaker]

Georgia is really the only US ally in a strategically vital region, and Russia has threatened to invade and overthrow the elected government.

It has troops stationed in the two remaining breakaway regions, South Ossetia and the larger Abkhazia, and American troops are in Georgia.

Katie Couric may not be paying attention, but you can sure bet the State Department and Pentagon are on full alert.

[Hoodat]

Too bad we couldn’t do this in Atlanta against Sherman.

[Iron Munro]

Georgia pounds breakaway capital..."

Nothing like that could ever happen here.

DESTRUCTION OF THE DEPOTS, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, AND
MANUFACTORIES AT ATLANTA, GEORGIA, NOVEMBER 15, 1864

THE FOURTEENTH AND TWENTIETH CORPS MOVING OUT OF
ATLANTA, NOVEMBER 15, 1864.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

This whole thing has to do with these republics location. Russia is eyeing that region for a major set of energy pipelines and they want puppet governments that bow to Russias leadership there because of that.
They also look at Georgia the same way they do the baltics. The Kremlin’s knickname for them translated into english is “wayward children”. As in they are still part of Russia, and will be rejoining them with enough interference and pressure by the thugs in the Kremlin. Russia like to use the term “sphere of influence” when describing what purpose they are supposed to have.

[Clemenza]

General Sherman’s corpse can still kick southron traitor ass. LONG LIVE THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC!!!

[ken21]

you are correct.

[Fractal Trader]

Any thoughts?

[mick]

I said this on another post about this issue. I am afraid this is a tough spot for us given our other commitments....and the Kremlin knows this. This is a dangerous area best left to the local boys to sort out if they can without us getting much more involved than we are.
Lets face reality......Russia is flexing it's new found oil muscles. This will have to run it's course. We might have to accept some increases in their “area of influence”. That being said, lets not fool ourselves...Russia is a huge potential danger to us because they harbor a grudge about losing the Empire. But I would draw the line in Ukraine. We must stand with Ukraine, no question about that. Otherwise the Russian army will be at the border of Poland. Not good. However, I am no strategist.....but it seems to me we risk making Georgia “A Nation To Far” if we try to prevent some sort of Russian influence in their affairs.....I mean, Stalin came from Georgia , so it isn't like there isn;t some kind of natural ties. Tough call because the Georgians are good friend to us......but that doesn't change geography.

[ken21]

yeah, i agree.

we can’t be everywhere, confronting everything.

the russians were humiliated by both afghanistan and the loss of empire. we’re in afgahnistan.

even many republicans are fatigued by the iraq war; it’s gone on too long.

i realize georgia is important, and strategic. the russians are using the natural enmity of the ossetians to put pressure the georgians.

tough call.

meanwhile, back at the ranch, there’s venezuela spreading trouble.

[Marine_Uncle]

A bit weird. I went to maps at google and zeroed into the area only to find literally not one city or anything else shown in map mode or satellite for Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
It is like these three countries do not exists other then their white border lines with the country names inserted.
At any rate. I believe many people simply are not in the least familiar with what goes on in Georgia (including myself to a large degree).
Few even know it is a contentious area the Russians want to hold sway over for re-increasing their sphere of influences as well as for the gas pipelines they want to establish with Iran.

[mick]

Chavez is a punk. I've done a little business there and in central america over the years and while he is riding high now with high oil prices....his days are numbered.....and I say he is a punk because he doesn't really have the stones of the old line commies.......he is just another south american class baiter......once we get oil prices down both him and the russians will revert to type.....second class economies with great natural resources.....and while the Russians will have an efficient military someday because they are a tough people,the venezuelians will never threaten anybody even with russian weapons.......the women are beautiful but the men are soft.

[notdownwidems]

Our Southern boys killed 100k more Yankees than they took as casualties, with fewer and inferior weapons. So eat that

[BlazingArizona]

The regular golfing news media and the rest of the clowns with bleached teeth also have no interest.

You may remember the summer of 2001, when the golfing media was filled with dog-days stories about shark attacks.

Then suddenly it was September, and the world changed forever.

[piasa]

Thanks for posting this. Sorry the geographically challenged dead horse beaters found the thread.

[Centurion2000]

Georgia is really the only US ally in a strategically vital region, and Russia has threatened to invade and overthrow the elected government.

Well it looks like Georgia's about to get it's head handed to it then. Kinda hard to do power projection into the Black Sea.

[tcrlaf]

“Otherwise the Russian army will be at the border of Poland.”

Unlike 60+ years ago, the Poles won’t be such a push-over this time.