Posted on 08/17/2008 2:11:24 AM PDT by Schnucki
What began as a skirmish has become a tragedy of global importance. As Russian soldiers brought a campaign of vicious reprisals to civilians, Georgia endured a nightmare. But those ten days also shook the world: Vladimir Putin has revealed his ambition to extend Moscow's power and challenge the military dominance of Europe and the US
It began when five men stole into the rustic village of Tkviavi. With its plum trees, walnut groves and vines, Tkviavi was one of a jigsaw of picturesque villages beneath the hulking mountains of central Georgia. Up the road was Tskhinvali - the grim Soviet-style capital of the backward rebel statelet of South Ossetia. Down the road was Gori, a town once more famous for its association with an unpromising cobbler's son, Josef Stalin.
The men arrived outside Elene Maisuradze's modest cottage. Waving guns and speaking rapidly in Russian, they wanted to know where Elene had hidden her Lada. One of them was Ossetian; the others had come from Russia. 'I told them I had sold it,' she said. 'They asked me: "Where are the boys?" I said my sons were away. They took everything from my house, turned it upside down and left.'
Soon more paramilitaries, armed with Kalashnikovs, turned up. 'They wanted to know where my basement was. I told them and said: "We have plenty of wine. Please take it." They went to the basement, shot it up and came back. I was crying. They said in Russian: "Rastreli, rastreli (kill her, kill her)." My neighbour, a Russian woman, told them: "Don't do this." They shot into the ground and said: "Fuck Saakashvili." '
The militia gangs were part of a murderous wave unleashed by Russia last week on Georgian civilians. The Russian army has now advanced deep into Georgian territory, capturing
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
One of the, if not the best, thing that could happen is for Putin to be taken out from the inside.
So where’s the UN documenting the atrocities committed by Russia??? The west should document as much as possible and broadcast it world wide to not only shame Russia, if that’s possible, but let the rest of the world know what Russia is all about. That it should not be allowed to be apart of the civilized nations of the world.
Putin is loved in his country. He's a hero for smashing a neighboring country that refused to tow the Russian line.
When Pelosi speaks, the Rooskies listen and repeat Democrat talking points. Or are the Commies supplying Pelosi's scripts?
yitbos
At the same time analysts at the Kremlin have given free rein to conspiracy theories. Sergei Markov put the Caucasus crisis down to a dastardly plot by Dick Cheney, US Vice-President, and Republican presidential candidate John McCain. A confrontation with Russia would be extremely useful just before the US presidential election, exposing Democratic candidate Barack Obama's inexperience in foreign and security policy and boosting McCain's chances. Such is the paranoid world view of an analyst well connected to the entourage of Vladimir Putin, who guarantee that such scenarios get an extensive airing on the Kremlin-controlled TV channels.
"Many journalists reporting on the present situation in Georgia use standard phrases expressing Russian "power" and "might" etc. But if the photographs show the present state of the Russian army, then it is not in a good state at all. For first-class Russian frontline units, there is strange mixture of obsolete and semi-obsolete armoured vehicles, with tanks in particular ranging from truly ancient T-54s to mid-life T-70s smothered in reactive armour. The use of this appliqui armour alone shows somewhat primitive tank thinking as compare to up-to-date Western models. Reactive armour is a cheap and cheerful form interim anti-tank protection pending the arrival of new tank models, and never used on Western tanks. Ceramic Cobham armour is used on Challenger 2 and Abrahams tanks, and the Russians appear not to have developed this. Also, it is surprising for a first-class tank unit to have some of its vehicles show appliqui armour whilst others show no such things. Also there appears to have been no attempt by lackadaisical tank crews to camouflage their vehicles and break up profiles.
The Russian transport, mainly, 1960s-design Ural trucks, is equally as ancient, and their thinly-armoured BTR armoured personnel carriers are of a model which hardly compares as with such advanced vehicles as the British Warrior, the US Bradley, or the US state-of-the-art Stryker vehicles, all of which which sprout multi-tasking aerials all over the place. On the Russian BTRs, here is no sign of anti-RPG bar armour, and absolutely no sign of mine-protected vehicles which have proved so necessary in Iraq. The Russians columns appear not to be alert as concerns mines or possible ambushes. The single aerials installed on all vehicles show that the internal VHF communications suites are almost of 1960s standard.
The state of the Russian infantry as observed is even more worrying. Their uniforms are not standard, their vehicle discipline looks casual, and the foot deployment of infantry is sloppy, with rifle and kit not properly adjusted, with Kalshnikovs pointing all over the place. Frankly, it is enough to make a British Sergeant-Major go apeshit. Also, the infantry have no body armour (or even steel helmets), and lacking man pack aerials, appear to have no good communications kit at all. The age range of some of the Russian infantry must also be worrying to Russian trainers and instructors. I have seen men of well over thirty in infantry sections, and any number of over-plump tummies on display. There is also a racial mix which must present problems to any basic training programme as concerns language difficulties. Infantry appear in particular are drawn from every conceivable area in Russia, which must make for training and co-ordination difficulties.
Frankly, on detailed technical observation, this display the Russian army shows it appearing to have sunk to a third-world standard which only succeeded in this case by confronting a numerically inferior force. If the Russians had any alert propaganda sense at all, on this spotlight occasion, they would have fielded a modern elite force instead of the dog's breakfast as observed. On this evidence, goodness only knows what their second line units are like."
“The use of this appliqui armour alone shows somewhat primitive tank thinking as compare to up-to-date Western models. Reactive armour is a cheap and cheerful form interim anti-tank protection pending the arrival of new tank models, and never used on Western tanks.”
Huh? Never used on Western tanks?
The Russians developed two-stage warheads years ago for reactive armor on western tanks (just as we developed it on our warheads to defeat Russian reactive armor).
As long as the western Europeans believe this, they're in for the surprise of their lives. Putin plans to expose how totally toothless the US and the west has become. Once he separates us from all our "allies" and everyone who depends on us for their security, he isn't likely to settle for being an "equal partner" with us in the global order.
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