Posted on 08/20/2008 5:30:26 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Russia’s invasion of Georgia has unleashed a refugee crisis all over the country and especially in its capital. Every school here in Tbilisi is jammed with civilians who fled aerial bombardment and shootings by the Russian military—or massacres, looting, and arson by irregular Cossack paramilitary units swarming across the border. Russia has seized and effectively annexed two breakaway Georgian provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It has also invaded the region of Gori, which unlike them had been under Georgia’s control. Gori is in the center of the country, just an hour’s drive from Tbilisi; 90 percent of its citizens have fled, and the tiny remainder live amid a violent mayhem overseen by Russian occupation forces that, despite Moscow’s claims to the contrary, are not yet withdrawing.
On Monday, I visited one of the schools transformed into refugee housing in the center of Tbilisi and spoke to four women—Lia, Nana, Diana, and Maya—who had fled with their children from a cluster of small villages just outside the city of Gori. “We left the cattle,” Lia said. “We left the house. We left everything and came on foot because to stay there was impossible.” Diana’s account: “They are burning the houses. From most of the houses they are taking everything. They are stealing everything, even such things as toothbrushes and toilets. They are taking the toilets. Imagine. They are taking broken refrigerators.” And Nana: “We are so heartbroken. I don’t know what to say or even think. Our whole lives we were working to save something, and one day we lost everything. Now I have to start everything from the very beginning.”
Seven families were living cheek by jowl inside a single classroom, sleeping on makeshift beds made of desks pushed together. Small children played with donated toys; at times, their infant siblings cried. Everyone looked haggard and beaten down, but food was available and the smell wasn’t bad. They could wash, and the air conditioning worked.
“There was a bomb in the garden and all the apples on the trees fell down,” Lia remembered. “The wall fell down. All the windows were destroyed. And now there is nothing left because of the fire.”
“Did you actually see any Russians,” I said, “or did you leave before they got there?”
“They came and asked us for wine, but first we had to drink it ourselves to show that it was not poisoned. Then they drank the wine themselves. And then they said to leave this place as soon as possible; otherwise they would kill us. The Russians were looking for anyone who had soldiers in their home. If anyone had a Georgian soldier at home they burned the houses immediately.”
Her husband had remained behind and arrived in Tbilisi shortly before I did. “He was trying to keep the house and the fields,” she explained. “Afterward, he wanted to leave, but he was circled by soldiers. It was impossible. He was in the orchards hiding from the Russians in case they lit the house. He was walking and met the Russian soldiers and he made up his mind that he couldn’t stay any more. The Russian soldiers called him and asked where he was going, if he was going to the American side.”
“The Russians said this to him?” I said.
“My husband said he was going to see his family,” she said. “And the Russians said again, ‘Are you going to the American side?’”
“So the Russians view you as the American side, even though there are no Americans here.”
“Yes,” she said. “Because our way is for democracy.”
Senator John McCain may have overstated things a bit when, shortly after the war started, he said, “We are all Georgians now.” But apparently even rank-and-file Russian soldiers view the Georgians and Americans as allies. Likewise, these simple Georgian country women seem to understand who their friends and enemies are. “I am very thankful to the West,” Maya said as her eyes welled up with tears. “They support us so much. We thought we were alone. I am so thankful for the support we have from the United States and from the West. The support is very important for us.” She tried hard to maintain her dignity and not cry in front of me, a foreign reporter in fresh clothes and carrying an expensive camera. “The West saved the capital. They were moving to Tbilisi. There was one night that was very dangerous. The Russian tanks were very close to the capital. I don’t know what happened, but they moved the tanks back.” And my translator, whose husband works for Georgia’s ministry of foreign affairs, made a similar guess that the West helped save the capital. “The night they came close to Tbilisi,” she said, “Bush and McCain made their strongest speeches yet. The Russians seemed to back down. Bush and McCain have been very good for us.”
Likewise, the women seemed to understand what Russian imperialism has always been about—and not just during the Soviet era. “Why do you think the Russians are doing this in your village?” I said.
“They want our territories,” Nana said. “Some of them are Ossetians, too, not only Russians, and not only soldiers. Some are there just to steal things, from Ossetia and Chechnya.”
Russia doesn’t want to annex Gori permanently, in all likelihood. But it does want, as it always has, a buffer zone between itself and its enemies. It was George F. Kennan, America’s ambassador to the Soviet Union, who said, “Russia can have at its borders only enemies or vassals.” Now, Georgia has been all but dismembered. The opening phase of this crisis may soon come to a close, but it is shaping up to be merely the first chapter in a potentially long and dangerous era. “We will never forget this,” Lia said. “Never. Ever.”
Gaawwwwd!
And to think we have been getting reports that we gave the Georgian army old equipment and vintage LAW’s and Redeyes.
I cannot believe this s***t! We should at least be sending them our latest Stingers and Javelins. We did it for the frickin’ Mujahedeen in the eighties.
Instead we trot out Condi to shake her finger and engage in “diplomacy.”
Ronaldus Magnus must be spinning.
Prayers for Georgia!
Russian scum.
Don’t worry; they’ll get the latest stuff now. However, don’t despise the LAW; it can take out a PT-76 and a BMP, and that’s most of what Russia is using.
I hate to bust your bubble but in my dog-eared copy of Robert Pisor’s 1982 classic “The End of the Line: The Siege of Khe Sanh” in the part about the infamous NVA assault on the Lang Vei Special Forces camp there is the passage on page 171:
“Colonel Schungel knelt in the middle of the camp, with green tracers from enemy machine guns criss-crossing the ground in front of him, and wildly-swinging parachute flares overhead [a lighting effect spookily captured in the movie “Platoon”, to give credit where credit is due], and fired a LAW at the lead tank. The shell hit in a great shower of orange sparks, but the tank kept rolling. He moved closer with another LAW, but this time the disposable launcher refused to fire. Now he was close enough to roll hand grenades into the tank’s treads, and to fire his rifle into the eyeslits. The tank kept rolling. Another team hit one North Vietnamese tank nine times with the shoulder-fired LAW rockets, and the tank kept rolling.”
The LAW couldn’t do the job during its supposed heyday on a tank so lightly armored it could float.
I don’t actually know if that’s what we supplied the Georgians with, and I have not actually seen the photographs of dead Georgian soldiers wearing and holding outdated U.S. gear that the article referred to but, if true, this smacks of utter pusillanimity on the part of GWB.
Again, Pooty is an enemy refreshingly familiar to us westerners. his nuclear chest-thumping is obvious twaddle. He’s an old-fashioned crook, he does not want to get blowed up real good. He wants wealth, power, prestige, and time to plow his recently acquired 24 year-old gymnast 2nd wife.
KGB thug turned puppet master Putin seems to want to return to a lot of old Russia. He sure has shut down domestic freedom and is becoming much more aggressive in foreign policy. Thankfully our President must have seen this coming when he looked into Putin’s soul.
Those Cossack "peacekeepers" again.
You got it , LAW, Light anti tank weapon. Even though the sheridan was light armor it used false shielding to help detonate API before reaching the hull. A heavy armor tank with auxilary armor packed on top takes one hell of a shell to stop.
Alas, he made mistakes too.
Recent campaign commentaries have reminded us that Ronaldus Magnus’ decision to send the Marines to Beirut, in inadequate numbers, with an undefined mission (ostensibly to bail out the Palestinians—early CNN effect) that McCain voted against, was an easily forseeable disaster.
Well, nobodys perfect, cept Obama!
mark for later
What has prevented the Russians from taking Tbilisi?? Is there a line in the sand and who drew it?
“The Russians said this to him?” I said.
“My husband said he was going to see his family,” she said. “And the Russians said again, ‘Are you going to the American side?’”
“So the Russians view you as the American side, even though there are no Americans here.”
“Yes,” she said. “Because our way is for democracy.”
It is really going to be a bad thing if we abandon them. It is obvious that it isn't really Georgia the Russians are attacking in spirit.
Primarily the two river gorges their tanks have too drive through to get into the town from the northwest. They could approach from the southeast and southern direction rather easily, but that movement would be spotted. The main factor that stopped them probably was the 5 Presidents from Eastern Europe. Russia was not quite ready for war there at this time. Perhaps they will be in a month or two. Since Russia could not finish their initial end game, they have been stalled and are playing a middle game. Using the Free Georgians in Tbilisi as hostages. IMHO. Unfortunately, they could tire of the middle game and finish the way they wanted to finish anytime now. The west seems to only have pawns on the board at present.
That is pawns in the literary sense, not the chess sense.
Primarily the two river gorges their tanks have too drive through to get into the town from the northwest.
There is a paved road from the northwest that comes right into Tbilisi.
The main factor that stopped them probably was the 5 Presidents from Eastern Europe.
The five Presidents have come and gone.
Russia was not quite ready for war there at this time.
I believe Russia does have the troop strength and the equipment to drive into town and take Saakasvili.
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