Posted on 08/20/2008 5:30:26 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
One question: When is someone going to arrange some Bear safari’s in Georgia?
The president of Estonia is home but had this to say today -
If not mistaken the LAW was our answer to the RPG.
I believe the roads run along side the rivers which are in gorges. At least that is what I saw in the videos from the region. Also appears that way on the map. The main thing about that is the tanks would have to enter in a single line with mountain walls on either side of the road/river. The worse place for tanks if they are fighting ground troops.
There are some T80 and T90 with reactive armor according to some reports. Top of the line Russian hardware. We saw a lot of images of that stuff when they first rolled into Georgia. Since then they have dispersed into the countryside and camouflaged. No need for them anyway now, there are few Georgian tank forces and only a few fortified positions remaining.
2 NJ children reunited with dad in Georgia
By GEOFF MULVIHILL – 7 minutes ago
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) — Two little girls from New Jersey have been reunited with their father after being trapped by violence in the Republic of Georgia for two weeks.
They arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi (tuh-BLEE'-see) after a six-hour ride with French Ambassador Eric Fournier. They were greeted with McDonald's Happy Meals and cake.
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.”
Two points on this one. 1) I'm very grateful that both Bush and McCain have been strong in their public speech. It doesn't make as much difference as strong action, but it does make a difference.
2) IMO it was useful in backing up the extremely inspirational action of the five Presidents, but it was the five Presidents who saved the day.
A small but very revealing item in the article: 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.”
Oh boy, what that tells us about life in Russia even in 2008! They have to steal toothbrushes. Toilets. BROKEN appliances. I thought Russia had made great strides--apparently it was only KGB and mafiya thugs (same thing) who profited. Russia remains a broken down crap hole.
Because, my son was adopted from a Georgian orphanage after being airlifted from Georgia during the last war. When the Americans and Russians came to the orphanage to get the remaining kids who were alive, they found Russian soldiers had passed through and left them food, blankets, and even their own coats.
So either Russia has REALLY lost a great deal of honor, or this group is not really an example of Russian soldiers.
Thanks, MarMema, I will try to keep that in mind when clashing with Vlad's FR trolls.
Also, I've been thinking about how horrible I felt when Clinton/Clark were committing their atrocities against Serbia, but there was nothing much I could do about it except speak out harshly on FR. I often wondered how many Serbs hated me and mine because of Clinton/Clark. I will try to keep that in mind, but it's hard to remember when the trolls come here and post such BS from Russians.
I hope you are correct in this because it would be extremely significant if Russian soldiers were actually ABLE to DECLINE to go. It would almost have to be a very large number of them to be able to get away with that. If so, it's still possible this may be resolved within Russia. I hope so.
I would think this unlikely except that they did have to recruit pensioners to fly their planes and the people on the ground certainly seem much more like a psychotic mob than a disciplined army.
The Russians are not using first rate equipment or forces in Georgia, except for some Spetsnaz units.
Good. Easier to pick off.
Bump. . .
These are probably *real* Cossacks, the Zaporizhzhya from *beyond the rapids*, that is, of the River Dnieper, who also frequently raided into Poland and into Ottoman Turkey, particularly during the Sixteenth Century, including raids on Istanbul and taking Kiev from Polish control.
See also the Wiki entrey for the town in the Ukraine settled by those old boys Zaporizhia/Aleksandrovsk. Or dust off an old copy of Mykola Gogol's novel Taras Bulba.
During Napoleon's Invasion of Russia, Cossacks were the Russian soldiers most feared by the French troops. Napoleon reportedly stated Cossacks are the best light troops among all that exist. If I had them in my army, I would go through all the world with them."
Per the Wikipedia entry: The name entered the English language via French Cosaque, which was a translation from the Polish, which was derived from the Ukrainian Kozak (In Russian, Kazak).
It is originally a Turkic word, qazaq, which means "adventurer" or "free man".
BTW: they've traditionally been used as mercenary border guards, as during the Caucasus War, both by Russians, and during the Khanate of Kazan. I wonder if they'd like a gig along our southern border....
Not a great many. Remember that it was the Serbs who helped save hundreds of American pilots and airmen from the Nazis during WWII, that Nicola Tesla was a Serbian-American, and there was a group of around a hundred Americans of Serbian descent, mostly from around the Biloxi, Mississippi area, who fought on the Serbian side.
The Serbs with whom I've crossed paths have been intelligent enough to know that it was corrupt American globalists they should direct their ire towards, not the American people. And quite a few have family members in the US, probably more of a percentage than Polish-Americans.
I also recommend that long term, if the Georgians have a 'long term that is, practice of turning Georgia into a nation of riflemen along the lines of the Swiss Schutzenfest
Every Georgian home should also have a rifle and a quantity of ammunition as a matter of law.
In very short order Georgia, while it could be invaded, would never be conquered.
L
Kontraktniki: That’s just perfect! Cossack contract ‘peacekeepers.’ My premise becomes more plausible by the month.
They might not be 100% defeated, but I’m not sure how long many Georgians would be willing to live like hunted bandits in the South Caucuses, while their main road, railroad and pipeline are severed and under Russian control. Geography just doesn’t work in the Georgians’ favor here. In no time, most Georgians (like most people, for example, the Lithuanian resistors of the late 40s and early 50s) would give up and accept domination in heated homes over freezing to death in a “forest brotherhood.”
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