1) Trading the Chinese power for Walmart Spatulas.
2) Allowing fund managers priority over real workers.
3) Illegal immigration. With the word Illegal being emphasized.
4) Wondering why foreign religious states don't want the Paris Hilton , Brittany Spears westernization of their country. (we need to clean up our act)
5) Trusting and empowering of the countries whose stated agenda is still th overthrow of the US. (see #1)
All of it to me is the constant demoralization of the nation. The sacrifice of principals that made this nation great. Its hard to watch.
By KIM GAMEL | Associated Press Writer
12:52 PM EDT, August 10, 2008
BAGHDAD (AP) _ The U.S. military began flying 2,000 Georgian troops home from Iraq on Sunday, military officials said, after the Georgians recalled the soldiers following the outbreak of fighting with Russia in the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
The decision was a timely payback for the former Soviet republic that has been a staunch U.S. supporter and agreed to send troops to Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition.
Georgia was the third-largest contributor of coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain, and most of its troops were stationed near the Iranian border in southeastern Iraq.
The U.S. military has played down concerns about the redeployment, saying it may have "some impact" in the near term but no significant long-term effect on Iraq's security.
"We want to thank them for the great support they've given the coalition and we wish them well," military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll said earlier Sunday at a news conference.
Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, had asked the U.S. military on Friday to provide transportation.
"We are supporting the Georgian military units that are in Iraq in their redeployment to Georgia so that they can support requirements there during the current security situation," said Col. Jerry O'Hara, another military spokesman in Baghdad. "Flights have in fact begun today and Georgian forces are redeploying."
He declined to disclose flight details. But another senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said the military would fly the troops back "to the republic of Georgia.
The officials also said American units had been shuffled in their area of responsibility to compensate for the departure of the Georgians.
O'Hara said that even though the loss of forces was unexpected, "we can and are accommodating the changes."
Most Georgian troops moved last year from the relatively safe Green Zone in Baghdad to an area southeast of the capital to help interdict supplies allegedly being smuggled to Shiite extremists from Iran. More than 100 remained in Baghdad to help secure the Green Zone.
At least five Georgians soldiers have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Some Iraqis welcomed the Georgian withdrawal, saying they're tired of the presence of U.S-led foreign troops.
"God willing, not only the Georgian forces will withdraw but all other troops will leave our country and security and stability will come back to our land," Baghdad resident Ghada Adnan told Associated Press Television News.
Georgia, whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, began an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight Friday, launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes.
In response, Russia, which has granted passports to most South Ossetians, began overwhelming bombing and shelling attacks against Georgia and Georgian troops.
And of course the systematic removal of God from our public life.
Georgia appeals for help over Russia "invasion"
By Matt Robinson
TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia appealed for international intervention on Monday and pulled its battered forces back to defend the capital, as Russian troops moved further into its territory, ignoring Western pleas to halt.
You have to love that "invasion" in quotes. Like it might be an invasion, or it's a so-called invasion, but really just a normal everyday international activity of Russians driving tanks all over their neighbors countries! LOL. They are such wrong headed leftists at Reuters. The article continues:
"The Georgian army is retreating to defend the capital. The Government is urgently seeking international intervention to prevent the fall of Georgia," a Georgian statement said.
Moscow snubbed a plea from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial powers for a ceasefire. It said Georgia had not kept a promise to halt fighting and was shelling the Russian-held region of South Ossetia where the conflict began last Thursday.
SNUB! A great word. Putin to USA: Screw you! USA to Putin: please stop that. Putin to USA: No! Pound Sand. I'll show you Geeorgia in NATO, right here Bush, right here!!
A Reuters witness saw Georgian helicopter gunships bombing targets near the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, sending dark smoke billowing into the air. A second reporter heard heavy artillery bombardments on the road north of the wrecked town.
Reuters can find Georgians doing things, but not Russians apparently!
Moscow appeared in no mood to compromise, opening a second front in the fighting by moving troops out of Abkhazia in the west and taking the Georgian town of Senaki, though Russian officials earlier said they did not intend to occupy territory beyond the two separatist areas of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A senior Georgian official later claimed that Russian troops had seized the Georgian town of Gori, some 40 km (25 miles) from South Ossetia. Moscow denied that report and a Reuters correspondent said no troops were visible in Gori's streets. The correspondent said a column of Georgian military trucks was visible on the highway moving out of Gori eastwards towards the capital Tbilisi.
Follows, the attempt at an even handed summary.
The simmering conflict erupted last Thursday when Georgia suddenly sent forces to retake South Ossetia, which threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s and declared itself independent, albeit without international recognition.
Moscow responded with a counter-attack by its vastly bigger forces that drove Georgian troops out of the devastated South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on Sunday. Russia says 1,600 people have been killed in the fighting and thousands more are homeless but these figures are not independently verifiable.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he had agreed to a plan proposed by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Monday under which hostilities would end, a mixed peacekeeping force would be deployed and troops would return to pre-conflict positions.
Women and children wept in the streets of Tskhinvali on Monday as they surveyed the destruction amid continued Georgian shelling. Russian troops distributed water and food from trucks.
Ah yes, eveil Georgians shelling woman and children, virtuous Red Army soldiers handing out food.., ok, I think I've got the plot now ...
One elderly resident told Reuters how she sheltered in a cellar with her 7-year-old grandson during the bombardment.
"My grandson screamed: 'Uncle Putin please help us, help us so that the Georgians don't kill me !'. They were screaming and crying it was terrible, a nightmare," she said.
"Thank God the Russians have come. It is getting better."
Honesty, I did NOT make this up!! This is really their version of things!! Amazing!!
CONFLICTING CLAIMS Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has taken a leading role in the crisis, attacked the United States for helping Georgia fly home troops from Iraq and said the West was mistaking the aggressors for victims in the conflict -- a reference to strong Western support for Georgia.
Putin mocked the support given by the West to Saakashvili, comparing him to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was hanged in 2006 for executing Shiites.
"They (the Americans) of course had to hang Saddam Hussein for destroying several Shiite villages," Putin said.
"But the current Georgian rulers who in one hour simply wiped 10 Ossetian villages from the face of the earth, the Georgian rulers which used tanks to run over children and the elderly, which threw civilians into cellars and burnt them -- they (Georgian leaders) are players that have to be protected."
Al Reuters attributes these comments directly to Putin. If true I think it is fair to say he has moved from slight pain in the ass to full scale serious enemy. Seems he is still smarting over the loss of his buddy Saddam?? Three paragraphs of financial news follow on the Russian stock echange then they close with this:
A Georgian government source said on Sunday 130 Georgian civilians and military personnel had been killed and 1,165 wounded, many because of Russian bombing inside Georgia. Russia denies hitting civilian targets.
A very small line or two at the very end giving the Georgian side of things, of course giving the final counter argument to the Russian.
Pretty clear who Reuters is aligned with on this one.