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Russia apparently is sabotaging airfields and other military infrastructure in Georgia as its forces pull back, in a deliberate attempt to cripple the already battered, U.S.-trained Georgian military, a U.S. official said Thursday. AP Story, check the link for details.

POLICE in the Russian-backed rebel province of South Ossetia have executed two "pillagers" in a bid to restore order, Interfax news agency quoted a top official as saying today after attacks on Georgian homes. "In recent days there have been several instances of pillaging ... Yesterday our police executed two pillagers on the scene," Boris Chochiyev, a minister in the South Ossetian rebel government, was quoted as saying. "Today we plan to be tougher in addressing this problem," he added. Both sides in the conflict over South Ossetia have made accusations of ethnic cleansing and attacks on civilians although there...

<p>Deliberate attempts by the Russian government to exaggerate the number of people killed in the South Ossetia conflict are provoking revenge attacks on Georgian villagers in the breakaway republic, a respected human rights group claimed today.</p> <p>Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch (HRW), who is leading a team investigating the humanitarian damage in South Ossetia, told the Guardian that Russian estimates of 2,000 dead in the conflict were "suspicious".</p>

Energy: Russia's bloody invasion of a smaller neighbor whose territory includes a vital oil pipeline has left many people wondering: What can we do? Plenty, it turns out — including some things right here at home.Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced he was halting Russia's air and ground attack on Georgia, but someone forgot to tell Russia's military. It has continued its brutal assault, with news reports that Russian troops have started looting, raping and savagely attacking Georgian civilians. It's clear former President Vladimir Putin, not his handpicked successor Medvedev, is calling the shots. Putin's made no secret of the fact...

OK, i have uploaded most of the photos, you download and unrar. http://rapidshare.com/files/137154786/georgiaPics.rar.html

Author of these photoes was journalist riding with Russian army. Pictures are of EXTREME graphic content. There fore, I will just post link and not hotlink them. I hate war. http://www.navoine.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?p=551

Quarter of Russians blame U.S. for conflict - poll 13 Aug 2008 18:47:42 GMT Source: Reuters MOSCOW, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Russians blame the United States and Georgia for triggering the conflict in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, with just one percent pointing the finger at Moscow, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday. When asked who was guilty for the conflict in South Ossetia, 54 percent of those polled blamed Georgia and another 22 percent blamed the United States, a survey carried out by Russia's largest pollsters VTsIOM showed. A further 12 percent said Russia, South Ossetia and Georgia...

Quite interesting discussion between more sane Left with less sane (some would say insane) Left. Leon Wieseltier does include some obligatory jibes at Bush/Chaney but otherwise provides a compelling argument  against reflexive blame Bush, "America made them do it" reaction of the crazy Left. Don't miss some interesting insights by a poster teplukhin2you down in the discussion area (at the TNR) on what might motivate Putin and his band of thugs.Excerpts and highlights are mine. Follow the link to the complete article.  ... My colleague John Judis has flabbergasted me with something he posted on these pages a few hours...

<p>Weeks before bombs started falling on Georgia, a security researcher in suburban Massachusetts was watching an attack against the country in cyberspace.</p> <p>Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks in Lexington noticed a stream of data directed at Georgian government sites containing the message: “win+love+in+Rusia.”</p>

The Kremlin's decision today to call a halt to its five-day assault on Georgia leaves Russia calling the shots in the energy-rich Black Sea littoral and Caspian basin. (Snip...) Nato and the EU The Russians see the Caucasus test as a zero-sum game and have won. That means lose-lose for the west. A key objective for Putin was to destabilise Georgia to invalidate its aim of joining Nato. He may have succeeded. The Americans suffered a rare defeat in April at a Nato summit when George Bush argued strongly for starting Georgia towards alliance membership and was defeated by Angela...

GORI, Georgia — On the day that Russia declared an end to its war in Georgia, Jumberi, a taxi driver who gave only his first name, took a long drag on a Marlboro Red cigarette and said that after the first bomb hit, all he saw was body parts. He motioned to the shattered windshield of his Toyota Corolla and the bloody handprints on the side of the car — left there when the wounded and dying collapsed as they begged him to take them to the hospital. "I heard the sound of the jets, but I did not see...

Here is video of the President of Georgia speaking today and referencing Sen. John McCain's statement to Americans, "We are all Georgians today." As you will hear, the crowd roared it's approval when McCain's statement was mentioned. John McCain is clearly the man to lead America in a crisis such as this. . .

The cost of Georgia's ill-fated adventure against Vladimir Putin was beginning to sink in. Many blamed Georgia's president Mikhail Saakashvili — querying why he had taken on mighty Moscow given Georgia's military inferiority and the improbability of US intervention. "Saakashvili has to resign. There is no other way," Misha Iashvili said, stopping to mend his truck next to a roadside café. Its owners had gone, locking up and leaving behind their neat dahlia garden. He added: "Russia had been close to us for years. It will defend us. The US and Europe won't." By this afternoon the Russian ceasefire appeared...

Taking time from his gold while on vacation in Hawaii, Barack Obama spake unto the media, and the Russians and Georgians heard his eloquence and repented of their sins: "I reiterate my call for Russia to stop its bombing campaign, to stop flights of Russian aircraft in Georgian airspace, and to withdraw its ground forces from Georgia. The Georgian government has proposed a cease-fire and the Russian government should accept it. There is also an urgent need for humanitarian assistance to reach the people of Georgia, and casualties on both sides." The Governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, proclaimed our salvation...

Michale J. Totten: If you want some solid background reading about the hell that broke loose in Georgia a few days ago, take a look at this dispatch by Joshua Kucera from South Ossetia that Slate published a few months ago. You’ll learn a lot more reading that than you will from wire agency reports that focus mostly on tank movements and body counts TSKHINVALI, South Ossetia—The first time I enter Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, the hotel staff immediately calls the police. They tell me that no one can process my journalist accreditation until Wednesday. It is a...

TBILISI (Reuters) - At least 150,000 Georgians cheered President Mikheil Saakashvili on Tuesday as he vowed to one day punish Russia for launching the biggest military attack on Georgia since it split from its giant neighbor. Russia blames Saakashvili for starting the war over the breakaway region of South Ossetia on August 7 but there was no hint of internal dissent in Tbilisi, where even the normally critical opposition have strongly backed the president. People streamed down the side streets to see their president. Flanked by bodyguards, Saakashvili arrived about an hour after the start of the rally to applause...

I wonder is there the slimmest of chance to see millions of exalted young people passionately marching for peace in Georgia… It shouldn't be too much of an effort. All they have to do is brush the dust off from the "not in our name", "no blood for oil", "war is not the answer", etc placards, paste Vladimir Putin’s and Dmitri Medvedev’s faces over Bush’s or Blair’s on the "worst ever", "mass murderer" and "real terrorist" placards and voila! ready to march for peace. Preferably in millions, preferably in Moscow, to ram the message through to Putin and Medvedev. I...

Given the cutthroat politics Moscow has practiced at home and abroad in recent years -- with only the softest protests from the U.S. and its allies -- no one should be surprised by Russia's decision to conquer the two breakaway regions of Georgia. Nevertheless, it should once and for all disabuse policy makers in Washington and Brussels of hopes that Russia intends to become part of the post-Cold War condominium of democratic peace in Europe. The point of the Kremlin's invasion of Georgia, which now threatens the capital city of Tbilisi, is to demonstrate to the world how impotent that...

The farther Russia's tanks roll into Georgia, the more the world is beginning to see the reality of Vladimir Putin's Napoleonic ambitions. Having consolidated his authoritarian transition as Prime Minister with a figurehead President, Mr. Putin is now pushing to reassert Russian dominance in Eurasia. Ukraine is in his sights, and even the Baltic states could be threatened if he's allowed to get away with it. The West needs to draw a line at Georgia. No matter who fired the first shot last week in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, Moscow is using the separatist issue as an...

RUSSIAN “TANDEMOCRACY” STUMBLES INTO A WAR By Pavel K. Baev Monday, August 11, 2008 Moscow was disconcertingly taken by surprise with the sharp escalation of hostilities in South Ossetia last Friday. The most apparent part of the problem was the lack of leadership, as President Dmitry Medvedev departed to a Volga resort and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin went to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The greater problem was the serious military and political miscalculations that had resulted in the apparently chaotic emergency decision-making (Kommersant, August 9; Ezhednevny zhurnal, August 8). It is hard to...