I esteemed that you write and it is glad that in Australia too there are thinking and clever people!
I hope that my references have above helped you to receive more information on the Georgian atrocities in South Ossetia.
I shall tell one - I was in due time in Abkhazia and Georgia as the tourist is ïðåêðñíàÿ the country and very good people.
And Saakashvili simply new Hitler...
By the way today on CNN interrogation " was That occurs in Georgia "
For the answer - " Russian peace-making forces protect the population of South Ossetia " has voted 83 %!
Interrogation last equally day and has voted in it about 360000 people!

The saying is that "war is hell". William Tecumseh Sherman, it is claimed, certainly made it so, while he was marching through Georgia.

Hurrah, hurrah,
Who brings the jubilee?
Hurrah, hurrah,
Good or bad for you and me?
I wonder who will win this one,
and what that all will mean,
While they are marching through Georgia.

Joe Stalin came from Georgia originally, didn't he? Are old scores being settled? I guess we shouldn't rush to judgement, just refer the matter to the IOC so they can smack Vladimir Putin for desecrating the Games, with the threat of stripping the Russkies of any medals earned if they don't stop it at once! Yes, by Georgia, that's what should be done!

Will General Shallikashvili be brought out of retirement, I wonder, to head up the Reconstruction Commission? And how can one get to be a carpetbagger, in Georgia? A slick. oily, greasy carpetbagger.

Perhaps a realistic assessment of the situation:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,571680,00.html.

George,

I think der Spiegel is, as usual, right on the money.

Going further, though, the Europeans are heavily dependent on Russia for gas supplies. Their room for manoeuvre is limited.

The BIG danger is that Russia, overconfident after its victory in Georgia, will over-reach itself in places such as Ukraine. That is how World War 2 started. Britain and France kept accommodating Hitler until, one day, they couldn't. Then bang

But perhaps Putin and Medvedev are smart enough to read the lessons of history and refrain from starting anything that will cause a major war.It will be interesting to see whether the main EU powers increase defence expenditure after seeing Russian tanks cross an international border in Europe

RussianPatriot

I suspect you are a patriot of a soon to be extinct people.

ASymeonakis

For how long will there be South Ossetians, or Georgians, anyway?

Demographers look at the "total fertility rate" or TFR. TFR is the average lifetime number of babies a woman has. In first world countries the replacement rate TFR is 2.1 babies / woman. Anything less and the current generation fails to make enough babies to replace itself as it dies off.

All the major European countries have TFRs well below replacement rate. This may be the century in which Poles (TFR = 1.26)*, Spaniards (1.29), Italians (1.29), Hungarians (1.33), Greeks (1.35), Russians (1.39), Germans (1.40) and Georgians (1.42) become as extinct as the Hittites and Amalekites.

Of course these are average figures and hide a number of ethnic differences. In all European countries, Muslims migrants and their descendants have TFRs well in excess of replacement rate. The TFR for French-born Muslims appears to be about 2.5. For newly arrived immigrants it is even higher.

The arithmetic says it all. On current demographic trends, which includes relatively high Muslim fertility, large scale Muslim migration and native European fertility well below replacement rate, Europe will become increasingly Islamised.

My guess is the Netherlands will become the first Islamic Republic in Europe. Amsterdam and Brussels may be Muslim majority as soon as 2030.**

Will Europe's new populations even be interested in the wars the various European tribes fought among themselves?

RussianPatriot

The Russian population is declining at a rate of more than one Russian per minute.

*See: http://www.geographyiq.com/index.htm



**(See: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0412190554dec19,1,2183319.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

See also: http://www.islamicpopulation.com/index.html

Steel,

Your naivety and enthusiasm to find yourself on any side which opposes the US is unending. But it puts you in bed with a lot of truly unpleasant types.

If you had a clue you would know that the Russians are not the good guys in this situation (though neither are the Georgians). Do you even know how you feel about small autonomous regions becoming independent? For example Acheh and West Papua? Kosovo? East Timor?

.>> “One million or so Iraqis are dead because of a US invasion of a sovereign nation..”

The difference is the dozen or so UN resolutions, and the fact that the UN is cooperating with the coalition in Iraq etc. There have been no legitimate claims that the war was illegal. Only the loony-left have made this claim. And the number of Iraqi dead has been massively inflated by infighting for which the Iraqi people themselves must take responsibility.

>> “What do you think happened when NATO invaded Serbia, a sovereign nation?

NATO troops NEVER invaded Serbia. At least get that part right. They bombed Serbia to get the Serbs to stop their ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. When NATO troops under UN control marched into Kosovo they had the permission of Slobodan Milosevic. It was negotiated. The NATO forces were a peacekeeping mission. They did no war fighting. KFOR ground forces certainly did NOT go into Serbia, as the Russians have done to the Georgians. So please tell me how this is the same?

>> “It's quite obvious who is actually the international aggressor .”:

It might be obvious to a person with a loony-left political infatuation but to normal people the US is generally seen as a force for good and not as an aggressor. Just because you and a handful of your loony left mates have a problem with the US doesn’t mean there is anything edifying, truthful or universal about your claims. Only a seriously partisan observer could continue to lay the blame for Iraqi sectarian killings on the coalition