Both rhetoric and actions seem remarkably similar to Serb efforts in Kosovo '98-'99. Then, the world was up in arms and NATO decided to bomb Belgrade due to 'excessive and unreasonable use of force'.

What's the betting NATO doesn't launch airstrikes against the Georgian capital Tbilisi? What's the betting they actually support the Georgian operations?

Originally Posted by The Telegraph, 8 August 2008

Georgia pounds Russian-backed rebels in The Caucasus



The Caucasus are on the brink of war after Georgian troops launched a full-scale military assault against Russian-backed rebels in an attempt to wrest control of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Georgian troops, backed by warplanes, pounded separatist forces on the outskirts of the South Ossetian capital hours after launching an assault on the breakaway region following a short-lived truce.

Georgian artillery shelled Tskhinvali, where government and separatists envoys had been due to meet for Russia-mediated peace talks later, and many houses were ablaze.

Russia, the main backer of the separatists who have controlled the region since a war in the early 1990s, accused Georgia of treachery and urged the world community to avert "massive bloodshed."

The crisis fuelled fears of full-blown war in the region, which is emerging as a vital energy transit route and where Russia and the West are vying for influence.


Cont/...

Originally Posted by Reuters, 8 August 2008

Georgia pounds breakaway capital

MEGVREKISI, Georgia (Reuters) - Georgia pounded the capital of its breakaway South Ossetia province with heavy weapons on Thursday after a ceasefire broke down within hours and separatists said they were under siege.

"Georgian troops are storming Tskhinvali (the capital). They are bombing the city," South Ossetia's separatist leader, Eduard Kokoity, told Russian news agencies.

A Reuters reporter saw intense fire from heavy weapons at different locations skirting Tskhinvali. The reporter heard heavy fighting coming from the direction of the city.

The night sky was lit up blue and red by explosions and Georgian forces appeared to be firing Katyusha rockets.

"We have an operation under way to neutralise separatist positions from which they are shelling Georgian villages," a senior interior ministry official told Reuters in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

Cont/...

Originally Posted by BBC, 8 August 2008

Georgia surrounds rebel capital

Georgian troops are nearing the capital of the separatist region of South Ossetia after a night of heavy shelling and air strikes on rebel positions.

Fighting around Tskhinvali resumed just hours after both sides agreed to a ceasefire and Russian-mediated talks.

Georgia says its aim is to finish "a criminal regime" and restore order.

An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council failed to agree on a Russian statement calling on both sides to renounce the use of force.

Cont/...

Nice photo

Originally Posted by whitecity

Both rhetoric and actions seem remarkably similar to Serb efforts in Kosovo '98-'99. Then, the world was up in arms and NATO decided to bomb Belgrade due to 'excessive and unreasonable use of force'.

Nothing like mate

Originally Posted by whitecity

What's the betting NATO doesn't launch airstrikes against the Georgian capital Tbilisi?

Why would NATO fight Russias battles for them?

Originally Posted by whitecity

What's the betting they actually support the Georgian operations?

Well as I see it they are putting down an uprising in there own backyard, why wouldnt we support that?

And now, from AP newswire:

Georgia announces full military mobilization

TBILISI, Georgia - Georgia's president is announcing a full military mobilization as Georgian troops have moved to regain control over the separatist province of South Ossetia.

Mikhail Saakasvhili says in a televized statement that his government will be calling up reservists as fighting is continuing to rage in South Ossetia's capital.

The move comes as the United Nations Security Council failed to agree early Friday morning on a statement drafted by Russia that would have called on Georgia and its separatist region in South Ossetia to immediately put down their arms.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/...outh_ossetia_7

For septic stories read Washington Post or Wall Street Journal

Originally Posted by Mali

Originally Posted by whitecity

What's the betting they actually support the Georgian operations?

Well as I see it they are putting down an uprising in there own backyard, why wouldnt we support that?

Why not support the uprising as NATO did in Kosovo?

Makes me wish I was young enough to volunteer. All those mint juleps, Southern belles, all talking like Scarlett O'Hara and the balmy Georgian nights. Can't understand why Russia can get away with attacking part of the USA though.

Originally Posted by old_fat_and_hairy

Makes me wish I was young enough to volunteer. All those mint juleps, Southern belles, all talking like Scarlett O'Hara and the balmy Georgian nights. Can't understand why Russia can get away with attacking part of the USA though.

It would certainly prove interesting if the CIA made another map error (al la Chinese embassy 1999) and bombed Atlanta instead of Tbilisi...

Originally Posted by whitecity

Originally Posted by Mali

Originally Posted by whitecity

What's the betting they actually support the Georgian operations?

Well as I see it they are putting down an uprising in there own backyard, why wouldnt we support that?

Why not support the uprising as NATO did in Kosovo?

I dont think the Georgians have been ethnically cleansing (read murdering thousands) the seperatists over the previous 5 years as the Serbs were doing to the muslims and Croats of Croatia, Bosnia Hercegovina and Kosovo.

Originally Posted by Press Association

Army moves to retake South Ossetia

Georgia government troops launched a major offensive to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia with fighting raging on the outskirts of the separatist capital.

The separatist officials in South Ossetia said that 15 civilians had been killed in the fighting overnight after Georgia attacked with aircraft and heavy artillery. Many buildings in the regional capital, Tskhinvali, were on fire.

The fighting in South Ossetia raised fears of an all-out war that could draw in Russia, which has peacekeepers in the region and developed close ties with South Ossetia's separatist leadership.

General Mamuka Kurashvili, a Georgian military officer in charge of operations in the region, said on Rustavi 2 television that the Georgian forces moved to "establish a constitutional order in the region."

Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili has pledged to restore Tbilisi's rule over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Both regions have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and built up ties with Moscow. Most residents of the province have Russian passports.

Georgian units had almost surrounded Tskhinvali, the rebel capital, and had taken five villages in the separatist-held region, Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili told a Tbilisi television station.

The Russian Interfax news agency and Georgian Rustavi 2 television said that the Georgian forces reached the outskirts of the city.

If Georgian claims of seizing ground are true, the assault would mark a major expansion of the government's foothold in the breakaway region. Yakobashvili said Georgian officials were doing everything they could to avoid casualties and the destruction of property.

But Boris Chochiyev, a minister in the South Ossetian government, said that Georgian troops shelled the centre of Tskhinvali with truck-launched missiles. Chochiyev asked the Russian government to defend South Ossetians, most of whom hold Russian passports, from what he called aggression.

The Russian government blamed Georgia for the fighting, and called on Tbilisi to commit itself to peaceful resolution of the conflict.

My bold.

This could set a couple of precedents. First, Serbia could use this "(re-establishment) of constitutional order" to justify a military move into Kosovo. Second, if Serbia did that, NATO would be compelled to act against Serbia, thus providing an excuse for Russia to move against Georgia.

Hmmmm!

Originally Posted by whitecity

My bold.

This could set a couple of precedents. First, Serbia could use this "(re-establishment) of constitutional order" to justify a military move into Kosovo. Second, if Serbia did that, NATO would be compelled to act against Serbia, thus providing an excuse for Russia to move against Georgia.

Hmmmm!

Fair point, legally NATO was wrong to support Kosovo as it is a part of Serbia and within there constitutional borders etc etc.

They should have intervened much earlier whilst the serbs where causing mayhem in Bosnia for example.