A little bit of clarity on the situation in Georgia.

[ja_va]

First, I think some history is needed

Comments

[ja_va]

think about the shit that would hit the fan if it were US citizens who had been killed.

Exactly my point.

[ja_va]

Both, actually.
National self determination is a very slippery slope, of course. But what I am mostly amazed at is the US reaction. I tried many times to defend US position when arguing with Russian people, but now I do not think I can stand a chance, next time no one will buy that the United States really cares about "other nations prosperity and peace", and not just blatantly protects its own interests.

[ja_va]

lol

[thewordsihate]

What about Chechnya? Isn't it the case that everyone's a hypocrite?

[ja_va]

Chechnya is different.
I would gladly agree to giving Chechnya independence if not for one small problem- it was on the way of becoming extreme muslim state, nothern Afganistan, if you will. I could bet that within months there'd be terrorist training camps on its soil and safe refuge for Taliban leaders. Chechen separatist never made a secret that they want to creat a fundumentalist muslim government with all the strict rules, AND spread it over the region, inflaming all of Caucaus. What these people are capable of I think was well demonstrated when they took children hostage on a first day of school in Beslan, with hundreds of them being slaughtered as a result.

However, US government supported Chechen self determination, and did not see any problem with preserving Russia's sovereignity. Now suddenly Georgia's sovereignity is so much more important...

[to_biased]

Bombing Chechnya didn't solve the Muslim terrorism/separationism problem though. If anything, it probably made it worse (see Beslan).

[ja_va]

I agree, the situation was a mess, and Russia did not handle it very well.

[deamk]

Saakashvili - a second Hitler. Do you not see, blind?

[phamos818]

I was under the impression that ONTD_political was supposed to contain articles and stuff, not random editorial opinions of various LJ-ers. One-sentence quotes from BBC articles don't seem to fit the bill, IMHO. I appreciate this take on the subject; I even agree with some of it. But there are better forums for it. This post is trying to position itself as the One Tru Fax about the war in South Ossetia, which it isn't. I think watching how the situation progresses over the next few days will give a better indication of whether Russia is content to protect the self-determination of the two regions, or if there might be some other strategic motivations going on here. And I look forward to reading actual articles about these developments along with the reactions of community members in the comments. OK, I'm done whining now.

[7950]

many people know so little about this that anything less than an unbiased presentation of fact is going to influence their opinion deeply...that was our problem with Iraq, too.

Mod Note

[bluetooth16]

I agree with you that the post is slanted. However, it was approved because it provides background information on a situation not everyone is familiar with. In addition, we tend to be more lenient on international stories because it's harder for us to fact check. If this post was based off of some random blog entry, we would have rejected it.

Re: Mod Note

[phamos818]

OK, thanks, I appreciate your take on that. I just feel a little bit like giving individual members the ability to provide "background information" as though they were authorities simply on the basis of ethnicity or nationality might open a nasty can of worms. I totally understand your perspective, though, so I will stop being a backseat mod. :)