Perspective from an American civilian living in S Ossetia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRl3qArJO-o

He's being interviewed by Russia Today. His wife is S Ossetian. He says Georgia attacked first and blames Saakashvili and Bush** for the conflict and resulting civilian deaths and devastation.

Goes with this article from Prison Planet: Georgia Attacks: Civilian Genocide, Dead Americans Cost Of U.S.-Russia Proxy War

That doesn't make it so. I'm keeping an open mind about it and this guy is probably not being paid to give his story.

Quoting Bush blaming them:

Mr. Bush, little more than an hour after returning to Washington from the Olympic Games in Beijing, bluntly warned Russia that its military operations were damaging its reputation and were “unacceptable in the 21st century.”

“Russia’s actions this week have raised serious questions about its intent in Georgia and the region,” he said. “These actions have substantially damaged Russia’s standing in the world, and these actions jeopardize relations with the United States and Europe.”

......


But the problem has become the response: Russia has now pushed back hard, and the United States, bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan and fretting about Iran, is unlikely to take on Russia over the matter of Georgia. Russia has shown that it wants to rule its own backyard, said Mr. Friedman of Stratfor.

“All this basically means that Russia emerges as a great power,” Mr. Friedman said. “Not a global power like it used to be, but a power that has to be taken very seriously.”

Reporting was contributed by Marc Santora from the United Nations, Steven Lee Myers from Washington, and C. J. Chivers.


Russia would not have had to push back hard, if there were not any action by Georgis.

I believe their track record for fair and balanced reporting is not exactly unblemished

arming the Georgians for years and there's probably reason to believe our mercanaries are involved, too, (mainly, probably to guard the pipeline) but I'm not buying the idea this whole thing is going according to their nefarious plans. It looks to me like a full-on disaster for Western interests.

It's looking like the Russians are going to move right on to Tbilisi and set up their own governmet.

If the object was just "to achieve maximum civilian casualties" in Tskhinvali, mission accomplished, but Tbilisi is going to wind up in Russian hands so what was the point?

"A humanitarian disaster rather than a military victory was an integral part of the scenario. The objective was to destroy the provincial capital, while also inflicting a significant loss of human life."

OK, but that sounds more like a page out of Vlad's playbook. Remember the 100,000 or so he killed in Chechnya and the complete and utter destruction of Grozny?

Joe Mestas says, "George Bush and Mikhail Saakashvili should answer to the crimes that are being committed – the killing of innocent people, running over by tanks of children and women, throwing grenades into cellars where people are hiding."

(Did he actually see Georgian sodiers throwing grenades into cellars? Isn't this one of Russia's talking points verbatim?)

Anyway, the Russians are hardly the innocnt victims here of a corporate media campaign. I say W. should stand trial for Iraq, but Vlad gets to go first for Grozny.

As far as was this being "a deliberate provocation intended to trigger a Russian military response and suck the Russians into a broader military confrontation with Georgia (and allied forces) which could potentially escalate into an all out war," I'd say no.

We don't have an army any more and I don't see us pushing on to Moscow with air power alone. The ultimate successful outcome of a war with Russia would be regime change in Moscow, right?

I'm not sure what's going on over there, no one but the Powers That Be really do, but this whole scenario seems a little far fetched and me thinks is verging into tinhat territory.

The US/NATO had to know what Russia's response would be to such a bloody and indiscriminate attack by Georgia on S Ossetia. Maybe they were betting on it. With the press behind them, they could (and are) painting Russia as the sole aggressor. What better fodder to advance US military expansion in the area? Lots of money to be made in that line these days.

Plausible? Yes. Fact? Hell if I know.

Georgia, Israel and the USA are the aggressors that initially caused several thousand civilian casualties in Ossetia and forced the Russian response.

And all this taking place under the media cover of the Olympics and at the same time we are massing a naval blockade of Iran.

These are not random coincidental happenings.