Bomb The Blogosphere: Georgia V Russia (With Apologies to Edwin Starr)

More aggression in the world as the South Ossetia war kicks off.

And, much like our international aggression there are more theories than real answers to why Georgia and/or Russia started attacking one another. Reasons include; Natural gas deposits, national border integrity for Georgia, national border integrity for Russia, protection of the Georgian people, and lastly, protection of the Russian people.

Resources, national security, perceived danger from a select few turning into an international conflict? Does any of this sound familiar to anyone but me? Vietnam? World War One? Korea? Russia's Afghanistan? Our Afghanistan? British Falkland Island War? Iraq, Round Two?

The pictures on the right are AP photos of casualties of different wars, can you pick out the civilian that was killed in the South Ossetia War? The rest are a product of American aggression. For bonus points, try to identify the conflict in which we killed the civilians.

Is anyone else upset about this?

Conflict and geopolitical maneuvering turning into more loss and destruction than we can imagine. I really have lost sight of what could possibly even justify killing on such a large scale. Body counts number around 1,600 since Aug. 9th. Fighting has been to chaotic and erratic to gain a more recent accurate number. We started a five year war over 3,000 civilian causalities, which has escalated into 4,090 troop casualties and 94,553 Iraqi casualties....It begs the question...

What is Russia willing to do in Georgia?

Our insistence on small arms proliferation and reliance on military prowess or "preemptive attacks" to solve diplomatic issues has set a dangerous precedent on the world stage. What diplomatic leverage do we have, when we are fighting our own war in a natural-resource-laden area with our leader saying that....

"The American people expect their government to take action to protect them from further attack".--American President George W. Bush. 10.5.07

Russia's president Medvedev has taken a page right out of Bush's playbook, where's the oil? In the Caspian sea. Almost 200 billion barrels, compared to Saudi Arabia's estimated 260 billion barrels. Georgia handles most of the supply, through a 1,100 mile pipeline. As much as 1% of the world demand for energy, which Russia stands to gain if this conflict goes their way. But how to justify this.....?....hmm....

"I, as the President of the Russian Federation, must protect lives and the dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are." - Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev. 8.9.08

People's mothers, sisters, brothers, girlfriends, boyfriends, grandmothers, grandfathers are all dying in more numbers that we can comprehend.

Imagine if you can a house being blown to pieces by a tank killing everyone inside. To quote one more Russian...

"One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."--Joseph Stalin

The problem is we can't imagine it. We won't, we've got our heads buried in our own crap over here.

What's for lunch?

I need to get to the dentist....

Is Britney on the TV? She's such a mess...

When do the new Family Guy DVD's come out?

How am I going to pass Spanish?

I need to replace my iPhone, the new 3G just came out.

I need to make a trip to Wal-mart.

I don't want to guilt trip anyone, I'm not trying to be morose or morbid.

But I catch myself thinking that I'm the most important thing on this earth. My feelings get hurt and I suddenly have a right to be a jerk to anyone. Or that people are going to stop and pay attention to my needs because I have a right to be upset. Others are just praying for their right to live.

If you feel powerless and upset, remember....


"All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field. " ~Albert Einstein
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