why an end to NATO is a good thing

An interesting proposal was put forward by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

A future Trans-Atlantic security pact, RT gave an interesting analysis suggesting that this will in turn end NATO once and for all:



If this came through this would mean a new peace of our time breakthrough, one we haven't seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago, however since then Russia and the west haven't exactly had the best chances of being best friends or allies against each other, and the existence of NATO in a post Warsaw Pact world is a sad reminder that the west hasn't taken off it's cold war parachute pants!



From recent times close incidents that could have brought the NATO countries and the Russian Federation close to a war, two notable incidents would be:

* An incident in 1995 where Norwegian scientists in cooperation with NASA launched a two-stage rocket. This caused a Russian nuclear alert since the rocket was launched from an area where Americans subs operated and the missile had the same launch profile as the launch of a Trident SLBM.

Boris Yeltsin had ten minutes to make the decision of whether or not to authorize a nuclear launch, this was a major screw up considering lack of communications and understanding between both parties involved

* There was also the Pristina airfield incident in Kosovo in 1999, where Russian troops occupied the airfield in the wake of the war, NATO-Saceur general Clark ordered British troops to confront them and kick them out. The British commander in charge refused and stated "I am not going to start World War III for you".



The war in South Ossetia in August of 2008 which saw Russia launching an offensive against Georgia cost 2,000 people their lives (mostly Ossetian civilians murdered by the Georgian Army), the background to Georgia's war planning are much more serious considering it was planning to join NATO (Georgia is not near the North Atlantic, neither is Afghanistan but I guess that doesn't matter), it had been supplied with military hardware by 15 countries just before that war!

From NATO countries the Georgian Army received about:

* 300 APC's from the NATO countries
* 100 tanks
* 67 artillery pieces
* 99 mortars
* 150 anti tank systems
* 200 portable anti aircraft units

* The French Air Force had been prepared to deliver four Mirage fighters
* The Americans were to supply 15 Black Hawk helicopters

The Ukraine supplied a further 90 APC's, their extremist leader Yushchenko has been opting to join NATO but has since been vetoed (from more responsible European countries), so has Georgia which is good since NATO isn't aligning itself with fascists!



That being said NATO has gone too far, the arms business does make strange bed partners and the donor countries of these arms can't be blamed for the damage caused, but with extremists in power from former Soviet countries in eastern Europe could lead Russia and Europe into a dangerous hostile situation.

Russia shouldn't be viewed by Europe as a potential threat any more than any European country should be considered a potential threat, the damage caused by the South Ossetian was a failure for the international community and envisioned some horrible hypocrisy on behalf of the west.

The Russian Federation is a country that has had a lot of history in it's short life and was run into the ground after the USSR collapsed, today it matters, not only for military reasons but for it's size and influence in other parts of the world, a Trans-Atlantic security pact stretching from North America, through Europe to the Russian Far East would more than likely be a more positive change* in the long term for the future rather than trying to decide whether or not to let old Soviet republics with bitter extremists align themselves with most of the great military powers of the west, that would certainly be a disaster waiting to happen!

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev seldom gets credit for promoting real change!

who is really threatening

Geographically (once again) Russia looks like it could be a major threat to Europe, looking at it on a map it would appear that the Russian bear would have a likely chance of crushing Europe, however the Soviet Union has long gone and today this couldn't be more further from the truth, NATO has no real reason to exist except to promote American military dominance around the world, political rhetoric calling Russia our friend rings hollow considering that NATO states seem to be closing in on all sides of the Russian border, as if it still contains the communist pandemic that needs to be prevented from spreading!



While NATO members have a bigger population and an all around much bigger military than Russia does Europe is as densely populated as the main concentration of the 142 millions Russians in Russia which are focused mainly in the west of the country.



Luckily the Ukraine and Georgia were prevented from joining NATO, as that would have really technically militarily encircled Russia, this would make Russia hesitant and (rightfully so) directly threatened.



Bottom Line: The actions of NATO and the EU are not within the bounds of realism, and invoke all sorts of fears in Russia. Some of these are justified and some are not. If the western blocs are not acting rationally in the context of history, the logical thing for the Russians to believe is that they are in danger.

America put forward Yeltsin?

In 1991 the Soviet Union was collapsing, Germany was reunified and most of eastern Europe was gaining it's independence from the Soviet Union, hard liner communists blamed Gorbachev's reform program feeling he was giving too many powers to the republics, Gorbachev was put under house arrest and pronounced ill to the Russian people, he had only recently offered an end to the Cold War with the United States probably trying to buy time but was flatly turned down.

With only days left in the Soviet Union the hard line communists who prepared to launch the 'August Coup' as it was come to be known demanded that Gorbachev issue a state of emergency to buy some more time, after he refused he was put under house arrest and was told to be ill.

The emergency committee that had taken over had sent in tanks to Moscow after declaring a state of emergency, however nobody knew where or how Gorbachev was, several soldiers taking part refused their orders, Gorbachev's former rival Boris Yeltsin spoke out against the coup.



Before it had gotten bloody the coup had collapsed since the Committee in control had no way to go forward and hadn't the loyalty in the military, from this Yeltsin used the coup's failure to eliminate the political power of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

This meant the end for Gorbachev and hastened the end of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin had instead proposed a commonwealth of ex Soviet nations, primarily Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, Yeltsin had told the president of the United States George HW. Bush about what had been done before informing Gorbachev.

One has to wonder if American influence had put Yeltsin forward to help orchestrate a speedy fall of the union, what followed after the fall was the Yeltsin era marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, and enormous political and social problems.

By the time he left office, Yeltsin had an approval rating of two percent!

fall of the union

With Ireland being the only one to vote in the Lisbon Referendum one has to wonder if giving more power to smaller numbers of people in centralizing the diverse 10,180,000 square kilometers that is Europe is really a smart idea.

Just 18 years ago the Soviet Union collapsed the former republics gaining their independence, the diversity of these countries and their people shows just how different they all really are:

Armenia



Armenia is a unitary, multiparty, democratic nation-state with an ancient and historic cultural heritage.

After it split from the Soviet Union Armenia and Azerbaijan (see below), the war ended after a Russian-brokered cease-fire was put forward in 1994. The war was a success for the Armenians who managed to secure 14% of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory.

Azerbaijan



Azerbaijan is a nation with a majority Turkic and Shi‘ite Muslim population, is a secular and unitary republic. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world.

Belarus



It has been said that Belarus was the only dictatorship in Europe, governed by Lukashenko who is called by most people of Belarus as “Batka” - meaning father in English.

Estonia



Was one of the world's fastest growing economies for several years after becoming independent, very small population at only 1.4 million, it is said to be the most successful countries out of all of the former Soviet republics.

Georgia



Georgia is a representative democracy, organized as a secular, unitary semi-presidential republic, it had several skirmishes with the Ossetians which exasperated from Georgia forming a state called South Ossetia, a Georgian attack on there led to a devastating war in August of 2008.

Kazakhstan



Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world.

It is ethnically and culturally diverse, in part due to mass deportations of many ethnic groups to the country during Stalin's rule. Kazakhs are the largest group. Kazakhstan allows freedom of religion, and many different beliefs are represented in the country. Islam is the primary religion. The Kazakh language is the state language, while Russian is also officially used as an "equal" language (to Kazakh) in Kazakhstan's institutions

Kyrgyzstan



Kyrgyzstan is a land locked in Southeast Asia, it is made up mainly of Kyrgyz's, Uzbek's and Russians.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union state-owned enterprises have been privatized, it has come under influence from the west and has seen a considerable amount of terrorism.

Latvia



Latvia is a unitary parliamentary republic and is divided into 26 districts. It's population is made up mostly of Russians and Latvians.

Today it is one of the poorest countries in the European Union and its people are among the unhappiest in the world!

Lithuania



The majority of the country are Lithuanians with only a small concentrated amount of Polish, the predominant religion there is Roman Catholicism.

Moldova



A small and practically unknown country to most Europeans, is a parliamentary democracy and has a very large wine industry.

Russia



Russia is the largest country in the world and takes up an eighth of Earth's surface, and has a population of 142 million people, following the breakup of the Soviet Union Russia's economy went to hell in the early 1990's after taking all of the debts the Soviet Union owed, it fought in two wars against Chechnya and in the last few years is rising back towards super power status.

Tajikistan



Most people that live in Tajikistan belong to the Tajik ethnic group, who share culture and history with the Iranian peoples and speak Persian.

Following it's independence from the Soviet Union it had a devastating civil war from 1992 to 1997, afterwords newly-established political stability and foreign aid have allowed the country's economy to grow. Trade in commodities such as cotton and aluminum wire has contributed greatly to this steady improvement.

Tajikistan is still however a very poor country!

Turkmenistan



Cotton production is big in Turkmenistan as was the President Turkmen-Bashi a dictator who controlled most aspects of his peoples lives up until 2007.

Ukraine



Ukraine is home to 46.2 million people, 77.8 percent of whom are ethnic Ukrainians, with sizable minorities of Russians, Belarusians and Romanians. The Ukrainian language is the only official language in Ukraine, while Russian is also widely spoken. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which has heavily influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature and music.

They have changed their political orientation recently from East to West, but nothing has really changed!

Uzbekistan



Uzbekistan is made up nearly entirely of Uzbek's and has an economy based on commodity items like cotton, gold, uranium, and natural gas.


It's an interesting comparison, I was going to do one on Europe but the truth is Europe is nearly just as vast (even though it's much smaller) as the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union were, and only time will tell how history will treat the European Union.

Syrian missile shield

A recent development in these nuclear disarmament talks showed that Obama was ready to scrap plans to build the missile shield in Eastern Europe if Russia aided them in stopping Iran's nuclear program.



Now I'm no fan of the current Russian President Dimitry Medvedev and certainly not a fan of President Barack Obama but I like to think that Prime Minister Vladamir Putin is really pulling the strings on Medvedev like most people think, which is why after Obama's statement Russia should put forward plans to build their own missile system in Syria.

This scenario was discussed before but steps have yet to be taken, but it is absolutely necessary and I have a feeling that less than 57% of Syrians would oppose it (the same amount of Poles who opposed a missiles being placed in their country).

Why I say it's necessary:

If the US think it's necessary to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a long range radar system in the Czech Republic to counter the Iranians from developing nuclear power plants then I think Syria is more obliged to cover every inch of it's air space because of the small state of Israel in which it has no diplomatic ties with and the one that carried out an air strike on it's territory two years ago, one that is not just developing nuclear weapons, but sitting on a stockpile of at least 60 nuclear weapons, and have in their inventory missiles that can hit any place in Syria!



Yes I think Russia would be well doing it's part as a world power by giving Syria and Iran a credible air defence, preferable the S-300 portable SAM sites which can shoot down enemy fighter-jets and ballistic missiles in the very possible likelihood of an Israeli strike.



And (predictably) Israel will play it's bullshit card saying it's feeling threatened by the presence of these defensive missiles in Syria and will threaten to attack them, Russia should counteract this threat by diverting several of their nuclear bombers to patrol Syrian skies and put Tel Aviv under the nuclear hammer (for a change) and let them see how it feels to be on the receiving end of such diabolical threats!

the military encirclement of Russia.

= pro Western, American troop bases and new members of NATO.

= Iran and Russia.


A whole year has pasted since Georgian forces indiscriminately attacked Russian citizens in South Ossetia leading to a large rapid Russian response which saw men and tanks enter the field in a fairly conventional war, after a short enough exchange Russian forces pulled back after giving the Georgians a sound beating, however this was met by a lot of hypocrisy by the Americans at the time, and later saw an increase of US military presence in several ex USSR countries, many of which are joining NATO an organization that is spreading its influence into the Caucasus.

Imagine a scenario where Georgia (under the same leadership) as a NATO state did exactly what it did last August, that could have resulted in a much larger conflict that could have sparked World War III!

Now I know things aren't as bad as they were in the Cold War but that one spark could have ignited one hell of a fire!

The west shouldn't be spreading their influence militarily in that part of the world anyway!

Iran for example is completely surrounded by American forces on both sides of its border, if a war sparks between Iran and the US it will be very bloody, remember Iran is no broken backed country and a preemptive attack and invasion on a country Russia considers to be an ally would have major consequences, best case scenario would be they would simply close off ties with Europe and the United States and instead open up a better front with China.



Even though nuclear talks are underway Russia (rightfully so) would be more trigger happy on the nuclear button since former allies have joined NATO and its neighboring countries are allowing the United States military to set up bases there which shows a gesture of aggression on behalf of the Americans and Europeans.

Last years sneak attack on South Ossetia was directly perpetrated by Georgia, whether or not this attack was allowed or encouraged by the US I don't know but the present Georgian government did arise from a coup in 2004, something the Iranian government claimed to have been a victim of in this summers election protests.

The Russian reaction in that war did show that they are ready and their military is practical, over 4,000 modern T-72 and T-80 tanks in their inventory and several armored vehicles and an air force large enough to defend the sheer size and depth of it's air space.



Western presence in Eastern Europe is acceptable but acting as the aggressors and threatening to launch preemptive wars far from home is just plain wrong, the presence of Western military men and machines in the Caucasus right under Russia's nose is just unacceptable!

possible sources for new Iranian fighter jets

With continued Israeli threats to attack Iran's nuclear program Iran has a right to defend its skies against attackers, not many people are aware of how dangerous an attack as threatened would be.

For instance the attack on the Bushehr nuclear reactor would immediately kill thousands living in the surrounding areas and poison those as far away as the Qatar and the United Arab Emirates!

With Iran threatening to do the same to Israel this is indeed a dangerous game, Iran can counter Israeli aggression but does it have sufficient air power to defend against a massive Israeli strike.

Unfortunately not, the F-14A is still the top gun of the Iranian Air Force and the 25 or so still in service don't have AIM-54 missiles that made them such a deadly force in the 1980's, other aircraft they have worth mentioning would be handful of MiG-29's bought from Russia in 1983 and several ex Iraqi Air Force jets that crossed over during Operation Desert Storm, some of these (most notable examples being the a handful of Mirage F-1's and some Su-25's) are still in service today.

Venezuela offered to sell their fleet of 21 F-16's after the US introduced an arms embargo, only 12 remain in service today in the Venezuelan air force and the US strictly does not allow Venezuela to sell the fleet to a third country without written consent!


source

Since when did they have command over Venezuela?
They should be allowed do what they want, its for defence and Iranian engineers would surely be able to develop new parts for them like they did in the case for their F-14's and F-4's, hell they were even able to build a fighter from scratch based on components from the F-14 and F-5!

Next onto a country that doesn't have arms and economic sanctions against Iran.



That would be North Korea, Iran have already acquired a hand full of missiles off North Korea but I somehow doubt they will acquire many planes, most of the North Korean air force are older MiG's (Fishbeds, Floggers etc.) most of which probably don't even work, the best North Korea have are a rumoured 35 to 40 MiG-29 Fulcrums (see picture above) which are used to defend Pyongyang airspace.

I somehow doubt they will want to sell any of them to Iran or anyone else for that matter.

They could turn to someone else who isn't an ally or a friend, or anything really for that matter.

Russia.



Iranian citizens crying death to Russia recently didn't seem to strain relations, rumours of Russia delivering S-300 air defence batteries to Iran aren't yet verified, but if that is true that mean Iran could bolster one hell of an air defence against enemy aircraft.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran has signed an arms deal with the Russian Rosoboronexport arms group to buy 250 Su-30 MKM warplanes and 20 Il-78 MKI aerial tankers.
It was dismissed as propaganda, but still if it had been true it would have well evened the tide, it would have been over three times as big as the amount of F-14's delivered during the 1970's, but not just that, they would be able to import parts if they ever had to fight a long war, and spread out across the many tactical air bases presently existing in Iran would be the perfect defence for Iran's skies, (the old Khatami Air Base the ex hub for the F-14's built in the desert outside of Isfahan comes into mind as a great base of operations for this new fleet).

Anyway, back from Nevernever land the only hope of something like this happening in the near future will be long after the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev realizes nuclear talks will take little action on the other side and a militerization of Georgia might lead him to back Iran with just such enormous aerial defence logistics.

But for the moment Iran will just have to rely on what they have at the moment!

where is Russia going?

The Soviet Union completely collapsed economically in 1991, the Russian people had inherited a drunk and more nuclear weapons than anyone else in the world, shortly after the fall a McDonalds was almost instantly opened in Moscow!



Shortly afterwards Yeltsin led the Russians into a horrible war in Chechnya starting in 1995 thousands of Russians were sent fighting in a Vietnam like war where the enemy was everywhere and at the same time nowhere, it looked as if Russia was going to have a horrible future with recession plaguing the people.

Then in 2000 saw the introduction of Vladamir Putin, after Yeltsin died Putin called him a hero stating he helped the Russian people get their freedom, the Russian Federation looked alien from the past Soviet times in the early 21st century, proved by the music videos like the one below (from t.A.T.u) with heavy sexual undertones:



Since the start of the Putin era Russia has a major sphere of influence on its former Soviet satellite states now having gained their independence, several of which despise Russia and several adopting western governments or joining NATO, an organization designed to repel a Soviet invasion of Western Europe during the Cold War which shouldn't exist anymore since Russia should be a friend or ally of the west since it has the same goals and desires a multi polar world between it and the United States so it can help influence smaller nations in their desired way of shaping the world.



However relations were strained in August of 2008 when the Georgians led a bloody attack under the cover of the 8th of August Olympic games against South Ossetia inhabitated mainly by Russian passport holders and begun attacking the civilian populace, this all happened since a a pro western government was put into power in 2004 along with a defence minister who was an Israeli who trained the Georgian soldiers!

And as if that wasn't bad enough Georgia a tiny nation right below Russia's noses has joined NATO.

However Medvedev wants nuke restrictions, Russia has 14,000 nukes, that is more than all of the nukes combined of all of the west, and are probably have their finger more tightly around the trigger considering nations like Georgia and the Ukraine are joining NATO.

So where is Russia going?
The Russia of today and the one that was established in 1991 are quite different, Russia today matters in world affairs, but what does the future of this massive nation hold, nuclear disarmament or confrontation, or after being neglected from the west will the east close off from the west once again dividing the world?

Russia has formed close trade and military alliance with the Peoples Republic of China, will this eventually lead to a unification into the new east?

All this being said whatever happens in Russia's future it will be interesting to watch!

what a real breakthrough in nuclear disarmament looks like!

Obama and Medvedev's agreements on nuclear arms reduction today has being described as a breakthrough, although that being said I doubt they'll break much ground until that US missile shield that's being established in Poland and the Czech Republic is fully removed since it is (rightly so) considered a threat to Russian security, the shield is supposed to stop missiles fired form neither Iran or North Korea, although I somehow doubt that will ever happen!



That being said the US and Russia still have ample amount of nuclear weapons to wipe each other out, the US arsenal numbers some 8,000 warheads, 2,500 of these are on 15 minute alert to be launched while Russia has 14,000 warheads left over from the Soviet Union.

Towards the end of the Cold War the Soviet Union had 39,000 nuclear weapons while the Americans were "behind" with 21,000 warheads, when Reagan and Gorbachev finally got talking there was a brief moment in which arms reduction became a reality, the Soviets dismantled several of their SS-20 missiles and observers from both sides observed the other dismantling missiles.



This was very short lived, when the Soviet Union collapsed instantly three former Soviet states still had nuclear weapons, Belarus had 61, Kazakhstan had 1,400 and the Ukraine had 5,000, they all voluntarily gave them back to Russia where most of them were dismantled.

The US meanwhile in the late 1990's encouraged Pakistan to build up its nuclear weapons stocks to over 60 nuclear weapons to counter India's nuclear weapons (an ally of Russia), Israel (an ally of the United States) have several nuclear warheads and missiles that threaten every city in the Arab world.


source

See what I'm getting at, Pakistan and India need to have serious limitations until neither of them have nuclear weapons, this will be difficult since Pakistan built so many nukes because of its size compared to India.

You know my stance on Israel their nuclear weapon should also be destroyed before they get into a war that might end up with them setting the whole Middle East on fire!

So in my mind all of this needs to happen before the US and Russia can talk serious about an end to nuclear weapons, that being said the reason it never got fully underway before the Soviet Union collapsed was because Reagan didn't want to get rid of Strategic Defense Initiative (the Star Wars missile defence), and Obama has already said he is reluctant on removing the missile shield from Poland and the Czech Republic.

I mean talk about Déjà vu!

how powerful is Russia?

Russia had a brutal history during the Second World War, with most of its earth scorched and two thirds of its industry completely destroyed, and as if this wasn't bad enough it had to live in fear from the military alliance built up from the west to counter Moscow, it was in late 1991 that the days of the Cold War came to an end, the USSR collapsed after holding together 39,000 nuclear weapons and the massive Red Army, it all came tumbling down, Mikhail Gorbachev who had now offered reform was gone and the first president of the Russian Federation was a drunk.



Russia then ended up bogged down in a long war in Chechnya devoting 70,000 soldiers as well as support equipment and lost 5,000 in the process in the long and painful struggle which saw rebels producing cheap Borz sub machine guns in their dirty war against the Russian forces, the bombing of Grozny at the start of the war continually for three weeks by the Russian Air Force killed 27,000 civilians, mostly ethnic Russians.

Yelstin had made the Russian military look weak and careless and old fashioned, as it was during the 1990's, the once proud navy was reduced to tatters and the Russian air force patrolled only its own borders, to America and the rest of the world Russia didn't seem to matter and wasn't taken half as seriously as it should have been.



However Vladamir Putin an ex KGB man became president of Russia in 2000 at the beginning of the 21st century and begun to bring to the country back onto its feet, a second war started in Chechnya and is still be fought in mere skirmishes to this day!

Putin helped the military build itself up properly and in 2007 the Tu-95 Bear was seen in the skies over the North Pole, the South Pacific and even in British air space, Russia was showing itself to be a dominant power for the first time since the Cold War.



But has it changed?

Well it wasn't half as big since the Soviet times but it hasn't changed very much equipment wise, apart from some air force technology demonstrators.

The war last August in Georgia proves my point, the Russians sent in line after line of tanks against their enemy;



That covered by artillery and fighter jet sorties did give the Georgian military a pounding but their weak air defence did manage to down a Tu-22 supersonic bomber!
The Russian tactics seems to be a large force of men and equipment to sweep through an area covered by missiles, a form of warfare much larger on the ground than British or American warfare in the last 60 years!



Russia still has more nuclear weapons left over from the Cold War than the United States, Britain, France and Israel combined, 14,000 or so mostly in storage, however after tensions arose in early 2007, and again during the 2008 war in Georgia I'm sure Russia has a hefty amount of these attached to their many ICBM's.

Putin's reform may not have indefinitely weakened Russia as Gorbachev's one helped speed the collapse of the Soviet Union, no its strengthening it and in the mere future Russia will be a strong world power and will matter!

why can't Russia be our friend?

Russia, well more the former Soviet Union was never part of the renaissance, reformation or the enlightenment, major parts of history for the west, this caused Russia to become more culturally distant from the west since the 17th century.

Its a country that stretches across eleven time zones, has historically adapted to this vulnerability by acquiring buffer territories to provide even greater strategic depth for their defense. This vulnerability has led to numerous invasions by great powers in the past. Napoleon and Hitler all did their worse to the Russians the latter having slaughtered 20,000,000 Soviets, maybe they had a reason to distrust the petty fascist powers that thrived in western Europe at the time.

And what happened after the Soviets defeated Germany? (America and Britain sped up its defeat) an entire defensive military alliance was created to face down the singular power of Moscow.

Thus NATO was formed in its Cold War terms, but it still exists today and is spreading its influence deep into eastern Europe, (former Soviet satellite states), why is this being allowed to happen.



I mean Russia is now a autocracy that is supposed to be allied with the rest of the world (a multi polar world), yet America remains the sole hyper power militarily in a unipolar world and NATO still exists, it is extending around Russia now in the Caucasus backing up Georgia last August when the Georgians attacked South Ossetia!



The gap of relations between Russia and the EU is closing and to Russia this is evidence of hostile unified purpose.

Russia currently has a stockpile of 14,000 nuclear warheads (the US roughly 8,000), how many of these are operational I don't know but its still quite a lot considering the cold war was supposed to be over since 1991!

What the west needs to do to preserve good relations and make Russia an infinite ally is for NATO to shut down, Russia will never invade Europe unless Europe attacks it first as history has shown, and the west has no place in Central Asia or the Caucasus, cause there is nothing more unoriginal then history repeating itself over and over again!

The role of the media in the South Ossetia War

Remember the 8th of August this year when the news clearly stated that Russia was invading Georgia?
Like literally attacking the vulnerable sovereign state of Georgia for no reason, Russia obviously did this because they were bad and for those few days Iraq and Afghanistan weren't comparable and neither logic.

Apparently because of the Olympic games Georgia's brutal attack on South Ossetia went unreported in the main stream media, but when Russia launched its counter attack deep into Georgia, then it was reported about the attack on South Ossetia and that it was the Georgian president who had lied, but that Russia had taken the incident to invade Georgia like they had always wanted to since 1991.

But that's the problem, it's obviously clear that the Russians simply moved in, cleaned up the hostile areas (since Russia citizens in South Ossetia were under attack), bolstered their defences in South Ossetia and then pulled out of Georgia, yet it's called an international crisis for what Russia did in the counter attack, and suddenly South Ossetia is recognized as an independent state.

I mean serious c'mon!