Georgia...

It's not just that its important in world events, it hits home for me.

I feel a... sameness with the people. They have a fierce patriotism. The lefty press calls it nationalism, but that applies more to the fakey-fake and backed-up-by-military-prowess hooey of China or Russia.

No, what the Georgians have is simply love of country. And that, along with love of God, is something the one-worlders have to crush and destroy.


***

Ukraine offers satellite defence co-operation with Europe and US
Ukraine inflamed mounting East-West tensions yesterday by offering up a Soviet-built satellite facility as part of the European missile defence system.

The proposal, made amid growing outrage among Russia's neighbours over its military campaign in Georgia, could see Ukraine added to Moscow's nuclear hitlist. A Russian general declared Poland a target for its arsenal after Warsaw signed a deal with Washington to host interceptor missiles for America's anti-nuclear shield.

The move came as the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, signed a cease-fire deal that sets the stage for a Russian troop withdrawal after more than a week of warfare with its neighbour Georgia.

Russia considers nuclear missiles for Syria, Mediterranean, Baltic

DEBKAfile's military sources report Moscow's planned retaliation for America's missile interceptors in Poland and US-Israeli military aid to Georgia may come in the form of installing Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.

Russian Baltic and Middle East warships, submarines and long-range bombers may be armed with nuclear warheads, according to Sunday newspapers in Europe.

In Georgia, Russian troops and tanks advanced to within 30 km of Tbilisi Saturday, Aug. 15. A Russian general said Sunday they had started pulling out after president Dimitry Medvedev signed the ceasefire agreement with Georgia and president George W. Bush called again for an immediate withdrawal.

After routing Georgia over the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moscow appears to be eying Poland, the Middle East, and possibly Ukraine, as the main arenas for its reprisals.

Defense Official: Russia Has Short Range Missiles in South Ossetia

Russia has placed short range SS-21 missiles in South Ossetia, that could pose a threat to most major Georgian cities," including the capital, Tbilisi, a U.S.Defense official confirmed to FOX News on Monday.

"Anything such as that, or any other military equipment that was moved in would be in violation of this cease-fire and should be removed immediately," Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman said. "The only forces that are permitted to remain under the cease fire agreement are the forces that were in there at the Aug. 6 time frame."

This news came as Russia's deputy chief of staff insists that Russian troops were pulling out of the breakaway region. However, there have been no confirmed signs of a withdrawal.

Sarkozy threatens 'consequences' as Russia stalls on Georgia pullout
French president demands Moscow honour ceasefire as Medvedev pledges troops will begin withdrawal tomorrow

European leaders warned Russia today to withdraw forces rapidly from Georgia or face unspecified "consequences", as Moscow stalled on its pledges to honour a ceasefire and pull back thousands of troops from the Caucasus republic.

With the US and European governments due to meet on Tuesday to consider their options for the first time since the crisis erupted, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, threatened the Kremlin with an ultimatum for the first time, warning that more delays to a pullout "would have serious consequences on relations between Russia and the European Union".

The French warning echoed similar statements from the Americans in recent days, none of which appear to have rattled the Russians, whose forces remain in firm control of large tracts of Georgia well beyond the two separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"People are going to begin to wonder if Russia can be trusted," Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said today of the Russian failure to keep its promises.

No, Condi, everybody with a brain already knows the answer to that is 'no'. *eyeroll*




Lawmaker hints at long stay in Georgia, despite cease-fire

TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Though Russia says it will begin pulling back its troops from Georgia on Monday, it's unclear how long the redeployment will take, and a Russian lawmaker has compared the situation to the U.S. presence in Iraq.

Russia President Dmitry Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday that Russia would start pulling back its forces from Georgia on Monday, Medvedev's office said.

Sarkozy, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, brokered a cease-fire between Russia and Georgia last week.

Russian troops will begin withdrawing to a buffer zone and into the breakaway province of South Ossetia as stipulated by the cease-fire, Medvedev's office said.

Moscow gave no indication of when the withdrawal would be completed.
...
However, lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, said Moscow will withdraw only when it is "assured that Georgians will not continue to use military force" in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russian troops will leave "sooner or later," Kosachev said, saying the timetable depends "definitely on how Georgians will continue to behave."

"If I would ask you in response to the same question how fast the American forces can leave Iraq, for example, the answer would be as soon as we have guarantees for peace and security there," Kosachev said. "The same answer would be toward this situation."

No sign of military withdrawal as Russian armour stays put

Russia last night continued to occupy large swaths of Georgia in defiance of an EU-brokered ceasefire deal, with no sign of significant troop withdrawals.

Despite claims by Moscow that a pullout had begun, Russian forces could be seen across most of the country, and Georgian officials claimed that armoured columns had tried to push further into the mountainous heartland, towards Borjomi in the south and Sachkhere in the west.

"We could leave here in two minutes. But we've had no orders to pull out," said a Russian soldier manning a checkpoint yesterday about 25 miles west of the capital, Tbilisi. He knew nothing about a ceasefire.

Georgia's foreign minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili, said Russian troops had
razed a Georgian military base at the western city of Senaki.

'Russia may arm Baltic fleet with nukes'

Huh. The picture that accompanied the article is still there, but the article itself is gone? It's still linked on their 'international' page.

Ah, well. Two other sources:

Russia mulling Baltic nuke fleet

Russia may arm its Baltic fleet with nuclear warheads in response to a US plan to build a missile shield in Poland, Sunday Times reports. The London-based newspaper quoted senior military sources as saying that the Russian nuclear warheads could be supplied to submarines, cruisers and fighter bombers of the Baltic fleet based in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania.

Russia considers arming Baltic fleet

Russia has informed Poland that its permit for the US deployment of missile defense elements in its territory could lead to a threat of nuclear attack.

Russia has also mentioned that the nuclear missiles in its bases in Kaliningrad and Belarus could be targeted at Western Europe, pledging to consider the possibility of again dispatching troops to Cuba.

South Ossetia holds civilian Georgians hostage

More than 130 Georgian civilians are being held captive by South Ossetian authorities in the regional capital, Tskhinvali, after being rounded up and herded into a single room in the interior ministry headquarters here, the Guardian has learned.

The prisoners, who were plucked off the streets according to their nationality soon after hostilities broke out 10 days ago, are being kept indefinitely in the hope of exchanging them for Ossetian civilians allegedly abducted by Georgian soldiers during the conflict. One interior ministry official confirmed the plan, saying: "We hope there will be an exchange soon."

The 131 "hostages" are being held in a single room in the interior ministry headquarters in Tskhinvali, according to Taymuraz Khugayev, South Ossetia's prosecutor general. Roughly half of them are women and they include one 12-year-old girl. Most of them are Georgian "guest workers" who were living in the city when it was attacked on August 7. Their status is unclear.

The taking of civilian hostages by warring parties is prohibited by Article 3 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Nato holds Georgia crisis summit

Nato foreign ministers are gathering in Brussels for an emergency summit to discuss how the alliance should respond to Russia's military action in Georgia.

On the eve of the meeting, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the West must deprive Russia of any strategic victory from its assault on Georgia.

But major differences remain among Nato members as to how far they should go in seeking to punish Russia, analysts say.

Moscow denies Tbilisi's claims Russian troops are not pulling out, as pledged.

Mystery of Moscow's genocide claim

A VISIT to the war-strafed city of Tskhinvali has turned up no proof of Russian allegations that more than 2000 people died there. Nor was there any sign of what the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, referred to as genocide. ["ya think?"--Amanda]

The centre of Tskhinvali, capital of the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetia, sustained heavy damage in a five-day barrage of rockets and missiles as Russian troops and their local allies battled Georgian forces.
...
"After what happened, it should be clear that they should have self-determination," said Konstantin Zatulin, first deputy chairman of the Russian Duma's Committee for the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Mr Zatulin said he was in charge of a $US100 million ($115 million) Russian initiative to rebuild a section of Tskhinvali. The project, he said, would create a "Moscow zone" in the city.

"Russia is not annexing. Russia is not invading," he said. "It's not true. The goal of Russia is peace in the Caucasus."

Jeremiah 6: 14-15
14 They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious.
'Peace, peace,' they say,
when there is no peace.
15 Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?
No, they have no shame at all;
they do not even know how to blush.
So they will fall among the fallen;
they will be brought down when I punish them,"
says the LORD.