Russian tanks enter South Ossetia

...what?

By whom was the United States blamed for those things?

Just when you thought it couldn't get more interesting, Thousands of Cossacks flock to the Ossetian cause

War is terrible, horrible and to be avoided at all costs. But god DAMN I love cossacks.

Chechens are fighting against Georgia, because it's in the "Russia role" from its own conflict, but it finds itself on Russia's side now.

Yep, this is a crazy one.

What do you mean what? What are we supposed to do to stop it now as allies. Nothing we can do but condem the actions but that does nothing to help them as they run for their lives.
Better?

Did you read the article? Georgians. I went back and bolded the important parts. I know reading for content can be tricky.

And it looks more and more like the Russians are going for all of Georgia, not just South Ossetia.

Nah, they don't really need/want to occupy all of it. They've destroyed Georgia's military, humbled them on the world stage, made it unlikely they'll join NATO before Russia does, and they'll be able to get some nice trade concessions and possibly joint 'administration' of all the new oil infrastructure.

There's no assertion that the US started or provoked the conflict.

What's he asserting? Sounds to me like he's saying we should've backed them from the start, and that doing so would've prevented the fighting.

That falls into the category of "not stopping this war". Hardly an accusation that the US started it in any way.

We SHOULD have backed them back when the Russians created the secessionist movement. The movement wouldn't have gotten anywhere without Russian backing.

Yeah, but when we retire the Space Shuttle in 2010, we know we'll always be able to count on the Russians for access to the ISS.



Oh, wait!

Shit. Why is "Torn Between Two Lovers" going through my head now?

So, always report just what the government says? Gotcha.

If that's the case, why bother having a press at all? We can just have government statements. The viewer/reader can interpret it from there!

That's journalism. It's called the 5 W's... Who, What, Where, When, and Why.

COSSACKS!!! They killed my brother! They killed Piotor!

We should have backed them. Not only b/c it's our duty as an ally, but b/c Russian aggression has to be checked else South Ossetia will become a new Sudetenland.


We don't have to nuke the Russians to stop this. We just have to arm the Georgians and then send in American 'peacekeepers' into the war zone, look the Russians in the eye, and watch them back down. We don't have to attack them, we just have to show up, they won't attack us. Just like we won't attack them.

Define "backed", please. I ask 'cause having US and Russian forces fighting overtly (unlike in Korea and to a lesser extent in Vietnam) is a great recipe for WWIII.

Oughta work well, so long as Wesley Clark isn't in command.

Whoa...I'm going to have to draw this whole thing out with circles and arrows and so forth to really understand this whole conflict!

Call be biased, but sounds like a good time to test moving an SBCT into a traditional war.

We were originally written up as being C-130 mobile, able to get in and provide mechanized infantry firepower immediately after the Lights captured the airfields.

5th Brigade is ready.

You've been listening to AM radio?

You? Biased?

No offense, but you'd stand little chance against what the Russians have there.

Well... not really.


I've said before this would be a perfect time for the zoomies and squids to actually get to do some fighting.


If shit were to go down, do you really think there would be anything left for the Strykers to even mop up?


HOWEVER, my main point was that 99 out of 100 it wouldn't come to that, a SBCT is about the fastest deployable unit around. You could get them their relatively quickly, and they would pack more punch than a Light Brigade.

Notice I said moving to a traditional war. Not actually fighting.

Actually, this is just the thing MEB's are for.

Wouldn't be surprised if one was on standby.

I don't know, I've heard that as stretched as the Army is, the Marines are even worse.


Which would make sense... they always do tend to get shat on.