Russia Invades Georgia

Enjay said:

Ah, the EU. European togetherness... Reminds me of another snapshot of Europeans from other countries celebrating in front of the Eiffel tower...
[mr moustache's pic]
Sorry, I couldn't resist. :/

Hehe epic :P

Whild we are on the subject of all things European, I had to post this. It was posted by Janizdreg on a "Post your doom pics" thread originally, but it is pretty cool if you hadn't seen it there already.

http://img352.imageshack.us/my.php?image=adidoomhh3.jpg

Such pictures are normally automaticaly banned... and have radically no place on a forum.

EU discussions seems have work with Russia.
Let's see tomorrow news how it had works with Georgia...

Also don't judge media, there are important for a country.
Simply remember they only deliver 1% or 2% of the complete geopolitic aspect, simply try to focus on all countries media to reach this 2% of information in your mind.

Kyka said:

but it is pretty cool if you hadn't seen it there already.

I strongly disagree.

fodders said:

The Georgian assault on Tskhinvali, described as an act of genocide and a war crime by Russian officials and other eyewitnesses, led to the slaughter of at least 2,000 civilians. The fact that Georgia, backed by the U.S. and Israel, were responsible for the provocation that led to the Russian response, has been buried by the majority of western corporate media.

I don't understand why you dismiss some media as biased while quoting others that are probably just as biased. I don't consider Russian media trustworthy when it comes to an issue like this one.

Besides from what I've seen it's the Russian sources that seem to enjoy focusing on interviewing refugees calling Saakashvili the next Hitler and other such nonsense.

I've been reading through The Watchmen for the first time, and I'm extremely impressed with the writing. Not only are the subplots marvelously intertwined, with a relentless barrage of symbols and parallels paralleling other parallels (symbolically) but Alan Moore managed to contrast the "Russia invades small European countries" plot with REAL LIFE, twenty-three years in the unpredictable future. That man has an astounding grip on his pen.

Belial said:

I don't understand why you dismiss some media as biased while quoting others that are probably just as biased. I don't consider Russian media trustworthy when it comes to an issue like this one.

Besides from what I've seen it's the Russian sources that seem to enjoy focusing on interviewing refugees calling Saakashvili the next Hitler and other such nonsense.

[well duh]

Heh cool, faked photos.

Only reassuring me in that we can't really trust either side and we won't know what is really going on there for a while to come.

Patrick Pineda said:

IMO the USA has no need or obligation to get involved with other country's affairs. * cough * Iraq * cough *

WORLD POLICE!

Creaphis said:

I've been reading through The Watchmen for the first time, and I'm extremely impressed with the writing. Not only are the subplots marvelously intertwined, with a relentless barrage of symbols and parallels paralleling other parallels (symbolically) but Alan Moore managed to contrast the "Russia invades small European countries" plot with REAL LIFE, twenty-three years in the unpredictable future. That man has an astounding grip on his pen.

I just finished it the other day and couldn't agree more.

Creaphis said:

I've been reading through The Watchmen for the first time...

One of my favorite books. I couldn't put it down the first time, especially being a comic nerd. I just finished it again a week ago :P

"...among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages."

fodders said:

There is so much bias on tv news

described as an act of genocide and a war crime by Russian officials

backed by the U.S. and Israel

buried by the majority of western corporate media

Western media bias

The quote at the top my post is attributed to "The Idler" magazine for 11-Nov-1758 - nothing has changed since then. All parties involved will do their best to shift the blame and the mass media will be expected to play it's part in shaping popular opinion. The mainstream Russian media wouldn't dare report anything the Kremlin hadn't approved beforehand and I suspect the same rules apply in Georgia. Western media generally have more freedom but are prone to self-censorship and being further from the conflict means much of the material they have to work with has been filtered so as to support one side or the other.

The media is one of the most powerful weapons of war. It will tell us what the state needs us to believe for the most part, even in countries with more freedom of the press.

Creaphis said:

I've been reading through The Watchmen for the first time, and I'm extremely impressed with the writing. Not only are the subplots marvelously intertwined, with a relentless barrage of symbols and parallels paralleling other parallels (symbolically) but Alan Moore managed to contrast the "Russia invades small European countries" plot with REAL LIFE, twenty-three years in the unpredictable future. That man has an astounding grip on his pen.

Actually, Russia invades Afghanistan in Watchmen, which is a real thing that happened.

And when they did it, we in the West were told that the Taliban were the good guys fighting against the Russian invaders. Now that we are over there fighting the Taliban, they don't seem to be quite as good any more. :?

Watchmen is set in 1985 and was published in 1986, so wouldn't that invasion already be common knowledge?

Regardless the book always reads very real, or at least believable (which is funny considering some of the content) You can take a lot about today from it, not surprisingly.

As an aside, this film is worth watching. It's a Russian made movie about a group of soldiers in Afghanistan. Of course it is dramatised and has an agenda, but it's still a worthwhile watch.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0417397/

Danarchy said:

Actually, Russia invades Afghanistan in Watchmen, which is a real thing that happened.

Neat. I didn't even know about that one.

You haven't heard about the Panjdeh Incident?

Mumble Mumble the Crimean War mumble cough

My good friend, who is Russian, showed me this website with pics of the Russian/Georgian war.

I didn't really know what was going on, even whose side these soldiers were on, but my friend tells me that the photos are of Ossetian regulars attached to the Russian army fighting against the Georgian army during the Russian offensive into Georgia itself. The scenery and the towns in the photos are Georgian. (My Russian friend said that you can tell because Georgian is a totally different language from Russian, different letters and everything).

Most of the equipment and vehicles is Russian cold war surplus from the 80's, though my friend said that some of the equipment is European or American, and would have been captured or looted from the Georgian army at some point during the fighting.


Be warned, some of these photos are pretty brutal. It's a long way from the nice, politically correct images and reporting that you see in the news.

Anyway, for those interested here is the site in question.

Yah that truly is the futility of battle. I remember being amused when I saw some footage on the news and saw everything was obsolete by twenty years or older.

I'm surprised it took this long for something like this to come up.

Lüt said:

I'm surprised it took this long for something like this to come up.

I believe I've seen that .jpg before, long before this Russian/Georgian war erupted. I think it was in regards to Russia sending peacekeepers to South Ossetia. I really hope it was a joke, because believing that people would be that unaware of the world around them would completely eliminate any hope I have for humanity. I am kind of Russio/Slavic/Caucasus-centric though, every time I hear Georgia I think of the eastern European country even though I live in the United States, and every time I'm at work and I hear the name Joseph I ask "Is that spelled Joseph or Josef?". Also, St. Petersburg Florida always bugged me.

Honestly, I just hate war. I hope this can be resolved before it escalates further. :(

Technician said:

Yah that truly is the futility of battle. I remember being amused when I saw some footage on the news and saw everything was obsolete by twenty years or older.

'Course, being obsolete by twenty years old doesn't make a tank or a gun any less lethal or any less horrifying. Everyone on earth just about uses either American or Russian surplus or locally manufactured copies. You see AK47's and variants everywhere. You see civil wars in Africa where everyone is armed with M-16's. The only things you don't see copies of are things like Abrams tanks and B1 Bombers, on account of virtually no one has the money to build those, and mostly they don't have the technology even if they wanted to.

And Lut... Lolz about Jessica B.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=H8XI2Chc6uQ

Haha Fox is going to be more and more stupid every day.

Enjay said:

As an aside, this film is worth watching. It's a Russian made movie about a group of soldiers in Afghanistan. Of course it is dramatised and has an agenda, but it's still a worthwhile watch.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0417397/

Real events and facts are completely deformed in this film. Absolutely completely. Many people in Russia prefer to rewrite history for the sake of a profit. Fyodor Bondarchuk is one of them. One of traitors. He works for the sake of destruction of Russia. Just as Kasparov.

Jello said:

I believe I've seen that .jpg before, long before this Russian/Georgian war erupted. I think it was in regards to Russia sending peacekeepers to South Ossetia. I really hope it was a joke, because believing that people would be that unaware of the world around them would completely eliminate any hope I have for humanity.

I have bad news for you - people like Jessica B do exist. For all I know the question could have been posted as a joke, read the thread and make up your own mind.