The Russo-Georgia War

WAR!!!

...sorry, I just always wanted to write that.

Anyway, brief story: Ossetia (rhymes with "getcha") is a region in the Caucasus that contains mostly people called Ossetians. In the USSR, Ossetia was divided into North Ossetia, which was part of the Russia SSR, and South Ossetia, which was part of the Georgia SSR. When the USSR split, Ossetia split too. There's a lot of bad blood between Ossetians and Georgians, so the South Ossetians wanted to split off from Georgia and join their North Ossetian relatives as part of Russia. There was a war, and South Ossetia ended up with de facto independence from Georgia. Since then, Russia and Georgia have been facing off over the region, with Georgia wanting to reincorporate it by force, and Russia wanting Georgia to let it go, and the South Ossetians caught in the middle (but generally favoring the Russians).

So yesterday, Georgia's "maverick" (some would say autocratic) president Saakashvili decided to reincorporate South Ossetia by force. He sent in the tanks, killed about 1500 Ossetians, and took the capital. Russia responded by sending in its own troops and kicking the Georgians back out of South Ossetia, plus bombing Georgian cities and bases. Meanwhile, the U.S., which is nominally a Georgian ally (they sent troops to Iraq, go figure), is basically saying "Blah blah blah, everybody calm down," and doing nothing. So here we are.

This might sound surprising, but I actually favor the Russians in this one. Sure, they're bullies. Sure, they're 100 times as powerful as Georgia. But Georgia is the clear aggressor here. They started this fight with no provocation, they upset a balance that had worked for 16 years, and they killed a lot of innocent Ossetians who did absolutely nothing to deserve a sudden rain of tank shells on their heads. And the Ossetians feel no allegiance to the country of Georgia - they want to be a part of Russia. The Georgians have a historical/political claim to the region, but they should have pursued it through negotiation and compromise, not brute force. And all this stuff about Georgia being a "democracy" is bunk, as Saakashvili showed when he sent in riot police to brutalize the opposition earlier this year.

So yes, Russia's response may be "disproportionate," but if it puts an end to the conflict, so be it. Saakashvili's Georgia is not the kind of ally the U.S. wants or needs, and there are 1500 dead Ossetians to prove it. Let's sit this one out, mediate the cease-fire, and let South Ossetia either become independent or rejoin Russia.