South Ossetia conflict

On 8th August 2008 most of the world eyes were fixed on Beijing and the summer Olympic games grand opening. News agencies and media all around the world were busy reporting on this event. They had paid big money to cover this event.

Oblivious to most of the world was an ongoing conflict that had risen to almost becoming a full out war. No, it is not U.S. No, it is not the middle east.

South Ossetia, a providence between Russia and the Republic of Georgia saw devastating damages and civilian casualties as military forces from both the Russian Federation and the Republic of Georgia duke it out.

As with every war there are always both side of the story.

Background Story

Internationally South Ossetia region is recognize as under Georgia’s rule, but there has long been conflict within the region with separatists groups fighting for independent or requesting to be part of the Russian Federation. Most part of South Ossetia were under separatists control with Georgian government retaining control over substantial portions of South Ossetia.

Since this is not the middle east, the media called them ’separatists’ as apposed to ‘terrorist’. There was a time when these groups was once known as ‘freedom fighters’.

Georgia claims that the surprise military operation against South Ossetia was in response to separatist attacks on Georgian villages. South Ossetia denies that these attacks have occurred.

Russian responded by moving additional troops across the border in addition to their internationally recognized peacekeeping troops that were already there.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sees this as Russian aggression and deployed more Georgian troops in the South Ossetia.

Russian on the other hand claimed that from the Georgian attacks, among the many civilian casualties were Russian peacekeeping troops. Most South Ossetia are keen on joining the Russian Federation that most of them have Russian passport. Russia could say that they are protecting their citizens.

The western media as aspected reports of Russian deploying troops in to Georgia’s territory as a sign of invasion.

The important question here is not who started the war, but who will end it.

Conspiracy theory

I don’t see any abundance of resources in South Ossetia or Georgia that would interest Russia. Except of cause for the Roki Tunnel. because geographically the border between Georgia and Russia is made up of mountain range known as the Greater Caucasus.

Roki Tunnel is like a gate way to Georgia, then Turkey and other parts of Europe. I might be in the interest of Russia to have control of the access.

For the conspiracy theorists out there with their tin foil hats on, this might interest you. As with many modern war these days, the United States must had its hands somewhere in it.

It seems that since early 2002, the U.S. government has been giving a healthy amount of military aid to Georgia. The U.S. have been training and equipping Georgian military. In return for the favor, Georgia commit to thousands of troops the the coalition forces in Iraq. Georgia is the third-largest contributor to the coalition.

We also know that U.S. have been arming the European nations with missiles with its reason given was due to the rising threat from Iran and its evil nuclear plans. Those missiles installation is there to stop Iran attacks, but it could be pointed to Russia military bases, who knows.

This might just be yet another U.S. and Russian proxy war.

The U.S. could condemn the war, but I doubt we will see any clear intervention from U.S. military forces. They can’t risk a full out war against the Russian. They can’t risk a ‘world war III’. The world can’t handle yet another world war.

Small wars happened so that it stops big wars from happening.

Small or big, wars sucks. I hope they end this conflict soon, because the longer this when on the more civilian casualties there will be.

p/s: I rather blogged about obscure war and other world issues then, blogging about who is who’s butt-buddy, Malaysian politics.

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