Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/while-the-world-slept...er-watched

Comment #1596

2008-08-14T19:13:42Z

Yes, I understand the union against separation instinct, but Georgia itself just recently separated from what was then the USSR, and there we hailed the separation...

At any rate, it seems that Russia has been provoking Georgia by stoking separatist fires in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Ajaria - but then Abkhazia apparently had declared independence from Georgia in 1992 and Georgia tried to assert its rule by force but got beaten, so it doesn't seem to me that Georgia has the best track record either. (Point of note: even the Abkhaz and Georgian written characters differ!) The current government was democratically elected, and Russia probably sees that as a weakness in warfare, just waiting for an excuse to be imperialist again. And since the Georgian border is internationally recognized, the Russians are invading a foreign country while the Georgians are "merely" using force to quell dissatisfaction and separatist unrest within its borders.

So: how does one solve a conflict that's been there for generations, which involves two countries vying for more influence and afraid of actual local self-government, with more ethnicities than you can shake an AK-47 at, all of them shockingly inclined toward ethnic cleansing?

Comment #1595

2008-08-14T15:25:17Z

The underdog factor maybe?

My gut reaction is to support union against separation, which may be an Abraham Lincoln factor, I don't know. Sometimes separation may be necessary, and I know that revolutions and rebellions can bring about good, but more often than not I think the cost/benefit ratio is against them.

I also have an intuitive fear of Russia. I lived through most of the Cold War, and heard at least as many horror stories about the KGB as about Hitler's SS. I have a nasty suspicion that those who were once cruel and powerful are still cruel and still seek to exercise power.

Comment #1594

2008-08-14T04:48:40Z

I haven't followed the events that closely, but didn't Georgia begin the fighting this time on the opening day of the Olympics? Yes, Russia reacted (or overreacted), and had already been causing trouble by giving passports to the independence-minded South Ossetians (as far as I remember - I haven't got time to check my facts), but Georgia knew that Russia had threatened action if Georgia sent military into the autonomous region of South Ossetia. The Russians, in this context, were just keeping their word (and, I think, tried to go through the UN first).

It's funny, anyway, how I find myself intuitively siding with a smaller Russian province (like e.g. Chechnya) when it tries to become independent, but when Georgia gets unpleasant on a breakaway region, I intuitively side with Georgia. Why is that?