1) Georgians are the world's greatest cooks.

2) Georgians are the world's greatest dancers.

3) Georgian wine is the best in the world.

4) All the Russian strippers and hookers in New York have Georgian boyfriends, who hate them.

5) Although these Georgian boyfriends hate their Russian prostitute girlfriends, they would never pimp them out because real men never take money from women, ever.

6) When Georgians smoke on public transportation they always offer cigarettes to the other passengers, because Georgians have the best manners in the world.

7) The Golden Age in Georgia coincided with its inclusion in the Soviet Union.

8) Hanging out with Georgians gives people a vast appreciation for irony.

All Georgians can't be bad but Saakashvili and his army are war criminals so they'll be right at home with Bush and the neo cons. Always having a war or planning one. The only true words in that article were 'It's a strange and irrational thing.' Now, that they got right!

Care to enlighten the rest of us on how posting troops in your own country is a war crime?? If that's the standard these days, then Spanish troops in the Basque country and Canadian forces in Quebec are well on their way to the Hague!!

Well let's put it this way. If you send troops anywhere to carry out ethnic cleansing, (even inside territory you claim)going house to house to murder unarmed civilians, gunning children down in the street and throwing hand grenades into houses, that's a war crime. If you intend to drive people from their homes for reason of race, religion, nationality or ethnicity that's also a war crime. The Georgian army did both these things in South Ossetia and would have done them in Abkhazia. America flew Georgian troops from Iraq on American planes to take part in the attack which makes them accomplices. If you also do these war crimes knowing full well that Russia will strenuously object, you're not only criminal you're just plain damn stupid. My guess is that the neo cons who run John McCain these days wanted to make the poor old feller look like Winston Churchill while also stickin' it to the Ruskies one last time before they leave office. The sheer reckless nuttiness of these people can hardly be comprehended. They play with people's lives as if they're pieces on a chessboard. This time they picked the wrong people to annoy. The Russians are quite good at chess themselves. If you re-elect the neo cons and don't hold them accountable for their actions while in office you only have yourselves to blame but the whole world will pay, as they're already paying. The whole world will probably heave a sigh of relief when George is back on the ranch sawing up trees (all he's good for) and Dick is creeping around in the corporate world like the undead freak that he undoubtedly is but if you don't have your own Nuremberg trials the whole thing will happen again with other, possibly even worse players. All this stuff with Russia is just a distraction from the anthrax letters which went rather badly as a PR exercise because many citizens didn't believe the fabricated tale of the rogue scientist: a winner since the days of Frankenstein, but not in this case. As for the Hague, well, I can dream can't I?

Ummmm first of all, if you're going to sling around accusations of war criminality, you better have more substantial grounds for doing so than biased, anti-Georgian ranting. I've kept up to date on the situation through numerous media sources, and this is the first time that I've heard such accusations levelled against Georgian troops. Can you please cite your sources, or are they just in your head?

As to Georgia claiming S. Ossetia and Abkhazia, you seem to be suggesting that this is in serious dispute. Even the Russians recognise both regions as part of sovereign Georgian territory. In fact, the only people who contest this are the rebels which Georgia moved against last week. It seems to me that Georgia has as much right to protect its territorial integrity as say Spain has in its conflict with the Basques.

In terms of your mentioning of the McCain campaign, this is laughable. Are you seriously suggesting that a Republican presidental nominee is secretly behind this conflict? A conflict which took the world by surprise, and yet John McCain and his aides are secretly pulling Sachashvili's strings?? And then you suggest that this conflict might have been engineered to distract people from a minor domestic incident!! It must be wonderful to have the ability to discard logic at will!! People might be able to take your other claims a little more seriously if it wasn't for these kind of groundless, conspiracy theory-esque allegations.

Finally, you cite Georgia's involvement in Iraq as part of your war crime indictment. As far as I'm concerned, the democratically elected Iraqi leadership, comprised of Shi'tes, Sunnis, and Kurds have failed to level such accusations, so what gives your the unique insight. Or do you think that you know better than the Iraqi people?

Thank you, laforce, now I am definitely voting for McCain.

was Georgian.

When it to mass murdering dictators Stalin even tops Hitler.

So now the Russians are invading Georgia to stop Stalin? Does 2008 Russia think it's going to war against 1921 Russia by getting to Georgia first?

That an interesting justification. Perhaps we should withhold judgment until Pravda and Fox give us a "fair and balanced" debate regarding the novel concept of "time."

And let's have Russia invade Germany and Japan too...that'll show em for supporting Hitler and Tojo, erm, all of 60 years ago! It's not called called current affairs for nothing steelbucket.

The American-armed and trained Georgian army swarmed into South Ossetia last Thursday, killing an estimated 2,000 civilians, sending 40,000 South Ossetians fleeing over the Russian border, and destroying much of the capital, Tskhinvali. The attack was unprovoked and took place a full 24 hours before even ONE Russian soldier set foot in South Ossetia. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Americans still believe that the Russian army invaded Georgian territory first. The BBC, AP, NPR, the New York Times and the rest of the establishment media has consistently and deliberately misled its readers into believing that the violence in South Ossetia was initiated by the Kremlin. Let's be clear, it wasn't. In truth, there is NO dispute about the facts except among the people who rely the western press for their information. Despite its steady loss of credibility, the corporate media continues to operate as the propaganda-arm of the Pentagon.

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Facts of ethnic cleansing (1992-1993)

Following are few examples taken from the Helsinki Human Rights Watch Reports and documentation submitted for the review to United Nations and Hague War Crimes Tribunal.

Fall of Gagra

On September 3, 1992, the Russian mediated agreement was signed between Georgian and Abkhaz separatist sides which obliged Georgia to withdraw its military forces from the city of Gagra. The agreement forced Abkhaz separatists from Gudauta to hold their attacks on the city. Soon after, the Georgian forces which included Shavnabada, Avaza and White Eagle battalions (along with their tanks and heavy artillery) left the city. Only small pockets of armed groups (made up of volunteers units of the ethnic Georgians of Gagra) remained. However, on October 1, the Abkhaz side violated the agreement and launched a full scale attack on Gagra. The attack was well coordinated and mainly carried out by the Chechen (under the command of Shamil Basaev) and North Caucasian militants. Meantime in Gagra, Georgian small detachments lost the control of the city suburbs (Leselidze and Kolkhida) and eventually were destroyed in the city center by the end of October 1st. With the fall of the city, the Georgian population of Gagra was captured by the separatists and their allies. The first major massacres and ethnic-cleansing were committed during the fall of Gagra.[34]

People of all ages were rounded up from Gagra, Leselidze, Kolkhida and killed. When the separatist militants entered the city, civilians became a target of mass murder. The main targets were young people and children. According to the witness account: "When I returned home I was surprised to see a lot of armed people on the street. They were quiet. I mistook one of them for my Georgian neighbour, and I said, "How are you?" in Georgian. He grabbed me by the wrist and said, "Keep quiet." I wasn’t afraid for myself; I thought they had killed my family. He asked me in Russian, "Where are your young people? We won’t kill you, we’ll kill them." I said they weren’t here, that there were only old people left."[35] Women and young girls captured by the militants became the victims of rape and torture. One elderly Georgian woman who lived through the October attack in Gagra recounted the following: "They brought over a blind man and his brother, who always stayed with him. They began to beat the blind man, his brother and his wife with a gun butt, calling him "dog!" and kicking him. He fell over. I saw blood. One soldier said: "We won’t kill you, but where are the young girls?" I said there weren’t any."[36]

My husband Sergo was dragged and tied to a tree. An Abkhaz woman named Zoya Tsvizba brought a tray with lots of salt on it. She took the knife and started to inflict wounds on my husband. After that, she threw salt on to my husbands exposed wounds. They tortured him like that for ten minutes. After, they forced a young Georgian boy (they killed him afterwards) to dig a hole with the tractor. They placed my husband in this hole and buried him alive. The only thing I remember him saying before he was covered with the gravel and sand was: “Dali take care of the kids!"[37]

After the fall of Gagra, the victors started to pillage, rape, and torture followed by summary executions of everyone who was captured and failed to flee the city in time. At 5:00 pm on October 1, civilians (approximately 1000-1500 people) were rounded up and placed under the guard at the soccer stadium in downtown Gagra. On October 6, close to 50 civilians had been found hanging on electricity poles. Soon after, children, elderly, women and men who were detained on the soccer stadium were gunned down and dumped in mass graves not far from the stadium.

A Russian military observer Mikhail Demianov (who was accused by the Georgian side of being the military advisor to the separatist leader Ardzinba) told Human Rights Watch:

When they [Abkhaz] entered Gagra, I saw Shamyl Basaev's battalion. I have never seen such a horror. They were raping and killing everyone who was captured and dragged from their homes. The Abkhaz commander Arshba raped a 14 year old girl and later gave an order to execute her. For the whole day I only could hear the screams and cries of the people who were brutally tortured. On the next day, I witnessed the mass execution of people on the stadium. They installed machine guns and mortars on the top and placed people right on the field. It took a couple of hours to kill everybody[38]

UN observers started to investigate and gather all the facts concerning the war crimes during the fall of Gagra. The blame for cutting the heads off the dead was placed on Shamyl Basaev’s battalion. Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia Mikhail Jinjaradze was dragged out from his office and executed.

The Abkhaz separatists killed people of other nationalities as well, including those who tried to protect Georgians. After the city was seized, the streets were covered with bodies. Separatists destroyed the Baramidze, Chkhetia, Baramia, Gvazava, Dzidziguri, Absandze, Shonia, and Kutsia families, as well as many others[39]

Massacre in Kamani After the failed attempt of the separatist forces and their allies to storm Sukhumi on March 14th, 1993, Abkhaz diverted their main forces to the northern side of the front line which divided Georgian held Sukhumi and separatist controlled territories. On July 4, the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus militia, Abkhaz formations, and Armenian Bagramyan battalion transported by allegedly Russian naval forces to the city of Tkhvarcheli began their offensive on the northern Sukhumi district. Georgian forces and local volunteer units stationed in the villages of Shroma, Tamishi and Kamani were taken by surprise. On July 5, after intensive fighting, Georgians lost as many as 500 people in a couple of hours.[40] The village of Kamani fell into the hands of separatist formations and their North Caucasian allies. Kamani was populated mainly by Svans (a sub-ethnic group of the Georgian people) and by Orthodox nuns who had been living in the church of St George located in the center of the village.[41] The local villagers (including women and children) were massacred while the church of St George became the scene of a blood bath.[42] The nuns were raped and killed in front of the orthodox priests, father Yuri Anua and father Andria. Both priests were taken outside of the church and questioned about the ownership of the land in Abkhazia. After answering that Abkhazia was neither Georgian nor Abkhaz land but God's, they were shot by a confederate soldier. Another priest was killed along with father Yuri Anua and father Andria, an ethnic Abkhaz who was forced to shoot father Andria before he was killed.[43] Approximately, 120 inhabitants of the village were massacred. Similar events took place in the villages of Shroma, Aguzera, Gulripsh, Labra and Tamishi.[44]

When the Abkhaz entered my house, they took me and my seven year old son outside. After forcing us to kneel, they took my son and shot him right in front of me. After they grabbed me by hair and took me to the nearby well. An Abkhaz soldier forced me to look down that well; there I saw three younger men and couple of elderly women who were standing soaked in water naked. They were screaming and crying while the Abkhaz were dumping dead corpses on them. Afterwards, they threw a grenade there and placed more people inside. I was forced again to kneel in front of the dead corpses. One of the soldiers took his knife and took the eye out from one of the dead near me. Then he started to rub my lips and face with that decapitated eye. I could not take it any longer and fainted. They left me there in a pile of corpses.[45]

And more....

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Iraq is a war crime happening while you debate your precious little debating points. If you don't think a war fought on a lie in which a million Iraqis have died and five million have become refugees is a war crime then give me your definition of a war crime. If you don't think what went on in Abu Ghraib, at Bagram Air Base and what is going on in Guantanamo Bay is a violation of international law, you're just burying your head in the sand.

This is what happened in South Ossetia: make up your own mind if it's a war crime. This is from a blog and was posted on Salon.

·

· Two brigades about 6,500 soldiers (infantry and tanks) with American trainers, and with support of ground missles and artillery started the attack on Tskhinvally. Later in the morning, the air strikes added to this. All of them had an order to “clean out the separatists from the region by the evening of 08/08 Friday latest”. What I think, it was a plan to finish it during the Olympics opening, so that the next morning they could report a “victory over separatists in one day”, and none of the media would be interested in how it was done, as most of the world was watching Olympics show in Bejing. I think that was arranged and planned with help of Ms.Rice, who visited Georgia just some weeks ago.

August 8, morning: Half of Tskhinvally ruined, most of buildings are under fire. Nobody evacuated. Bodies of men, women and children are on the streets (I have seen the videos, which no Western channels show) Southern part of the city is under Georgian troops control. 500 russian peacekeepers and not shooting as they possibly have no order from Moscow. Georgians are shooting everyone they see, including peacekeepers and children on the streets. I tried calling my cousin there, but she declined my calls several times, later sent a text: “We can’t speak in the basements, as they throw grenades to the houses and basements once they hear a phone call or talk”. Later, when she came to Vladikavlaz,Russia, she described awful and frightening scenes of Georgians shooting children and women, setting them on fire, raping little girls after killing their mothers etc. It was a true nightmare in real!!! They were also attacked on the way to the Russian border. No wounded could be evacuated that day. I can’t believe that this can happen in the country of Democracy and Freedom which Georgia reports to be…

People like you are more dangerous to democracy than the neo cons, einhard, because you don't want to know the truth and you're too lazy to look for it especially if you have to give up your prejudices to find it. The media isn't reporting this. They're pretending that the Russians attacked Georgia first. Don't you wonder why?Where did those orders come from? And it's the BBC as well. If the BBC in its present incarnation told me the sun was shining I'd have to look out the window and check. Your government has been lying to you for years, this is just the latest, most dangerous and reckless lie. According to a former member of Ronald Reagan's administration the neo cons actually think they can start a world war in order to retain power. His sources are probably impeccable and with the neo cons you have to think the improbable because that's how THEY think. As for me thinking I know better than the Iraqi people: were they asked if they wanted to be invaded, murdered, dispossessed and to have their oil stolen and US military bases built all over their country? Your question is an exercise in stupidity and deceit.

Al Qaeda's dying; let's get ready for another scarecrow, Russia which is suspected of supporting Iran.