PoliticalCitizen

Thank you! I will take note and read some of these books at my earliest opportunity. You are correct - I am much more familiar with the history they taught us in Soviet schools then the history of British Navy. However, history aside, I do not think any self-respecting country in the world would like to be "policed" by another, more powerful country. In the ideal world that would be a great idea... But then in the ideal world there should be no countries, no armies, no famine, no wars...

Hey, for all of you non-believers: here's a victim witness report on FOX News (I hope you trust the source): Pay attention how the host tries to get the witness to shut up (in the spirit of Democracy and in the name of Freedom).

I envy you - it is quite an Utopian world you're picturing... Policing the World... Team America... F. Yeah! Sorry, couldn't help myself. Let's try to stay on topic.

If there is any one area in Soviet Union / Russia that has never lacked funding it is weapon development. The army itself is far from ideal, with a suicide rate of 20%. I would not be quick to dismiss the nuclear and other (chemical, biological) potential of a re-emerging superpower. We can continue this discussion in the separate Cold War II thread I created, if you wish.

We have clearly witnessed the beginning of Cold War II between US and Russia. US is trying to get more and more former Socialist countries into NATO, isolating Russia militarily and neutralizing Russia's nuclear potential. But has NATO not outlived its purpose? It was the West's answer to Warsaw Pact, wich is now defunct and forgotten. It appears that today NATO is an instrument of USA's imperialistic ambitions in the world. At this point the members of NATO should stop and ponder: do they want to be dragged into the wars and confrontations that US is creating in all parts of the world? "Russia must be punished", they say. It is easy and convenient for US, being on another continent and having no important economic relations with Russia. For European countries it is quite the opposite. They have good economic relations with Russia and many of them rely on Russian gas and oil. It would make a lot more sense for Europe to have a Pan-European military alliance that would not include USA.

What is your opinion based on? Please share.

I'm sure there's more anecdotes about Bush than anyone could count And honestly, it is very sad to see that the most powerful country in the world has the least intelligent leader.

I appreciate the bitterness of your remark However, like it or not, Russia is the only country in the world that has a chance of single-handedly destroying US. And antagonizing it by taking former allies into NATO and building a missle defence system along its border is not going to do anyone any good. Of course. Only Russians like power.

A lot of people on this board seem to be eager to criticize Russia without understanding what happened in Georgia. US is not RCMP and Russia is not Hell's Angels. US politics in the world are absolutely totalitarian. Russia's used to be the same, but now they have to be much more careful as they are #2 at best. It is hard not to see the difference between Bush and Putin One can barely read and speaks some English; the other is a former spy who speaks several languages and practices martial arts

The people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whose extermination Russia prevented, have a different opinion. As a matter of fact, they will not trust ANY peacekeeping force BUT Russian because the rest of the world chose to conveniently watch Olympics while the Ossetians were being slaughtered and then forgot to mention that in the news. Agreed. But why is having troops ready to defend civilians wrong and having an army trained and armed by US and Israel just for the purpose of exterminating these people right? It appears this "Democracy" thing is a religion where the US administration are the prophets and everyone else either followers or heretics. Does "Democracy" mean the right of a government to exterminate an inconvenient part of the population? I'm sure everyone here will agree that any talk about "Morals" coming from US is an insult to any thinking person's intelligence. What matters is who's more powerful. US thought they can do whatever they wanted in any part of the world as they did for a couple of decades, and noone could tell them "No". Now they realized that's no longer the same, and another country has more power its region of the world. It is hard for them to get it through their heads. How come they said "No" and someone didn't obey? But now they will taste what it's like to be mad and powerless at the same time. It is a good lesson. I hope they will learn from it.

Hehe... Most of them pretended to be Jewish... just to get out. Well... You know that there are millions of Chinese in both US and Canada. Ask them if they hate China. And that still is a Communist government. Ask your friend why he and his family immigrated. I'm sure it was not Putin's repressions

Most of the Russian-speaking population in Canada and US have left USSR and the countries formed after its collapse as Jews. They have lived a few years in Israel but chose not to stay None of them left because they hate Russia. It was the economic situation and the persecution of Russians by some former Soviet Republics (Pribaltic, Middle-Asian).

Funny... I've heard the same story said about the Americans. There are certain aspects of the relations between etnic groups that the members of this board may be missing because they are not familiar with the Caucasus region. Russia is and has always been the stabilizing factor in the region. Thanks to its presence the Caucasian nations did not wipe out each other until now, and hopefully it will stay that way in the future. Another aspect of the situation concerns US foreign agenda. We can discuss it in a separate thread if you wish, but basically it consists of de-stabilizing various regions (Yugoslavia, Middle East, Caucasus etc.) in order to weaken countries outside of their control and to gain foothold for its military.

Argus, As I told moderateamericain we can have a separate US and Russia-bashing thread. I'm sure you can imagine how many ugly things can be said by either side. Let me ask you a simple question: Have you heard anyone from Bush's administration even mention the terms Ossetia or Ossetian? Their behaviour would imply that such things don't even exist... If you are concerned with who's doing what to help civilian population and restore the infrastructure: Bush has pledged $250K USD (lol) in help for Georgia + some "Humanitarian" shipments that for whatever reason have to be delivered by military means; Putin has pledged $460M USD (10bil rubles) to rebuild Tshinval.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g8GZ3q...4_h91nTTppS-Yjw "Around a year ago Israel decided to limit its aid to Georgia to defensive weaponry and military advisors, and at present its aid stands at 200 million dollars (120 million euros), the newspaper said. Israel has in the past sold aerial drones, night-vision equipment, and rockets to Georgia, and many retired officers from the Israel's military and internal security services work as military advisors there. "

moderateamericain, I appreciate you starting this thread and hope that you meant it to be used for the discussion of the situation in Georgia and not to utter hate speach towads Russia and Russian people. Saying things like "The Russians have no regard for human life" is ignorant and show how little control your mind has over your anger. Remember that there are hundreds of thousands of Russians in both Canada and US, some of them may be reading the postings on this board. If your intent was to start a US vs. Russia thread - we can do that and say ugly things to each other - gloves off If you want to discuss news: Saakashvili signed the cease-fire agreement today. One of the points of that agreement was that Georgian territorial integrity in the pre-war shape is no longer a possibility. Ulike Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence will have to be achieved by following the existing European and international laws and agreements.

Argus, Name-calling and personal attacks are the arguments of a disgruntled 12-year old. If you will continue trying to bully members of this board I will just have to ingnore you like I would ignore a regular troll. Just because you've posted a lot here doesn't mean this board is your private playground. Now, if you want to continue an intelligent discussion, I will answer your comments: Your information is one-sided. If you are proud of your ignorance of the other side - please continue posting in the same spirit. If you would like to know more about the other side of the story read Reuters or watch videos at www.russiatoday.com/en I'll take that as a compliment. I don't believe you would take as a compliment me calling you mr. Bush There were no night-time bombings of Grozny without a warning for civillians to evacuate and using GRAD rocket systems designed to level entire areas. Georgia's several thousands strong military, trained and armed by US and Israel, is disproportionately big for such a small country. By comparison Moldova (who also has a break-away province of Transdniestria) has no tanks, no aviation and a relatively small army. It is obvious that the "democratically elected" government of Georgia planned to invade the Ossetia and Abkhazia for a long time, and were prepared to defeat not just the "rebels" but the Russian peace-keeping forces in the region as well. This could be a lie - that happens a lot in a conflict. But the genocide is not a lie - just take a look at what's left of the city of Tshinval.

Out of all English language news agencies I found Reuters to make the biggest effort to present both sides. I am proud to be Canadian. BTW, China is just shy of the 10 million square kilometers Canada has, but a lot more of its territory is inhabitable (and inhabited). Funny you should say that. Condy tried to prevent Lavrov from using the word GENOCIDE. I am more than certain the Canadian press has received instructions on how the events should be represented. As a matter of fact, the Canadian coverage is much more anti-Russian than the CNN's. Agreed. But at least they acted to prevent further genocide, something the UN "Peacekeepers" never do. BTW, the Chechen "President" Razman Kadyrov asked Russian Government if his troops could personally meet the 2000 Georgian fighters coming back from Iraq. He said the Chechen soldiers could use the nice NATO equipment LOL Not really. War is primarily killing people, as in the soldiers and population of the enemy. The military bases and weapon depots Russian troops are destroying are abandoned. Hahaha! Again, I appreciate your sense of humor. Cheers!

I see a lot of Russian haters on this board... This, as well as the mostly one-sided representation of the conflict by western news agencies, is regrettable. We live in Canada, a multi-national country that by its very existence proves that all the etnic groups waging wars elsewhere in the world can happily live side-by-side. Recognizing that Canada is US's little sister it should still have its own voice. I have yet to hear or read any Canadian statement recognizing the event that sparked the Russian - Georgian conflict: G E N O C I D E The US and Israeli-trained and armed Georgian military almost leveled the city of Tshinval, killing Ossetian population and Russian peacekeepers. Ossetians reported Georgians who were part of the peacekeeping force shooting Russians and Ossetians. What the criminal regime of Saakashvili committed is a crime against humanity. The Russian response was somewhat disproportionate - they should have sent MORE troops in right away. A tiny country of 4.5 million people had somehow a quite potent military force, that incurred more death and destruction than Russians anticipated. Now Ossetians have found bodies of African-American fighters that somehow were in the ranks of the Georgian army. It was also found that the anti-aircraft guns and operators were Ukrainian. The Russian troops that are on Georgian territory now are dismantling military bases and destroying military equipment - something necessary to prevent further attacks by Georgians on Ossetia and Abkhazia. Oh yes, to the flaming Anglo-Saxons of this board: don't you dare tell anyone to go back home! Your ancestors exterminated the American Indian population of this continent. Remember that and respect all board members.

Many of us have read or seen on TV fictional future WW3 scenarios... Few of us have thought that it is happening already. What US calls "War On Terror" is WW3. Multiple countries attacked other multiple countries. The difference from other world wars is that since these were initiated by the sole superpower (at least at the time) which picked some of the most unpopular countries to attack. So the rest of the world either joined in or silently watched as the war was dragged on for years... There are reasons to believe we're about to enter the next stage of WW3 - US may be using their little game with Georgia as a ruse to cover their preparations to attack Iran. Will Canada blindly follow, remain sheepishly silent or speak against the conflict? We have blindly followed in Afganistan. We are sheepishly silent about the war in Iraq. Is it time to say something? Or are we too afraid of the Big Bad Brother?