Rebels 'hit two Georgian drones'

MOAR




Georgia says a Russian jet shot down a drone last month


RUN Colinism RUN!

Anyone know of a good source on the whole break-down of the NATO-Russia stand-offs? I want to see more on this, but my google skills are failing me.

This is why I love the BBC. Not only do they post the stories, but a lot of relevant background. I'm going to post them here just to be nice, but in the future for anyone that's actually paying attention, if you visit my sources there's usually a lot of background.

Without further adieu:
Georgia-Russian Relations
Separatism Woes
Chechens in Russia's shadows
Geogia-Russia Lords of War
Russia criticized over Abkhazia

And that's all I'm taking the time to post. There's plenty more. BBC is a good source material despite Tardo making fun of me.

I'm glad emotedcreations is reporting on the world for us. It's good to know that someone pays attention.

I had some friends from Georgia (from Tbilisi) and they were all very interested in creating an independent, modern, and honest country with strong ties to the West. Unfortunately, Russia still thinks of Georgia as being in their sphere and seems hell-bent on destabilizing it.

That said, the Georgian people that I have known do see themselves as separate and distinct people from the Abkhaz ethnic minority that makes up Abkhazia and the Ossetians that make up South Ossetia. I also knew a South Ossetian woman who was adamant that her region had nothing to do with the rest of Georgia and who felt that secession was the only option. These areas even have their own languages: Georgians speak Georgian, which has its own alphabet, Abkhazians speak Abkhaz, which uses a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet, and Ossetians speak Ossetic and also use their own modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet.

The root cause of the issues in Georgia is the desire for these separate and distinct minority cultures to have control over their own destinies, and the majority Georgian culture's desire to retain control over lands it has ruled (through Russian proxy power) since the 1800's . All Russia is doing is stoking the flames of ethnic friction for their own purposes, but these frictions are very real, have existed for centuries, and would not go away if Russia backed off and left Georgia alone.

I was thinking about some of these issues yesterday in relation to the Bolivian SC referendum for independence. I would like to preempt my comment by saying that I have no desire to tell ethnic minorities what is best for them. In fact, I spent a lot of time in college studying the efforts made by Mayans in Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras to establish their own identity that would carry on their traditional customs and make them distinct from the governments and dominant cultures that they live under.

BUT, I see a trend that worries me. What happens if all these distinct identities break of into their own little countries? What if they don't have enough material resources for development? What if their neighboring countries use that against them to dominate them politically, economically, and militarily? Does the international community then have to step in at ever turn of the corner? My naive optimism tells me that it would be better if these smaller groups pooled their resources with the larger states they were previously part of (or trying to win independence from) and worked on coalition government. I think if people could "get along" they me much better off even the larger factions. Cooperation and pluralist societies I think will have an easier time making it in the global word and economy. Maybe they're not at that point yet. I don't know. Perhaps there are steps you have to go through before you can achieve that type of unity and fighting for your rights as an individual group first is one of them, then you can join the larger culture with respect and power. I don't know.

I'm not going to lie and say I know a lot of this current conflict and the issues involved. I really don't. What I know is pretty superficial, and like I said when I started this post, I have no desire to tell them (Abhazia and Ossetia) what they should do. Hopefully, they know what's best for them. My point was simply that I'm not sure this tendency to split into smaller and smaller factions is a good one. I mean, how well would we be doing if we were split into five countries? I realize it's not the same given the fact that we don't have regions with distinct languages, but we still do fine with lots of different cultures living under the same roof.

[/the longest rant I've ever made with seemingly not saying anything at all]

World Balkanization seems to be inevitable, it's a very bad idea which will leave all of those small states as food for larger ones somewhere down the line. A few generations of being on their own and some of them will decide to merge back up into stronger units.

UPDATE: Russian soldiers are mending Abkhazian railways.