Sep
17
Gotta watch out for "Imperial" Putin and don’t forget the Ossetians!
September 17, 2008 | Georgia, imperial, media, news, outlets, putin, Russia | Leave a Comment
(Today I’ll post the links throughout my views).
As the majority of media attention subsides from Georgia and Russia, some outlets cover how Putin is facing international criticism:
“We do not have and will not have any of the imperial ambitions that people accuse us of,” Mr Putin said from the southern resort of Sochi.” BBC News
another interesting article is from the perspective of South Ossetians.
The bottom of one BBC article states some of their accounts:
“God forbid that the Georgians ever return,” one old pensioner says.
“They’re beasts. They killed my neighbour and her little baby. They are too dangerous to have living here next to us.”
“Georgians are cruel and evil people,” one says. “They want our land. They want to take this place away from us, to destroy our entire nation.”
Did CNN cover ossetians?
According to google ‘CNN.com’ and ‘ossetians’ bring up one most current link titled:
South Ossetia: “War of words over future of South Ossetia.”
Interestingly enough… it led me to this article:
Putin accuses U.S. of orchestrating Georgian War Aug. 28.08.
One thing is blinding me with attention:
“U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood concurred and labeled Putin’s statement ‘ludicrous’.” –Point taken. But boldly saying: “Russia is responsible for the crisis.”
The finger pointing games are back yet again.
Going back to what I started even in my very first entry.
The only way readers will really understand this conflict, and the truth behind things is to find the soul of the conflict: Ossetians.
O dear U.S. and Russian Media, Give at least one Ossetian a voice!
Sep
8
Looking back at Georgia v. Russian conflict
September 8, 2008 | America, Georgia, Ossetia, Russia, U.S. | Leave a Comment
The poster says: “We are ashamed of you.” Caption: Protesters rally against presence of Georgian troops near South Ossetia
I have decided to start a blog about how independent news sources cover relations between U.S. and Russia.
Check this out for same great independent sources, ideas, and quotes:
reuters blog/article on the conflict
Swiss news printed an article about the issue with a particularly interesting headline: Russia teaches Georgia a hard lesson.
I though this was quite an interesting integration of the two extremes: CNN interviewing Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov
The second part will consist of personal comments.
————————————————————-
Americans would be flabbergasted if a major paper in the U.S. had printed that Swiss headline…
If you want a balanced diet on the issue, read CNN, foxnews.com, msnbc.com–but then you should really dilute it with something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c26Q-qxDEA
To me there are two exteremes, bloggers like him (who are fed Russian news), and American media.
Personally I side with the Ossetians.
I do not trust Russian news for obvious reasons. I definitely do not trust the liberal-dominated, overly patriotic American media.
Russians who spent all summer in Russia were shocked at American news when they arrived back to the U.S. To them, the Georgian president initiated a genocide in the middle of the night, killing Ossetians and Russian peacekeepers. To Russians, the Georgian president was portrayed as Hitler. It was only natural for Russia to react the way they did.
Personally, Russia went too far breaking the peace treaty. But they did the right thing by defending an innocent people.
This was a finger-pointing war among all three: Georgia, U.S., Russia.
Let me ask you this: How many articles actually feature Ossetian voices?
Putting aside the fight for oil:
American news sources claim that Russia instigated the war by ‘handing out’ Ossetians Russian citizenship, therefore fueling independece from Georgia. It’s not as if Putin pressured Ossetians into accepting the citizenship. Ossetians want Russian protection! It’s common sense. Who do you want to side with: The big oil tycons or the miniscule Georgia? They gladly took the opportunity of having Russian citizenship. Russians and Ossetians have been at peace with each other for 250 years!!! While Georgia and Ossetia have had many decades of fighting while Ossetia has been under Georgian rule (BBC News).
What?
Bush is against invading another country?
Hmmm… Let me think about that one. Hypocritical isn’t it? What if that country (a.k.a. Georgia) declares war on you? Ya still can’t invade it? If you are using American news to defend the American government, I don’t wanna hear it. If you are using Russian news as your back-up in this argument, I don’t want to hear it either.
However, I hope we all know that this is the timeline:
1) Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.
2) Georgia started attacking Ossetia (It’s own territory).Thousands of innocent Ossetians died, most in their sleep. This is what we western folk like to call genocide. Over 100 Russian peace keepers and troops were also killed by Georgian troops. (swiss news)
3) Russia takes defensive action.
4) Georgia declares war on Russia.
5) Russia decides to teach Mikheil Saakashvili a lesson.
Yes, my VMI buddy Jorge brought up a good point, if California wanted to become independent from the United States, would we just let it happen? No, the U.S. would take action, but would the United States murder thousands of sleeping California citizens including thousands of innocent women and children?
No. But hey Georgia’s president did–to the Ossetians.We can talk all we want about how Georgia is a “courageous democracy” according to CNN, and yes the Russians can say: “they are just as Democratic as we are”, but let’s not stray from the matter at hand.. What Bush is actually supporting is a foreign government that massacred thousands of innocent Ossetians and Russians–FIRST.
BEFORE war was even declared by Georgia.
Funny little thing: According to CNN Georgia’s president claimed: ‘“Most decision makers have gone for the holidays. Brilliant moment to attack a small country.” Apparently he was referring to Russia invading Georgia , despite the fact that it was Georgia which had just launched a full-scale invasion of the “small country” South Ossetia.’ http://www.inteldaily.com/?c=172&a=7905.
Not sure on where this site lies on the political spectrum yet. However, it is non-profit in every way, and interviews/uses journalists who have been in the journalism industry for decades. Eric Margolis adds nicely to the “finger-pointing game” position: