David Schussler

Russia is invading Georgia the same as it invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Many of the the tactics of the Russian army are the same as it pertains to the outrageous slaughter and pillage of the civilian population. This is a gross attack against any standards of decency or morality. For those who do not recall, the then Soviet army took pregnant women up in helicopters and dropped them into their own villages to attempt to get the citizens to give up the fight. These barbarians also gassed entire communities and left little booby trapped mini-bombs designed like toys for the children of the villages to pick up and blow their arms, legs, and faces off (which many did). This same military thrust systematically killed most of the doctors, teachers, and leaders of the communities all in an attempt to do what?

At that time the Soviets (Russians now) wanted to exert control over the Straights of Hormus where most of the oil from the Middle East flowed through to serve Western Europe and Asia. They knew that with that control they could basically blackmail most of the world by threatening to shut off oil.

Guess what? The same situation now exists with the pipeline that flows through Georgia and the tactics are very similar on the part of the Russians now. They could care less about the citizens of Georgia or South Ossetia (who are joining in the massacre).

Everyone is aware of the present turmoil over the production refinement and delivery of oil and gas worldwide and the demand has never been higher, so this provides incentive for power hungry Russia to attempt to gain control over the market. It would provide easy money and power if it works. If it fails they are no worse off. In the meanwhile the population of Georgia is subjected to inhuman atrocities at the hands of the maverick Russian army which is either not listening to its commanders to cease fire or (more likely) has never gotten such a command.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this morning at 0900 Human Rights Watch researchers have uncovered evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs (banned by 107 nations) in populated areas in Georgia during the air attacks from 6th of August through the 15th, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens. They say “Our information is confirmed by the data released by Human Rights Watch according to which, Russian military planes dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M sub-munitions, on the town of Ruisi in the Kareli district of Georgia on August 12, 2008. Three civilians were killed and five wounded in the attack. On the same day, a cluster strike in the center of the town of Gori killed at least eight civilians and injured dozens. Reportedly, the Dutch journalist Stan Storimans fell a victim to a cluster attack as well.”

Russia believed that most of the world would not pay much attention to this conflict because of all of the other warring situations going on but it was dead wrong and this has become a huge issue. Now Putin and Medvedev have to deal with saving face and testing the cohones of the free world.

The Balkan nations are standing up because they have suffered at the hands of the Russians before and have won their independence which they intend to retain. The rest of Europe, Asia, and the Americas better remember history and exert their influence quickly to prevent forceful acquisition of real estate and the barbaric genocidal slaughter of innocent lives.