Who should I be behind in this war? Russian and South Ossetia or Georgia? And Why?"

Question

I am reading the Wikipedia article on this subject at the moment and am a bit perplexed. Mainly because I do not know which side to "root" for. It seems that I am "rooting" for the Georgians at the moment.

From what I can tell they mainly were trying to restore peace to an area where violence was on the rise. If South Ossetia wanted independance, a peaceful succession could have been attempted. They, and their Russian North Ossetian counterparts, could have petitioned both Russia and Georgia for independance and formed the country of Ossetia. And I am sure that if, say, Ohio started an armed revolt the US Military would mobilize in an instant.

The Russians, on the other hand, seem to be the antagonists in this matter. I understand that they want to protect the peacekeepers that were already in South Ossetia but mobilizing 10,000 troops doesn't seem like the best option.

And why, in the beginning of the war, would Russia move tanks and artillery into South Ossetia? It seems that the Russians were instigating this succession by offering the South Ossetians Russian passports and other such actions. Do the Russians have some ulterior motive? I don't know.

I understand that lobbying the Russian and Georgian governments for independence would probably not work and I do sympathize with South Ossetia because the United States had to endure the same task of overthrowing a strong enemy. Is Russia to South Ossetia as France was to the Thirteen Colonies? I don't know. Is Russia trying regain some of the territory she had lost during the collapse of the Soviet Union? Again, I don't know.

Mainly, my question is "Who should I be behind in this war? Russian and South Ossetia or Georgia? And Why?"

Answer 1

jh - so are you saying that only because Russia is stronger, everyone needs to support them and clap at their actions, when hundreds of civilians are murdered during air-attacks? way to go, my applause...

and here is my answer:

how come Russia was rightful to destroy Chechnya when they tried to gain independence and how come that the fact, that Georgia tried to restore peace in the breakaway region was illegal? double standards..

The "peacekeeping mission" of Russia is just a mask, covering great plans to occupy Georgia, Russia feels nostalgic to Soviet Union.

Where were so called "peacekeepers", when georgian villages were riddled at night during past couple weeks? they say, they even participated... Russian propaganda is working well worldwide, people who are misinformed about the events, consider Russia some sort of "savier", they forget that at this moment, Russia is bombing whole georgian territory far outside conflict zone, russian warplanes attacked capital Tbilisi this morning, while people where still sleeping, at approximately 4:30 a. m.

Georgian government announced about cease-fire several times, but they would not stop, Russia said they will not sit at the round table. Medvedev is impossible for Saakashvili to reach. what should georgians do? continue defending their country or wait until half the population is killed?

Georgian society has been pleading for help, but until the world wakes up, it may be too late...

Answer 2

It is probably the best to learn some history before making any conclusions. Ethnic conflicts don't just pop out of the blue. Most of them are centuries old. Just like in this case. South Osetians never wanted to be a part of Georgia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They'd rather be with Russian passports than under a constant genocide threat under Georgia. Although, Georgians themselves (at least the majority) would probably care less if Osetia was to become an independent state. But, not Saakashvili, who has been selling his country (and people) whenever it was fitting his political ambitions. I have many friends in Georgia and have traveled there numerous times. I also sympathize with the Georgians, but I hope they find enough courage to kick their President out as soon as possible. It would be just best for them, and for the rest of the world.

Please, read the link below.  

Answer 3

I'm from republic of Georgia, I would like to tell you people that situation is really bad over here, but we are calm.

I'm sure that nobody believes Russian lies any more, the world knows what is going on here, they know we didn't want this war to come, we have children, families here - this is not our choice!

The war started because osetians opened fire on our villages, it was well organized provocation planned by Russians. In this situation we had nothing more to do then defend our citizens!

Russians are saying that their citizens live in osetia... this is ironic, if they are afraid for the life of their citizens they would have evacuated them as soon as the shooting started, all countries who care about their citizens are evacuating people from Georgia because situation is dangerous, so what do you think should America leave their citizens in Georgia and make up a reason to get involved in war, saying that "americans in republic of Georgia are endangered"?

One more question - what were russian citizens doing in osetia, where did they get Georgian vizas, as you know this is "De jure" Georgian territory so russian citizens had to get vizas while living there, otherwise they didn't had right to be in osetia!

And again comes a question - civilians in Cxinvali died because it was bombed, as you know our military airports were bombed beginning from august 8th, we couldn't take our planes in to air because of that, so how could we bomb Cxinvali? Cxinvali was bombed by Russians, they knew that civilians were still hiding in buildings, but they didn't care as long as they were destroying our soldiers, everything else (including human lives, lives of civilians: children, women) did not matter for them.

Russians are bombing our cities far away from conflict zone, they can't explain why they are doing this, on TV they are saying that are doing this because of military strategic objects (military airports, military bases) but actually they are bombing civilians, homes, children, women are dying here, two days ago a pregnant women died in city of Gori! my friend saved 4 year old girl from the basement of crushed building - this is the real face of so called Peace-keepers, this is the real face of Russia!

Russians are talking about Genocide of osetians - this is somewhat true, because they (russians) were the ones who bombed Cxinvali for 3 days - Cxinvali does not exist any more!

Georgians left Cxinvali because there was nothing more to defend, russians did not give a d**n that osetian civilians (women, children) were hiding in the basements of buildings at the time there were bombing the city. Georgians asked for corridor to take civilians from Cxinvali to safe place.

I'm not thinking of leaving country, this is my HOME, my home country, the only thing I'm going to do is send my children to my parents in US (they are citizens), my mom says she's going to come to Azerbaijan (because flying directly to Georgia is becoming dangerous) and take children to U.S.

I'm staying here because my husband, my friends are going to stay here to defend our country.

It's not about South Osetia any more... it never was, Russia wants to get hold of Georgia, but this pie is going to turn very bitter for Russians, we came to 21th century keeping our language, homeland and religion, fighting with number of conquerors and we will loose our lives before we loose our country, we'll defend Georgia to last breath!

The only way you people can help us right now, is to tell the world about what is going on in Georgia, everybody must know what Russia is doing here!

As long as God is on our side nobody can defeat us, we are defending our homes from people who killed children in Beslan, who killed their own citizens (hostages) in "Nord-Ost" incident.

Truth is on our side and we are more stronger and braver than ever!

Today as always I'm proud to be Georgian!

Answer 4

Back Russia, they will win this one.

Answer 5

Georgians started this war by shelling and totally devastating the capital of  South Ossetia. Some 1600 people died in South Ossetia in one day! And, the georgians are not denying it. I don't care about their reason for doing it. It's wrong anyway you look at it! So, why would you root for the georgians?

Answer 6

Russia and South Ossetia are the injured parties in this one.  The Georgians fired the first shots against a community of people who have no weapons to defend themselves with, who don't want to be a part of Georgia, and indeed over 70,000 South Ossetians hold Russian Passports.  

The Russian army was sent in to give the Georgians a bloody nose they won't soon forget.  Remember when you were at school, and there would be a bully who would beat up on 2nd graders, until one of the second graders had a 16 year old brother who gave the bully a good humiliating smack?  Same thing here.  Russia wants to humiliate Georgia as well as administer a needed punishment.  

Answer 7

I support Georgia.  Russia's motives are more than suspect.  It seems like they are taking advantage of Georgia's instability and trying to restore the Soviet Empire.

Georgia was merely attempting to stabilize itself.