Reply #8: War Is The Ultimate Insanity [View All]

[KharmaTrain]

In fairness, it's not that this town didn't know it was sitting right in the middle of a boiling crisis between Russia & Georgia. It's on the main roads leading to North Ossetia and suffered in a previous attempt by Georgia to control the area in 1993. While not in a technical war zone, this area, just under its self-proclaimed autonomous status knew it was going to fall in the middle of any conflict...and the warning signs were there.

That said, it can't be said enough how war is the ultimate madness. It's the total breakdown of civil control and rational thought. It encourages the most heinous behavior and devalues human life...as well as used by various sides to frame the conflict as being the victim rather than the oppressor.

The sad truth is we really don't know who provoked this latest fighting...I've heard reports via BBC and on various international sites that say the Russians provoked the attack and the Georgians over-reacted...and at this point it doesn't matter. People are dead and sabres are being rattled. The Georgian government has bit off more than it could chew and thought their paid-for Americans would come to the rescue...become the new Hungary or 1938 Sudentenland. The problem is most people in this country can't remember what happened two years ago, yet 52 or 70 years ago...other than being fed silly analogies by "instant experts".

Looking at it from a distance, what benefit does Russia have in occupying the entire country? It serves them better to have a weakened neighbor(s) who are more clients than weak sisters. A major reason the Soviet Union fell was Moscow had to prop up a lot of these regions ahd perpetuate a highly inefficient and corrupt infrastructure that bankrupted the entire country. I'm not sure many Russians want to return to those days...of food lines and social stagnation.