Posted on 11/29/2008 10:01:02 AM PST by BGHater
For the first time ever, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has admitted that his country started the military conflict in South Ossetia in August. But the Georgian leader is adamant the action was justified. He was testifying before a parliamentary commission investigating the five-day war.
According to Saakashvili, the attack on the South Ossetian capital, which involved night shelling of residential areas with multiple rocket launcher systems, was aimed at protecting Georgian citizens. He said it was a response to Russia’s “intervention” in the region.
“We did start military action to take control of Tskhinvali and other unruly areas. But we took this difficult decision to fend off our territory from intervention and save the people who were dying. It was inevitable,” Saakavili said.
The Georgian President claims Russia moved tanks into South Ossetian territory before Georgia launched its attack.
He said: “The issue is not about why Georgia started military action – we admit we started it. The issue is about whether there was another chance when our citizens were being killed? We tried to prevent the intervention and fought on our own territory.”
“I used to like Putin”
Mikhail Saakashvili said the deterioration of relations between Tbilisi and Moscow had nothing to do with his personal relations with Vladimir Putin. There was some speculation in the media that Putin bore a personal grudge against Saakashvili after he allegedly insulted Putin when he was president several years earlier.
The Georgian President said: “I never insulted him [Vladimir Putin] before anyone, that’s a lie.”
“All the gossip that the differences between our countries are based on personal hostility is an invented thing,” he said.
Ex-ambassador’s allegations ‘groundless’
Mikhail Saakashvili dismissed as nonsense the allegations voiced earlier this week by the former Georgian ambassador to Moscow, Erossi Kitsmarishvili. The diplomat said Tbilisi had been preparing the military campaign against South Ossetia for several years and put the blame for the bloodshed on Mikhail Saakashvili.
“Kitsmarishvili’s allegations are groundless; his status was not high enough to attend the Security Council meetings where the country’s foreign policy was decided. He could not know our plans, and those certainly have nothing to do with his version,” the Georgian leader said on Friday.
Opposition: EU should treat Saakashvili like Zimbabwe’s Mugabe
The opposition Labour Party in Georgia has called on the EU to freeze the bank accounts of Mikhail Saakashvili and several other top officials. According to party secretary, Georgi Gugava, such a move would stop them from fleeing the country.
“The Saakashvili administration have packed their suitcases and hope to flee and live a quiet and prosperous life abroad on what they’ve stolen and looted,” he said.
The proposed sanctions would be similar to those imposed against more then 100 Zimbabwe officials, who had their bank accounts frozen by the EU in June.
Some of said this from the beginning but were dismissed by “We’re All Georgians now” bromides. I’m not a Georgian, I’m an American.
The Russians seemed pretty damned ready to go didn’t they?
So now you feel vindicated by the Russian state-owned media?
Huh....there were plenty of reporters on the ground from Europe and elsewhere who exposed this. They were ignored by the Demopublicans, however, who preferred to believe that Georgian State Media instead.
Your bias is showing.
Read the full context of what Saakashvili said.
“The issue is not about why Georgia started military action – we admit we started it. The issue is about whether there was another chance when our citizens were being killed?"
Obviously Saakashvili was referring to themselves starting military action in Tskhinvali. He mentions this as a response to Russian backed So. Ossetians militias that were killing ethnic Georgians in So. Ossetia.
The title of this article is misleading...and you fall for it with your self proclaimed interest of telling us that you were right. And you're still not right.
And how long will it be before the USSR invades Ukraine...a nation whose gas supplies the USSR has cut off before and whose gas supplies she is *once again* threatening to cut off?
Well,I guess it must be noted that,with Comrade Putin,you can take the boy out of the KGB but you can't take the KGB out of the boy.
I don’t understand what the problem is here.
Georgia attacked South Ossetia.
So what? That was Georgia’s RIGHT since South Ossetia was a breakaway state and was treating Georgians living there poorly while also clearly linking up with the Russians FOR YEARS.
Russia KNEW the Georgians were going to attack (how could the Georgians possibly hide an invasion of South Ossetia from the Russians?) and decided to take advantage of it.
That’s what happened and it has been obvious to me from early on.
Why are people confused about this? It’s so obvious.
Saakashvili is obviously an idiot. He speaks excellent English, so (unfortunately) we cannot attribute this statement to poor translation.
Georgia did NOT initiate military action. He says himself that Russian tanks had already entered South Ossetian territory! That is quite plainly a blatant military incursion, even if no shots were necessarily fired.
Saakashvili is an idiot for describing his response to Russian tanks manoevering on his territory as Georgia's having begun military action.
Regards,
His remarks contradict the headline, but are in line with what we have previously heard.
Ossetian militia were attacking residents and police near the border for days. Then Georgia got word that Russian armor was on the move headed south. They decided to try to punch through and secure the tunnel before the armor could get through.
They made it through the militia handily but were too late to stop the Russian armor. So they lost.
Thats the way I understand it.
How do you start a war on another country within your own country unless you’ve already been invaded? The press does it again. That’s their headline, I presume.
From the source it's impossible to say whether Saakashvili made his comments in English or not. Since he was speaking to a Georgian audience I find it unlikely that he was, meaning what we're getting here a doubly translated quote: first from Georgian into Russian, and then from Russian into English.
I'm so glad we didn't rush in there. Yet further proof that the neocons, with their unquenchable thirst to take over the world, need to be taken out and shot.
The unequivocal sign of an ignorant mind: If you can't address a person's arguments, descend to personal attacks. You have learned well.
That’s right. Don’t go calling for anyone to be shot. Stay classy.
E. Cartman Post | Post #16:The unequivocal sign of an ignorant mind: If you can't address a person's arguments, descend to personal attacks. You have learned well.
If personal attacks are a sign of an ignorant mind, then personal threats are a sign of what?
Unbelievable.
To what person was my "threat" addressed? Addressing an attack at a person is a personal threat. Wishing the demise of the traitorous neocons is not.
How do you define a neocon?
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