U.S. Calls for Russia to Halt Attacks on Georgia

[Deku Trii]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Russia Friday to halt attacks in South Ossetia, after Georgian troops entered the breakaway province in an attempt to crush separatist forces seeking control.

Rice's announcement came as the European Union was working on a cease-fire with Georgia and South Ossetia separatists to end the violent conflict.

Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, launched a surprise military offensive to retake South Ossetia and reportedly killed hundreds of people, triggering a ferocious counterattack from Russia that threatened to plunge the region into full-scale war.

Moscow, which has close ties to the separatists, sent a column of tanks rolling into South Ossetia and reportedly attacked two Georgian air bases as it moved to assert itself as the dominant regional power.

As night fell, there were wildly conflicting claims as to who held the battlefield advantage.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said "Georgian military forces completely control all the territory of South Ossetia" except for a northern section adjacent to Russia. But Russian news agencies cited a Russian military official as saying heavy fighting was under way on the outskirts of the regional capital.

"We lost our city ... The Georgians are like Nazis, they are killing civilians, women and children with heavy artillery and rockets," said 28-year-old Sarmat Laliyev, a Tskhinvali resident who had fled to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia.

The fighting broke out as much of the world's attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Bush, were in Beijing.

The timing suggests Saakashvili may have been counting on surprise to fulfill his longtime pledge to wrest back control of South Ossetia — a key to his hold on power.

Saakashvili agreed the timing was not coincidental, but accused Russia of being the aggressor. "Most decision makers have gone for the holidays," he said in an interview. "Brilliant moment to attack a small country."

Diplomats issued a flurry of statements calling on both sides to halt the fighting, but with no immediate effect. It was unclear what might persuade either side to stop shooting. Both claim the battle started after the other side violated a cease-fire that had been declared just hours earlier after a week of sporadic clashes.

The United States was sending its top Caucasus envoy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, to the region to try to end the bloodshed.

Russia, which has granted citizenship to most of the region's residents, appeared to lay much of the responsibility for ending the fighting on Washington.

In a telephone conversation with Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Georgia must be convinced to withdraw its forces, according to a ministry statement.

Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. But Saakashvili said that the troops would be called home Saturday in the face of the South Ossetia fighting.

Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership — a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.

The leader of South Ossetia's rebel government, Eduard Kokoity, said about 1,400 people were killed in the onslaught, the Interfax news agency reported. The toll could not be independently confirmed.

Twelve Russian peacekeepers were killed and 30 wounded in the fighting, said Russian Ground Forces spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov. Russia has soldiers in South Ossetia as peacekeeping forces but Georgia alleges they back the separatists.

Georgia's Foreign Ministry accused Russian aircraft of bombing two military air bases inside Georgia, inflicting some casualties and destroying several military aircraft. Rustavi 2 television said four people were killed and five wounded at the Marneuli air base.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it was sending reinforcements for its peacekeepers, and Russian state television and Georgian officials reported a convoy of tanks had crossed the border. The convoy was expected to reach the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, by evening, Channel One television said.

"We are facing Russian aggression," said Georgia's Security Council chief Kakha Lomaya. "They have sent in their troops and weapons and they are bombing our towns."

Putin warned in the early stages of the conflict that the Georgian attack would draw retaliation and the Defense Ministry pledged to protect South Ossetians, most of whom have Russian citizenship.

Chairing a session of his Security Council in the Kremlin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also vowed that Moscow will protect Russian citizens.

"In accordance with the constitution and federal law, I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located," Medvedev said. "We won't allow the death of our compatriots go unpunished."

On Friday, an AP reporter saw tanks and other heavy weapons concentrating on the Russian side of the border with South Ossetia — supporting the reports of an incursion. Some villagers were fleeing into Russia.

"I saw them (the Georgians) shelling my village," said Maria, who gave only her first name. She said she and other villagers spent the night in a field and then fled toward the Russian border as the fighting escalated.

Yakobashvili said Georgian forces had shot down four Russian combat planes over Georgian territory but gave no details. Russia's Defense Ministry denied an earlier Georgia report about one Russian plane downed and had no immediate comment on the latest claim.

Yakobashvili said that one Russian plane had dropped a bomb on the Vaziani military base near the Georgian capital, but no one was hurt.

More than 1,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers were at the base last month to teach combat skills to Georgian troops. Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain.

South Ossetia officials said Georgia attacked with aircraft, armor and heavy artillery. Georgian troops fired missiles at Tskhinvali, an official said, and many buildings were on fire.

Georgia's president said Russian aircraft bombed several Georgian villages and other civilian facilities.

A senior Russian diplomat in charge of the South Ossetian conflict, Yuri Popov, dismissed the Georgian claims of Russian bombings as misinformation, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

Saakashvili long has pledged to restore Tbilisi's rule over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Both regions have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and built up ties with Moscow.

Relations between Georgia and Russia worsened notably this year as Georgia pushed to join NATO and Russia dispatched additional peacekeeper forces to Abkhazia.

The Georgian attack came just hours after Saakashvili announced a unilateral cease-fire in a television broadcast late Thursday in which he also urged South Ossetian separatist leaders to enter talks on resolving the conflict.

Georgian officials later blamed South Ossetian separatists for thwarting the cease-fire by shelling Georgian villages in the area.

FOXNews.com - U.S. Calls for Russia to Halt Attacks as Fighting in Breakaway Georgia Province Escalates - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

[Cosmonautical]

.. ****

Of course, fighting continues.

[Valigarmander]

America does not condone sending troops into foreign countries to start war.

[Kil'jaeden]

Why do they need to call them peacekeepers? Usually that means they'll stick around and try to control the place.

[Darth_Flava]

Hmm, I smell a second Cold War coming.

[Kargath]

* Kargath twitches

[Kil'jaeden]

Really, what are they going to do if you express an opinion on a forum?

[Kargath]

Anywhere from fire me to charge me.

[Robotazy]

If I were the leader of Russia, I'd reply "Well remove your troops from your destroyed nation of choice, and we'll remove ours"

This feeling of triumph would only last for about one minute before Secret Service started pointing guns at me for talking back to the president.

[CaptHayfever]

^At which point your guards would start pointing guns at him for physically threatening you.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Robotazy]

And then Cold War 2: Electric Boogaloo would start. This time with who gets to Mars first, and inventing the best Internet.

[Deku Trii]

U.S. and Poland set missile deal - International Herald Tribune

[Dylan]

Originally Posted by Kil'jaeden

Why do they need to call them peacekeepers? Usually that means they'll stick around and try to control the place.

Hi, welcome to Fox News.

[Kil'jaeden]

^^ Maybe the Cold War never stopped after all.

[Darunia00]

The Cold War is over in the sense that Russia can't pour all available resources into its military. Remember, the main premise (if we can call it that) of the Cold War was whether or not the USA was going to attack the USSR (and vice versa); today, there's no suspense as to whether or not the Russians would pull such a move as they absolutely couldn't. That being said, the two countries still dislike one another and Putin insists on acting like Blofeld whenever possible, so ideologies haven't completely changed. Just the ability of Russia to walk the proverbial walk.

[Bomby]

Holy crap it's Darunia00.

[Darth_Flava]

Who says that Russia isn't capable of launching an attack on the US. The US government who we already know can't really be trusted in terms of reliable info. The media is as about as trustworthy as George Bush's word that Iraq had WMDs. Remember Russia is still a superpower, always has been, always will be. All we know is what the Russians will let us know. The same is true for the US, China and any other country in the world. Just because they nearly killed themselves in the Cold War doesn't mean that they were crippled to the point of no return.

[Darunia00]

^^I've been lurking like Mike Myers in Halloween, except sans goalie mask and serial killer attitude.

Since the Cold War ended, we know a great deal more about Russian military capabilities than you might think. I recommend reading Thomas P.M. Barnett's The Pentagon's New Map for more on that. The long and the short of it is that America has encouraged Russia to downsize their military capabilities so as to act as a Coast Guard of sorts. Russia has fallen in line here, though not necessarily because of U.S. pressure. The bottom line is that they can stick their nose in Georgia all they want, but lack the resources to have acted as America has with Iraq. If Putin wanted to send troops over to Venezuela to liberate the masses, he would be in for an unpleasant surprise. As such, the threat of Russia getting it together to launch any sort of attack on America is decidedly minimal.

[Darth_Flava]

Oh god no not reading. Reading hurt brain. LOL just kidding. I do like his viewpoint on September 11 being the slap in the face to the ideals we had before the terrorist attack. Though I agree with pretty much everyone that President Bush is probably one of the most horrible presidents to walk into the oval office, I still agree that we should do something about small terrorist groups. As far as the topic for this disscussion about Russia invading Georgia. I wanted to make sure I understood what is going on. From what I read there was a growing conflict between forces in South Ossetia and Georgia ultimately ending in Georgia invading South Ossetia. Because of the pro Russian militants located in South Ossetia, Russia came to the aid of this region, pushed the Georgians back into their country and then decided to continue to advance even further. Eventually this ended in a cease fire since the rest of the world was telling Russia to back off. Is this the basic jest of the story or is there some peace that I'm missing.