I'm separated from my family. My health and sanity are failing. I'm running out of money and I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to pay my bills. The economy downturn is seriously kicking my ass (thanks, Dubya). I need money.
On the other hand, there's nobody dropping bombs on my home and my family.
If you haven't heard about the conflict in Georgia yet, it's time to turn on the news. Russia has invaded the sovereign country that was once a fellow member of the Soviet Union. From what I've learned, this country has worked it's ass off over the years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union to go from one of the most corrupt countries to a bastion of Democracy. And now they're being systematically conquered. They're getting bombed right now.
Georgia is one of the few countries that have sent troops to Iraq to support us there. They had to pull their troops out last week in order to attempt to defend their own country. I think it's been obvious that I'm not a fan of the Iraq war, but it's worth mentioning that they sent their soldiers to die with ours as a demonstration of loyalty to our country in what is a distinctly American "war".
Yesterday Russia called a cease fire, then continued rolling tanks into the country and dropping bombs. Today Condoleeza Rice is being sent to France and to Georgia. She's intentionally not going to Russia, which seems like exactly where she needs to be going. I'm not sure how she's going to convince Russia to withdraw their troops from Georgia... from Georgia.
We can't help militarily. Even if America was willing to we're so overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan that we would have difficulty defending our own borders at the moment. Apparently all Bush is going to do is throw Rice at them (pun intended).
I wish her luck, but even though I'm broke I'm going to do what I can to help the people getting bombed, because I'm still luckier than they are right now. I'm not sure if this is the charity I'm going to use, but it seems like a good choice based on an initial google search.
Save the Children Assists Families in Russia-Georgia Conflict
don't want to start any local war here, but the way english speaking part of internet news channels conveyed the situation in Georgia made me really... sad... cause it was official georgia who started bombing at night(!) their _own_ country (as they try to convince)... that's way too right and brave:( [sarcasm] and that were georgian official troops and hirelings to kill children, women, journalists and medical ppl, and that were american and british news channels to show photos of ruined by georgians Tskinval as the one ruined by russians. that's it. democratic free voice.
ReplyDeletei hate politics, i hate pr things, and i hate when ppl have to die because of some crazy loud voice egos.
Thanks for reminding me that I shouldn't always take news reports at face value. The truth is, I'm not there so I don't really know what's going on there, but I have to say that it seems more likely that that Russia would claim Georgia fired first as an excuse to invade than that Georgia would bomb themselves to which Russia responded by sending Tanks into another country.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I've heard stranger.
This belief is not a condemnation of the Russian people. I don't hold the American people responsible for Iraq either.
What does seem consistent from all news reports, though, is that hundreds of thousands of people in Georgia are now refugees, and GW has done far less for them than they've done for us, so I feel an obligation to pick up the slack and help how I can (and I hope at least a few other Americans feel the same way).
I don't mean to offend you by tending to think that Russia shot first. There's history there that I'm sure I don't know very well. To Americans my age, we well remember Desert Storm in the early '90s and how that most likely led to the current war in Iraq. That may not be obvious to non-Americans however, so it would be arrogant for me to assume that I know the whole story. My issue is more with the apparent American apathy. It shouldn't surprise me though.
Whoever is at fault, I hope the responsible party pays, but that's not something I really have any power over.
I suppose I should also give a little credit to Condoleeza Rice. Despite my posted sarcasm, she does seem to have fairly efficiently diffused the situation (or rather the president of France did).
See, now it appears that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. The media didn't spend a lot of time on why Russia invaded in the first place. It appears that there are no innocents here.
ReplyDeleteThis will probably start to get less press coverage as it becomes less "Hot". For instance, Paris Hilton will probably be bigger news soon for something. Certainly our obsession with reporting every time a candidate takes a dump or wipes his nose.
Just another stupid American who thinks he knows everything. I should've done more research before replying.