Jesus you people really love to take shots at one another and argue.

are you fucking kidding me. do you not understand the difference between a country like BURKINA FASO and an ancient country like Georgia which has its own art, culture, language, architecture, etc. why are you even disagreeing dude, do you just want to GET ME that bad? I'm just gonna ignore your posts from here on out sorry!

Right, like none of the other 200+ countries have their own art, culture, language and architecture. By your logic, I guess everyone should know every modern country with ancient history that has it's own art, culture, language, and architecture, and we're uneducated if we miss one like GEORGIA. Oh wait, that's almost half of them. Better hit dem books!

No, I'm just disagreeing with you because I felt what you said was off base and stupid and deserved my attention, I don't even know who you are, guy! But yeah, I've said what I had to say, so I'm done with you.

Right, like none of the other 200+ countries have their own art, culture, language and architecture. By your logic, I guess everyone should know every modern country with ancient history that has it's own art, culture, language, and architecture, and we're uneducated if we miss one like GEORGIA. Oh wait, that's almost half of them. Better hit dem books!

No, I'm just disagreeing with you because I felt what you said was off base and stupid and deserved my attention, I don't even know who you are, guy! But yeah, I've said what I had to say, so I'm done with you.

you're a fucking idiot SOMEBODY WARN ME thanks

man, would you guys really quit shitting up this topic. it's a pretty important current event so i'm going to start having a ZERO TOLERANCE policy for the rest of this topic. thanks!

ok so about dem russians

What's the status of US invervention in this whole fiasco? Does the USA plan on directly opposing the Russians, or was that earlier threat just a precautionary statement to the US?

For the record, I knew Georgia was a country for quite some time (middle school I guess?), but it's not really surprising to hear others may have missed it considering the cultural impact on it, a lot of Americans grew up with the 'luxury' of being able to not know or care about anything outside of the US considering how huge it is and how relatively far away we are/were from the entire other side of the planet and all of its problems and conflicts.

By your logic, I guess everyone should know every modern country with ancient history that has it's own art, culture, language, and architecture, and we're uneducated if we miss one like GEORGIA. Oh wait, that's almost half of them. Better hit dem books!

yes exactly??? it isn't much to ask! this shit's a lot more interesting and important than video games reality tv and animes, or whatever it is you people do all day.

Yes, this is something you guys should care about. Even if you don't give a shit about any country but the grand ol' US of A, this could turn out to be something pretty big! Hopefully Russia will back off, though people don't seem to think they will. This is pretty important news regardless of how you look at it, no matter how ignorant you were of Georgia's existence before today.

also guys apparently my 25% warn from ages ago never expired, why is this?

MARCUS SEZ: it's probably a bug from being warned twice in the same day.  fixed.

EDIT: fuck it i don't feel like derailing the topic any further and feldslachslfhsl and earl chip i recommend you settle this as well.  to sum up my position on this news:

Q: Do I care that Russia is aggressively expanding?
A: Hell yes.  It affects me more than it does any of you guys (unless you happen to live in the area then yeah, my sympathies).

Q: Do I expect every random Joe Blow in this dirtball we call Earth to actively pursue esoteric information regarding subjects that don't directly influence them?
A: No.  Not at all.

a couple years ago i met some girls under a tree and told them i was from south ossetia. just letting you know americans know geography.

well, among all this there is at least a little humor:

The Georgian National Bank website was defaced and replaced with a gallery of known dictators of 20th century with Saakashvili added amongst them. Georgian newsportals were under Internet denial-of-service attacks and reportedly the site of defense ministry was hacked as well. The attack is similar to 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia and carried out by same techniques.[76]

The Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website was also defaced and replaced with a collage of Saakashvili and Adolf Hitler photos.[77]

I really hate how my friend is always right about these things. In July he said something bad was gonna happen around august 8th. Damn Him....

Your friend is suspiciously specific 

Uh yeah, like others here I hope this doesn't escalate! From the sounds of it though, we're actually more on Russia's side of this. From what I've read, Georgia is the one who likely started all this mess. Maybe this won't lead to Cold War 2: Return of the Berlin Wall (sorry I'll stop that now).

I took a class on modern Russian politics!

I'm not too keen on Russia's situation as of late, but I ask this question to anyone who knows; is Russia really in a position to fuck with us right now? Seriously?

Well, it has considerable political clout and no one's going to be insane enough to open up an armed front against Russia in NATO. That is their only strength.

If you mean militarily, not even close. Even the land troops and air resources which aren't in Iraq would be several times more than strong enough to send their Ruskie asses packing. The Russian military was barely able to survive in Chechnya, how do you think they would fare against American hardware and equipment? If a carrier battle group was sent in, a single one would be enough to defeat them (though you'd obviously need many more troops if you wanted to invade Russia itself, but I'm assuming the aim here is to push them out of their fun little proxy republics and hostile zones.

The Russian military is operating on 20 year old or older equipment, low morale, and poor training and manpower levels. I'm surprised that the Russians even think this is a good idea considering what happened in Grozny. They have nukes, but I bet they'd never use those unless the US military did something incredibly stupid like attempting to push its troops into the Russian homeland.

Fucking Russia... Who the hell is responsible for this? That Dmitry Medvedev guy?

Medvedev is a party hack Putin put in so that he could run things from behind the scenes, at least for a while. This smells like Putin's influence.

What's the status of US invervention in this whole fiasco? Does the USA plan on directly opposing the Russians, or was that earlier threat just a precautionary statement to the US?

I haven't read about it but I'm assuming that the USA is too stretched out and cares little enough about Georgia, a little bumfuck country that's biggest notability in the American mindset is being the enemy in 'Splinter Cell', to intervene. This is just a larger-scale Chechnya situation, the fact that it's foreign territory notwithstanding.

As far as Jeff's analysis about the oil oligarchs go, it's partially correct. Most of the oligarchs are not on great terms with Putin's old administration or the new one that's continuing his policies, but there are a few who are pretty cozy with them and who probably have their influence in these things (just like oil concerns definitely played a role in the invasion of Iraq) but I'm betting the main pressure is from hardliners allied with the Putin camp. The rest of his analysis is smart and really spot on!

Unfortunately, while Russian certainly coaxed Georgia into this war, they made it so that Georgia was the first to engage in conflict with South Ossetians with Russian passports. Georgia played the game badly on this one and should have expected Russia to send in troops once their pretext was laid. Now it's impossible to justify stepping in on either side which is incredibly unfortunate considering Saakashvili was starting to give the country a future again!

Way to go Russia!

I was intruiged about the reported use of "cyberwarfare" and that Georgia thinks that Russia is launching an "information war". These things considered, we will probably have no clear idea what is actually going on inside Russia or Ossetia, because there will be such a mish-mash of sources saying different things. For instance, this hospital in the South Ossetia capital. I know something's happened there but I really can't tell what.

Also, all things considered with the Russian political situation, I wonder if the Russian people are as apathetic as their American counterparts.

Since the thawing of the Cold War in the Reagan era, the world has had about 15 years of popular democracy and relative peace. I sure as hell hope these days aren't coming to an end.

Ugh there is this weird thing going on where Russian youth are becoming nationalistic again. Remember the flying robotic penises and the attack on Estonia? Those were all Russian hacker kids, or at the very least Russian script kiddies working EN MASSE. Think of it like a militant Russian 4chan anti-Scientology binge with a political drive. The problem is that while Russian forces are certainly launching 'cyberattacks' against official government targets, they're probably well outnumbered by a huge number of kids contributing to defacing huge portions of Georgia's public web, which causes huge disruption for the average Georgian.

Since the thawing of the Cold War in the Reagan era, the world has had about 15 years of popular democracy and relative peace. I sure as hell hope these days aren't coming to an end.

Fortunately I don't think this is the case! I think that we'll see more of this kind of crap in the future, but hopefully these will just be rumblings and not a full earthquake.

My money is that the next big thing is going to be India, China, and Russia fighting for resources, though god willing that won't happen anytime soon.

I was going to mention how apathetic the Russian youth are known to be (far more than the US), but I didn't know about that nationalist thing Treg.

Q: Do I expect every random Joe Blow in this dirtball we call Earth to actively pursue esoteric information regarding subjects that don't directly influence them?
A: No.  Not at all.

yeah I agree, though I'd give most people itt more credit than being an average joe blow. but I wasn't blaming anyone, maybe they could try to be a bit more aware but I don't think it's really their fault. g wiz guys

I was going to mention how apathetic the Russian youth are known to be (far more than the US), but I didn't know about that nationalist thing Treg.

It's both, but I think it's something where these Russian boy hacking wonders are doing it just to be destructive and aren't really doing much that is productive otherwise.

after reading some more in this it seems to be a convoluted mess of economics and nationalism.  to make matters worse, some 1500 civilians were reported dead as a result of georgia's shelling.  to give you something to compare it against, america's invasion of iraq took a month and a half to accrue 7,000 civilian deaths and that was a force backed up by hundreds of bombers, infantry, and naval vessels.  this damage is ridiculous already.

maybe they could try to be a bit more aware but I don't think it's really their fault. g wiz guys

this is probably the first time georgia has made national news since it declared its independence before most of GW users were born/watched the news.

that's pretty horrible! It's hard to tell whose side to be on. I guess none of this would have happened if it wasn't for Russia though.

this is probably the first time georgia has made national news since it declared its independence before most of GW users were born/watched the news.

not just news THE WORLD