I was sick of it before it started

I was going to blog yesterday about the Tom Waits concert and our trip to Dublin but when I turned on the radio to have an afternoon nap, I was ambushed by the sounds of shelling, shooting and people in pain. The sound of a man wailing outside a bombed building with a vain hope that some of his family were still alive really put me off anything I wanted to do. I am just so disappointed in the world right now. I am talking of the declaration of war on Russia by the democracy of Georgia.

Map courtesy of BBC News

Georgia is a small nation with a population the size of Norway, that were among the first to break out of the Soviet Union in the 90’s. It consists of many different people and religions, and not all of them want to be a part of a nationalistic Georgian state but feel more at home in the ethnic diversity of Russia. Of course there are the strategic advantages of these areas too.

If all the different groups in North Ossetia takes part in the South Ossetia conflict it will put fire to the fuel in North as well as South Caucasus. The danger is that the conflict will spread over the Russian border into the Caucasus and Abkhazia, and all eyes go to the number one nuclear power in the world TO NOT INTERFERE DIRECTLY or else we’ll have a full-scale confrontation between the largest and the 2nd largest nuclear powers in the world. Quote:

But emissaries from the US and Europe who are Nato members may not be seen as honest brokers by the Kremlin when it comes to Georgia, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall says.
The danger now is that Russia will not only use this crisis to demonstrate its military power in the region, but argue it is time to redraw the map, she adds.

Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili has called upon his country to "mobilise" in the face of "a very blunt Russian aggression". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had reports of "ethnic cleansing" in villages.
Russian tanks have reportedly moved towards the capital of the region, which has been under heavy bombardment from Georgian forces.

(From Georgia ‘pulls out of S Ossetia’ and S Ossetia bitterness turns to conflict)

I don’t want to blame one or other, ’cause this is not a blame-game. What are we – children? A war is fought between two nations, and as it always goes the civilian casualties are the greatest and on both sides. Numbers of dead ranges from 1,500 to 1,600 at the moment. Is this okay with you? Imagine someone you love in any of the pictures above, or the pictures you’re bound to see on TV. This fundamental ignorance about human worth makes me speechless and ashamed. Grow up.