RE: SevenThunders,
I don't really believe that there is a global conspiracy to constrict the flow of oil, what we are seeing today is the exact opposite, the global
power blocks are positioning themselves around the largest oil reserves. Look at the squabling that is going on in the Artic between the US, Canada,
Norway and Russia.
Both Russia and the US have known since February that there was going to be a showdown in S. Ossetia and Abkhazia because of Kosovo's declaration of
Independence from Serbia, in total contravention to International Law and a violation of U.N. Resolution 1244 (which garunteed the Territorial
Integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.) This was encouraged by the US because in the days that preceded Kosovo's declaration, the US State
Department stated publicly that they would immediately recognize them. This was exactly what happened, with the NATO/EU states following in quick
suit. To say the least, Serbia and Russia were Pig Bittin' Mad!
After this overt provocation of a Russian ally, Putin promised the US that it would then do the same with S. Ossetia and Abkhazia, and that the US has
set a new standard for international law-- Might makes Right!
Monday the 25th of August, the Russian Duma will convene an emergency session to vote on the immediate recognition of Abkhazia's independence and
possibly allow S. Ossetia to be absorbed into the Russian Federation.
This is a direct retaliation for the US's breach of Resolution 1244. Thus if the US can flagrantly ignor the territorial integrity of a Russian ally,
Serbia, then Russia can do the same with a US/NATO ally, Georgia. Tit for tat!
But we must still remember that it was the Georgians who first went on the offensive by attacking and surrounding Tshinvali, S. Ossetia. They used US
made MLRS Rocket Launchers, armed with the DPICM (Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions) anti-personnel/anti-materiel grenades, ie. cluster
munitions, to shell the city of Tshinvali. This killed around 1600 civilians-- if this doesn't constitute a war crime, then please tell me what does!
When the Russian forces finally arrived in S. Ossetia, they saw the catastrophic damage that these missile launchers had caused and then began to
deploy counter-battery RADARs to track the origin of these launchers, and of course they were located further to the the south near the Georgian town
of Gori. Remember that these MLRS launchers have a 20 mile range, the ER MLRS (Extended Range MLRS) has a range of 28 miles (45 km.)
Now, the apriori objective of the 19th Motor Rifle Division was to neutralize both the Launchers and the storage depot that stored the rockets. This
was the objective of the drive to Gori, not to cut the country in half, simply to deny their enemy of the capacity to shell them from long range.
Both the US and Ukraine helped to arm and train the Georgians for this offensive. The US provided the MLRS rocket Launchers and 150 Special Forces
troops to train the Georgian army.
Now, let us look a little closer at the reality of these events, the US was the main instigator behing the move to seperate Kosovo from Serbia and
again the main instigator in a provocative and bloody assult on a territory populated with Russian citizens. It seems that with these two events
combined with the outright distortions portraying these events by the US/Western media and US State Department, that the US is trying to pick a fight
with Russia. The US just signed an agreement with Poland to move missiles less than 200 km from Russia's border. I feel that the US is truely up to
no good. I would not be suprised if Russia withdrew from the CTBT and resumed underground testing of nuclear weapons. Article IX, sect 2 of the CTBT
allows Signatory members to do so
"if it decides that extraordinary events related to the subject matter of this Treaty have jeopardized its
supreme interests."
Russia has promised that this will spark a new arms race.