Huh? what one sided double standard view my friend, i have not once mentioned N Korea or Iran, what are you smoking? All i did was to point out its tough luck for Russia that Georgia bought some SAMs of the Ukraine, nothing about alledged Nuclear weapons programs at all. I don’t give a hoot about Iran or N Korea and the problem there is far different anyway (nuclear proliferation).
You need to read what people write better and not jump so silly conclusions about people being on ‘sides’ when they point out certain facts. I will also point out that i think its horrendous what georgia appears to have done to South Ossetia but that does not make me on any ‘side’
I realise discussing warfare is always complex and often emotive issue but seriously try and get away from this ‘choosing a side and rooting for it’ sillyness.

Im not choosing a side.. i can even talk from pespective of getting shelled/bombed from air/ getting shot at … and the worst .. getting shot a while shooting at others,while getting bombed from air.

And believe me i feel very very sory for people caught in the middle.. i am just getting bit well.. annoyed on how quickly people seam to forget that not just 2 months ago West was more than happy to tear appart 1000 year old piece of territory from another soverign and (well now) democratic country… yet now we see complete reversal on exactly the same situation.

In actual fact i am very much against of giving every single minority with issue a freedom to separate from their country on a whim.. like in kosovo. 😉

Most of those 2000 civilians are from South Ossetia and were kill during the initial Georgian attack.

As for they rest of your post, it’s just an armchair General’s dream.

Well most of the Generals these days do their work from comfort of the Armchair… gone are the days of Paton.. or even Stormin Norman :p:p

Huh? The ability to hit almost any target type with almost 100% accuracy and almost 100% chance of destruction is over rated?
.

This made me laugh…

How good was Georgian AD system to begin with is imposible to deduce.. Russians are even accusing Ukraine of supplying them with some things, i would be very worried about if i was strapping into cockpit of Sukhoi

Though IMO its a bunch of hot air from Moscow.

Once of those comics that could crack you up.. without barrage of ******* words… a rare breed.

I think many people felt the same way when NATO launched ALLIED FORCE in 1999. Remember how the Russians got fired up?

As kev says, don’t worry about it.

Back to the issue:

I’ve noticed that some people have begun comparing this conflict with the events in Kosovo in 1999. I know too little about Georgia and South-Ossetia to discuss this accurately.

Are the Russians right in accusing Georgia of “ethnic cleansing” in South-Ossetia, e.g. based on the current refugee situation? Can they reason that Georgian forces have deliberately engaged in ethnic cleansing of people in South-Ossetia, or are we hearing rethorics made to fit the fact that many civilians are trying to get away? You would normally expect that sort of thing to happen in heavily exposed areas such as Tskhinvali.

I notice that you are implying that Kosovo is example of ethinc cleansing.. which would be correct asumption.. since pre 99 there was 300,000 Serbs there.. and now there is less than 100,000.. 2/3.. not bad.

If you are implying that NATO intervined to stop ethnic cleansing of Albanians.. you would be wrong, tensions with Police and Albanians were occuring in Kosovo for the last 50 years.. but there was never any military involvement.. that is untill KLA gathered an army (35,000 man with guns is an army in my book) and basically took control over large pieces of teritory.. then Serbian army moved in and the refugee crysis that insued was more result of actual combat between KLA and VJ, than some organised attempt by Serbs to ethinicaly cleanse Albanians.. need proof?? About 250,000 Albanians that live in Serbia outside Kosovo border.. are still there.. and even talking about further succesion..

The term of Ethinc cleansing is one of those wonderful words that west coins to label those they dont like, and yet NOT label those they do like for the exact same actions …. When enemy forces are about to invade.. civilian populus usually packs up and go. In the case of civil war its even worse as combat is more disorganized and messy.

IMO to qualify as “ethinc cleansing” you have to have organized profesional forces compleatly removing population from their homes based purely on race/religion/nationality and then NOT LETTING them back. Croatians did some of the most magnificent work in this department.

Now to finally answer you question, about ethnic cleansing in Ossetia.. its impossible to tell how Georgians would have treated them since from the day one, Abkhazia and Ossetia declared independece… the was never a time when they were peacefully part of Georgia.

That said considering that Sakashvilli would be happy to give them very broad authonomy.. i personally dont think Georgians are interested in “celeansing” them.. just controlling them.

Dark Knight… it was ok..

And how many peacekeepers have died on other missions without their nation going bonkers and invading where the peacekeepers were stationed? Really.

If Russia had stopped when Georgia withdrew from S. Ossetia, I’d be willing to cut some slack, but they haven’t. They’re still going full bore and now they’re hitting civilian targets.

Making this relevant to aviation: All the civilian damage doesn’t say much for the accuracy or training of the Russian forces…unless it was on purpose. It’s pretty hard to mistake an apartment complex for a purely military target.

IMO, of course.

edited

PS: When Bosnian Serbs collected UN Peacekeepers as hostages, i remember NATO going bonkers and bombing the crap out of their positions using more than 200 Aircraft… considering there is four times more Georigians than Bosnian Serbs… how come 200 ACs is not overkill but handfull of Sukoyevs is??

Why cant we all agree that there is no right or wrong here,,, its conflict over interest of two supperpowers who both want to secure vital oil and gas supplies.

I mean Georgia is on the border with Russia.. imagine what would occur if Chine/Russia succeeded convincing Canada to Join their military alliance?? Americans would hit the roof… nobody likes other guys on their door step… or is that not the reason US is still keeping embargo on Cuba, and yet prepared to do buissines with other commies like Vietnam and China???