GORI, Georgia, Aug. 11, 2008
Bush Slams Russia Over Georgia Conflict
"Dramatic And Brutal Escalation" Jeopardizes Russia's Standing With U.S.
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Play CBS Video Video Russia Bombs Georgian Targets For the fourth day, Russian planes are bombing Georgian targets in the contested province of South Ossetia. Richard Roth reports.
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Video Russian Forces Overwhelm Georgia Russia has taken the upper-hand in the battle with Georgia over the disputed territory of South Ossetia. The conflict is spreading to Abkhazia, another contested border region. Mark Phillips reports.
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Video Will The U.S. Aid Georgia? Bob Schieffer talks with CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod about whether the U.S. will come to the aid of Georgia. Then, Schieffer talks with Gov. Tim Kaine about the ongoing "veepstakes."
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Georgian soldiers are seen atop a tank as it makes its way along a street, as a monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is seen in the background, in Gori, Georgia, Aug. 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
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An unidentified Georgian woman cries in the town of Gori, Georgia, just outside the breakaway province of South Ossetia, Aug. 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
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Russian troops ride atop armored vehicles and trucks near the village of Khurcha in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia, Aug. 10, 2008, heading toward the border of Georgia. (AP Photo/Vladimir Popov)
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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, is seen during a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the Gorki residence outside Moscow on Aug. 9, 2008. (AP PHOTO)
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Photo Essay Georgia On The Brink Georgia attacks, Russia counters in breakaway region of South Ossetia.
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Fast Facts Republic Of Georgia Learn about the people, economy and history.
Another AP reporter was in the village of Tkviavi, 7.5 miles south of Tskhinvali inside Georgia, when a bomb from a Russian Sukhoi warplane struck a house. The walls of neighboring buildings fell as screaming residents ran for cover. Eighteen people were wounded, six of them seriously.
Georgian artillery fire was heard coming from fields about 200 meters away from the village, perhaps the bomber's target.
Hundreds of Georgian troops headed north along the road toward Tskhinvali, pocked with tank regiments creeping up the highway into South Ossetia. Hundreds of other soldiers traveled via trucks in the opposite direction, towing light artillery weapons.
In the city of Gori, where artillery fire could be heard, Georgian soldiers warned locals that Russian tanks were approaching and advised them to leave. Hundreds of terrified residents fled toward Tbilisi using any means of transport they could find. Many stood along the road trying to flag down passing cars.
U.S. President George Bush and other Western leaders have sharply criticized Russia's military response as disproportionate and say Russia appears to want the Georgian government overthrown. They have also complained that Russian warplanes - buzzing over Georgia since Friday - have bombed Georgian oil sites and factories far from the conflict zone.
The world's seven largest economic powers urged Russia to accept an immediate cease-fire Monday and agree to international mediation. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her colleagues from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations spoke by telephone and pledged their support for a negotiated solution to the conflict.
Mr. Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traded sharp barbs Monday.
"I've expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia," Mr. Bush told NBC Sports.
Putin criticized the United States for viewing Georgia as the victim, instead of the aggressor, and for airlifting Georgian troops back home from Iraq on Sunday.
"Of course, Saddam Hussein ought to have been hanged for destroying several Shiite villages," Putin said in Moscow. "And the incumbent Georgian leaders who razed 10 Ossetian villages at once, who ran elderly people and children with tanks, who burned civilian alive in their sheds - these leaders must be taken under protection."
A Russian official said at least eight U.S. transport planes delivered about 800 Georgian servicemen from Iraq.
The Georgian president, Saakashvili, signed a cease-fire pledge Monday proposed by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb. The EU envoys were heading to Moscow to try to persuade Russia to accept the cease-fire.
Saakashvili, however, voiced concern that Russia's true goal was to undermine his pro-Western government. "It's all about the independence and democracy of Georgia," he said during a conference call.
Saakashvili said Russia has sent 20,000 troops and 500 tanks into Georgia. He said Russian warplanes were bombing roads and bridges, destroying radar systems and targeting Tbilisi's civilian airport. One Russian bombing raid struck the Tbilisi airport area only a half hour before the EU envoys arrived, he said.
Another hit near key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which carries Caspian crude to the West. No supply interruptions have been reported.
Abkhazia's separatists called out the army and reservists Sunday and declared it would push Georgian forces out of the northern part of the Kodori Gorge, the only area of Abkhazia still under Georgian control.
Before invading western Georgia, Russia's deputy chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn demanded Monday that Georgia disarm its police in Zugdidi, a town just outside Abkhazia. Still he insisted "We are not planning any offensive."
At least 9,000 Russian troops and 350 armored vehicles were in Abkhazia, according to a Russian military commander.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said more than 2,000 people had been killed in South Ossetia since Friday, most of them Ossetians with Russian passports. The figures could not be independently confirmed, but refugees who fled Tskhinvali over the weekend said hundreds had been killed.
Many found shelter in the neighboring Russian province of North Ossetia.
"The Georgians burned all of our homes," said one elderly woman, as she sat on a bench under a tree with three other white-haired survivors. "The Georgians say it is their land. Where is our land, then?"
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- You just proved my point in spades.
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Posted by formrusmcsgt at 11:12 PM : Aug 11, 2008"
you never even made a point for anyone to prove dear boy - Reply to this comment
- Yeah, I''''m done trying to school the kid
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 11:15 PM : Aug 11, 2008"
I''m sure your fellow americans made the same claims about you wrt their calims about Iraqi WMD ...........seems like you''re no different from them - you''re unwilling to accept ANY point of view but your own - Reply to this comment
- How do you twist that to mean I claim Obama is no departure from Bush?
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 11:07 PM : Aug 11, 2008"
So you claim Obama is a departure from Bush ?
If so explain how promising to attack Pakistan is any difference from Bush''s promise to attack Iraq ?
Explain how promising unconditional support for Israel is a departure from Chimp
Explain how supporting Israeli agressi0n against Lebanon whilst condemning Russian actions against Georgia is a departure from Bush
Explain how promising to leave troops in Iraq (ignoring any mention of Iraq insistence that US troops leave Iraq by 2010) is a departure from Bush
Explain how promising to launch attacks into Iraq against so called AQ groups ie disrespecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq is any differnce from Bush or any difference from Russain action in S. Ossetia which he has condemned
Facts are that Obama is not a great departure from Bush - he is just neocon lite - Reply to this comment
- Wasting your time.
Good night Sgt.
Posted by AJMarine111 at 11:14 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Yeah, I''m done trying to school the kid.
Take care, AJ.... - Reply to this comment
- You just proved my point in spades.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 11:12 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Wasting your time.
Good night Sgt. - Reply to this comment
- You don''''''''t even know the definition of patiotism.
You think it means following blindly or some such rot.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 11:04 PM : Aug 11, 2008"
Among other things - the term patriot as used by your fellow americans involves supporting your country right or wrong
Posted by causeway_m at 11:11 PM : Aug 11, 2008
You just proved my point in spades. - Reply to this comment
- You don''''t even know the definition of patiotism.
You think it means following blindly or some such rot.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 11:04 PM : Aug 11, 2008"
Among other things - the term patriot as used by your fellow americans involves supporting your country right or wrong
Personally I reckon that supporting your country right or wrong and believing it can do no wrong is BS, which is why I consider being called a patriot to be absolute BS
americans consider Washington and Jefferson to be patriots ? why because they wanted freedom for themselves but considered freedom for blacks to be totally wrong
Americans call Lincoln a patriot because he supposedly freed the slaves with his Emancipation Proclomation - baloney ....that proclamation only applied to the south - he dod not proclaim emancipation in Delaware - a northern state that was a slave state
Patriotism is a fvcking joke - Reply to this comment
- Look at your post where you claimed that I was wrong to assume that neocons represent the personal ideology of all americans pointing to Obama''''s lead in the polls as some sort of example of this
Posted by causeway_m at 11:05 PM : Aug 11, 2008
How do you twist that to mean I claim Obama is no departure from Bush?
Are you drunk or what? - Reply to this comment
- You don''''t paste it because it doesn''''t exist...just like I said.
Blow it out your a$$.
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Posted by formrusmcsgt at 11:02 PM : Aug 11, 2008"
Look at your own post at 10.44 pm dear boy
Look at your post where you claimed that I was wrong to assume that neocons represent the personal ideology of all americans pointing to Obama''s lead in the polls as some sort of example of this - Reply to this comment
- Me I''''d rather be correct than be a "patriot"
Posted by causeway_m at 11:02 PM : Aug 11, 2008
You don''t even know the definition of patiotism.
You think it means following blindly or some such rot. - Reply to this comment
- So your patriotism dissapears when some come to power and reappears when others come to power does it?
You''''re an idiot.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 10:59 PM : Aug 11, 200"
No - Whether Obama or clinton or MCcain comes to power, chimpy would still claim he''s a great patriot; the idiot americans who supported the Iraq war (yes that includes such Obama supportes as Kerry, Daschle, Edwards, clinton etc) woul;d claim they''re patriots
Me I''d rather be correct than be a "patriot" - Reply to this comment
- Look for yourself dear boy
Posted by causeway_m at 10:59 PM : Aug 11, 2008
You don''t paste it because it doesn''t exist...just like I said.
Blow it out your a$$. - Reply to this comment
- I sure as hell don''''''''t want to be called patriotic when the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld etc claim they''''''''re patriotic
Posted by causeway_m at 10:55 PM : Aug 11, 2008
If you weren''t so dense, I''d expect that you would understand that patriotism means love of one''s country, not the administration..... - Reply to this comment
- Go ahead....or **** about it.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 10:55 PM : Aug 11, 2008"
Look for yourself dear boy
I stated facts about Obama''s bush like foreign policies and asked you how was this such a great departure from bush
Your response - "where did I claim he was a great departure from Bush"
He is either a great departure from Bush on foreign policy or he isn''t
Your own statemenst show that you''re not so sure that he is; his own ststemements and votes show that he isn''t and yet you claim that his leading in polls somehow show that america is turning away from neocon stupidity ? - Reply to this comment
- I sure as hell don''''t want to be called patriotic when the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld etc claim they''''re patriotic
Posted by causeway_m at 10:55 PM : Aug 11, 2008
So your patriotism dissapears when some come to power and reappears when others come to power does it?
You''re an idiot. - Reply to this comment
- I don''''t know which is actually worse.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 10:49 PM : Aug 11, 2008"
I''d far rather be called unpatriotic......as someone once said - "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel"
I sure as hell don''t want to be called patriotic when the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld etc claim they''re patriotic - Reply to this comment
- Look just a few posts down - you yourself admitted that great a departure from Bush
Posted by causeway_m at 10:52 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Post it.
Go ahead....or **** about it. - Reply to this comment
- My research tells me that voting for someone to head a region that you call critical to fighting a major threat like OBL when you have doubts about the guy''''s claims on Iraq is just plain STUPID
Posted by causeway_m at 10:50 PM : Aug 11, 2008
You would appear to be very young.
You see the world in absolute white and black terms.
The mark of a young mind.....
As the mind mnatures and gains experience and knoweldge, it comes to understand that not only is the world not black and white but that it is principally gray.
If Petreus'' confirmation was a slam dunk, how do you know that Obama wasn''t working a quid-pro-quo for a vote that wouldn''t change the outcome anyway?
You don''t. - Reply to this comment
- And you yourself admit that Obama is not that big a change from Bush
Posted by causeway_m at 10:48 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Show me where I''''ve stated such.
Go ahead.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 10:50 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Look just a few posts down - you yourself admitted that great a departure from Bush - Reply to this comment
- You''''ll have to ask Obama his reasons. I wasn''''t at the meeting when he made the call.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 10:45 PM : Aug 11, 2008"
not too interested in doing that
My research tells me that voting for someone to head a region that you call critical to fighting a major threat like OBL when you have doubts about the guy''s claims on Iraq is just plain STUPID - Reply to this comment
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