ZUGDIDI, Georgia, Aug. 11, 2008
Bush Slams Russia's Invasion Of Georgia
"Dramatic And Brutal Escalation" Condemned As Russian Troops Push Out Of Breakaway Regions, Into Western-Allied Neighbor
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Russia's Message Of Power
Russia and Georgia's tumultuous past and present are explained by CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews. Russia is flexing its power after being by stung by Western politics.
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Campaign '08: Georgia Crisis
The presidential candidates jumped right into the Georgia crisis with some strong words for Russia's leaders. Katie Couric reports.
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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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Russian troops seen near the village of Khurcha in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia on Aug. 10, 2008, heading toward the border with Georgia. (AP PHOTO)
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Georgian man stands in front of his damaged home in Gori on Aug. 11, 2008. Russian armored vehicles rolled deep into central and western Georgia on Monday, quickly taking control of the key city of Gori, several towns and a military base, according to Georgian officials and witnesses. (AP PHOTO)
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Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili speaks at a news conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, Aug. 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)
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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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Georgia On The Brink
Georgia attacks, Russia counters in breakaway region of South Ossetia.
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Republic Of Georgia
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The escalating warfare brought sharp words from President Bush, who pressed Moscow to accept an immediate cease-fire and pull its troops out to avert a "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence in the former Soviet republic.
Touring battle damage on Monday, Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili said he heard a Russian jet and feared he might be its target, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth. Bodyguards bundled him away. His people don't have that protection.
"We are basically seeing the cold-blooded, preplanned, premeditated murder of a small country," said Saakashvili.
There's a moral duty for the world to respond to the invasion Georgia, he said. But, as Roth reports, diplomacy is the only weapon the West is using.
"We strongly condemn the bombing outside South Ossetia," President Bush said in a Rose Garden speech Monday afternoon.
What's troubling about this war, fought in a relatively unknown region, is that none of the suffering here is about the enclave of Ossetia, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews. This war is all about Russia and the message Russia's sending to the world. This is Putin's announcement that Russia is back as a great power.
Vladimir Putin, Russia's former President and current Prime Minister, has been planning this attack on Georgia for years, reports Andrews.
"We have to understand, these Russian troops didn't materialize out of nowhere," said political analyst Robert Kagen. "This is the culmination of Putin's efforts to pull Georgia back within Russia's sphere and exert control over it."
Russian forces for the first time moved well outside the two restive, pro-Russian provinces claimed by Georgia that lie at the heart of the dispute. An Associated Press reporter saw Russian troops in control of government buildings in this town, just miles from the frontier and Russian troops were reported in nearby Senaki.
"The advance casts doubts on Russia's claim that this five-day war is just a peacekeeping operation," said CBS News reporter Beth Knobel.
Georgia's president said his country had been sliced in half with the capture of a critical highway crossroads near the central city of Gori, and Russian warplanes launched new air raids across the country.
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The Russian Defense Ministry, through news agencies, denied it had captured Gori and also denied any intentions to advance on the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.This is the culmination of Putin's efforts to pull Georgia back within Russia's sphere and exert control over it.
Political analyst Robert KagenThe western assault expanded the days-old war beyond the central breakaway region of South Ossetia, where a crackdown by Georgia last week drew the initial military response from Russia.
"There is no question that Georgia started this conflict with an offensive against the separatists of South Ossetia, because its entry to NATO required a resolution to the problem, but the disproportionate and continuing military attacks by Russia appear to have united the European Union and the U.S. in a call for the removal of Russian troops," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk.
"The fighting has now created a major refugee crisis that is spilling over to regional states, and a political crisis with fears that Russia is trying to overthrow the democratically elected, pro-Western government of Georgia," added Falk.
While most Georgian forces were still busy fighting around South Ossetia, in the country's east, Russian troops opened the western attack by invading from a second separatist province, Abkhazia, which occupies Georgia's coastal northwest arm.
Russian forces moved into Senaki, 20 miles inland from the Black Sea, and seized police stations in Zugdidi, just outside the southern fringe of Abkhazia. Abkhazian allies took control of the nearby village of Kurga, according to witnesses and Georgian officials.
By late Monday, Russian news agencies, citing the Defense Ministry, said troops had left Senaki, 20 miles inland from the Black Sea port of Poti, "after liquidating the danger," but did not give details.
The new assault came despite a claim earlier in the day by a top Russian general that Russia had no plans to enter undisputed Georgian territory.
In related developments:
(AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)
But the news agency Interfax cited a Russian Defense Ministry official as denying Gori was captured. Attempts to reach Gori residents by telephone late Monday did not go through.
Russia's massive and multi-pronged offensive has drawn wide criticism from the West, but Russia has rejected calls for a cease-fire and said it was acting to protect its citizens. Most residents of the separatist regions have Russian passports.
Both provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, have run their own affairs without international recognition since fighting to split from Georgia in the early 1990s, and both have close ties with Moscow.
The Georgian president said Russia had 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 EU envoys arrived, he said.
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 have 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 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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See all 399 CommentsWhere is she? Well, she''s on VACATION and refuses to interrupt it to deal with the crisis.
Memo to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili: two wrongs do not make a right.
You chose to participate in an illegal and immoral war based on US and British lies in Iraq.
You then chose to attack Southern Ossetia, killing civilians just the way you had been shown, courtesy of US troops, which had just finished teaching your troops how to "ethnically cleanse" an area,through the "Georgian-US Immediate Response 2008 military exercises", which ended on 31 July of this year.
10 Russian peacekeepers were killed, and an additional 30 wounded. The Georgian military is blamed for this, and if they did not do this, you must let the world know.
Also, scores of South Ossetian civilians have been killed; men, women, children, the elderly, and the medically infirm.
To believe that Russia was not going to respond was, sir, the first colossal failure of imagination in which you and your government indulged.
And to believe that the US and/or NATO would be able to assist you militarily, given the current troop stresses in both Afghanistan and Iraq, was the second colossal failure of imagination.
And so what are you left with?
A potential re-absorption of Georgia, Southern Ossetia, and Abkazia by Russia, which will give them a border all the way to Armenia, which is friendly to both Russia and Iran, and a United States which is militarily impotent to help you. "God Speed USA"
Posted by joker1944 at 08:19 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Hey clown...er...eh... joker1944, this is the 21st century. Get with the times. Condy Rice can "deal" with any crisis from anywhere in the world. And why is it that the U.S. has to take point on this anyways? It looks like France is doing a great job of negotiating. Hats off to the French for being quick to respond.
Besides, all that Rice or Bush will get out of trying to do anything will be some sort of condemnation from our "patriotic" U.S. liberal NObamacrats. Why should Bush/Rice even bother? They really SHOULD enjoy a nice long vacation until January.
Posted by donevis at 08:31 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Maybe its time to send some of our "impotent" NEW AND IMPROVED shoulder fired stinger missiles to Georgia, just like the U.S. did when the reds invaded Afghanistan. Man those stinger really tore up those russian helicopters. And they took out a fair number of the fighter jets too. I''ll never forget the videos of those choppers falling out of the sky.
The Russians put their tail between their legs and ran back home because of "impotent" US technology. Thats the price they paid after they helped the US enemies in Vietnam.
American FORIEGN POLICY, its in need of change
Or maybe we can go to war with Russia tomorrow?
The international media is reporting Georgia, with its slaughtering leader, has made a move against South Ossetia, which wishes to keep its allegiance to Russia.
It''s like Saddam killing the Kurds, but we are only hearing Saddam''s side of the story.
Why did Georgia act now? Does this have something to do with the US military there earlier this summer?
Posted by oldwhiteguy1 at 08:42 PM : Aug 11, 2008
As the US did? Well if the US had done things the way Russia has, overtaking and nearly destroying a nation the very first time their "peacekeepers" were fired on, then the US would have taken Iraq a full decade earlier.
Instead the US had to repeatedly go to the UN for more than 10 years asking for resolution after resolution, issued warning after warning to Iraq. I dont recall Russia doing ANY of that.
I believe that the criminals in S. Osessia DID fire on Georgians to provoke a response, which Russia was ready for. All of this hardware Russia has sent in to Georgia didn''t just appear out of nowhere. It was pre-positioned. The real mistake was the Georgians over-reaction by bombarding with missiles.
I really have a hard time believing that the Russians are trying to protect "citizens" lives. Before everbody gets all teary eyed for the Russian patriots, remember that during our lifetime many many Russians had carried out Stalins orders to kill tens of million of their own "citizens". The Russians killed more of their own "citizens" than the U.S. killed in all wars we fought in COMBINED.
So lets hold hands now with our friends the Russians and sing kumbaya.
Go back to sleep grandpa.
As of July 15, there were 1200 US troops in Georgia.
Posted by demslie2u at 08:58 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Were you here the last time Russia invaded Georgia ??
Posted by donevis
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That''s because CBS wants it ''Fair and Balanced'', to borrow a phrase. They figure the ring wing numbnuts should have an even amount of representation. But they''re all watching the Bill ''O The Clown Non-factor and Heil Hannity & SuckA** Colmes show for their nightly brainwashing.
Fool! Read! Understand! Russia retailiated for an invasion of their territory! The Georgian''s invaded Russian territory first! You neocon chickenhawks are so fu**ing lame... making excuses for mayhem and murder for any dam thing that makes you feel uncomfortable as you peek out from your mothers skirts. Your fantasy world of a 1,000 year Republican Reich is over... get used to it. Traitors!
Posted by billcatz at 09:08 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Couldn''t have anything to do with that missile shield Bush wanted to put in Putins backyard does it. Seems like they were getting along just fine until NATO baloney started to be shoved in Russia face, using Georgia as the nose. Wake up and see the story. "Be the Ball Danny"
No, thats not it. In case you didn''t notice, you nut case far left liberal nut cases have a tendancy to take over and overwhelm most message boards. I want to stress the nut case liberals are doing this, not the fewer sane liberals.
Hey bunny brain, South Osessia is not part of Russia! At least not until today. North Osessia is part of Russia. The Georgians were fighting within their own borders...moron!!!
-Liar935Bush''s sneaky military attitude, is a wrong way of keeping our country safe from attacks of Terrorists and bigger powers such as Russia. He''s been stirring sh*t all 7,5 years, and now he''s causing the Russian Bear to wake up and start roaring.
the best part of you ran down your mamma''s leg.
Maybe YOU trishab57 should have ran for president since you apparently know how to keep the US safer from any attacks since 911 than Bush has.
however, the US and Europe can severly limit trade with Russia to marginalize them. Let them trade with their closest friends China, Venesuela, Cuba, Syria, North korea, Iran. Its not a pretty picture is it?
Countries with the most Nuclear Weapons
Rank Country Number of warheads
1 Russia 28,240
2 United States 12,070
3 France 510
4 China 425
5 United Kingdom 400
6 Israel uncertain
7 India uncertain
8 Pakistan uncertain
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All the tough talk by Pres bush is nothing but lip service. all talk and NO bite , the USA have NO leverage, most of the troops and resources is stuck in iraq.
Had Bush NOT GONE to iraq... then you have plenty of OPTIONS.
Then to make matters worse Bush stuck MISSLE DEFENSE SHEILD against Russia wishes in the Chech Republic; And want to throw a fit when Russia want to do the same in Cuba.. some nerve.
WE need someone in that Whitehouse to change our foreign POLICIES. the current occupant have NO CLUE.
Obama 08 , sound judgement
Maybe YOU trishab57 should have ran for president since you apparently know how to keep the US safer from any attacks since 911 than Bush has.
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Posted by edintex at 09:35 PM : Aug 11, 2008
-What do you suggest? *** for tat and Invade Cuba?
-It''s obvious, the military has been used as it was meant to be; defense! The repukons philisophy is an instability and invasion one. Whereas democratic one is based more on a strong Army for DEFENSIVE purposes.
-Americans should not panick and rush to vote the McSame into office. Obama is more capable of staying calm and make better lit decisions. McCane is a shaking fighter and he''d be already preparing troops for a long and bloody conflict with the Russians.
Exactly. boosh played his hand. Putin called his bluff. More people die.
And King George II you are not guilty of any of this? I think so, but what do I know? I''m just a dumb tax payer to whom you owe no explination to. You will be judged at a later date and place. And you won''t be able to bs your way out by pointing your finger of blame. When you point your finger of blame at others, their are 3 pointing at you. But then again anything we have to say about this or any other story only serves to keep us divided and therefore weak and unorganized. There will be a time the week and unorganized will protect you macho, strong politicians, or not?
Do you mean STRONG Army like the one Carter shut down to bare bones or more like the one Clinton inherited from Bush/Reagan and promptly shrank it down to almost nothing? This really isn''t the right time for those kinds of "Strong" or "defensive" armies.
Maybe in the future we COULD reduce the military after the muslim terrorists are all dead.
however, the US and Europe can severly limit trade with Russia to marginalize them. Let them trade with their closest friends China, Venesuela, Cuba, Syria, North korea, Iran. Its not a pretty picture is it?
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Posted by edintex at 09:43 PM : Aug 11, 2008
-You don''t understand that Russia is much more in a better position than before. Their economic importance is based mainly on Military industry; same as us. The previous USSR was powerful enough and self-sufficient that it could maintain its independence and its Russian-Invaded Varsovia pact countries virtually without any exterior help. They could at any time soon redo the same. Russia is ill and its population is decreasing. The only way for them is to invade and increase their commercial exchange, militarily, same as we did in Iraq, now Afganistan. Putin fianlly woke up and saw it''s getting late for him. He has no other choice but to invade. This will not stop here. Expect more of the same going on in Georgia...
If you want to talk about Obama.Go to Obama Hawaiian vacation site.You will find him there.
Posted by mr2258 at 09:52 PM : Aug 11, 2008
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last i check Barack IS NOT THE SITTING PRESIDENT .
You want him to wield this imaginary power he doesn''t
have ; mercy!!! grow some BRAIN CELLS.
Posted by mr2258 at 09:59 PM : Aug 11, 2008
It''s all political who are you to limit ones freedom of speech!
Nutjobs are still blaming Clinton for the worlds woes. Think how long folks will bash boosh and company for their, um, "difficulties", ha. ?
Posted by sean5002 at 09:46 PM : Aug 11, 2008
Lets look at true facts. Not the make believe "facts" from you NoBama nuts.
The US wants to put "NON-NUCLEAR" interceptor missiles in Georgia in order to bisect and intercept a northern trajectory of an inbound Iranian missile heading over the north pole to hit the U.S. It would be best to take shots at the rogue missile both early in the trajectory and then later over the pole if it misses.
The Russians on the other hand are talking about putting "NUCLEAR ARMED" bombers 90 miles from the U.S. to protect or stop incoming what?
Or, we can eliminate any missile defense system and just "talk" to a rogue state bent on martyrdom while their missile(s) are inbound. I prefer to at least TRY to survive. And if Obamas big mouth cannot convince me that he has enough experience to make quick and tough decisions, why should I believe he can talk other countries out of ANYTHING?
Chivalry IS dead.
(CNN) well folks you better get ready for WW3!! all of a sudden Cabo San Lucas looks pretty good to me...
Communism / Socialism mind set.
(Almost as bad as "Modern Liberals" in America)
Posted by trishab57 at 09:55 PM : Aug 11, 2008
I agree with EVERYTHING you just said! Russia has been falling behind the rest of the world quickly. Now that they have a little more petro-dollars in their pocket, they are trying to regain their stature. And youre right about their population decline and their need to increase it by any means.
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