Georgia, Russia, and what to do. If anything.

[c9]

The conflict between Georgia, Russia, the sorta-separatists in the middle, and the rest of the west trying to figure out what to do, what to say, and how to avoid painting themselves into any corners is fascinating. Scary, too.

I've been following the commentary in a couple places, and found these columns to be quite illuminating and helpful in boiling down some issues that resonate with me.

First: “the west was right to leave [Saakashvili] hanging”: http://www.macleans.ca/canada/opinions/article.jsp?content=20080813_107233_107233

Next, the rebuttal: http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/08/14/georgia-on-my-mind/

Today, "checking rhetoric against reality": http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/08/14/georgiarussia-on-the-wests-rhetoric/

I'm also regularly surprised to find the comments section on macleans.ca still tolerable and literate. Surely it's an accident which will be corrected soon (*sigh*). The comments sections on cbc.ca, theglobeandmail.com, and many others are depressing from a future-of-my-country standpoint. Also literacy, humour, science, geography, spelling, and fashion sense.

Comments

[mightycodking.livejournal.com]

I think realistically Russia gets the two provinces.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm leaning that way as my prediction. It's fascinating being witness to this sort of thing.