This is exactly my point: people choose to see whatever side they want to see, and you and the Western press have chosen to see this through the lens of "Russian expansion". I don't doubt that the Russians are racist towards Ossetians, just as they are towards any other Caucasian peoples. I also don't doubt that Russia wants to reconquer Georgia. What I don't see is how either of these things cancels out the fact that the Ossetians have a legitimate claim to independence. I hope you're not arguing that because we might not be able to "tell them apart" their claim is illegitimate, or claiming that because Russians are racist the Ossetians would be better of staying with Georgia because you know what's good for them better than they do. That would be ignorance to the extreme.

The problem in my view is that now there is this inextricable link between Ossetian independence and Russia's attempts to destabilize former republics. But this link is not the Ossetians' fault. What we should have learned from the Cold War is that small rebel groups fighting an aggressive government are not "evil" for accepting the aid of a much more powerful country. Russia's ulterior motives are not the Ossetians' concern - they just want independence, and they don't have a whole lot of options open to them.

Rather, if Saakashvili wasn't a two-bit nationalist dictator, he could have undercut Russia's rationale for the conflict by granting South Ossetia independence, or at least not escalating the conflict by bringing in tanks. But instead he's counting on us to help him maintain control of a region that wants nothing to do with him, and idiots like McCain are playing right into his hands.

I'm getting a little tired of your snide rhetoric that completely ignores previous replies. Your last post was especially ridiculous. You know that the Soviet Olympic teams comprised athletes from various republics - by your logic that justified Soviet rule over them? The bottom line is that the Ossetians WANT independence and self-governance, they don't WANT to be ruled by Georgia, and they've been managing their own affairs since '92. As far as I know this isn't a situation like Northern Ireland where the majority of the population is happy and it's just a hardline minority - the whole region wants independence. Who the hell are you to tell them what's better for them on the basis that YOU can't tell them apart? Geez.

We might as well put all our cards on the table - I am originally from Ukraine. From your username I surmise that you're either from Russia or one of the Eastern European republics. Unfortunately you seem to have adopted the "anything that's bad for Russia must be good" line that so many of the former republics have. I don't understand on what basis you can be pro-Georgian independence yet anti-Ossetian independence without being a hypocrite.

http://exiledonline.com/georgia-gets-its-war-onmccain-gets-his-brain-plaque/

http://exiledonline.com/georgia-gets-its-war-onmccain-gets-his-brain-plaque/

Also good for background and analysis, as well as general reading pleasure:

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7455&IBLOCK_ID=35&PAGE=3

http://exiledonline.com/war-nerd-south-ossetia-the-war-of-my-dreams/