{"id":1065,"date":"2008-12-02T14:09:35","date_gmt":"2008-12-02T19:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2008-12-02T14:10:46","modified_gmt":"2008-12-02T19:10:46","slug":"mikheil-saakashvili-georgia-acted-in-self-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/02\/mikheil-saakashvili-georgia-acted-in-self-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikheil Saakashvili: Georgia Acted in Self-Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s always two sides to every story and unfortunately, for the most part the western new media has only told half story about the Russian invasion of Georgia. If you haven’t read Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s excellent Op Ed<\/a> in today’s Wall Street Journal you should.<\/p>\n

\n

Georgia Acted in Self-Defense<\/h3>\n

Some people seem to misunderstand which country was invaded.<\/h4>\n

By Mikheil Saakashvili, Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2008<\/p>\n

Since Russia invaded Georgia last August, the international community seems stuck on one question about how the war started: Did the Georgian military act irresponsibly to take control of Tskhinvali in the South Ossetia region of Georgia?<\/p>\n

This question has been pushed to the center in large degree by a fierce, multimillion-dollar Russian PR campaign that hinges on leaked, very partial, and misleading reports from a military observer from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that claimed Georgia responded militarily in South Ossetia without sufficient provocation by Russia. Judging from recent media coverage, this campaign has been successful.<\/p>\n

Focusing on this question distracts from Russia’s intense, blatant policy of regime change that has long aimed to destabilize Georgia through ethnic manipulation, and thus thwart our democracy while stopping NATO’s expansion. Furthermore, it has never been in dispute whether our forces entered South Ossetia. I have always openly acknowledged that I ordered military action in South Ossetia — as any responsible democratic leader would have done, and as the Georgian Constitution required me to do in defense of the country.<\/p>\n

I made this decision after being confronted by two facts. First, Russia had massed hundreds of tanks and thousands of soldiers on the border between Russian and Georgia in the area of South Ossetia. We had firm intelligence that they were crossing into Georgia, a fact later confirmed by telephone intercepts verified by the New York Times and others — and a fact never substantially denied by Russia. (We had alerted the international community both about the military deployment and an inflow of mercenaries early on Aug. 7.)<\/p>\n

Second, for a week Russian forces and their proxies engaged in a series of deadly provocations, shelling Georgian villages that were under my government’s control — with much of the artillery located in Tskhinvali, often within sites controlled by Russian peacekeepers. Then, on Aug. 7, Russia and its proxies killed several Georgian peacekeepers. Russian peacekeepers and OSCE observers admitted that they were incapable of preventing the lethal attacks. In fact, the OSCE had proven impotent in preventing the Russians from building two illegal military bases inside South Ossetia during the preceding year. Read the rest…<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s always two sides to every story and unfortunately, for the most part the western new media has only told half story about the Russian invasion of Georgia. If you haven’t read Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s excellent Op Ed in today’s Wall Street Journal you should. Georgia Acted in Self-Defense Some people seem to misunderstand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[73,19],"tags":[74,351,75],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-international-affairs","category-media","tag-georgia","tag-mikheil-saakashvili","tag-russia","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-hb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":181,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/11\/georgia-on-my-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":1065,"position":0},"title":"Georgia On My Mind…","author":"Jeff","date":"August 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm deeply troubled by the news out of Georgia, I'm not a expert on the region and I'm not going to try and play one on the internet. What I am doing to do to point you to two excellent posts by C. Blake Powers at Blackfive.net. The first is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Affairs"","block_context":{"text":"International Affairs","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/international-affairs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":212,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/26\/michael-totten-the-truth-about-russia-in-georgia\/","url_meta":{"origin":1065,"position":1},"title":"Michael Totten: The Truth About Russia in Georgia","author":"Jeff","date":"August 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I linked to this previously but Michael Totten's \"The Truth About Russia in Georgia\" is the most comprehensive report I've seen on the conflict\u00a0 - it's a must read for anyone who wants to know what really happened - and it deserves much greater prominence than I gave it earlier.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Affairs"","block_context":{"text":"International Affairs","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/international-affairs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":208,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/26\/russian-aggression\/","url_meta":{"origin":1065,"position":2},"title":"Russian Aggression","author":"Jeff","date":"August 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If you haven't read the Op-Ed by by Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman in today's Wall Street Journal you should. I don't agree with Graham or Lieberman often but they're spot-on here. Russia's Aggression Is a Challenge to World Order By Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, Wall Street Journal, August\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Affairs"","block_context":{"text":"International Affairs","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/international-affairs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":194,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/23\/ho-hum-redux\/","url_meta":{"origin":1065,"position":3},"title":"Ho-hum Redux","author":"Jeff","date":"August 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I really should write something... Unfortunately, most of what\u2019s in the news at the moment bores me to tears. I couldn\u2019t care less about the Olympics and I\u2019m sick of the presidential campaign... Cassandra at Villainous Company pretty much sums up my mood here. I am deeply concerned about Russia\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":201,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/26\/let-the-games-begin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1065,"position":4},"title":"Let The Games Begin…","author":"Jeff","date":"August 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Democratic National Convention kicked of in Denver last night... All I can think to say is so what? In all honesty I'm more interested in what's happening in Georgia than I am with what's happening in Denver. If last night was any indication this convention is going to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1269,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/02\/israel-and-hamas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1065,"position":5},"title":"Israel and Hamas","author":"Jeff","date":"January 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"So far I've resisted the urge to comment on Israel's ongoing operations against Hamas... I just don't see any value in playing armchair general or armchair diplomat.This morning though I picked up my local paper and read this bit of idiocy in the Letters to the Editor: The Israeli attack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Affairs"","block_context":{"text":"International Affairs","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/international-affairs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}