The above videos are from Russia Today, Russia’s English language world service channel and only one side of the story, the Russian side. Below is a more balanced report from Qatar’s Al-Jazeera.

Here is a report from the UK Guardian with video and another from the UK Independent that summarize the fighting on the ground. The rest of my post is devoted to background and analysis as to the why of this war, the why now, and the impact on global politics.

War, of course, brings a human toll. This slideshow from the New York Times shows some of that side.

Here is a summary of news and reaction from around the world to the outbreak of hostilities in the Caucasus. This is not in chronological order but rather more a compendium of events.

The best overview that I have seen is from the UK Guardian:

Why has fighting broken out?

The South Ossetians and Georgians have been sniping at each other for several weeks and patience on both sides has finally snapped. South Ossetia and Georgia’s other breakaway region, Abkhazia, have enjoyed de facto independence since the early 1990s but Tbilisi has never recognised the loss of its territory. The dispute between Georgia and the two regions was called “the frozen conflict” because the issues remain unresolved, but there was no fighting. The heat began to rise this year when the west recognised Kosovo, against Russia’s advice. The South Ossetians and Abkhazians argued that if Kosovo could be independent, then so could they.

What is the basis of the region’s claim to independence?

The Ossetians are descendants of a tribe called the Alans. Like the Georgians, the Ossetians are Orthodox Christians but they have their own language. In Soviet times, the Ossetians had an autonomous region within Georgia. The Georgians say the Ossetians cooperated with the Bolsheviks and tended to be more pro-Soviet. Their ethnic kin live across the border in the Russian region of North Ossetia, so today they feel more drawn to Russia than to Georgia and many have Russian passports.

Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast was also an autonomous region of Georgia in Soviet times. It has a mixed population of Abkhaz, Mingrelians, Greeks, Armenians, Russians and Georgians and a small but significant Muslim minority. Thousands of ethnic Georgians fled their homes in Abkhazia during the civil war in the early 90s and now live as refugees in Tbilisi and Moscow.

Why has Russia become involved?

Russia says it cannot stand aside because many of the people in the breakaway regions are its citizens. Georgia accuses Russia of meddling in its internal affairs and supporting the separatists, although Russia’s peacekeepers are supposed to be in a neutral role. Georgia accuses Russia of double standards in suppressing its own separatist rebellion in Chechnya while encouraging separatists in Georgia. Russia has become more engaged in the region since Georgia expressed an interest in joining NATO, the very idea of which appalls Moscow.

What might happen next?

So far, this has been a proxy war, with Russia encouraging the separatists, but Russia and Georgia could find themselves in direct conflict. Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin, today accused Georgia of aggression and warned that a response was inevitable. Georgia said Russian jets had started bombing its territory.

What are the wider implications?

The conflict could widen out further still, with former Soviet republics supporting Russia and the US and Europe backing Georgia. The root of the problem is that the world community cannot agree on rules for the independence of small regions.

The Daily Mail has this illustration:

The Genesis of the Georgian War

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The affair is none of my business, the deception and the lies are. I am disappointed having donated both money and time to the Edwards campaign but mostly sadden for the Edwards family. This has to be an awful ordeal. There is no reason for helicopters to circle over people’s home. The media both act and look vultures in doing so. Here are the statements from John and then Elizabeth Edwards:

Statement from John Edwards

In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99 percent honest is no longer enough.

I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly. But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby.

It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up — feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help.

I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.

Statement from Elizabeth Edwards

“Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some – most recently – caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences. None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him.

“John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007.

“This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well. Because of a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication, because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.

“The pain of the long journey since 2006 was about to be renewed.

“John has spoken in a long on-camera interview I hope you watch. Admitting one’s mistakes is a hard thing for anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame. The toll on our family of news helicopters over our house and reporters in our driveway is yet unknown. But now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue.”

Elizabeth Edwards ended her statement with an appeal for privacy for her family: “I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John’s conduct has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.”

This likely marks the end of John Edwards’ political career and will likely mean a hiatus from public life. We wish him well in all his future endeavours.

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You would think that after McCain began scoring points and closing the gap on Obama that those who support Senator Obama would cut out the messiah new age cultist symbolism but apparently not. Let me be clear this is not a creation of the Obama campaign but rather the creation of some of his more cultist supporters. From the reputable US News and World Report:

George Bush had his three-fingered W salute that supporters flashed when greeting him at presidential campaign events in 2000. And now, if a Los Angeles creative agency gets its way, Sen. Barack Obama will see fans meet him with his own salute like the one above. “Our goal is to see a crowd of 75,000 people at Obama’s nomination speech holding their hands above their heads, fingers laced together in support of a new direction for this country, a renewed hope, and acceptance of responsibility for our future,” says Rick Husong, owner of The Loyalty Inc. Husong tells me that he got the idea after seeing the famous Obama-Progress poster by artist Shepherd Fairey. “We wanted to get involved some way,” he says. So, the agency came up with their own a symbol of hope and progress that also plays off Obama’s name. “We thought, ‘Let’s try and start a movement where even while walking down the street, people would hold up the O and you would know that they were for Obama,’ ” says Husong. Much thought went into the relatively simple idea. “You interlace your hands in a circle, the interlacing being a symbol of different types of people coming together and the circle a symbol of unity,” he says. Their design, unlike Fairey’s, is free, and Husong is urging people to download it and print it on posters and T-shirts. “We want to see it everywhere, but more importantly we want this sign to take the world by storm.”

Memo to Obama supporters: you are not doing him any favours with crap like this. You only feed the perception that there is a cult of Obama.

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The John McCain campaign has a new radio ad out in Spanish that asks are you ready for Barack Obama? The ad is a 60 second spot and is set to run in Texas, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida. The ad highlights Obama’s celebrtity status and attacks Obama over taxes and the economy asking voters are they are for Obama and is ready really to lead.

I realize that Obama is on vacation but is his entire campaign on hiatus? I have not seen any new Obama ads, otherwise I would post them.

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The McCain campaign has unveiled a new ad today attacking Obama’s record on taxes. It is a thirty second spot. The ad is to beginning running nationwide during the Beijing Olympics. It seems pretty clear that the McCain campaign is in a mad rush to define Obama before Obama can define himself. Furthermore since McCain has accepted public financing of his campaign, he needs to spend as much money as possible before the Republican National Convention when he will be limited in his spending.

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“War has started.” — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

Russian tanks are right now rolling into South Ossetia and the Caucasus Republic of Georgia after a night of heavy fighting as Georgian troops bombarded the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. The bombardment began after a ceasefire collapsed yesterday. It is difficult to ascertain what happened first but Georgia attacked Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia and Russia has been pouring in arms and supplies not to mention “volunteers”. Whatever the case today Tskhinvali is a city torn asunder with the hospital, the university and large swaths of the city in flames.

Georgia's Breakaway Regions

This is partly the result of recognizing Kosovar independence. This war is entirely the result of the failure of Western diplomacy. I have unequivocally stated that recognition of the breakaway Serbian region of Kosovo that has been Serbian for a thousand years by a few Western nations, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany among them, would lead to further problems to the east where borders remain undefined and where historical emnities run deep. I do not doubt that Russia, which was angered by the West’s headlong rush to recognize Kosovo, to gain revenge has been pushing the cause of South Ossetian independence. And now Georgia faces an assult of overwhelming force. This war can easily go regional if it is not stopped in the next 24-72 hours. That’s the time horizon we have. Georgia is paying the price for Western failures.

We continue to provoke Russian anger by placing missile defence systems in the Czech Republic and in Poland ostensibly to protect Europe from an Iranian attack. In Poland? I could understand Romania which lies in southeastern Europe but in Poland which lies in north central Europe. I am not a military expert but I am dubious on the necessity of missile defence systems in Poland. Russia is not happy and understandably so. We have also pushed the boundaries of NATO into the boundaries of the former Soviet Union. We think it harmless, the Russians don’t. The Russians aren’t saints but they are human. And humans are naturally suspicous. And I blame Secretary Rice who as a Soviet specialist should know better. Security is a two-way street. Our security is enhanced by making the Russians feel secure, not the inverse. Instead of allaying Russian fears, we have stoked them. This is the result.

Here’s some of what has happened:

Fighting escalated throughout the day, with Russian planes dropping four bombs on the Vaziani military base, which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization uses for training, Lomaia said. The base is about 15 kilometers from the Georgian capital.

A tank burns in South Ossetia

Georgia, the third-largest member of the allied coalition in Iraq after the U.S. and U.K., will bring home half of its 2,000 soldiers from the Middle East country in the next few days, Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia’s Security Council, said by telephone. The Georgian contingent is stationed in Al-Khut, 185 kilometers (114 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

Georgian forces have shot down three Russian planes since the fighting began, Lomaia said. Russia earlier bombed two Georgian towns, Gori and Kareli, he said. Russia’s Foreign Ministry denied the bombing claim. The Defense Ministry denied losing aircraft.

Russian troops occupied parts of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said by telephone. Russian television showed tanks heading over the border to South Ossetia from the Russian region of North Ossetia at about 3:30 p.m. Moscow time.

Oil and natural gas prices are bound to shoot up again. Georgia is a key link in a U.S.-backed “southern energy corridor” that links the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia, the world’s biggest energy producer. Two pipelines pass through the country linking Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which has been closed since Aug. 5 due to an explosion in Turkey, runs about 100 kilometers south of the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali.

The most recent violence in the region erupted on Aug. 1, when South Ossetia said Georgian shelling of the regional capital Tskhinvali claimed six lives. Georgia said South Ossetian forces sparked the fighting.

More video from the UK Guardian. For more updated information please visit my latest post, The War in Georgia. There is more video, reports from Georgia, the US and European response, editorials and op-eds and analysis of the war in Georgia.

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This video taken by SimoFish, a Clinton supporter, at a Clinton fundraiser here in San Francisco this past July 31st is causing a stir. The video was first posted at The Confluence but while many in the news media have referenced the video, I wonder how many of them have actually seen it. Here is the Times of London getting carried away:

Hillary Clinton could yet derail Barack Obama’s presidential campaign after video emerged yesterday of the former First Lady refusing to rule out a divisive floor vote at his nominating convention this month.

The tense behind-the-scenes battle over how to recognise Mrs Clinton’s achievements at the Democratic Convention, which opens in Denver on August 25, burst into public view with footage of her telling supporters that she was looking for a “strategy” for her delegates to be honoured.

Mrs Clinton, filmed talking to mainly women supporters in California last week, refused to rule out the prospect of including her name in an open ballot of all members of the convention. The move would be unprecedented for the leading losing primary candidate in recent times because it would force delegates to pledge publicly their support one by one.

“I believe we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views respected. That is a very big part of how we actually come out unified,” Mrs Clinton said. She received 18 million votes in the primary campaign, narrowly lost the pledged delegate race and registered a string of thumping victories over Mr Obama in the later stages of the nominating battle.

Mrs Clinton’s aides said it was highly unlikely that she would go as far as to demand a nomination roll call but the negotiations between the campaigns reflects the considerable bitterness that still exists, particularly with Bill Clinton and many of his wife’s supporters.

Mrs Clinton has been given the leading speaking role on the second evening of the convention — the night is effectively hers — but until late last night Mr Clinton’s role had yet to be determined. Faced with growing anger inside the Clinton camp of leaving a two-term president in limbo, Mr Obama personally offered a speaking slot to him hours before he departed for a week’s holiday in Hawaii. It is understood Mr Clinton will make his speech before Mr Obama’s vice-presidential pick addresses the convention.

Publicly, Mrs Clinton is doing much to help Mr Obama and is calling on her supporters to back him. She will campaign on his behalf in Nevada today, and in Florida just before the convention. After the video footage emerged, Mrs Clinton issued a statement saying that no decisions had been made on the convention, adding: “Senator Obama and I . . . will ensure that the voices of everyone who participated in this historic process are respected and our party is fully unified heading into the November election.”

Privately however, the Clintons remain sceptical that Mr Obama can win the White House. Although most voters will not focus properly on his race against John McCain until after the conventions have ended in early September, Mr Obama has stalled in the polls. A new survey also diagnosed a fresh concern for the Democrats — “Obama fatigue”. Nearly 50 per cent of voters feel that they have been “hearing too much” about Mr Obama.

The Clinton camp is also irritated by what they perceive as Mr Obama’s failure to work harder to help to pay off her campaign debt and to reach out to her supporters.

In Denver, diehard supporters are planning to demonstrate on her behalf, a prospect that unsettles the Obama camp. The groups include PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) and Just Say No Deal Coalition. David Axelrod, Mr Obama’s campaign manager, said: “We’re going to work this out.” He added that Mrs Clinton was “making a good-faith effort on behalf of Barack”, and the campaigns were talking every day.

The Times article is entitled Hillary Clinton threatens Obama with ‘honour my supporters’ demand. Honestly, does she sound threatening? Furthermore, I fail to see how anything said at the fundraiser or elsewhere by the Clintons is going to derail Barack Obama’s chances of winning the White House. He seems to be doing a fine job of that all on his own.

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Here is the Friday, August 8th, 2008 edition of news and interesting reads from around the world.

US-Thai Relations
The Asia Times looks at the troubles in the US relationship with Thailand.

Bush’s farewell address to Asia was made symbolically in Thailand to highlight the 175-year anniversary of US-Thai diplomatic ties while also touting his administration’s many self-professed diplomatic successes in the region, including the widespread promotion of liberty, law and democracy.

Left unaddressed were tensions in US-Thai bilateral ties, which have risen sharply in the wake of the September 2006 military coup that ousted democratically elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and sparked accusations among the fallen premier’s supporters that Washington has taken sides with the military and its political allies in the country’s ongoing political conflict.

The EU Hits Sofia on Corruption
Brussels is to issue a damning report on high-level corruption, maladministration and failures in the handling of EU funds in Bulgaria. The draft report on the management of EU cash in the unions youngest and poorest member state says, “High level corruption and organised crime exacerbates the problems of general weakness in administrative and judicial capacity.” The report said to be the most scathing ever written about a member state. More from Euro News.

British Home Prices Crash
Britain’s biggest mortgage lender reveals credit crunch wiped £20,000 off the cost of home. The full story in the UK Guardian. The collapse in the value of British homes is the largest single year drop ever.

Georgia Surrounds Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian Capital
Georgian troops are nearing the capital of the separatist region of South Ossetia after a night of heavy shelling and air strikes on rebel positions. The UN Security Council has met in an emergency session.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Friday his country faced ‘large-scale military intervention’ over the conflict in South Ossetia and called for a ‘total mobilization’. More on this from Thompson Financial. It is not a good thing when countries call for a ‘total mobilization.’ That means war looms ahead.

US Hopes to Double the Size of the Afghan Army
A $20 billion plan would aid the Afghan army and restructure the military command of U.S. and NATO forces in response to a growing Taliban threat. More from the New York Times.

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Here are some of my photographs from a trip to Burma in January 2004.

The Sweetness of a Child at Inle Lake

The Inle Lake region is towards the Burmese border with Laos and China heading towards the Golden Triangle. At a paya (Buddhist temple), this young lad smiled up right into my camera. You can see my reflection in his bright shining eyes.

The Plains of Bagan

Bagan is the reason I travel. Located on a dusty plain just off the Irrawaddy in central Burma, thousands of stupas were erected between the years 900 to 1100. I first became aware of Bagan one day when I was about eight in my Uncle Juan’s library perusing his National Geograhic magazines. I remember opening an inset fold and pulling it out I saw something so magical that I knew I just had to go see it for myself. Bagan is likely the least known of the world’s wonders but perhaps the most magical.

The School at the Inwa Monastery

One of best shots ever. At a monastery school at Inwa, we came upon this class of young monks chanting their recitations. The light streamed in through a hole in the roof hitting their faces. Pure luck. The monks didn’t know quite what to make of me.

Confidence

This is young lad was brimming with confidence. He came up to me and asked me to take his photo. I took several. The paste on his cheeks is called tanaka. It’s made from the bark of a tree and ground into a paste. Only women and children really wear it. It’s meant as a sunscreen but the Burmese either slap it on or take great care to form an attractive cosmetic shape.

Kayan Woman

The long necked women of the Kayan begin wear these brass rings at an early age. It stretches their neck and weakens their neck muscles so that in time they can not support their heads without snapping their necks. They take them off to rest or sleep.

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Today marks twenty years since students in Rangoon, now Yangoon, began their protests against the military junta that has governed the country since 1962. Burma today remains no closer to freedom than it did then back in on that eighth day of the eighth month of 1988.

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