The politics of fear, hypocrisy and plain madness about South Ossetia

Back in the days when I was deciding on which career I ought to take, I received a humorous advice from one of my close friends. Putting it in his own words, I quote: 'Just remember, if you really suck at everything - there is always politics that you can consider for a career'. Apparently, politics has a bit of everything - oodles of human stupidity, a humongous capacity for hypocrisy, an insatiable lust for greed and power, and a lot more than I can care to mention.

Take the recent media attention on the Russia-Georgia conflict over South Ossetia. While I am no expert on South Ossetian history (refer to links at the end of page for more information about this place), it is a no brainer that the region of South Ossetia has been a highly vulnerable hotspot for a very long time. And the demographics of this region are particularly interesting - 70% of the population is Ossetian (most of who hold Russian citizenship) and the remaining 30% are Georgian.

While I cannot attest to the accuracy of the above demographic figures but if the Wikipedia figures are even remotely close, then Georgia's incredibly naive military incursion into South Ossetia cannot be described as anything but stupid. If President Saakhasvili of Georgia thought that Russia would just sit back and enjoy the show, the guy is even more dumber than President Bush.

Infact, Georgia's aggressive military move seems purely based on political greed - especially if you realize that President Saakhasvili used the promise of regaining control of South Ossetia as one of his electoral promises to the Georgian public during his presidential election campaign. This is nothing but political pandering at the lowest level at best, playing and preying on people's emotions to his political advantage. I do not blame President Saakhasvili for promising to seek control of South Ossetia but I do definitely blame the moron for not having a no-nonsense action plan to achieve his promise. Can he not learn a lesson from the past activities of the Bush administration that purely military moves rarely achieve their original objectives?

Stability can only be achieved through peaceful means between the parties directly involved in the current conflict in South Ossetia. International mediation, if present, and where present, should be clearly unbiased or else the outcome of any agreement that could be achieved as a result would merely be namesake and temporary. President Saakhasvili of Georga, emboldened by the Bush administration's vocal support and military incentives, has learnt a brutal lesson at the cost of hundreds of innocent civilian lives.

But this hardly surprises me. Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it. If it is South Ossetia today, I am sure there is going to be another sooner or later. I'd hedge my bets on the French-Belgian episode.



Wikipedia Link on South Ossetia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_ossetia