Charged As Guilty

"When is it going to stop?" This is the tremulous wail of an old woman, ousted from her small Georgian town, now a refugee. "When are they going to leave?" Why, simple enough to answer; this very day. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said so, he said Russian troops are prepared to withdraw this very day, yes he did indeed say so. If you cannot trust the president of a great country, why then, who can you trust?

To clarify matters, the intent is to pull Russian troops out of occupied Georgia, not to be mistaken for the two breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Those, by Kremlin determination, are definitely not part of Georgia, international recognition be damned. As for the international community claiming that Russian troops have delved ever deeper into Georgia, despite the signing of the peace pact; inflammatory nonsense.

Georgia had it coming to them, after all. That stupidly provocative move by its president to invade South Ossetia, and just coincidentally committing unforgivably outrageous atrocities on the population there, could not be countenanced by a peace-loving humanitarian-respecting country like Russia. Had they not acted to protect their own, how could they then live with their conscience?

As for the claims that Ossetian militias and Chechen irregulars in the Russian army had indulged in pillaging, don't believe everything you hear from obviously hostile sources. If there are smashed shop windows and banks and restaurants robbed of their cash transactions, and motorists of their vehicles, it's the fault of Georgians masquerading as Russian soldiers, blast them.

Let's not even give space to the charges that South Ossetians charged through Georgian villages to go house to house raping and murdering. The very thought of such an absurd claim is unworthy. The charges that Russian troops in occupation of Georgian territory witnessed these atrocities and did nothing to halt them, represents yet another calumnious slander.

So what if reporters interviewed a handful of Chechen soldiers who admitted to the Ossetian reprisal activities. Please bear in mind that they also insisted that the Ossetian actions were entirely justified in view of the outrages visited upon the South Ossetians by the Georgian army. "Do you know what the Georgians did in Tskhinvali? They killed 2,000 people. Georgians were crushing small children with their tanks!"

They should know, after all. They heard it from the highest sources, unimpeachable sources at that, from the Kremlin. Why, they had it on authority that not only were tanks used to crush children, but Georgian soldiers in their blood lust, took to beheading innocent Ossetian civilians. How can you deal with such people, other than to give back what they give to you?

Don't believe it? Well, how about Vladimir Putin, that stalwart man of the people, the prime minister of Russia, stating unequivocally on Russian television that this is precisely what the Georgians engaged in. It's unspeakable that Human Rights Watch (but then, what can you expect from a U.S.-based "human rights" group) - charges that the Kremlin's deliberate fomenting of outrage was meant to encourage reprisals.

It's the West again, trying to damage the reputation of Russia and its people. Russians know better; they know whom to believe. They know that President Mikheil Saakashvili is a genocidal monster. They know also other truths, that Ukrainians, Estonians and Western interests were complicit with the Georgians, had sent troops to fight alongside them, against Russian troops.

When embattled the Russians know what to do. Sit tight and hold their own. There must be no withdrawal, regardless of what the hostile world demands, intent on once again humiliating Russia. Russia must stay the course, re-claim her honour and her place on the world stage. That much is demonstrably clear.