RIP

I cannot talk about this without pain. Since my last post, many things changed. I discovered the anger in me towards every party involved in this conflict. A few people who usually check this blog out know about Caucasus more than just a few Wiki articles' worth of cliff notes. They know that this is not a conflict that was started on 8/8/8. What happened on 8/8/8 was a result of Russian policies, Ossetian stubbornness and Georgian stupidity. Ossetians blame Georgians, while they let their government get them to this end result, which themselves acted like the boy who cried wolf. For months they screamed "Georgia will attack next week", "Georgia will attack next month", finally in power to avert this figured that there was no reason to do anything. In the wolf version of the story, boy gets eaten. In our story, it's not the Ossetian government that gets "eaten", but rather the innocent people instead.

Russians care less about South Ossetian people, or any Caucasian people for that matter. All you have to do is look at the immediate North East of Georgia to see that Russians are not in this game to save innocent minorities.

We are all to be blamed for this tragedy. I am not an apologist, i just realize that this is not comparable to America's invasion of Iraq - Georgians and Ossetians will have to live next to each other for years to come, there are no seven sees separating us. Once US leaves Iraq, it will be "out of sight, out of mind". We on the other hand will still be here, and they will still be here. Centuries of intermarriages and friendships have been destroyed and all for what?

I want peace, not just ceasefire. I want people to realize that Caucasus is too small to have half a dozen conflicts in less than two decades. It's not like a family that cannot agree on things, we cannot get a divorce.

My thoughts go to those who died, but did not have to. My thoughts go those who are dying as I write this, but don't have to.