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POPSNov 11 1918: INGLORIUS Date in US Army records (hidden) In the few short hours before 11am of 11/11/1918, United States army casualties were in EXCESS of 3,000 . This was hugely in excess of ALL loses of ALL the other armies!!! Did US men have a death-wish? No, but US generals were quite willing to expend their men's lives on whims! In one instance there were 300 casualties to capture a bath house. So that officers could bath in luxury, 300 died. They was a subsequent inquiry. Its findings were judged so damaging to the US army image that it was never published. Data courtesy of BBC
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POPSMashup on DR Congo This is a an interesting site that allows information to be published on a map, and people on the ground to submit updates by text. The site is called ushahidi.com
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POPSIsrael Raids Gaza, Hamas Fires Back "Rocket Attacks on Israel" is what U.S. headlines will read, as if Israel did nothing to provoke this. (Already the radio is painting it as attacks on Israel without the full context). 1. Israel has blockaded Gaza (starving Palestinians) since June 2007 2. Israel violated the cease-fire by their military raid which killed militants on their own side of the border. (What would hypocritical Israel say to Hamas raiding within their border? Do they expect Hamas to disarm within Gaza?) So should Hamas, acting to defend Palestinians in Gaza do nothing? What would you do? So as the American elections close Israel is "setting the table" (agenda) for Obama, playing the victim when they are the aggressor. Note the "drone air attack" Israel used, as does the U.S. within the sovereign country of Pakistan. Drone attacks are cowardly, and aggression made cheap.
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POPSNigerian militants halt oil war after one week A spokesman for the joint military taskforce, which polices the Niger Delta, cautiously welcomed Mend's move. "We are hoping it will not be another tactical deception which we have already prepared to contend," Lt Col Sagir Musa told Reuters news agency. The attacks forced oil giant Shell to declare a force majeure on Saturday - which frees it from contractual obligations - on crude oil shipments from its Niger Delta facilities. Nigeria's oil production has been cut by 20% because of unrest in the region over the past few years.
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POPSOSCE talks on observers for Georgia stalled Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking in Tskhinvali recently said "There is no sense in monitoring agreements that Saakashvili broke," He also said that, from Moscow’s viewpoint, it is now up to "independent and sovereign" South Ossetia to decide whether to let the OSCE monitors redeploy. "Russia is a member of the OSCE and, as such, we guarantee that no longer will issues concerning South Ossetia be discussed at the OSCE in the absence of Tskhinvali’s representatives,"
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POPSSaakashvili’s Days Numbered Okruashvili also said that after 2006 Georgia didn't have the possibility for success by military means. “The Russians had repositioned and improved their military infrastructure in the North Caucuses, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. He also criticized the United States for unwavering support towards President Saakashvili’s administration. “ “Lack of criticism from the U.S. allowed him to go too far,” Okruashvili said.
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POPS Kremlin: South Ossetia Will Join 'One United Russian State' Georgia announced that it was recalling all diplomatic staff from its embassy in Moscow in protest at the continued Russian occupation of its land in defiance of a ceasefire agreement brokered by President Sarkozy of France. “The regimes of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should think about the fact that if they become part of Russia, they will be assimilated, and in this way they will disappear.” Lado Gurgenidze, the Prime Minister of Georgia, scrapped agreements that had permitted Russian peacekeepers to operate in the two regions after wars in the early 1990s. Russia attacked the G7 after the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan condemned its “excessive use of military force in Georgia”. Having been rebuffed on Thursday by China and four Central Asian states, Russia will seek support next week from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) for its recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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POPSClashes erupt in Democratic Republic of Congo At the end of January a peace deal was signed in Goma between the government and the variety of groups. It was supposed to have seen the disarmament of groups and their integration into the army. Mr Abandi said the rebels were not being given enough time to disarm. "It's not true that we're breaking the ceasefire. They're trying to lie because they want war. When they're fighting us, how can we disarm?" he said. Lt-Col Dietrich said the UN believed that Mr Nkunda - a renegade general - was trying to expand the rebels' zone of influence. Reports earlier this month indicated that Gen Nkunda was touring his area, strengthening his defences and recruiting fresh forces. The UN has 17,000 peacekeepers in DR Congo.
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POPSHuge Train Blast as Russia Faces New Pressure to Leave Georgia But it added that international monitors would not replace Russian troops as a statement from the French presidency asserted. "During the telephone conversation between the Russian and French presidents, there was no discussion about replacing Russian peacekeeping troops by an OSCE mission in the buffer zone," said a Kremlin spokesman. The West sees the presence of OSCE monitors as critical to ensuring the success of the ceasefire. The speedy military victory over Georgia, which is pressing for membership of NATO, stunned Western powers and plunged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. The latest focus of international tension was the Black Sea, where NATO naval exercises are taking place. A US destroyer arrived on Sunday in Georgia with what the Pentagon says are humanitarian aid supplies.
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POPSRussian Journalist Watchs Russian Forces Move Toward Tbilisi
pointing in the direction of Tbilisi. “Everyone went that way, both recognizance and the infantry. Now the equipment is tagging along behind.” The soldiers do not know why the army is moving forward after the signing of the ceasefire. They do not even know about the ceasefire. They find it unexpectedly upsetting when I tell them. “Medvedev betrayed us. There, in Ossetia, they mowed down 2000 of our guys, and he made peace. This is a political war,” a soldier said. That was all there was to say about politics. “So did we win a lot of gold at the Olympics?” “Some gold,” I answer. “But no one is talking about the Olympics now. You are in all the news.” The soldiers look around and laugh. When we try to catch up to the column of equipment, we find that it has already been spread out through the fields and hills along both sides of the road around Igoeti, about 36 km. from Tbilisi. Near the village, we are stopped by a soldier in full uniform.
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POPSPresident Saakashvili, "We are Giving Final Adios to the Soviet Union” It has indicated that it feels Mr Saakashvili, whom it accuses of war crimes, should resign, and that it is disinclined to negotiate directly with him. ” Saakashvili, however, has declined to play the loser. Speaking before flag-waving crowds the Georgian President announced that his country, in consultation with Parliament, had decided to leave the Commonwealth of Independent States and had urged the Ukraine to do the same. CNN quoted him as saying, “we are giving final adios to the Soviet Union.” A senior Russian military commander said the halt in the Russian advance into Georgia did not mean all operations would end.”If we have received the order to ceasefire, this does not mean that we have stopped all actions, including reconnaissance,” General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said. … Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a halt to the military offensive against Georgia saying it had been punished but could be hit again. …
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POPSGeorgian Villages Being Burned and Looted, Children Kidnapped! "Behind them (say eyewitnesses) is a whole column of irregulars who locals say are Chechens, Cossacks and Ossetians. "Eyewitnesses say they are looting, killing and burning. These irregulars have killed three people and set fire to villages. They have been taking away young boys and girls," said Harding, watching smoke rise from another village, Karaleti. Earlier, Georgia said its troops had pulled out of the separatist region of Abkhazia today after the Kremlin laid down humiliating peace terms as the price for halting the Russian invasion and its four-day rout of Georgian forces. Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, signalled his partial assent to the terms, announcing with Sarkozy that he accepted the ceasefire. But Saakashvili raised questions about a continuing Russian military presence in Georgia and the prospects for any durable settlement looked uncertain.
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POPSGeorgians Rally in the Face of Russian Horror Related Story: Obama V.P. Hopeful claims Obama stopped the war! Need more proof that Obama and his supporters are a bit too full of themselves? Here’s the statement of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, a hopeful in the Obama veepstakes: “It was a bad crisis for the world. It required tough words but also a smart approach to call on the international community to step in. And I’m very, very happy that the Senator’s request for a ceasefire has been complied with by President Medvedev.” — Tim Kaine, August 12, 2008 Hot Air has video and more. Kaine: Putin bent to Obama’s will e already has imbibed fully of The One’s Kool-Aid with his analysis of the purported Russian cease-fire this morning. Kaine told Fox News that he was glad that Russia listened to Obama’s demand for a cessation of its attack on Georgia http://hotair.com/archives/2008/08/12/kaine-putin-bent-to-obamas-will/
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POPSThis War Report Has Been Approved By Your Government "Apparently, in the view of our corporate news editors and managers, it is important for Americans to fully witness the bloody horrors of war when that war is being fought by Russia, but we are to be carefully protected from seeing such things when they are being perpetrated by our own centurions. We aren’t even allowed to see the grievous injuries and death being suffered by our own troops. And, of course, don't feel to good about the quality of the coverage of the Russian/Georgia conflict either. This too is biased. Indeed one reason we are shown all the carnage is that the US government has been backing Georgia, and there is evidence that the US even encouraged the Georgian attacks on ethnic Russians which provoked the invasion. The US also has obligingly airlifted Georgian troops back from Iraq to Georgia. This is not news. This is propaganda, pure and simple. "
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POPSObama Co-opts Sarkozy's Actions Is there anything that he and his followers won't attribute to "the One" in the chase of the presidency? I'm sure Sarkozy will be none too pleased. Way to win friends and influence people, there dude...
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