Note: This is an early impression, and there's probably a lot of information that either isn't out there, or hasn't reached me yet. But it's a start.

This is cross-posted from my website.

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Russia has invaded two so-called “breakaway provinces” that are officially part of the sovereign nation of Georgia. Now, despite of two cease-fire announcements, the Russians are not leaving. In addition, they are threatening to open up a second front by invading Poland.

So whose fault is it?

Clearly, there is a convoluted situation in the area known as South Ossetia. Both South Ossetia and Georgia were annexed by Russia in 1801, but the area has been Balkanized for centuries, and neither the Romanovs nor Soviet rulers were able to change that. Both North and South Ossetians have long fought for unification. North Ossetians tended to be willing to be, if not part of Russia, at least closely associated with that country. South Ossetians, on the other hand, have tended to prefer complete autonomy.  read more »

Location

Bush is going to veto Congress' timetable. By doing this he will be vetoing the will of the people, who overwhelmingly are sick of being lied to and seeing soldiers die for nothing, and he is committing our soldiers to an indefinite involvement in a civil war with no purpose for the United States and no exit strategy. He seems to be doing this on the 4th anniversary of his "Mission Accomplished" statement, which must have referred to the accomplishment of turning American foreign policy into nothing more than a gravy train for Halliburton and sacrificing our soldiers and our war against al-Qaeda in the process. Great mission, great accomplishment... VoteVets.org is responding to Bush's veto of the will of the people and common sense with the following video:  read more »