The tragedy of South Ossetia

In ancient Greece all wars were interrupted for the duration of the Olympic Games but in the modern civilized world the volleys of the festive fireworks of the 2008 Olympic Games mixed with the deadly salvos of the Grad mass destruction system. On the orders of the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili the darling of the democratic world hundreds of civilians and Russian peacekeepers who were protecting them were treacherously killed in the capital of South Ossetia. The percentage of those who died that night in Tskhinvali can be realized if we imagine that on September 11 2001 in New York God forbid 80 times as many people were killed - 160000 people. South Ossetia is the nerve of the Caucasus. To the outside world South Ossetia like Abkhazia is a zone of clash of geopolitical interests of Georgia Russia the United States and Europe but to the people who inhabit it it is their native land where they were lucky to be born and live. Their peaceful life is periodically overshadowed by yet another attempt at genocide by neighboring Georgia be it the dissident Gamsakhurdia the communist Shevardnadze or the democrat Saakashvili. Only the world community can put an end to the tragedy of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and save their peoples from genocide. Russia has begun this process.