Georgia and Russia Are Both to Blame for Their War: Both Sides Targeted Civilians

You know, as bad as Russia's behavior has been in the last two weeks with their use of disproportionate force against Georgia, Georgia is also to blame for the current state of affairs.

The Georgians attacked civilians in South Ossetia first, starting with their rocket bombardment of Tskhinvali, followed up by a ground offensive. They used a sledge hammer to kill a mosquito, which gave the Russians all the reason that they needed to wage a war of aggression and occupation against Georgia.

So while we're screaming at the Russians to get the hell out of Georgia, we should also be condemning Georgia for it's conduct before the Russian "intervention." If Russia is being accused of using disproportionate levels of force, the Georgians have also done the same thing in South Ossetia. They went into South Ossetia to stop separatist forces from shelling Georgians on both sides of the border; it should have stopped there, but they turned a minor border skirmish into a major international conflict.

I think the U.N. needs to conduct two investigations to determine if war crimes were committed: the first one is to determine if Russia's invasion and occupation of Georgia violated the rules of war, and the second one is to determine if the Georgians did the same thing in South Ossetia during their bombardment of Tskhinvali. Everything needs to be looked at.

Both Russia and Georgia are signees of the Geneva Conventions; both are bound to not to deliberately target civilians in a war, whether declared or undeclared. This is considered a grave breach of the Geneva Convention. Neither side went out of their way to insure that civilians weren't getting hurt. In fact, both sides targeted civilians, both inside and outside the zone of conflict.

And before NATO membership is offered to Georgia, they need to be reminded that they have a responsibility to safeguard civilians in the conflict zone.