"During the Olympic Games a truce or ekecheiria was observed. Three runners known as spondophoroi were sent from Elis to the various participant cities at each set of games to announce the beginning of the truce. During this period armies were forbidden from entering Olympia, wars were suspended and legal disputes and the use of the death penalty were forbidden."
I do not know the details of what happened in South Ossetia, why Saakashvili decided to try to force the issue just now, nor why the Russians decided to react so strongly just now.
Maybe it is to consolidate Russian supremacy in the Caucus, or to gain stranglehold on the gas and oil pipes to Europe, or to link up with Iran for medium term strategic advantage, or to punish the Georgians for being to allied with the west, or maybe they just hate each others guts. Or some messy mix of some or all of the above.
It is very impressive that the Russians had an full armoured division ready to roll into Ossetia within 24 hours of the Georgians violating the truce called for mediation.
Here is the Georgian order of battler - I assume wikipedia is good on this one, if not check globalsecurity.org - almost all old Russian kit, facing a much larger similarly equipped Russian army, they're toast.
Greg Laden has some info and William Connolly points to the BBC summary.
I do not know whose version to believe, except that the US media accounts are more or less incoherent garbage, not even pretending to be consistent or accurate.
I gather Bush and Cheney spoke in support of Georgia and the US Air Force is expediting the move of about 2000 Georgian troops in Iraq back home.
Oh, and both US and Israel have been training and equipping Georgian forces and may have advisors on the ground.
So, we may see direct US-Russian conflict - it would be rather convenient for Russia if the C-17s transporting fully equipped experienced Georgian transport troops back to the war were to not make it. Unfortunate incidents happen to third parties in a war zone.
Have to say, of all the wars I thought might breakout while half the world leadership was in Beijing, this was not one I had expected.
Global Security.org provides summary history, the US training of Georgian forces, and Russian forces in theater, and current status with more links in the sidebars.
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Yes, its sad that the Olympics seems to have been used as a distraction for a 'quick' war (does anyone ever launch what they think will be a long one?), given the ekecheiria tradition.
Some opinion over here in Europe is that the Georgians thought that being 'almost a member of NATO already' would protect them from a Russian invasion. To actually become NATO members, they need to 'resolve' the Ossetian and Abkhasian conflicts, and have effective control of their country, apparently.
So, the double irony is that NATO, set up to prevent wars between Russia and Europe / US, provoked one.
That Georgian flag, with the one big cross and four smaller crosses symmetrically arranged in the quadrants -- is it just the 2nd convergent to a fractal flag, with the nth step adding 4^n crosses, and cross-size asymptotic to zero?
In any case, the USA is represented not just by Phelps and LeBron James et al, but by the epitome of nonviolence and high moral priciples George W. Bush (and his more credible father). W stated at these Oympics, as "Fan-in-Chief", that "Once religion takes hold in a society it can't be stopped" -- in an interview with Bob Costas.
I, for one, welcome our new Zeus-worshipping masters.
I prefer his Thor aspect, more humble yet still with the temper.
My anecdotal impression from NBC over the weekend was that the US was represented in its entirety by the women's beach volleyball team, and W of course. At least he stopped slouching for the beach volleyball.
When did synchronised diving become an Olympic sport?
Actually when did synchronised diving become?
A fractal flag would be rather symbolic the way things are going.
Kinda ruins the purpose of the flag though, low visibility, hard to rally to.
History of the World: Part 1 (1981)Director/writer/producer/actor Mel Brooks as Grand Inquisitor Torquemada of the Spanish Inquisition leads a lengthy song and dance musical number in which he sang (with a chorus of monks): "The Inquisition, Let's begin, The Inquisition, Look out, sin, We have a Mission, To Convert the Jews!..."; ending with an Esther Williams/Busby Berkeley set piece production depicting water torture (for the persecution of the Jews) abstracted by Torquemada: "We'll flatten their fingers, we've branded their buns! Nothing is working! Send in the nuns!" - a long row of nuns enters, doffing their black and white habits to reveal one-piece white bathing suits and caps - and then dove into a large pool to perform a synchronized swimming routine.
"When did synchronised diving become an Olympic sport?" is exactly what my wife asked me last night, allowing me the preceding quotation.
Andy why (mathematical induction) does synchronised diving stop with 2 divers? "Now the Chinese team of 65,537 synchronised divers enter the Water Hypercube... (p.s. the aquatic events have a building whose architecture is based on beuatiful Math/Physics that improves on Kepler's 14-hedral 3-space packing with a combination of 14-hedra and non-regular 12-hedra).
This comment is recontructed from memory, the previous draft vanishing when malware crashed my old Windows 98 PC, which I was using because the motherboard or powersupply blew on my Linux machine, and my wife was using our son's Windows NT machine. I'd said something clever about "synchronised drowning", asked what other sports could be beneficially synchronised, and wondered if divers become entangled.
Doesn't Thor preside over the Hammer Throw event?