Western media has been campaigning with headlines similar to "Russia invades the sovereign nation of Georgia!" and other similar headlines suggesting that Russia waltzed into a peaceful "western minded" nation and is trying to topple its "democratic" government.

At first glance it seems like an outrage. All news media covering this topic seemed to be in unison: Georgia = Good. Russia = Big Bad Bully. Then after reading some independent coverage one beings to get a much clearer picture of what really is going on.

It turns out that Georgia has been "openly engaging in a military buildup since last year" with the goal of re-taking South Ossetia. Turns out South Ossetia has had independence since 1991 after its regional parties were denied participation in the "democratic" central government of Georgia. Same is true for Abkhazia according to this article titled "The Real Aggressor". Turns out both Abkhazia and South Ossetia are under protection of Russia. Georgia tried to retake these territories with a surprising lull from the media regardless of Georgian bombing campaign and incurred civilian casualties. The media did not raise a peep, not until Russia stepped in to protect South Ossetia.

The article references previous articles where the dictator-like tactics of President Mikhail Saakashvili (of Georgia) are exposed. These include charging political opponents with treason, throwing them in jail and even torture! Saakashvili has used the western media very effectively to gain sympathy for his cause in the name of "freedom", "democracy" and "shared values". One has to wonder if these so called "shared values" and "freedom" are anything like gitmo and the type of treatment its guests are subjected to.

Further evidence show that Saakashvili had been given the "green light" to move his tanks into South Ossetia from Washington, DC. This includes information about US military being involved in "joint military exercises" with Georgian military just before the peak of this crisis. Yet another report suggests that hundreds of American military instructors were in Georgia at the beginning of the conflict and possibly a few have been part of the sustained casualties.

I find it troubling the fact that media has again taken a once-sided view to this whole thing. The fact that Saakashvili is not the "kind hearted leader" he is portrayed to be, yet westerners are urged to sympathise with him. One has to wonder what does all this say about our own leaders? The masses are being lied to about the character of this thug, Saakashvili, who seemingly has full support of our own leaders. Does this make our leaders misguided or one and the same?