That's what you get..

I have been thinking i should write something about the conflict in Georgia. I guess it’s too late now and in any case people who know more than me and have a better understanding of the situation should be the ones criticizing, analyzing and pin pointing the real issues. But I feel that I have to mention something that has been bugging me. When the news about Georgia was still fresh I was staying at a friend’s house and the topic came up during lunch. Naturally more than a few people at the table had really strong opinions concerning the conflict and one of them said and I quote “They deserved what they got” referring to the Georgian side, “that’s what you get for messing with Russia”. To those who know me it would be needless to explain I was infuriated. It’s not that I believed the Georgian side was right (or wrong for that matter) I didn’t have an opinion. My concern was that it wasn’t the government that took the hit but the people of Georgia. It is always the people! Villages and towns were bombed, innocent people were driven away from their homes. When I voiced my concern the only response I got was a repetition of “that’s what you get when you mess with Russia”.

I have a friend in Georgia and the first news I got concerning the issue was from an e-mail sent by her. She was so scared that I got alarmed, she described how things were there and the reality just shook me. It’s another thing to watch or hear the news and another to know that a person you know a person you have eaten with and spoken to and laughed with is in the middle of this mess. I tried explaining that to the people at my table at the risk of ruining lunch but they didn’t seem to get it. It seems that the “reality” of politics and the concept of “war is necessary” is easier for us to grasp, when we are outside, than the concept of human tragedy and the loss of innocents.

Its simply sad that we have become so accustomed to wars and military interventions that we watch them and talk about them with the same calm calculation that we would comment on a "Age of empires" or "Rome total war" session on our pc.

It is always the people that get hurt. That’s what you get for messing with "guns"..