New York Times Article: Georgian Russian Conflict

After the Georgian attack on South Ossetia, Russian invaded the country with tanks and military power. Georgian infrastructure was damaged, and lives were lost. NATO leaders including secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer are now visiting the country to judge the situation. A few countries involving the U.S., Poland and Ukraine want NATO to become involved in the country. Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski of Poland said, "Spreading democracy and stabilizing democracies is a peace-enhancing activity"(2). He believes that becoming involved would spread peace, and be a good move. Other nations such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy don't want to become as involved. They fear that involvement "could upset Russia, with unpredictable implications"(2). After reading this article I thought that there should be some NATO involvement, but not with military force. Helping rebuild the country and providing humanitarian aid would be a more appropriate action I believe because it wouldn't anger the Russians, but would still be supportive of the Georgians. While reading this article I saw a connection between the situation and the Trojan War as described in the Iliad. In both situations one side is shown as having a just cause, and the other is shown as the being bad. Most of the war in the Iliad is told from Greek perspective, and makes us believe that Menelaus had a just reason for leading an attack on Troy. In the current conflict, the media presents the situation from the perspective of Georgia, which makes me side with them in this conflict. In both instances the facts are one way I base my opinion, however the influence of perspective is very apparent in both works.


Dempsey, Judy. "NATO Envoys Will Offer Their Support in Georgia." New
York Times 14 09 2008 1-3. 18 Sep 2008 < http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/world/europe/15nato.html?
_r=2&ref=europe&oref=slogin&oref=slogin>.

Welcome

Hello, my name is Ted. This is my blog for my Enriched English 10 class. I will post throughout the year about books or articles that I am reading. Check frequently for my thoughts about what I am reading outside of school. I hope you find my posts interesting and informative!