Daily Lesson from Life 04 October 2008

"Georgian blast kills top officer
Top Russian officer among 7 soldiers killed in car bombing. -Sat, Oct 04, 2008 AFP

MOSCOW - A TOP officer was among seven Russian soldiers killed in a car bombing in the Georgian rebel city of Tskhinvali, Russian media reported on Saturday, amid conflicting reports on the incident.

The death of Colonel Ivan Petrik, head of the Russian military's joint staff for the South Ossetia conflict zone, was first reported by Kommersant newspaper and confirmed to Interfax by a spokesman for Russian land forces, Mr Ivan Konashenkov.


'It's really the case. We're not hiding his death,' Mr Konashenkov said.

Earlier, Russia's military said seven servicemen had been killed and seven others wounded in Friday's car bomb blast at the Russian forces' base in Tskhinvali, but did not identify the victims.

South Ossetia, a rebel region of Georgia backed by Russia, was at the centre of an August war between Georgia and Russia.

Kommersant said the car had been brought to the Russian military base in Tskhinvali under the direction of Russian military personnel after local militia found it abandoned in a buffer zone around South Ossetia.

The report contradicted earlier claims that the car had been seized from Georgian citizens."

I don't know much about Georgia nor Russia. I do know that Georgia is supposed to be an independent nation. Russia army moved into some parts of Georgia due to the need to protect these residents there who wanted or claimed to want to be independent from Georgia. Whatever it is, violence has reeled it's head. This WILL NOT be the last casualty of a conflict, or can we call it a war yet?

Lessons for me:

1. it never pays to occupy someones land and homes. No one likes to be living under another nation or someone else rules unless they are invited to help and assist in nation building!;

2. no matter how mighty an army is, when your enemies are not afraid to die, you will have your hands full dealing with irrational and unconventional attacks! It may cause you to oppress your supposed enemies even more and create an even bigger negative responses and ill-will with the people!;

3. leaders do not resort to violence to solve disagreement. When you use force, what you may get is compliance where people do the RIGHT THINGS when someone is watching. As leaders what you want to create is commitment where people do the RIGHT THINGS when NO ONE is watching. This can only be achieved when people agree with the pros and cons of doing one thing or the others, that they can see you are willing to provide resources or help to let them meet the mutually agreed objectives, that peace is the only mean to achieve a lasting agreement!

May Georgia not develop into another Afghanistan for Russia as we all know what happened to the mighty USSR army when it embroiled itself in Afghanistan a decade of two ago!

Peace and power to the world!!