In June 2001, President George W. Bush told the world that he had looked then Russian Vladimir Putin in the eye and “was able to get a sense of his soul.” So then shouldn't Mr. Bush have sensed Prime Minister Putin's incursion into Georgia this past week? This conflict between Georgia and Russia is much more involved that on the surface. It would take a Russia/Soviet Union expert to give a real sense of things, but here are a few key points. Part of the conflict between Russia and Georgia centers on a small region called South Ossetia. South Ossetia is a break-away region of Georgia, which separated from Georgia in a 1991-92 war. The South Ossetia region has a population of around 70,000 (yes 7-0 thousand), 2/3 of which are ethnic Ossetians and 1/3 who are ethnic Georgians. The major religion there is Christianity. Ossetians have maintained good relations with Russians, both during the first Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. North Ossetia is already part of Russia. Russia’s anger at Georgia intensified in 2003 after Georgia’s so-called Rose Revolution, when protests against a rigged election toppled the government and set the current Georgian government on a westward ...

The blogosphere is beginning to swell with support from those who want to see changes is how the Army and the Department of Defense (DoD) handle cases of sexual assault. Dallas South first wrote about the LaVena Johnson case in mid-July, and since then an flurry of activity has taken place. Color of Change has developed a campaign around Pfc. Johnson's death. In a letter to their members, Color of Change writes: LaVena Johnson was a 19 year old private in the Army, serving in Iraq, when she was raped, murdered, and her body was burned--by someone from her own military base. Despite overwhelming physical evidence, the Army called her death a suicide and has closed the case. After two years of being denied answers and hearing explanations that made no sense, the Johnsons received a CD-ROM from someone on the inside. It contained pictures of the crime scene where LaVena died and an autopsy showing that she had suffered bruises, abrasions, a dislocated shoulder, broken teeth, and some type of sexual assault. LaVena's death is part of a disturbing pattern of cases where female soldiers have been raped and killed, and where the military has hidden the truth and labeled the ...

Gina McCauley from What About Our Daughters is calling for action in the case of PFC Lavena Johnson. By all accounts PFC Johnson was murdered by her colleagues. Here's a recap of the story by WAOD & Jezebel: (Johnson) enlisted in the Army right out of high school in 2003 and was sent to Iraq, where she died. When the Army returned her mutilated body to her grieving parents as a suicide, her dad, Dr. John Johnson, said to himself and the Army coroner, "Somebody murdered my daughter and you picked the wrong person to fuck with." When LaVena's father finally brought himself to look at his daughter's corpse in 2005, sent home from Iraq with a report that she'd committed suicide by shooting herself in the left side of her head with an M-16 — which, by the way, is not a handgun but a relatively long rifle, he thought there was something wrong. Private LaVena Johnson's nose was broken, teeth were loose, one eye was concave and there were abrasions over her body. The supposed M-16 hole to the head was far too small for the revolver-sized exit wound, and was on the wrong side of her skull for ...