Thousands of Innocents Died Yesterday – So It Goes

Vladimir Putin left China yesterday, and arrived in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia:

Mr. Putin said he:

Wanted to discuss the influx of refugees. Russia's actions in South Ossetia are legally totally legitimate.

In an interview with the BBC Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said that:

I'm willing to have an immediate ceasefire. I am willing to have international mediation. I am willing to have international separation of forces. We are dealing with legal fiction here. We are dealing with a clear attempt to annex and appropriate even a small part of another country's territory. Doesn't Russia have enough territory of it's own?

A woman fleeing the conflict via Tbilisi airport said that:

I can't talk now because I'm so emotional and crying. I'd like to ask everyone to stop this war, because nobody wants it.

I guess Mr. Putin is the exception that proves that rule?

Reuters reported yesterday that Russian fighter jets targeted the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline which carries oil to the West from Asia but missed. According to Georgia's Economic Development Minister Ekaterina Sharashidze:

This clearly shows that Russia has not just targeted Georgian economic outlets but international economic outlets in Georgia.

In Beijing this morning Associated Press reports that President George W. Bush:

Expressed concern that the attacks were occurring in regions of Georgia that were far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. A senior official in Washington said Russia's use of overwhelming military force against Georgia, including strategic bombers and ballistic missiles, was "disproportionate to whatever threat Russia had been citing".

Whilst the war of words goes on the latest estimate from The Independent newspaper is that:

As many as 2,000 people may have been killed and 30,000 made homeless as the chaotic conflict between Georgian and Russian forces in the pro-Moscow enclave of South Ossetia entered its second bloody day.