We are slipping back into the dark ages because military commanders are afraid of ordering executions. It is absurd to talk about arresting people who are destroying the good name of your soldiers.

From The Independent, August 17

Russian officers in Georgia denied that their forces had carried out attacks on civilians. Some admitted, however, that atrocities were being carried out by the militias. Major General Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Borisov, the commander in charge of Gori, said: "Ossetians are running around and killing poor Georgians. This is a problem and we are trying to deal with it. I have ordered my men to arrest anyone carrying out looting and other criminal acts."

In Tskhinvali yesterday, the South Ossetians paraded around 40 haggard and frightened-looking Georgian civilian captives through the city. Most were elderly men, many with cuts and bruises on their faces, walking with their shoulders slumped. A militiaman hit one of the men on the head as he walked by.

Matt, Russian solders can't hang Ossetian moroders - it would be not correct. It would be the same as if US troops hanged french moroders when reconquering France from Germany in 1945

But Ossetian solders themselves have moral right to do that and they actually did it several times.. ( some Ossetians were shot by solders for robbering a house that had been bombed)

An army commander can have any looter or arsonist shot under martial law, whether he hails from Georgia, Chechnya, or China. No need for trials.

Otherwise we cannot blame Hitler for what the ustasha did in Bosnia or what the Vlasovites did in Italy. Or are you going to use the same excuse as Clinton--we are not to blame for what our UCK allies do.