Blogging to learn: Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

I chose an article "Georgia Eager to Rebuild Its Defeated Armed Forces" that is a follow up on the Georgia- Russia conflict. This conflict intrigued me because what happened in Georgia, in terms of our government and what it stands for; "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. This ideology was completely violated by the Russians in this conflict. Some time ago, the Russian government started to invade several parts of Georgia. After a short time, the Russians permanently occupied those areas. There were many casualties, 90% of which were civilians.

This clearly violates the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” ideology for several reasons. Life: This was violated because the Russian soldiers were killing innocent people, civilians as well as military personnel. Life was lost. Liberty: The liberty aspect was violated as well, because, they did a hostile takeover. Hence; they were taking liberties that the people once had, replacing Georgia’s government with a new Russian military government. Also, with fighting going on they were less free; they had to stay in their houses or flee. Many people from those parts of Georgia had fled. Pursuit of Happiness: If people had to leave their homes you can be assured they are not happy. Many people were dying and this hurts all their families and as well. I believe that the Georgian government is building up their army to make sure they can use all their power to assure that this never happiness again. Doing this, they will also be guarding the idea of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for all the people of Georgia.

Georgia Eager to Rebuild Its Defeated Armed Forces
By C. J. CHIVERS and THOM SHANKER
NY Times
Published: September 2, 2008