Month: August 2008

There are times the arrogance of the United States leaves one speechless. While still in the aftermath of a preemptive invasion of a sovereign nation, the occupation of its capital city, and having overthrown its government, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice stands in front of the world’s press and, while condemning the recent actions of Russia, announces:

“This is not 1968, where Russia can threaten a neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it. Things have changed.”

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he sees no likelihood of US military intervention in Georgia, though fears US/Russia relations may have been damaged for years to come.^[1][2]

Neither of these self-opinionated idiots acknowledges the true reason why US/Russian relations have gone adrift. It has nothing directly to do with the recent conflagration in Georgia. However, both of them are playing to a gallery of arrogant, self-centered, individuals who form a large percentage of the US population, and hang on every word spouted by the clown, Bush, and an attendant bevy of would-be circus entertainers known as his ‘administration’.

Ever since the USSR overreached itself in Afghanistan in the early 1990’s and collapsed into bankruptcy, ably assisted by a contingent of greed-mongers who helped themselves to the contents of the Russian treasury before fleeing with their ill-gotten gains to the sanctuary of Britain and America, the West – led by the US – has been picking off ex-Soviet satellite states like a vulture rips meat from a decomposing corpse. It’s objective: to advance its powerbase by installing in these nations ‘NATO’ military bases right on the Russian border. The US has used NATO as an umbrella to conceal its true intent, the siting of a series of missile batteries along the Russian border threatening that nation and its natural assets, the huge off-shore oil and gasfields of its northern and far-eastern coastal regions.^[3]

The clown, Bush, tells the world his missiles will protect against a Middle East rogue-state nuclear attack on Israel or the West. Anyone who’s ever picked up a globe of the world is aware that preventing such an attack would be best served by siting missiles in Saudi Arabia, (a staunch American ally) not Georgia or Poland or Czechoslovakia. Given the remote possibility any rogue nation in the Middle East (are we talking Iran here?) could produce a rocket with the range to reach the US, then missiles sited anywhere within the EU would serve as well, if not better, than on the Russian border.

The tide of Russia’s prosperity ebbed, and like a seafood salesman collecting wares the West went beachcombing along the Russian shoreline, acquiring nations as though they were errant crabs and tossing them into the basket of NATO. Now, the tide has turned and is reclaiming its own, or at least those parts happy to be reclaimed. The South Ossetians and Abkhazians are just two of them.

There’s no reason on earth why the West and Russia cannot get along. Invariably, its the West that tries to gain political capital from every Russian move. The nation isn’t perfect, but neither is the US or EU. All that prevents entente cordial is the politicians and their power struggles.

Bush, Rice, and Gates have been manipulating the crisis in Georgia to their own ends. It’s a pity that many in the US are so arrogant, dim, and poorly educated, as to provide an eager and willing audience for these political buffoons.

^{[1] “US sends aid, but rethinks policy” BBC, Aug 13th 2008}

^{[2] ” US warns Russia of lasting impact” BBC, Aug 14th 2008}

^{[3] “Russian offshore oil and gas resources” Offshore-environment.com}

Filed under: Hypocrisy rules, okay?

…… from the British Foreign Secretary David Milliband, ailment on the Russia/Georgia conflict:

“I think that the most important message that needs to go out…..is a simple one: force is not the basis for resolving difficult issues and is not the basis for international relations in the 21st century.”

British War Tank – Basra, case 2007

Filed under: Hypocrisy rules, okay?

Does this look like a man with a problem? Or, is he just badly in need of a tailor?

Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili has to be either a man of immense courage and vision to take on the might of the Russian military and expect to win, or a downright bloody fool.

My money’s on the latter.

While the western media slags off Putin and Medvedev (well, just Putin really, as the other fellow is irrelevant) accusing them of invading another sovereign nation, it totally ignores the fact that this guy with the seven o’clock shadow first of all sent his army into South Ossetia, an independent province since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and began shelling its capital city, Tskhinvali. The Russians, who have maintained a peacekeeping force in the area, along with Georgian and South Ossetian troops, are pledged to defend South Ossetian citizens, most of whom hold Russian passports.

Admittedly, the Russians have been supplying the South Ossetians with arms with which to harass the Georgians, and have stepped up the nudging of them to do even more of it of late, but one has to admire Putin’s strategy.

The core of this problem is George W Bush’s insistence on sticking loads of American warheads on Russia’s doorstep. Putin tried to be nice about it. He asked Bush not to do it.

The West had taken it’s usual predatory stance when the USSR collapsed, and spent a lot of time and money bribing the old satellite states to dissolve their allegiance to the wounded superpower and throw in their lot with NATO. Bush wasn’t going to cast that to the winds. He saw an opportunity to advance NATO right up to Putin’s front door.

Saakashvili was one of those who ran straight to the outstretched arms of the West, in the shape of the EU. He practically slavered at the idea of US bases in Georgia, Or, maybe the dribbling had more to do with the vast quantities of American dollars being poured into his grubby little mittens, in exchange.

There’s no doubt Russia, via the South Ossetian rebels, has been needling Saakashvili into taking the action he did. It’s exactly what Putin wanted. Georgia’s US-trained army was never a match for the Russian military.

Quite why the Georgian leader took the decision to invade at this time is unclear. One must assume he expected the West and NATO to come to his aid; not so wild a supposition, perhaps, given that only last April NATO agreed to Georgia’s eventual acceptance as a full member. Even so, if Saakashvili believed Europe and the US would strike at Russia on his behalf, then he’s truly a case for the psyche ward.

It’s unlikely that NATO invitation will still be on the table. One of the provisions must surely have been the integration of South Ossetia into Georgia, and another breakaway province, Abkhazia, in the north-west of the country. By its military action, Russia has made it quite clear that integration will never be allowed to occur. It is, anyway, against the wishes of a majority of its people. A referendum (observed by the EU and declared fair) in November 2006 clearly showed a massive 98%-99% of the populace wished to remain independent.

Prior to the referendum, however, a European Union representative had stated, “results of the South Ossetian independence referendum will have no meaning for the European Union” – a statement that clearly defines the dedication of European politicians to democracy.

Vladimir Putin is playing a dangerous game of chess with South Ossetia. His opponent is not Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who’s no more than a mere pawn in the game, but the Western powers of the United States and Europe. By his strategy, Putin has now defined the line over which NATO must not cross. The West would do well to heed, and withdraw. Neither side will risk an open confrontation and Putin has called a decisive “Check” on George W Bush and NATO’s plans for expansion into what was once the ‘Soviet bloc’.

Saakashvili is almost certainly finished politically. South Ossetia will remain independent. Eventually, the conflict will calm down like an expired squib. Russia will retain its influence, the West retire to lick its wounded pride, and the great Soviet chess master will no doubt quietly gloat over his latest triumph.

What a pity so many had to die in the process.

Filed under: Political Olympics