The clash between Russia and Georgia is the conflict of two thuggish, authoritarian governments. The American media seems to usually forget that it was Georgia that launched the attack.
The conflict is highlighting the lunacy of McCain’s warmongering instincts. Mr. McCain’s top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a lobbyist for the government of Georgia. Scheunemann was previously a key tool for Chalabi and the selling of the lies upon which the Iraq war was based. Perhaps that was his highest recommendation to McCain.
McCain has been yammering for years about how Georgia should be allowed to join NATO (which G W Bush also championed). If Georgia was a NATO member, then the United States would be obliged to defend the militant nation – probably regardless of whether Georgia initiated a war with Russia. But McCain seems to feel that war is therapeutic for the nation – or at least that it works out well for former POWs trumpeting themselves to be great leaders.
Brendan O’Neil has an excellent analysis here exposing the charade of the mainstream media’s narrative of this war.
It is tragic that so many innocent people have already perished in this conflict. I hope we can speedily find out the truth of the role of the Bush administration or others in encouraging or enabling the Georgian government to launch the initial attack.
Jim, this guy never ceases to amaze me. I just saw a you tube where he said Putin was President of Germany.
On a differing note, my wife is from Ukraine, and I’ve been there on 5 different occasions. First and foremost, most of the people in this country couldn’t find Ukraine on a map, never mind Georgia. (Some would say that’s near Florida, isn’t it?)
That’s Russian sphere of influence. Despite the fact that Ukraine, and Georgia are soverign countries, the language spoken there is Russian, and many ethnic Russians live there.
And of course, we intervened in both Ukraine, and Georgia, and had pro-western men elected, and of course, promised them quick entry into NATO. (Why does NATO still exist) Imagine for a moment the Russian asked Nicarugua, or Cuba to join the Warsaw Pact. I can remember in the Carter adminstration when the Soviets wanted to put a brigade of combat engineers in Cuba, and the Carter admistration went ballistic.
Unfortunetly, Americans have short attentions span.
Jean – NATO should be mothballed. It has caused far more trouble than good ever since the late 1990s.
Thanks for the insights on the Ukraine/Georgia situation. I wish those folks well but the durn saber rattling by Bush (and Clinton before him) is achieving nothing except boosting the salaries of Washington lobbyists and the sales of armaments.
-Everyone should take a good long sober look at what is happening in Georgia right now and understand that it is likely their fate as- well if they continue to offer blind indifference or support to the consumptive nation states that are consigning their futures to a special hell of televised mayhem.
Learn to love chaos, it is the new interchangeable definition of “liberal” and “conservative”.
That not one of our major media outlets raises any questions about 1200 of our troops and untold dollars of our munitions in Georgia a scant 3 weeks ago is quite enough evidence for me to understand that the “news” and our “press” are, aside from those who died that day, the victims of 9/11/01.
Jim, just found this artcle from the English newspaper in Ukraine called the Kyiv Post. Here’s another wrinkle in the disturbance in the region that might cause a little trouble. Maybe you didn’t know, but the Russians have their Black Sea fleet harbored in Sevestopol, which is in Ukraine. (Sort of their Gitmo) Well, I let the article do the talking.
http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/editorial/29402/
The Ukrainians might want to get their NATO membership card stamped BEFORE they try and make that stick…
Jean – thanks for the link from the Kyiv Post.
Hopefully this doesn’t blow up half the world.
Lawhobbit – ya, I don’t think the Ukrainians would have a lot of fire in their belly if they realized they might be going solo…