Russia & Georgia, US & Hamas, Cheney & Musharraf
Bush's demand that Russia "reverse course" on Georgia and not try to overthrow an elected government is full of special pleading.
Bush has no standing to ask anyone not to go around invading countries, of course.
Russian PM Vladimir Putin has already thrown Iraq in Bush's face, saying
'"Of course, Saddam Hussein ought to have been hanged for destroying several Shiite villages . . . And the incumbent Georgian leaders who razed 10 Ossetian villages at once, who ran over elderly people and children with tanks, who burned civilian alive in their sheds -- these leaders must be taken under protection."'
Bush's implicit defense is that unlike Iraq's, Georgia's government is elected. Why Bush would never undermine a democratically elected government, would he?
But that is exactly what he did when Hamas won the elections for the Palestine Authority in January of 2006. Bush slapped sanctions on the elected government and encouraged Israel as it kidnapped ministers, and then ultimately connived at a coup in the West Bank (an an attempted one in Gaza, which failed).
And, of course, Cheney and Bush supported Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf against much more popular civilian officials willing to run against actual other candidates. Before she was assassinated, Benazir Bhutto said that she wished Cheney had reined Musharraf in. Bush even initially was lukewarm about the popularly-elected parliament that is now set on impeaching Musharraf. Bush only just stopped taking his 'best buddy's' phone calls.
Bush and Cheney are shocked, shocked that a great Power would act unilaterally and with massive force to secure its interests, violating the Enlightenment principle of popular sovereignty.
posted by Juan Cole @ 8/12/2008 05:16:00 AM
|
Facebook
23 Comments:
There is also the time when the Israelis were bombing the crap out of Lebanon to try and blackmail the democratically elected government into taking action against Hezbollah and the Bush administration actively encouraged the Israelis.
Maybe George Bush should spend less time peering deeply into Putin's eyes and read a few history books.
If there is anyone who doubts that the American Establishment media is joined at the hip with the U.S. government just watch the coverage of the war in Georgia. The majority of the cable and network "news" readers are filled with barely concealed faux-outrage over the fact that the Russian army invaded Georgia and came down hard on the Georgian defence forces (even though the Russians started shooting only after they themselves were fired upon). The "reporters" and anchors whimper about those mean ol' Russians but they do it without the slightest hint of irony or consciousness that the Americans committed an unprovoked attack and invasion of Iraq just a few short years ago.
The Americans and the israelis were grooming Georgia, a state that lies directly on the Russian border to be a state that is unfriendly to Russia. The Russians nipped that plan in the bud after being provoked into a firefight. Now the Americans are angry and embarrassed that their plot was disrupted so they have their propaganda organs working overtime to portray the Russians as irrational savages who must be condemned and possibly confronted.
Fifty years ago Eisenhower warned the people of the United States about the American military-industrial complex (his glaring omission was not mentioning the media propaganda machine) and we're seeing what he was talking about in action today.
.
We're falling fast through the memory hole, I guess.
Lebanon was becoming a power again, financially and with its advanced infrastructure.
Israel used the pretext of two captured soldiers to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure, in a completely self-serving act -- with Washington's full support.
The Bush administration really finds itself in the glasshouse, awash in rocks and little else, these days.
Well, Sundays TV shows all condemned Russia as if they were the aggressor. I watched both Face the Nation and Meet the Press and not a single sould commented that it was Georgia who started it.
In other words, when you have a ring in the nose of the press, you can pretty much say and do what you want.
And Bushco supported the coup against the democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez and they cheered on the Israelis as they bludgeoned poor Lebanon in 2006 and ... these scoundrels have no shame.
Israel mulls halting arms shipments to Georgia: report
10 August 2008
....Around a year ago Israel decided to limit its aid to Georgia to defensive weaponry and military advisors, and at present its aid stands at 200 million dollars (120 million euros), the newspaper said.
Israel has in the past sold aerial drones, night-vision equipment, and rockets to Georgia, and many retired officers from the Israel's military and internal security services work as military advisors there.
Full piece Here.
Israeli [Israel] Has $1 Billion Invested in Georgia
10 August 2008
The Israeli-Georgia connection is estimated to be worth $1 billion, according to a former Georgian ambassador to Israel. The Jewish state and private investors have provided military assistance and advisors to Georgia, where pipelines pump oil destined for Israel. A new pipeline is being built to bypass Russian territory.
Full piece Here.
.
The Bush/Cheney regime also supported a coup against the democratically elected government in Venezuela in 2002.
didn't bush/cheney mount a (preventive) coup vs. the gore and kerry admins.?
As Bush would know if his actions matched his claims of being a Christian, the Bible says you should remove the plank from your own eye before pointing out the speck in another's eye. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. It's nearly so obvious that it's embarrassing to point it out, but thanks for doing it so eloquently and accurately, Prof. Cole.
Hmmm...didn't Bush/Clinton encourage Kosovo to spin off of Serbia? Why can't S. Ossetia do the same from Georgia now?
Precedents can bite both ways.
LOL, another silly dog trick in Georgia failed. You would think by now, after failing in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela, Hamas, Syria, Afghanistan, they would just stop the play or change tricks. Lets see how the last game in Iran is going to play out, with all the armada in teh Gulf, one will think they will score above Zero this time, After Gerogia fiasco, doubtful.
I don't know much about what's going on with Russia and Georgia, but I have read various stories about U.S. oil interests gaining a strong foothold in Georgia.
I wouldn't be surprised if Russia considered this region within its sphere of influence. Things happened and Russia indirectly or almost directly enforced its will that the U.S. and EU do not belong here. They prevailed.
Does this incident contain any implications about the status of American power? Really, I am not Knowledgeable about this and I am wondering what others think.
Bob Spencer
Technically, Saddam was 'elected'. A quick Google search found this BBC article from 2002 where Saddam won with 100% of the vote.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2331951.stm
The crisis in Georgia has revealed at least two things, both very troublesome for America's prospects as a world power.
The first is the growing power of the EU. While Bush and the presidential candidates hemmed and hawed, Sarkozy negotiated a cease-fire and set the stage for international talks.
The second is the immense rashness of the US's alliances in eastern Europe. During the run-up to Iraq in 2002-2003, Bush and Rumsfeld tried to recruit more members of "New Europe" for the Coalition of the Willing. Now, for the next 10 years (or more), those same new allies will remind the US of their help in Iraq when they ask for protection from Russia.
This bites BushCo in the butt doubly on Iran...
1) It will be difficult, nay impossible without some major Tonkin-style incident to start up a blockade let alone a bombing campaign of Iran anytime soon. Even the US media can't spin that around the US complaints of the Russian "attack" on Georgia fast enough.
2) Even if, somhow, BushCo is able to brew up an Iran attack/blockade, Russia has shown that it is ready and able to very swiftly and effectively respond to attacks against allies. And with the Georgian army cowed (especially if there's any truth to the rumor of SS-21's [new nuke and/or EMP-loaded units in addition to the frags used in Georgia] being moved into North Ossetia), there's nothing to stop the Russians from sweeping right through the Caucusus to help Iran...
@ andrew:
1) I'm not sure how much Sarkozy contributed to the cease-fire agreement. Looks to me a lot more like, he went there to get some credit for it once the Russians accomplished what they wanted.
2) IMHO, the mistake was not to ally with eastern Europe (why shouldn't the US reap the fruits of winning the Cold War???); it was going past Poland and Romania and Kosovo, threatening to take NATO to Russia's borders. How would we react if Mexico had been talking about joining the Warsaw Pact?
It's really sad that US over-reach has made Russia our enemy once again. They may not be capable of invading western Europe or the US, but they still have nukes and now a potent energy weapon.
I think the Georgia situation is seen by the neocons and the Bush administration as a spendind opportunity to create self serving tension.
If the military-industrial complex could justify a huge defense defense budget to fight small numbers of lightly armed guerrillas in Afghanistan and Iraq, just think how easy it will be to gild the lily with Russia as a potential military antagonist.
The beauty of having Russia as the enemy is that we will never have to fight them (nuclear disaster) but the ID complex could justify every conceivable, and inconceivable, weapon system just to "be prepared".
In my view what we are seeing in the US reaction to Georgia is not based on misunderstandings, lack of historical perspective, or diplomatic incompetence. We are seeing an attempt to restart the Cold War for self serving purposes.
We may no longer be much of a world power, but, by golly, we will always be the "The World's Most Heavily Armed Nation".
And once again Obama is demonstrating his nearly total lack of spine. He'll try to out McCain McCain on this one. I'll vote for him on the hope he lets his wife make the decisions - she's got spine.
Given the current situation in Georgia, the Bush Administration chooses to re-fight the Cold War, with the formidable assistance of Senators McCain and LIEberman.
Obviously, this is something they are quite comfortable with. Everyone in their age group (myself included) was raised on the inherent fear and loathing of the "Red Menace". No wonder McCain and his neo-con "fellow travelers" jumped right on the Russia-bashing bandwagon. Distrust of the evil empire is something that the Republican base knows instinctively as a winning election issue.
However, I heard another opinion raised by a well known pundit (Rachel Maddow- who, curiously, acknowledges that her ancestral family surname is, in fact, Medvedev)that the net effect of the Russian incursion was tantamount to Gazprom declaring war on Chevron.
Hello Juan and all,
This whole affair is a purposely orchestrated theatrical production. How convenient is it that the Bush Administration trained and prepped Georgia and then (some) US trainers pull out just before they initiate an apparent blunder that the Russians have been ready and poised to respond to, for months.
Remember, both sides have satellites and very well equipped spy agencies, so any assertion that anyone was surprised is laughable. It goes without saying that all sides in this strange little war have something up their sleeves that most people have no clues about. All the pieces were placed on the board before major world leaders went off to the Olympics, pretending to be surprised, and pretending to be mad at each other afterwards.
It is amazing how easily duped the sheeple of this world are. Keep them stupid and enslaved to money and they are easily herded to the slaughter. The poor people of Georgia and the soldiers on all sides of this and all wars are merely pawns to the whims of the greedy, arrogant deceivers slithering behind veils of smoke and shadow.
This little production has been planned for some time to coincide with the Olympics, but that was such a poor cover that it should be obvious that something else is afoot. And how convenient is it that the Olympics are on 8/8/08? The timing of 8/8/08 links this to the same gang that pulled off 9/11 (and many other events), with its blatantly obvious numerology. Contemplate Machiavelli and Mystery Babylon, since they both point to the same gang of liars.
Time to get a clue to help stop this evil gang, before its too late...
Baku-Subsa and the Baku-Batumi pipelines:
From what I understand Subsa is not a port but has a sub-standard oil storage depot near by [Link Bankwatch], the oil at the Subsa terminal is sent to two ports: Poti, to the north which in the state of Georgia, presumably getting its oil by pipeline, and, Batumi to the south in semi-autonomous state of Ajaria by train.
Leaving aside the political aspects of the B-T-C pipeline, what benefits could be argued of using the B-T-C pipeline over these two pipelines that go to the black sea and what’s the future of the Baku-Batumi pipeline?
Batumi gets more oil from Subsa than Poti yet transit by train is surely inefficient, so, why does the oil from Subsa to Batumi get sent by train?
The bombing of Poti by Russia has meant no oil has been handled by either port, yet, Batumi appears to be fully functional will they be handling the oil that was destined to Poti and Ceyhan which was damaged by the PPK in Turkey?
Georgia provided many troops to assist the US in Iraq. The US invaded
Iraq to control its oil. Russia is invading Georgia to control the BTC
pipeline for its oil. Bush did it to Iraq. Putin is doing it to Georgia.
This would have never occurred before invading Iraq. Bush took the
opportunity of having the world's sympathy due to 9/11 to invade Iraq.
Which he had no business doing. Now, the US appears weak and
overstrained and Putin knows this and is flexing his muscles. My biggest
fear is China. China is a sleeping giant waiting for an excuse to join
forces with Russia so they both can control the region. China and
Russia want the Stan's back.. Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, etc. European
forces are complacently waiting to see how the US is going to respond.
If the US responds using force China will join forces with Russia and
they will be a huge threat to Europe in the future. If the US responds
only through politics then they will lose Georgia and the power of
Russia will grow. This power will be a big threat in the future and many
countries regionally will be in fear. Russia is expecting the US to get
involved and I believe they already have a plan of action for a US
response. We cannot let them implement this plan. Europe needs to throw
them for a loop and take over this situation. Russia must be stopped now
but not by the US. Europe needs to step up and flex.
Russia steps in to protect the break-away regions from being taken over by the Georgian militants. abkhasia and South Osetia were stripped away from the autonomy in the early 90's...and Georgians stepped in with ethnic cleansing slogans "Georgia for Georgians" back then. The aggression by Georgian army on the eve of Olympics was BRUUUTAL - 10 villages and one major city (Tsikhval) were barraged by heavy guns and destroyed. Georgian "peace keepers" were given orders to shoot Russian peace keepers in the back. And they did. Georgia might have succeeded too if they did not got bogged down in street fighting. Good that Russian battalions made it through the tunnel and moved in 1.8 days later.
While Russia could have re-created the status-quo and not recognized the independence of the territories...it would only have allowed Georgia to regroup and relaunch a major scale attack. Now they will be deterred knowing that a major power is firmly backing the regions' independence...and Georgia's borders indeed got changed as result of their own impatience, aggressive pasturing, and pawn playing by US-NATO-Israel.
McCain's camp is getting a boost in rankings for now he gets to apply once again the double standards against Russia. The neo-cons are happy to feed the military industrial complex with a new enemy and to surface its strategic objectives to encircle Russia into the open.
Russia on the other hand has been asking, pleading and lobbying the US government to take it off the list of 'rouge state' list, to stop the missile encirclement, and to reciprocate investment projects and increase two-way (and multi-way) business partnerships. In the face of bold aggression by Georgians with the approval and arms from US-Israel it now has no choice but to make a stand that protects the ethnic populous of the Abkhasia and S. Osetia as well as asserts its influence in the BlackSea and Caspian regional geo-politics.
Can I blame Russia for doing so? Nope. I can not see one fault in their actions.
It is time for the US-Nato to make concessions to demilitarize their ambitions in the region, to dismantle their missile pacts in Poland and Czec, to remove their fleet from Black Sea...and then Russia will effectively pull all of its troops from Georgia proper and will enforce peaceful return of Georgian minority back into Abkhasia and S. Osetia. At the same time Russia will not impede cooperation with US-NATo on Afghanistan war, and will continue to be instrumental party to N.Korea and Iran dilemmas.
Effectively US-NAto and EU needs to recognize Russia's legitimacy as enforcer of peace on its borders...and Russia's concerns over its own security when ABM missiles are placed in the neighboring countries.
If the West is going into a unbalanced demands and confrontation following Cheney's meetings next week...well then neo-cons get what they want. Nato and US military industrial complex gets their new enemy #1. And the world rolls back 20 years again and gets to titter on the verge of nuclear war.
Meantime - neither Russians hate Georgians, nor Russians hate Americans nor vis a vis. The game is being played by those who are in power...and it seems to me that little Georgia's unbalanced, narcissistic, napoleonic president is holding on to power via means of wars that he can not win guided by his neo-con friends heel bent on establishing American hegemony in every part of the world (regardless how far it is from Pacific or Atlantic).
So my question to all here - is Jeffersonian model championed by Ron Paul in his campaign ever possible to be the guiding light for USA in the future?
Can USA military industrial complex ever be reduced by 1/3 of its current budgets in order to pay for the deficit, education, and SS?
Is there a viable way out of confrontation with Russia?
Post a Comment
<< Home