I recently read this post by Richard Moore on the history between Russia and the West and I thought I should share it with you. It provides some interesting perspective on what’s happening over in Georgia at the moment. According to Moore, Georgie is just the latest in a long line of pawns being moved by the West to provide an excuse to ramp up another Cold War.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Cold War, an invention of the West, embodied two primary objectives. First and foremost, it provided an excuse for interventions all over the globe on the part of the US – ostensibly ‘protecting the free world from Communism’ – while in fact exploiting the hell out of what were deemed to be ‘underdeveloped’ nations. Secondarily, the Cold War amounted to a long-term attempt to destabilize the Soviet Union, which finally succeeded in 1990. The Cold War was perhaps the most successful of the historical series of attacks on Russia.
Russia, in concert with China, is beginning to eclipse the US-EU Axis in many areas, including manufacturing, control over energy supplies, productive economic activity, and monetary reserves. Only in military capability does the US continue to hold a #1 rating, and the actual military advantage slips day by day away from the Pentagon, as Russia and China develop their ‘asymmetric’ counter-measures.
This is the context in which US-NATO trained, armed, and encouraged Georgia to launch its brutal and illegal attack on South Ossetia, intentionally killing Russian citizens and peace-keepers, and intentionally targeting civilians generally. Nearly all of the casualties in the overall conflict were inflicted by Georgian forces at the outset of hostilities. The US and UK media refer to the total number of casualties, and imply that Russia is to blame for them. Such is the nature of our so-called ‘free press’.
Read the full post by Richard Moore.
It’s interesting to just quickly run your eyes over the list of headlines about Georgia in Google News to see how the Western press is depicting the events.
“Russians remain in Georgia”, TVNZ, New Zealand
“Deadline passes for Russian withdrawal from Georgia”, ABC Online, Australia
“US Says Russia Must Remove All Military Equipment From Georgia”, Voice of America
“Russia’s Might in Georgia Reflects Pattern, Rice Says”, Bloomberg
“Rice: NATO won’t let Russia succeed in Georgia”, San Diego Union Tribune
“Russia moves SS-21 missiles into Georgia: US defense official”, AFP
“US says Russia should withdraw from Georgia”, Reuters
“Despite Cease-Fire, Russia Stays In Georgia”, NPR
Any guesses who the bad guy is here?
Alternative headlines might read:
“Russia Continues To Defend South Ossetia Against Georgian Attacks”
But good luck finding that one.
To be honest the duplicity and double standards are vomit-inducing on all sides. I won’t be allying myself with anyone in this dispute.
Russia opposed exactly this kind of intervention in Kosovo where Serbia was brutally repressing separatists. The West seems to be turning a blind eye to the Georgian aggression in this instance. South Ossetians are obviously not worth as much as Kosovans and vice versa in Russian eyes.
Listening to the US and its allies talking about the sanctity of sovereign nations just staggers me as well. I just can’t believe that the very same people who sent columns of tanks over the Iraqi border on a sham mission to find WMD’s can now be laying claim to the moral high ground. Either they’ve had their memories erased or they are quietly retching as the words come out of their mouth.
Also if Russia is so sure it’s right then why has it agreed to pull out?
The US opened a Pandora’s box with Iraq. The benchmark for invading a sovereign nation has been set so low that almost every country in the developing world is vulnerable to some extent now.
Did you know Karl Rove had a meeting with Georgia in july?
All you have to do is follow Karl – where ever he goes, wars follow.
Charlie – Russia pulled out because, if they stay, It gives the US more validity in putting a missile defense system in Poland (probably the real reason why the US encouraged this war-to try and turn it into something big). Also, according to them, they pulled out because they wanted to show the west the damage done by the Georgians (the russians closed off the area and recently brought in media to show what the US media is saying is false).
Not that you’ll hear about it.
The Chinese are with the US on this one as well.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/21/content_9563269.htm