A brief history of Russia & the West
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.