The BBC reports:
Georgia says its forces have withdrawn from the separatist enclave of South Ossetia, and that Russian troops are now in control of the regional capitalYeh, right. Georgia really cares about 'protecting civilians',- that's why they launched a brutal, murderous attack on the civilians of South Ossetia on Friday.
An interior ministry spokesman told the BBC it was not a military defeat but a necessary step to protect civilians from a "humanitarian catastrophe".
But the removal of Georgia's troops from South Ossetia is not only a defeat for Georgia- it's also a humiliating defeat for the country's neo-con backers. It's not only that in having to deal with the Russian response, Georgia has had to withdraw 1,000 of its troops from Iraq. In his brilliant article for Prison Planet, Paul Joseph Watson, outlines the level of neocon involvement in Georgia's aggression (The Exile has more on the US involvement). The plan was simple- while the rest of the world attention was focused on the Olympics opening ceremony, a massive assault would be made to reclaim the province of South Ossetia. But it's a neocon-instigated plan that has spectacularly backfired.
Russia is, quite correctly, ignoring US pleas for a ceasefire and, having liberated South Ossetia and saved its people from ethnic cleansing, is now focusing its attentions on reducing Georgia's military capabilities, to make sure that the country never again launches a war of aggression against the people of South Ossetia, or indeed against anyone else. Russia, and South Ossetia must make sure that peace comes on THEIR terms, and not the neo-cons and their puppets- who are at the moment in no position to dictate terms to anyone. And that not only means obtaining a written agreement that Georgia relinquishes all claims to South Ossetia and Abkhazia-but also that Georgia also pledges to drop its plans to join NATO, and becomes a neutral, non-aligned state, in the same way that the State Treaty- negotiated between East and West- ensured Austria's neutrality after World War Two.
The US would simply not allow Mexico or Canada to join a Russian-led military alliance, with missiles pointed at New York, so why should Russia accept US military bases on its doorstep?
UPDATE: James Jeffrey, US National Security advisor has made a valiant attempt to redefine the word 'chutzpah'.
The Guardian reports that Jeffrey:
condemned Russia for its "dangerous and disproportionate" action against Georgia and warned of long-term damage to relations between Washington and Moscow.
So there you have it. The country which just five years ago launched a brutal and unprovoked military assault on the sovereign state of Iraq, an assault which has led to the death of over 1m people- has the chutzpah to criticise other countries for taking 'dangerous and disproportionate' action. I don't know the Russian for that splendid old English expression 'go and eat coke', but it's the response to Jeffrey I would make if I were Russia's Foreign Minister.
11 comments:
Quote: ( Russia ..... having liberated South Ossetia and saved its people from ethnic cleansing, is now focusing its attentions on reducing Georgia's military capabilities, to make sure that the country never again launches a war of aggression against the people of South Ossetia, or indeed against anyone else).
I don't think for a minute you believe what you wrote; this is the exact American language for enforcing sancitons on Iraq and destroying it later.
Putin who gained power after erasing Chechnia and who is said to have sent his own men to blew up buildings in Moscow in order to rally support for his war and raise his stakes in the elections, has statred to worry about peace and human life.
Look at the big picture.
The world has used a lot of oil reserves which was under American influence, the balance will shift in the future and Russia will have most of the world's oil reserves.
Having said that, the US has put it's hand on the oil of Iraq and is moving towards Africa/ Darfour reserves and Iranian gas to keep it's control on oil.
Georgia is part of this great game of controlling the worlds resources, a gaz pipe going through it's land from the black sea is not very bad for Russia as long as it has influence in Georgia, but not if the Nato stepped in.
One more comment, Ossetia has a populaiton of 75.000, 90% of them has Russian passports. so it's already a Russian provence in Georgia and is used to control Georgia and for this reason, Russian will never annex Ossetia
Hi Dan,
Great to hear from you. Of course Russia is acting in its own interests, but it most certainly has saved the people of South Ossetian from the Goergian version of 'Operation Storm'.
I always 'look at the big picture' and the big picture is this. A plan by the neocons to encircle Russia, gain control of the most important oil and gas pipelines and by doing so control the world. The Proejct for a New American Century is coming badly unstuck, not just in Iraq, but in the Caucasus too.
Anyone who wants to see peace must hope for the total defeat of the neocon's imperialist project. And that imperialist project has taken a big hit in Georgia. The very same people who planned the criminal invasion of Iraq, and who are now planning another criminal assault on Iran are the people backing Georgia.
Russia is not the enemy- the neocons are.
Thanks for the comment my dear friend Neil.
I totally agree with your comment more than the article. and I wish all success to Russia and China for the sake of balancing neocons influence in the world, not that I agree with their policies.
An old song says (I want to live in another planet); and I believe many people will be desparate to move to Mars with this singer if the neocons succeded.
All the best
Many thanks for your kind words, Dan.
We're all in this together- the neocons try to divide people, but I think more and more people are waking up to the fact that it's the neocons and their aggressively imperialistic agenda that are the world's biggest problem. They are a tiny group but still enormously powerful. But they will be defeated, rest assured, so long as all of us who oppose their agenda work together.
It sounds like the Russians, rather than wanting Ossetia to be legally wholly independent want it to be officially under Georgian sovereignty but that sovereignty to be so restrained by international treaty as to be non-existent. That fiddle shows Putin has good lawyers & allows them still to stand for the rule of international law & claim moral superiority over the NATO powers who seized Kosovo. It also stops the North Ossetians wanting a united & ultimately separate state.
The other smart thing Putin has done is not to touch the Azerbaijan-Turkey oil pipeline. Closing that would take 1 bomb.
I am confirmed in my opinion that Putin is a very smart guy indeed, unlike the hand waving jerks we elect.
Mocked as a throwback to Holy Russia, we should have listened to Solzhenitsyn, not least when he opposed the break-up of what had been the Soviet Union.
As in Yugoslavia, and as putatively in Belgium (or Spain, or the United Kingdom), we are now seeing that, once begun, such a process need never end, with talk today of an enclave of ethnic Georgians inside Abkhazia declaring independence.
The pseudo-Left is fond of a wildly decontextualised quotation from George Galloway (not without his faults), in which he describes the end of the Soviet Union as the greatest tragedy of his life.
But he meant, not the end of Stalinism, but this. Solzhenitsyn was of the same mind.
And they are both being proved right.
"Putin who gained power after erasing Chechnia and who is said to have sent his own men to blew up buildings in Moscow in order to rally support for his war and raise his stakes in the elections, has statred to worry about peace and human life.
Dan, I don't think for a minute you believe what you wrote; this is the exact American language for encircling Russia and destroying it later. Of all the conspiracy theories, this one takes the cake, did Putin also send men to take hostages of those kids?....
Neil, I applaud your patience and civility. Dan not so subtly accused you of trying to deceive your readers and your responded well.
Pierre;
My language about Moscow attacks was clear (it is said to). Said to is not a confirmation.
Two of the journalists who said that Putins men have staged Moscow bombings have been assisinated and here is what they said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombings
I have a great respect to Neil, and we do disagree on many topics. If you think friends can't disagree and believe in the neocon notion( either with us or against us) I don't.
"The plan was simple- while the rest of the world attention was focused on the Olympics opening ceremony, a massive assault would be made to reclaim the province of South Ossetia."
Ah, yes. The 'master plan.'
I think you've been watching too many Bond movies!
By the way, I think the term 'liberated' is slightly inaccurate. If your country is overrun by Russian troops - who probably don't have any intention of leaving any time soon - you're not 'liberated.'
@ronald #1, if you're Russian and facing a summary execution or a random yet certain and painful death by being hit with an exploding MRLS warhead fragment, fired from the positions of the good & kind pro-Western Georgia... Then yes, you are liberated.
@ronald #2, newsflash - they will be leaving. Now what?
@ronald #3, want us to believe that Shaakashvili's Truce by Artillery Barrage Fire (tm) came on the opening day of the Olympics... accidentally? Right. He should be happy if the Chinese don't nuke him for stealing the limelight.
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