The war is over- and it's a humiliating defeat for the Russophobes

Russia has suspended military operations against Georgia.
The BBC reports:

According to a statement, Mr Medvedev told his defence minister and chief of staff that "the goal has been attained".
"I've decided to finish the operation to force the Georgian authorities to peace. The safety of our peacekeeping forces and civilian population has been restored.
"The aggressor has been punished, having sustained considerable losses. Its armed forces have been disorganised," he added.

The aggressor certainly has been punished. But this is a crushing defeat not only for Georgia and their neurotic, hysterical, and unbelievably wallyish President, but for the entire Russophobic movement. The British scribblers who wrote of Russia's invasion of Georgia, like Simon Tea-Bag What a Furore in today's Times, and the equally preposterous Russophobe David Clark, in yesterday's Guardian (thankfully he's no relation), have got an incredible amount of egg on their face.
There was no 'Russian invasion of Georgia'- if you wanted the truth on this all you had to do was read The Exile. I think over the past few days our Mexico-based friend has proved to be a far more accurate commentator on events than any so-called Russophobic 'experts' and 'analysts' you'll find in the British media.

PS Now that the war is over who will the neocons be demonising now? I guess it'll be back to Iran.....

NATO and the use of 'excessive force'

From Svetlana's excellent Byzantine Sacred Art blog:

Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitriy Rogozin said today in Brussels that Russia does not take lessons from those who were killing Serbs and destroying Serbia's infrastructure in 1999.

"NATO’s communiqué about the excessive use of force in the South Ossetia makes Moscow remember the operation of the Alliance against Serbia. Russia will not listen to such assessments from this military bloc, because it would then have to remind of the disproportionate use of force against the people and armed forces of Serbia, when NATO tried to give Serbs 'joys of democracy' through bombardment of Belgrade, destruction of Serbian towns, bridges and infrastructure", Russian Ambassador said at the press conference dedicated to Russia's military operations in South Ossetia.

"In 1999, NATO assessed that Slobodan Milosevic's policy is bad towards Kosovo-Metohija Albanians, but it decided not to bomb only the Serb troops in Kosovo, but the entire territory of Serbia, including bridges, hospitals, TV stations and state institutions... Thousands of Serbian civilians were killed in those attacks", Rogozin said.

"That is the major difference between NATO and Russia, which limited its actions in Georgia strictly to military targets. I'm horrified when I hear those who were silent before thousands of Serbian victims in 1999 giving themselves right to deliver moral lessons now... They'll never have that right", Rogozin
stressed.

Above you can see a picture of NATO's use of 'excessive force' in Yugoslavia in 1999: the shameful bombing of a passenger train at Grdelica Gorge which killed 14 civilians. Remember it, and all the other innocent victims of NATO's aggression, next time you hear a spokesperson from that organisation criticise others for using 'excessive force'.

Hungary's reason to thank the Russians

My wife Zsuzsanna saw this comment on the Denis Matyajaszek thread:

When the Kremlin turned on Hungary and Czechoslovakia, they did that with "fiendly" (sic) tanks to save the people from kapitalism. I shall nerver (sic) forget 1956,what they did to my country, Hungary!!!Posted by Tessa Hegedus on August 11, 2008 6:44 PM

Here's Zsuzsanna's reply:

Tessa, I am Magyar too, and I too will never forget what the Soviet Union did to my country. They liberated it from the Nazis and by doing so saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews and other anti-Nazis. Never forget that Hungary took part in Operation Barbarossa, the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 alongside the Nazis. The aggression was first from Hungary, not from Russia, and I say this as a Hungarian.Posted by Zsuzsanna Clark on August 11, 2008 7:08 PM

In the anti-Russian hysteria of the moment, it's important to get the facts right.

I might also add a personal note: during my time living in Hungary in the 1990s, I rented a flat from a Jewish landlord, an erudite and kindly man who became my good friend. Every year on the anniversary of the Soviet liberation of Hungary he would go to the Russian cemetery and lay a wreath. Had the Russians not arrived when they did- he and his family simply wouldn't be alive. I'd like to see someone explain to him that the Soviet Army in 1945 was not an army of liberation.

He's baaaaack! The return of the world's greatest detective

Neo-con aggression thwarted in the Caucasus. Sheffield Wednesday top of the Championship. Another Major for Padraig Harrington. And Denis Matyajaszek receiving the custard pie treatment from Daily Telegraph readers. Didn't think things could get any better?

Well, they're going to.

At 12.20 tonight (or rather in the early hours of Tuesday morning), BBC2 will show a classic episode of Ellery Queen: The 12th Floor Express. You can watch the first nine minutes of this wonderful mystery, set in the offices of a New York newspaper, here. For the rest of it, you'll just have to wait until the witching hour!
Mystery fans are in for a real treat, and our dear friend 'slapheads anonymous' will have a great chance to compare the acting abilities of the late, great Jim Hutton (pictured above) with the much over-hyped Heath Ledger. Enjoy!

Daily Telegraph readers vs Denis Matyjaszek

It's always good to watch a neocon propagandist get the custard pie treatment from a newspaper's readers. In today's Daily Telegraph, there is a a foaming at the mouth Russophobic piece by the Henry Jacksonite Labour MP Denis Matyjaszek. (aka 'Denis McShane'-Matyjaszek is so proud of his Polish heritage that he prefers to use an Irish moniker). But the interesting thing is not so much Matyjaszek's entirely predictable article, but the reaction of Daily Telegraph readers to it. The neocons are trying their level best to turn British public opinion against Russia. But as you can see from the comments to Matyjaszek's piece, they are failing dismally.

UPDATE:
Mind you, not every comment on the thread is sagacious: Bruce Barniston writes:
For Georgia, read Czechoslovakia. For South Ossetia read Sudentenland. For Russia read Germany. For Vladimir Putin, read Adolf Hitler. For 1938 read 2008.
I think I might add 'For Bruce Barniston, read Idiot'.

South Ossetia is Liberated- and Georgia suffers a humiliating defeat

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 capital
An interior ministry spokesman told the BBC it was not a military defeat but a necessary step to protect civilians from a "humanitarian catastrophe".

Yeh, right. Georgia really cares about 'protecting civilians',- that's why they launched a brutal, murderous attack on the civilians of South Ossetia on Friday.

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.

The US and Britain: Olympic Champions in Double Standards

The US and Britain have called for an 'immediate ceasefire’ between Russian and Georgian forces, after just one day's fighting in South Ossetia. Could this be the same US and Britain that defied international calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, even several weeks into the conflict?

The US and Britain also say that they support Georgia’s ‘territorial integrity'.

Could this be the same US and Britain who, by championing Kosovan separatism, showed nothing but contempt for the ‘territorial integrity’ of Serbia?

There's no Olympic competition for 'Double Standards'. But if there were, then the US and Britain would be warm favourites to win medals.