Archive for the ‘Russia/Georgia Conflict’ Category
Georgia and the War Machine
Turn on your television and breathe it in. The political climate is abuzz with new cold war fever. The big, bad Russians have invaded Georgia! But don’t worry, its America’s reliable news networks to the rescue with factual coverage and reliable correspondence. Oh wait, factual news doesn’t exist anymore in America, I forgot.
I’ll give you some history and a run down of what happened; something that American news networks
have failed to do. In 1991, Georgia broke away from the Soviet Union. During this time, South Ossetia also broke away claiming autonomy from Georgia, and has since been mostly independent. However, under the cover of the summer Olympic games, Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia, attacked South Ossetia. The shelling was enough to kill plenty of innocent civilians, Russian peacekeepers, and send thousands of South Ossetians fleeing into Russia. Keep in mind that Georgia and South Ossetia are right on Russia’s doorstep. Therefore, Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, sent in the Russian military and kicked the Georgians out of South Ossetia. He also used the occasion to kick the Georgian army out of Abkhazia as well as bomb Tbilisi, capitol of Georgia. So in a nutshell, our beloved, democratic Georgia started the conflict.
Perhaps Russia’s response was a bit harsh. However, who is the United States to talk? The US has invaded countries for far less than what the Georgians did. The US, under Bill Clinton, bombed Serbia for 78 days in order to force it to surrender Kosovo, a territory the US has no claim to whatsoever. Now, you have hypocrites like George Bush telling the Russians that countries don’t invade other countries in the 21st Century. Hello! Bush has invaded Iraq and Afghanistan all within the last few years! All we can say after more than 4,000 American deaths, over 85,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, and about 4 million displaced human beings is we caught Saddam Hussein… and he was a bad guy. Is that America’s job, to track down the world’s bad guys by ruining innocent people’s lives? How can America say anything to the Russians about 21st century morality when we are seen as the nation that causes war?
In addition, you have conspiracy written all over this, which Putin has already begun pointing out. If you dig into the situation, you will find that Randy Scheunemann is John McCain’s foreign advisor. You will also find that Scheunemann’s company Orion Strategies, according to Pat Buchanan, was paid $290,000 from January 2007 to March 2008 by the Georgian regime of Mikheil Saakashvili. In his article And None Dare Call it Treason, Buchanan claims that Scheunemann has struck it rich as a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to wars for client regimes. Is it fishy that McCain has come out so strong against Russia for this action against Georgia when his foreign advisor is receiving monetary funds from Georgia? Could it be that McCain needs a boost in the polls, and his best bet is to bank on coming out tough on foreign affairs and instilling fear by creating a lie about Russian aggression? Fear helped Bush gain support. Could it be that the US had prior knowledge of this attack on South Ossetia by Georgia, or worse, could have helped plan it? Many claim that it would be nearly impossible for the US not to have known about Georgia’s plans on attacking South Ossetia given the close relationship the country has with the US and our CIA.
Furthermore, why are we acting like Russia is always the bad guy when we have been aggravating them for years? When the Soviet Union collapsed they removed their bases in Cuba, pulled back the Red Army, and dissolved into 15 nations peacefully. Since then, the US has been at work bringing Warsaw Pact nations into NATO, cutting Russia out of the oil of the Caspian Sea which formally was theirs and transporting it through Georgia into Turkey, building an anti-missile defense system in Poland, and creating revolutions that turned over governments friendly to Russia and replacing them with governments aligning with the US. Is it any wonder why we are having bad relations with this country?
The next step will be sanctions, which could push Russia farther away from the West and right into the arms of China. This reminds me of how alliances were formed prior to the world wars; it’s frightening. This is not our fight, and if we don’t quit poking at the Russians there is going to be a deadly backlash.
-Justin Head
