Posts Tagged ‘georgia’
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
Foreign Policy
So the debate has come and gone and while we no longer have the ability to walk around on campus with a high probability of being interviewed, we have been left with a few memorable moments. I personally didn’t find anything either candidate said during the debate laudable. However, I now believe my suspicion about their foreign issue stances to be affirmed. That suspension was that their foreign policy is nearly identical.
I have for a long time now been totally ashamed of American foreign policy. I am ashamed, not just because it doesn’t work in accomplishing its goals, but because it shows a complete lack of respect for human life. If I asked you how many countries we are involved in hostile relations with, how many would you guess? To tell you the truth, I am not even sure of the number. However, I know that right now we are still involved in a war in Iraq. We also have the blood of thousands of Somalians on our hands after we paid and trained the Ethiopian army to invade Somalia and overthrow their government. This crisis has been called one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world today with tens of thousands killed and millions left homeless. We’re constantly threatening Iran and are chomping at the bits to attack them. We’re picking a fight with Russia for retaliating against Georgian advances into South Ossetia. We want to send more troops into Afghanistan, and we’re beginning to pick a fight with Pakistan for not allowing the US to kill anymore innocent Pakistani civilians. Are we insane? Do we not think people within these countries are going to react negatively toward our actions? These are human beings we are murdering.
With all of these issues weighing on my mind, I get frustrated when people ask me how I felt about the debate. I honestly didn’t see much of one. Did Obama or McCain address the crisis we created in Somalia? Not to my knowledge. Where was the disagreement over what should be done about Russia? Did either of the candidates admit Georgia actually started the conflict or suggest ceasing with the threats in order to prevent a reemergence of the Cold War?
I think the most shocking moment of the debate to me was when Obama, talking about Pakistan’s unwillingness to aid in capturing Bin Laden or other Al Qaeda members, said, “If Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we should take them out.” This is a sign to all you Obama supporters who think he is the peace candidate. If you look at the situation in Pakistan, you will understand why this comment he made is totally abhorrent. The main reason Pakistan has been pushing back against helping the US is because their country is falling apart due to all the bombings we are initiating inside their territory. So maybe we kill a few Al Qaeda leaders here and there, but how many innocent civilians are being killed during these bombings? How long do you think Americans would put up with another country bombing us in order to kill a few enemies of theirs? I believe the US would have launched a retaliation strike before the first bomb hit our soil, yet these people have been putting up with it for years now. Why is it that we can murder innocent people but nobody in foreign countries can even burn our flag without Americans talking about how evil they are?
Now, Obama is saying he is going to send troops into Pakistan. Pakistan is already threatening to retaliate against the US because we have been killing Pakistani civilians in cross-border attacks, yet Obama is going to provoke a nuclear armed country by sending troops within their territory against their will. This could start a Vietnam type war except this time our opponent would have nuclear weapons. That is a war the Bush Administration would have trouble dreaming up, yet people see this man as the anti-war candidate. Of course the response McCain gave to Obama launching military strikes into Pakistan was, “You don’t say that out loud.” Lord help us!
Americans need to begin seeing the people we kill in reality. Thousands of people are dying at the hands of our government, and they are not our enemies. These people are innocent civilians, and we have sunken to the level of threatening to attack other countries because they are finally saying they will no longer allow us to murder its citizens.
-Justin Head
