At the end of the day, Georgia's "ownership" of South Ossetia or Russia's "dominance" of Georgia doesn't matter, except insofar as citizens of any nation respond best to home-grown jingoism that makes their dominance of others feel good. Certainly works for us, eh? But now we have open war in Georgia at the start of the Olympics in Beijing. (Notice how the Soviet Union waited until the Suez Crisis of 1956 to invade Hungary, and global student protests in 1968 to invade Czechoslovakia? The Kremlin loves diversionary tactics, whether under socialist or authoritarian management.)Yes, Saakashvili is a jerk. So are Medvedev and Putin. All three are popular precisely because they go to war in the name of the Motherland. The numerous stories at antiwar.com can help you sort out the claims from both sides.
There are some rather stupid progressive groups in the U.S. and Europe who would like to see the U.S. as the primary hand in all this, because the Pentagon wants to expand bases in Georgia. As Bob Anderson from Stop the War Machine points out, the U.S. is becoming such a minor player, such a paper tiger, that other nations can take the role of lead imperialist without consulting us one way or another. And it is our job in the peace community to say that Russians and Georgians are equally wrong in exploiting each others' territority, and that it is time to call in the UN to resolve border disputes before this spirals further out of control.
10 comments:
So you don't see the U.N. as having become ineffectual?
They're not great, and some of the constituent troops have been involved in rape and drug-smuggling and all kinds of stuff, but the UN has taken a bad rap from neocons. Their use in Bosnia and Somalia and Liberia and many other places has actually been much better than the stories that are usually told. The place to find that out is not from the UN itself, obviously, but from Brit sources like BBC, The Economist, and The Guardian, and from publications like Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, because US media coverage of the UN is just absurd. US media coverage of anything is just absurd.
I was going to comment on the same thing before reading your two comments. I would love to see the UN taken seriously in this role.
McCain's senior foreign adviser Randy Scheunemann playing both sides?
He was a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government until recently?!
Just discovered this site.. looks like a lot of interesting reading.
Check it out!
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9826
John, Global Research is really great in some areas, but ya gotta watch that Michael Chossudofsky, sometimes he veers into the unsupportable. Case in point, they did a magazine out of Toronto called Global Outlook that used to be really great on radical economics, and then they jumped heavily on the "9/11 Truthie" front, and just got ridiculous. I'm not adhering to the official 9/11 story, but some of the conspiracy theorists can get to be insufferable, Chossudovsky included.
Hey Loring,
Thanks for the heads-up on Chossudofsky. I'll have to do more research on him, including allegations from all other writers on GlobalResearch.
As you can obviously see, it's just as for a member of the 'left' to fall for conspiratorial theories, as it is for the 'right' to eat up their own self-righteous, and self-fulfilling gossip.
In the meantime, what is with Randy Scheunemann's alleged liaison with the Georgian government, and then becoming an advisor to McCain?
After work today, I'll attempt to check into that too...
McCain's always in the right place and time with the covert crew. You notice he was in Colombia precisely when the FARC hostages were freed? People talk about McCain as though he's a kinder/friendlier alternative to Bush, but he's actually more tied in with the neocon "bomb first" crowd. I think we'd see a lot more of the Douglas Feith types in a McCain cabinet.
The UN? They got their cars stolen by Ossetian irregulars. How's that for a metaphor.
The US? Our problem is no one respects our might any more because we half-ass everything we do. We have a drive-by military mentality that's terrified of photos of flag-draped coffins. We shouldn't have done Iraq, but if we're going to do it, do it right.
Diplomacy first, yes, but diplomacy doesn't work if the other guys doesn't think you'll back it up.
Where's Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?
I love the title of your post. Howvever, I must admit that I got distracted from the Georgia mess and have been reading all the Seven League Boots stories I can find. The English ones are my favorites so far. Jack gets to marry Arthur's daughter...
I am tired of the USA acting like the world's police officer. I am ready for something to happen that will have a large international backing, and I don't think it is the "League of Democracies."
Ah, but French seven-league boots can be cheese-eating monkeys, especially the Hop-o'-My-Thumb stories.
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