I Think the Shit is About to Hit the Fan
Although it hasn’t been as prominent in the news as truly important events like the Olympics and John Edwards’ mistress, but some really nutso aggression is going down between Georgia and Russia over the area of South Ossatia (no I hadn’t heard of it either before this weekend).
I’m honestly not sure who started it, but according to Jerome a Paris (a frequent kos writer) Georgia’s president Saakashvili is a neocon and has been provoking Russia for years, as has the Bush Adminsitration:
What changed in the past few years was the series of “color revolutions” in former Soviet republics, started in Ukraine (the orange revolution) and continued in Georgia (the rose one). These have often been profoundly misunderstood, and have been turned into a simplistic “brave democrats fighting to choke off the grip by the evil Putin on their country” narrative, which, oh so conveniently supplemented an extremely aggressive policy by Washington against Moscow.
No longer was Putin an ally or someone that could be worked with, he was evil incarnate. Whether this has anything to do with the fact that he prevented Yukos from merging with a US oil major, or blocked the construction of an oil pipeline and export terminal project to Murmansk that would not have been controlled by the State-owned pipeline monopoly, we’ll never know. But the fact remains that the steady policies of encirclement of Russia by bringing former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO, and then former Soviet Republics, and setting up massive military bases there continued and accelerated, despite earlier promises to Russia not to do that. And the rhetoric about Russia’s “energy weapon” suddenly turned strident in 2006 as the UK, the neocons’s faithful lapdog, suddenly realised it no longer had enough gas and had to find someone to blame for that state of fact rather than its insane ‘let the markets provide’ policies.
After telling us how Russia was behaving aggressively, threatening democracy in various countires bordering it, and how it was vital that we support these countries, including my military means (isn’t that what Georgia joining NATO was about - about “attacking one is attacking all”?), they tell us that we don’t want war with Russia?
Is it because Russia, after telling us what would be considered a casus belli by them, actually acted on such announcements, called Saakashvili’s bluff and responded with overwhelming force, kicking his ass, and by proxy, that of his gung-ho advisors in the WSJ and other neocon nests?
We don’t have to approve Russia’s policies to note that it has been consistent and unsurprising for anyone who bothered to listen to them (something neocons don’t seem to do, except to find proofs of hostility to justify their own macho posturing).
Even granting that Russia has conducted an aggessive, outward bound foreign policy (as opposed to the kinder version that says they are simply reacting to Western provocations) towards the former Soviet Republics and beyond, this whole episode should disqualify the neocons from ever speaking about foreign policy again - they claimed the need for strength, the need to call Russia on its imperialism, the need to beef up the military of the threatened countries and to support them with the full force of the alliance of democracies - and they dumped Georgia at the first opportunity, after Russia showed it was actually serious about fighting when it got under way?
We get the worst of both worlds: military build up, diplomatic tensions and deep mistrust within (former?) allies in the West, and defeat when the inevitable confrontation happens.
However, it’s never a good sign when Dead Eye Dick makes an appearance:
On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney said that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States.”
The crisis over South Ossetia appeared to ebb as Georgian troops began retreating and honoring a cease-fire, a claim Russia disputed. U.S. officials said Moscow was only broadening its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the region.
The sheer scope of Russia’s military response has the Bush administration deeply worried. Russia on Sunday expanded its bombing blitz in areas of Georgia not central to the fighting.
Cheney spoke Sunday afternoon with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Cheney press secretary Lee Ann McBride said. “The vice president expressed the United States’ solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” McBride said.
Asked to explain Cheney’s phrase “must not go unanswered,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, “It means it must not stand.” White House officials refused to indicate what recourse the United States might have if the military onslaught continues.
Right now, our so-called ally is getting their ass handed to them by the Russians (shades of his father in that one). Our military is bogged down in Iraq. Afghanistan is collapsing. The president is a despised lame duck.
What’s Dick gonna do?
One Response to “I Think the Shit is About to Hit the Fan”
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August 11th, 2008 at 8:58 am
more work for blackwater and halliburton! yea!
must be really bad if chimpy is coming back from the olympics. gotta laugh when the new stories quote him from an interview with nbc sports.
i’m hoping the georgian troops had no other way or a prior agreement for the usa to airlift their trips out of iraq for them. otherwise, it really looks bad for us to be supporting them in their war this way.
i’ve been following it closely, ignoring edwards and olympics, but again my priorities are usually different than the ptb.