Raimondo And Buchanan On Saakashvili
August 15, 2008, Matthew Good I’ve always been a big fan of Justin Raimondo’s commentary. His latest offering at antiwar.com entitled Mikheil Saakashvili: War Criminal - A politician’s hubris causes untold human suffering is as poignant as ever. An excerpt…
“Amid all the geopolitical analyses and ideological posturing on the occasion of the Three-Day War between Russia and Georgia, we are losing sight of the very real human costs of this conflict: thousands of civilians killed and grievously wounded, a city, Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, in ruins, and the hopes and dreams of the inhabitants of this largely overlooked backwater dashed on the rocks of a politician’s hubris.
That politician is Mikheil Saakashvili, the all too glib president of Georgia, whose slickness is so apparent that it seems to leave an oily residue on every word he utters. The decidedly apolitical, non-ideological Web site Reliefweb put it this way:
“The place that has suffered most is South Ossetia which is home to both ethnic Ossetians and Georgians, the latter accounting for about a third of the population. The destruction there has been appalling and it looks as though many hundreds of civilians have died, in the first place as a result of the initial Georgian assault of August 7-8. Gosha Tselekhayev, an Ossetian interpreter in Tskhinvali with whom I spoke by telephone on August 10 said, ‘I am standing in the city center, but there’s no city left.’
“Ossetians fleeing the conflict zone talk of Georgian atrocities and the indiscriminate killing of civilians.”
They may be talking of Georgian atrocities, but we in the West have not heard them – nor will we, given the bias of our media, which is in thrall to the Georgia lobby and its U.S. government sponsors. The “mainstream” has already settled on a narrative to explain events in the Caucasus, and nothing short of a South Ossetian holocaust will wake them from their hypnotic state. The Russians, in their view, have got to be the bad guys, i.e., the aggressors. Anything that doesn’t fit into that storyline is cut from the script.”
Patrick Buchanan’s insights are also very astute…
“Mikheil Saakashvili’s decision to use the opening of the Olympic Games to cover Georgia’s invasion of its breakaway province of South Ossetia must rank in stupidity with Gamal Abdel-Nasser’s decision to close the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships.
Nasser’s blunder cost him the Sinai in the Six-Day War. Saakashvili’s blunder probably means permanent loss of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
After shelling and attacking what he claims is his own country, killing scores of his own Ossetian citizens and sending tens of thousands fleeing into Russia, Saakashvili’s army was whipped back into Georgia in 48 hours.
Vladimir Putin took the opportunity to kick the Georgian army out of Abkhazia, as well, to bomb Tbilisi, and to seize Gori, birthplace of Stalin.
Reveling in his status as an intimate of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and John McCain, and America’s lone democratic ally in the Caucasus, Saakashvili thought he could get away with a lightning coup and present the world with a fait accompli.
Mikheil did not reckon on the rage or resolve of the Bear.
American charges of Russian aggression ring hollow. Georgia started this fight – Russia finished it. People who start wars don’t get to decide how and when they end.
Russia’s response was “disproportionate” and “brutal,” wailed Bush.
True. But did we not authorize Israel to bomb Lebanon for 35 days in response to a border skirmish where several Israel soldiers were killed and two captured? Was that not many times more “disproportionate”?”
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What happened to the pinned entry? I was just about to add a comment when it suddenly disappeared…
Anyway, What appears quite odd to me is the fact that western media keeps reporting almost exclusively on georgian casualties caused by the russian troops. The 1000 to 2000 ossetians that have - according to ossetian and russian sources - died on a single day on August 7th seem to be completely forgotten, just like these people having never been alive, their senseless killing never taken place. What kind of bigotry am I wittnessing throughout the western media these days…
Sure, there wouldn’t be any justification for arrogant onesided warnings adressing only Russia, voiced by the american leadership just like this one: http://tinyurl.com/5luvgf
if one would recognize the Georgian contributions to the conflict as well.
Yesterday I saw a live-debate on ARTE (a french-german Culture and Arts TV network) on the issue. Guest among others was Salome Sourabichvili, who in 2004 was nominated Foreign Minister for Georgia under Saakashwili, only to be sacked one year later for being a disagreeing voice in the government (so much perhaps for the democratic status of Georgia, that is widely praised by western media these days).
Usually Sourabichvili is known for being a heavy opponent to Saakashvili’s policies but yesterday she argumented so passionately pro-Geogia that she finally had to appologizes telling that she feels incapable of criticizing her country now that it is actually at war. Understandably enough - but, what was she doing in a scholarly debate on the issue then? That caused me headache, really.
I say: there is an incredible need for capable politicians that in precisely such critical situations stand up and do some criticism.
Having a look towards Iran and especially developments in the persian gulf in parallel doesn’t tell any good these days:
http://debka.com/headline.php?hid=5499
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=66352§ionid=351020101
Russia is the devil. Allowing Russia to get away with a lenient settlement or it will set a dangerous precedent for other Russians currently in non-Russian territory. The 1991 border is far from sensible in many parts.
[quote comment="61758"]Russia is the devil.[/quote]
News Flash: there are no angels, Joe.
As for the precedent, it has been set numerous times over the last fifty years, and even more times before that…and most visibly by Western nations pretending to be angels.
I find it intensely interesting that at every opportunity the Western media and various politicians call the Russian response heavy handed or disproportionate. Forget all the other occassions in which other powers, be it the US, Israel, the UK or whomever, have used disproportionate force. When it comes to military operations one of the fastest ways to defeat your opponent is to use overwhelming force. Hell, that’s the whole aim of war; overwhelming your enemy such that they concede defeat. Frankly I find this alternative, while brutal (and really, when is war not brutal?), far more desirable then an inadequit response which would in turn prolong the conflict and in doing so increase the lose of civilian lives. One need only look to the US military display in Iraq to see good reason for using such ‘disproportionate’ force.
And frankly, I don’t know what people expected from Russia. Did folks think they were going to take a play out of the UN’s book and bugger off when push came to shove? Of course not. Russia needs to display that they are still a substantial military power. NATO has been trying to snap up former Soviet states since the fall of the Union, a goal that can only be seen as provocative by the Russian Federation. Then there is the US and their missle shield, which they want to plant right under the Russian noses on the pretext of defending themselves and their European allies from the ‘threat’ of rogue states. Given all of this posturing by Western powers, one really shouldn’t be all that shocked at Russia’s response to the initial Georgian offensive.
What this comes down to is a matter of sovereignty. The Georgian government asserts that they have sovereignty over South Ossetia, something which the people of that region dispute (like those in Abkhazia). Russia has chosen not to recognize their claims of sovereignty over the regions, and perhaps rightly so. The government of Georgia certainly hasn’t been able to assert their sovereignty in the two regions for some time now. So really, by what right can the Georgian government claim these two regions as being part of their sovereign territory? In truth, they cannot. If they could, the Georgian government would not have had to resort to a military offensive in the first place.
[quote comment="61758"]Russia is the devil. Allowing Russia to get away with a lenient settlement or it will set a dangerous precedent for other Russians currently in non-Russian territory. The 1991 border is far from sensible in many parts.[/quote]
Seriousbusiness: In case you haven’t yet notices: there have up to 2000 civilians been killed in only a few hours of war. These people were Ossetians and their killers were Georgian.
As it seems right now to me you are willing to ignore their deaths in order to keep your view of the world right as it is. I can’t agree to that.
Argh, read “you haven’t yet noticed”
and now HRW is saying Russia has been using cluster bombs…so now we have a UXO problem on our hands. Not to mention UNHCR’s refugee/IDP figures have gone up to 118,000
This is not the first time Russia has had to openly fight/war over border disputes. Chechnya anyone?
The issues underlying these disputes are so much more complex than Russia VS Georgia, that suggesting this just seems ignorant.
There are some really informed people on this site - YAY FOR SMART PEOPLE!
Anyone else see the that McCain’s head foreign policy adviser has been a lobbyist for the Georgian govt. Ouch
LIES, all
Listen to FOX.
I find it strange that everyone, including many media outlets are talking all events at face value, especially considering Russia’s actions in other countries in the last 3 or 4 years. Did anyone notice that Russia was not caught by surprise? Georgian friends of ours have been reporting that the Russians have been conducting operations in those break-away Georgian areas for many months now, which they must have known would eventually get a reaction from the Georgian president. It is the best way to get rid of an outspoken leader who is siding with your enemy (the USA) - goad him into striking first, and looking like the villain. Then watch as Russia pushes for a Georgian replacement who is more “acceptable” to Russia. Don’t forget, Putin was KGB. Don’t think any of this is by chance, or was unforeseen. Of course, innocent Georgians, break-away or not, have to pay the price for the big boys using their toys to move their pieces around the game board of planet earth.
[quote comment="61904"]LIES, all
Listen to FOX.[/quote]
Ha ha, good one.
You’re not serious, are you?