The Great Game in Georgia

The Great Game is the name originally given to the strategic rivalry between Great Britain and Russia in Central Asia, mostly in the 19th century. While the demagogues in Big Media are hyperventilating about Russia’s treachery, it’s important to recognize our own coerciveness in the region.

“Now that the dust is settling the big question about the dust-up in Georgia remains: Why was Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili so stupid to start this war?

There are a couple of theories. One is Saakashvili was under the mistaken impression the US military, even NATO, would intervene if Russia fought back after Georgia entered the breakaway province of South Ossetia on 7-8 August, devastating Tskhinvali, and according to Moscow, killing a number of Russian peacekeepers.

The US stood on the sidelines when Russia indeed punished Georgia. Georgian civilians at first told Western reporters they were angry at America for not coming to their aid. Then several days later many started to blame Saakashvili for creating such a mess.

It seems hard to imagine he would have tried to seize South Ossetia if he were not led to believe he had American backing. According to Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN ambassador, joint US-Georgian military exercises code-named Immediate Response ended just hours before Georgian troops moved into the province.

Churkin says the Americans gave Saakashvili a ‘green light.’ But there was no immediate response from the United States.”

Read more from Huffingtonpost.com

The Democrats

This blog post is dedicated to my self-described liberal friends who squarely blame the evil Republicans for all this country’s woes. YOU know who you are! All excerpts are from “The Senate Caves,” by Tim Dickinson, RollingStone June 12, 2008.

“Since regaining the majority in 2006, the Democrats have granted the Bush administration and big telephone companies immunity for illegal wiretapping, declared a branch of the Iranian military a terrorist organization and stuffed the recent Foreclosure Prevention Act with far more goodies for big lenders than for struggling homeowner. They also confirmed Attorney General Michael Mukasey despite his refusal to disavow torture – a move engineered by Schumer.”

Chuck Schumer (D – NY)
“Every democrat in the Senate likes to imagine himself as a friend of the middle class. But few take the delusion to the extremes of Chuck Schumer. In his book Positively American, the senator from New York writes in eerie detail of his decades-long, entirely imaginary friendship with Joe and Eileen Bailey, a non existent middle-class couple from Long Island who struggle to get by on $75,000 a year. . . But Schumer’s love of his made-up friends in the middle class didn’t stop him from championing one of the biggest tax breaks for billionaires in the history of the republic. Last year, Democrats in the House fought to close a loophole that levies a tax rate of only 15 percent – barely half what real-life versions of the Baileys pay – on hedge-fund managers who make as much as $3.7 billion a year. But when the debate reached the Senate, Schumer broke with his fellow Democrats and sided with Wall Street – inspiring the hedge-fund industry to hail him as its ‘guardian.'”

Harry Reid (D – NV)
“In a recent interview with Reid in his opulently chandeliered suite in the Capitol, I ask why the Democrats had not used their majority in the Senate to close the hedge-fund loophole. He greets the question with dead silence. When he finally speaks, he tells me something I never thought I would hear from a Democrat: that it would be wrong to single out the nation’s wealthiest investors simply because they are bilking the treasury out of billions. ‘The only difference between hedge fund operators and other folks similarly situated,’ Reid argues, ‘is that they make more money.’ . . . What Reid also failed to mention is that the real difference between hedge-fund billionaires and others ‘so situated’ is that they are the ones underwriting efforts by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee run by Schumer. . . . All told, the hedge-fund and private-equity sectors have showered the Democrats with more than $14 million this year – double what they have given Republicans.”

Nancy Pelosi (D – CA)
As speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi can bend Democrats to her will – including the likes of Rep. John Dingell, the lifelong champion of automakers whom Pelosi has muzzled in the debate over global warming. She has even been able to bring conservative “blue dog” Democrats to heel, repeatedly garnering their support for a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq.”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: It’s not right vs. left, it’s power vs. liberty. Right vs. left is an illusion and distraction from what’s most important.

What to think about Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia?

I’m no fan of Russia. In fact, I’m somewhat obsessed with the excesses of the Soviets, Holodomor, etc. But the unanimity and savagery with which Big Media has condemned the Russians, makes me think they’re at least partially innocent – for once. Whenever Big Media tells you to hate someone, you should seek other sources. In this case, the Indy press has been quick to point out the rest of the story.

The rest of the story is well expressed in yesterday’s “Blowback From Bear-Baiting” by Patrick Buchanan:

“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. . . 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”?

Russia has invaded a sovereign country, railed Bush. But did not the United States bomb Serbia for 78 days and invade to force it to surrender a province, Kosovo, to which Serbia had a far greater historic claim than Georgia had to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, both of which prefer Moscow to Tbilisi?

Is not Western hypocrisy astonishing?

When the Soviet Union broke into 15 nations, we celebrated. When Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Kosovo broke from Serbia, we rejoiced. Why, then, the indignation when two provinces, whose peoples are ethnically separate from Georgians and who fought for their independence, should succeed in breaking away?

Are secessions and the dissolution of nations laudable only when they advance the agenda of the neocons, many of whom viscerally detest Russia?” (Read more from antiwar.com)

    Other headlines:

Spinning the issue:
–Georgia loses the fight with Russia, but manages to win the PR war.
–From the Jerusalem Post: “As the Russian bear plunges its claws into the heart of its much smaller neighbor Georgia. . . .”
–From BBCnews: “[Ossetians] are very clear who they blame: Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili, who sent troops to re-take control of this breakaway region. That effort has clearly backfired. The pro-Russian sentiment I experienced on my last visit four years ago has become far fiercer as a result of this conflict.”
–Bush Says Russia Must Stop ‘Bullying’ Georgia.
–from NY Times: “Russians Push Past Separatist Area to Assault Central Georgia”
–from CNN: “Commentary: Russian bombs’ message is ‘this is for America'”
–from Al Jazeera: “Russian forces sink Georgian ships”
–from Pravda.ru via indybay.org: “Georgia’s Aggression and Atrocities: US presidential runoff John McCain said that Russia should not interfere in the conflict in South Ossetia. The pro-Georgian propaganda in the US media testifies to the same opinion. It brings up the idea that the Georgian aggression against the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia has been coordinated with the US administration.”
–Despite our call for peace and a unilateral ceasefire separatists continued the shelling of Georgian villages,” it quoted Mamuka Kurashvili as saying. “We are forced to restore constitutional order in the whole region.”
–Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah: ‘Failed’ IDF generals caused Georgia defeat in war.

The US connection:
–Both McCain and Obama’s advisors want war in Georgia
–McCain Adviser Was Lobbyist for Georgia
–Troops from Atlanta will train in Republic of Georgia(Jul 14)
–U.S. Military Instructors Command Hirelings in Georgia (Aug 11) “Thousands of mercenaries are fighting for Georgia in this burning conflict with South Ossetia. They are commanded by the U.S. military instructors, RIA Novosti reported with reference to a high-ranked officer of Russia’s military intelligence.”
–US troops still in Georgia (Aug 12)
–U.S. to take control of Georgian ports: Saakashvili (Aug 13)

The Israel Connection:
–Georgia president denies Israel halted military aid due to war
“‘The Israeli weapons have proved very effective,’ he said at a press conference at his office. When asked whether the Israeli arms played a role in the military successes he claimed the Georgian army had achieved, he joked: ‘Are you asking me as a representative of Elbit or of Israel Aerospace Industries?’
To a reporter’s question about Jews who have fled the fighting and come to Israel, he said: ‘We have two Israeli cabinet ministers, one deals with war [Defense Minister David Kezerashvili], and the other with negotiations [State Minister for Territorial Integration Temur Yakobashvili], and that is the Israeli involvement here: Both war and peace are in the hands of Israeli Jews.’
Yakobashvili is actually not an Israeli citizen. Saakashvili’s statements are part of his government’s attempt to bring other countries into its war against Russia.”
–exerpt from Haaretz.com: “Brig. Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch was the commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ Galilee Brigade when reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by Hezbollah on the northern border, sparking the Second Lebanon War. He operates a privately-owned Israeli military contractors that recently trained Georgian security forces .”

About Ukraine:
–Ukrainians wonder what Georgia crisis means for them
–“Ukraine threatened to blockade the Russian Black Sea Fleet yesterday in an act of solidarity with Georgia that risked escalating the conflict.” I worry this escalation, along with the issue of Sevastopol might bring Russian “peace keepers” to Crimea.

Misc:
–PHOTOS from the conflict (graphic)

Taxes are for Little People

“Most corporations, including the vast majority of foreign companies doing business in the United States, pay no income taxes, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.

During the eight-year period covered by the report, 72 percent of foreign-owned corporations went at least one year without owing taxes, and the same was true for 55 percent of domestic corporations.”

(Read more from cqpolitics.com)

RAND Report Utterly Discredits GWOT

“A new report by the conservative Rand Corporation calls the so-called ‘War on Terrorism’ fundamentally flawed, doomed to failure. The study pulls the rug from under John McCain who had promised not just more of the same old horse dung but perhaps another one hundred, another ‘10,000 years’ of war against Iraq!

Saying that the US should ‘re-think’ the so-called ‘war on terrorism’, the report claims that Bush failed to meet his own stated objectives. It was, the report concludes, the wrong approach to begin with.” (Read more from existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com)

Read actual RAND report “U.S. Should Rethink ‘War On Terrorism’ Strategy to Deal with Resurgent Al Qaida”

Robert Baur on Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, GWOT

From an interview with former CIA agent, author Robert Baur in Mens’ Journal May ’08:

“We’re going on seven years in Afghanistan, and the Taliban are still closing down schools in Kandahar. It’s a joke. And Iraq is a corpse that Petraeus keeps putting lipstick on to make it look like it’s still alive. All the Iraqis are doing is cooperating to get American arms. Petraeus says it’s thanks to Iran that they’re keeping the peace. That’s an extraordinary statement: Our main Middle Eastern enemy is keeping the peace for us? We’re fucked. What to do? Come home. Just come home. Impose visas, make sure you know who’s coming into your country, lock the cockpit doors, and be nice to Muslims here. The worst thing to do is to continually shed Muslim blood.”

You said it bro. “Just come home.” I’ll point out, however, that Ron Paul said it first.

News From The Occupation

–Israel fears scathing U.S. report on its West Bank policies. I’ll be very surprised if this report gets any press in the U.S.

–UN report: At 45%, Gaza unemployment is highest in the world.

–US Revokes Visas for Gaza Fulbright Students.

–Settler arrested in failed rocket attack on Palestinian town “Police said Sunday they have arrested a settler suspected of involvement in a failed rocket attack on a Palestinian village in the West Bank. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that police arrested Gilad Herman, a student at a Jewish seminary in the settlement of Yitzhar.”

–U.S. protests eviction of Arab family from East Jerusalem home Like many Palestinians, the Al-Kurds are now multiple-order refugees. They were kicked out of West Jerusalem in 1950. Three predictions: 1) The US media will continue to ignore the bureaucratic strangling of Palestinian populations. 2) The US diplomat behind this criticism will be blacklisted and never work in the Middle East again. 3) Whatever little press these stories get will be immediately countered. The issue will be reframed, accuser will become accused, like this.

–West Bank residents face severe water shortage as drought continues

–Olmert: Living with 270,000 Arabs in Jerusalem means more terror “Whoever thinks its possible to live with 270,000 Arabs in Jerusalem must take into account that there will be more bulldozers, more tractors, and more cars carrying out [terror] attacks,” Olmert said, referring to two incidents this month in which Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem deliberately plowed bulldozers into passing cars in the capital, causing casualties.” . . . therefore we should ethnically cleanse . . . I mean . . . um . . . terrorism, terrorism, terrorism.

–Israeli soldiers kill 11-year-old terrorist. See the full child-body-count here: rememberthesechildren.com.

–Cartoon: hypocrisy of Obama’s “These Walls Cannot Stand.”

–Pogrom against Palestinians “In some areas, like in the Hebron region, settler attacks have assumed pogrom-like proportions. What is particularly outrageous is that most of these attacks take place in full view of Israeli soldiers who watch passively as heavily armed settlers gang up on helpless Palestinian civilians. The latest acts of savagery included an assault on a Palestinian wedding party and the attempted lynching of an Arab boy near Hebron, an attack on a civilian car near Nablus that caused a massive brain hemorrhage to a 6-year-old girl who is now fighting for her life, beating up and stoning Arab children near Tuwwani in the southern West Bank and setting fire to Palestinian groves and fields in several parts of the occupied territories.”

–Activists try to break the siege of Gaza with sailing boats

Time Columnist Dares to Speak Out

“I have now been called antisemitic and intellectually unstable and a whole bunch of other silly things by the folks over at the Commentary blog. They want Time Magazine to fire or silence me. This is happening because I said something that is palpably true, but unspoken in polite society: There is a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who unsuccessfully tried to get Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, and then successfully helped provide the intellectual rationale for George Bush to do it in 2003. Their motivations involve a confused conflation of what they think are Israel’s best interests with those of the United States. They are now leading the charge for war with Iran.

Happily, these people represent a very small sliver of the Jewish population in this country. Unhappily, their views have had an impact in the highest reaches of the Bush Administration–and seem to have an influence on John McCain’s campaign as well.

. . . .

I am not going to make the same mistake twice. I don’t think a war with Iran is coming, thank God, but this time I am not going to pull any punches. My voice isn’t very important in the grand scheme of things, but I’m going to do my job–and that means letting you know exactly where I stand and what I believe. I believe there are a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who are pushing for war with Iran because they believe it is in America’s long-term interests and because they believe Israel’s existence is at stake. They are wrong and recent history tells us they are dangerous. They are also bullies and I’m not going to be intimidated by them.”

(Read more from www.time-blog.com’s Joe Klein)

Lying about the deficit

(just like everything else)

” MANASSAS, Va., July 29, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — The following is a statement by Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, regarding the White House projection of a $482 billion deficit for Fiscal Year 2009:
‘The White House has issued figures indicating that President Bush and his enablers in Congress will leave his successor with a budget deficit of $482 Billion for Fiscal Year 2009, which is a record. How’s that for a legacy?
‘As shocking as this deficit figure is, that’s still not the true scope of our budget woes because it excludes $80 billion in war costs and $227 billion borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund. The real budget deficit is therefore $789 billion.'”

Read more from marketwatch.com

Karl Rove, Voter Fraud, Threats and Citizens’ Arrest

Ohio 2004
Yes, there is a long-standing trial about voter fraud in Ohio’s 2004 election

Karl Rove Threatens IT Guru
According to this post on The Brad Blog: “In his email to [Attorney General] Mukasey today, [Ohio Attorney] Arnebeck writes: ‘We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that if he does not agree to “take the fall” for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed lobby law violations.'”

(Another) Attempted Citizens’ Arrest
“Four Iowans were arrested today while attempting to make a Citizens’ Arrest of Karl Rove in Des Moines, Iowa. Citing Iowa Code provisions for making Citizen’s Arrests as well as citing Federal Statute violations they claimed Rove had violated, the four were stopped at the gate of the Wakonda Country Club in Des Moines where Rove was scheduled to speak at a Republican Fundraiser.

. . . .

The four maintained that they were acting within the guidelines of Iowa Code that obligate private citizens to make such an arrest if they believe a felony has been committed and turn Rove over to police officials to bring Rove before a judge for formal indictment. By law, a federal judge should consider the charges and determine if an indictment should be made.” (read more at democraticunderground.com)