Russia attacked Georgia; Georgia is under Russian occupation; Georgia is a democracy, Russia isn’t; Georgia is small and peaceful, Russia is big, aggressive, guilty; Russia is the old Soviet Union threatening its neighbours, violating international law, annexing countries; Russia is imperialistic; Georgia is innocent and a victim, etc etc. That’s basically what the US government and corporate-controlled media are telling us and the whole world, that’s what they want us all to believe. Russia is told to respect the “territorial integrity” of Georgia and to stop its aggressions while Georgia is continuously assured of Western assistance. Washington , London , Paris , Berlin are competing with each other in condemning Russia and in showing their solidarity with the Georgian president Saakashvili. Press conferences are held in Tbilisi on a frequent basis with heads of Western states, with French and German ministers, and soon also again with Secretary of State, Dr. Rice, to repeat the message: Georgia is an innocent democracy under attack and occupation that needs to be supported; that Russia is the imperial aggressor.
Western support for Georgia and Western condemnation of Russia has now become unconditional. Never mind the facts on the ground; never mind the fact that it was Georgia that started the military aggression to reconquer South Ossetia; never mind the thousands of civilians killed by Georgian military, the bombardments of Ossetian villages and its capital, Tskhinvali. Never mind the fact that Ossetians and Abkhasians are distinct nations that do not want to be part of Georgia; just ignore the fact that they seek independence and their own states, as demonstrated in several referendums, that self-determination has been their wish for decades if not centuries. Consequently, during his news meeting on Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer made no reference to these essential questions, rather he reaffirmed the West’s position by telling Russia what to do and threatening actions if it didn’t. How strange that for a military organisation the most important question is irrelevant and omitted: Who started the aggression, who is the aggressor? Instead, NATO membership-promise to Georgia is reiterated. When it comes to its geostrategic interests, questions of right or wrong are meaningless to the West. In this conflict, the US demonstrates once again the unchanging characteristics of its foreign policy, namely hypocrisy, double standards, distortions, and deceptions.
Facts are inconvenient for the West if they don’t support Western interests, so they must be swept aside with lots of media and political manipulations. But there are major Western interests in Georgia and in the Caucasus that cannot be concealed easily. To understand and predict US/Western foreign policy, just look where the oil and gas reserves of the world are located and the routes of transport to the West. Georgia is in the focus of Western attention and support due to a major oil pipeline, the BTC pipeline (initials for the cities Baku , Tblisi, and Ceyhan), which runs through Georgia . It is carrying oil from the Caspian Sea to Europe , and it is of vital importance for the West in terms of energy supply and security.
The aim of US foreign policy is and has always been primarily to control energy resources and routes by all means, at all costs. That meant historically to go to war against any nation that challenged US objectives, to conquer and occupy their countries; and to set up puppet regimes in the regions that would follow US/western instructions. Most of the Middle East consists of such client states, which have been obedient for decades ( Saudi Arabia , Pakistan , Iraq , Egypt , Turkey , etc). None of these countries is democratic, but that is of no concern to the USA/EU/NATO – as long as they stay firmly on the path shown to them. If there is no such country in the region to make use of, it is right and convenient for the US to simply create one. For a recent example, see the Serbian territory of Kosova . Despite the legal, historical, moral rights of Serbs on their ancient land, there was no talk of the “territorial integrity” of Serbia; rather it was decided to give Albanians a second state in which US military and material interests in the Balkans could be firmly founded; and the largest military base outside the USA could be built.
The other two transit countries of the BTC pipeline are Azerbaijan and Turkey . The latter already has the American client-state-status, and work is now fully underway to secure both Azerbaijan ’s and Georgia ’s inclusion into US-led Western control and exploitation system. Part of Western “democracy promotion and strengthening” are US military bases in these regions, training and equipping the local armies, and other economic aid that will facilitate to establish a functioning client state useful for US/Western geostrategic and energy interests.
These client states not only get military and economic aids in return, but their national self-appraisal, interests or aspirations, too, are accepted, promoted, and encouraged. It doesn’t matter if these views are exaggerated, delusional, egomaniac, undemocratic, intolerant, immoral, inhumane, undemocratic, militaristic, criminal or just plain fascist as long as they don’t threaten the strategic arrangements. Take Turkey for example. That state is based on a nationalistic state ideology and racial philosophy originating from 20th century European racism. Contrary to propaganda, Turkey is not a democracy but a military dictatorship where the generals have control over the parliament, government, and judiciary. According to the Turkish Weltanschauung, there are no other peoples than the Turks in Turkey , and thus 40 million Kurds, ancient inhabitants of Media, Anatolia and Kurdistan , simply do not exist officially. Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians were previously decimated, expelled, or exterminated by the Turks, crimes which are still not recognized by the Turkish state. There are no Kurdish rights as an ethnically distinct population; there is no Kurdish language, no Kurdish schools, universities, no Kurdish names for Kurdish-born children or for the Kurdish villages, town, cities, and the Kurdish landscape. All of that is prohibited by the fascist Turkish state. In fact, in Turkey there are more animal rights than Kurdish rights. Any Kurdish resistance against this injustice and crime has been declared terrorism and punished mercilessly and systematically. In the last 25 years only, more than 4,000 Kurdish villages have been eradicated, millions of Kurds displaced, thousands of extra-judicial murders carried out with no consequence for the perpetrators whatsoever. In February of this year, the Turkish army invaded “northern Iraq ” and since then, it is flying raids against Kurds who do not accept the Turkish fascism and occupation of Kurdistan . Where was the Western outcry and condemnation of Turkey then? There was and is none. The genocide against the Kurds by Turks has been and is being carried out in the eyes of the whole world without any protest or action. In fact, Turkey is receiving weapons and intelligence assistance from the USA as part of their grand strategic deal. Turkey can carry out its terror and murderous campaigns against the Kurds because it is part of the American client/slave-system in the region, and because the Kurds aren’t.
Other examples of US-style democratisation efforts could be given. Right now the business of democracy is focused in Georgia . As usual, it starts off militarily. Up to a 1,000 US military advisers were dispatched to instruct the Georgian army how to implement tactics and handle German and US-made weapons. Now they are all suddenly very surprised that the Georgians are making use of their newly acquired knowledge. But they shouldn’t deceive themselves or try to deceive others. Just a couple of days before the Georgian military invaded South Ossetia, Secretary of State Rice on her visit to Tbilisi reassured the Georgian president that the US would always support their “friends”. It is to be seen how far that support will go. But judging from their actions and words, there is no change of US foreign policy doctrines and objectives: Whatever is necessary to secure the energy sources and expand control of remaining ones – it will be done. As de facto global empire – claiming ownership to space even –, the US acts without moral or legal principles. In fact, it sees it as the exclusive right of the Western “civilisation” to decide what is legal and what not, what is moral and what not. Furthermore, there is no free choice in the US global empire as democracy and freedom outside of US control is regarded as threat to its strategic master plan, and every action or position unfavourable to US interests is severely punished by Washington, with threats, sanctions, embargo, proxy wars, bombing, invasion, occupation, etc.
The Balkans were the starting point of the First World War that aimed at destroying Russia . WWII and the cold war had the same aim. Today the conflict in the Caucasus may lead to a third global war as the West, once again, targets Russia as the major threat to its world dominion.
Independent commentator on the Kurdish struggle for freedom.
When someone projects all kinds of negative qualities unto an individual who is totally devoid of these qualities, the projection is really a reflection of the projector's Shadow, those negative quailities not acknowledged by the projector within himself. This works for countries too, so that when we read the litany of hatred and slander the US has unleashed against Russia, we are seeing into the mirror of America's soul, and it is an ugly, ugly thing right now. And as long as we are in denial and blaming others for our excesses, it will only get worse.
by
Mac McKinney (48 articles, 78 quicklinks, 180 diaries, 1137 comments)
on Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 8:03:10 PM
Hitler tried to use force and fraud to conquer too.
It didn't work so well. He ended up with endless occupied countries to control. And his enemies got smarter every day. Our nation became a filthy bogus Naziland because the seeds have always been ripe here, from genocide to slavery to just general crooked stupidity. Crookism is not capitalism. Capitalism requires equality - not advantage.
by
John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1409 comments)
on Friday, August 22, 2008 at 7:22:50 PM
2 comments
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