Georgia on my Mind: August 2008

Sunday, August 31, 2008

e-mail from Georgia

This message was received via e-mail Tuesday August 26 from Tbilisi, Georgia.
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The situation is still tense in Georgia. Russian aggression is still in force, they have not withdrawn their armed forces and the aggression and ill behavior of Russian soldiers still goes on. It is very disturbing that together with soldiers a lot of innocent people have died, peaceful population have fallen victims of Russian violence, especially women.

Unluckily, Georgia has been involved in this war against Russia and nobody has an idea when all these processes will come to their end. Despite the international support, Russian aggression against Georgia is still violent, but I would like to point out that if not your president's statements, Russian troops would be even in Tbilisi now.

The support which your country is providing for Georgia is enormous. I think at this stage together with humanitarian aid it is also necessary to support people in terms of psycho-social rehabilitation in order for them to get back home calmly after the process of removing mines is finished.

I want to express my gratitude to you and all the American people for your support and sympathy. Thank you once again.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Message from Tbilisi - August 21

I received these two messages today via e-mail from a dear friend in Tbilisi. We first met when I visited in 1999 and have maintained a close friendship.

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Dear Jim:

I don’t know what to do, how to behave. Every day we expect them to leave and it is becoming worse and worse. Right now we’ve got the information from Poti that Russian troops are exploding military base in Maltakva (it is near Poti).

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Dear Jim:

You can never imagine what Russian troops have done in Georgia. They are all over Georgia coming to Gori and nearer Igoeti, They are spoiling, have put on fire the whole Borjomi region. They are stealing everything and doing all dangerous things that a man’s mind can access. It’s terrible awful, when I think that in 21st century Russia has conquered us......... – I think that we are in other world, somewhere different, someone has taken all of us and has dropped us in some other world that is very awful, fearful and dangerous. I’m tired of fear. It’s terrible when you are obsessed with fear and don’t know when it ends.

The Most Dangerous Man in America

By Werther*
antiwar.com, August 20, 2008
* Werther is the pen name of a northern Virginia-based defense analyst.

* * *
. . . McCain's neoconservative handlers have already grown tired of the generational struggle against "Islamofascism" (not to mention their long-planned intention to bomb Iran), for they are already pivoting McCain into a stance of maximal belligerence against Russia.

Much has been made about McCain's relationship with his principal foreign policy handler, Randy Scheunemann, heretofore a paid lobbyist of the Republic of Georgia, and who still benefits financially from part ownership of the lobbying firm that continues to service the Georgia account. This is clearly a conflict of interest and indicates the corruption that is endemic to political campaigns of both parties.

But to try to explain McCain's actions in this way is to misunderstand the man. Scheunemann is merely a toad overstuffed by one too many lunches at the Capitol Grill, in sum, a typical Washington success story. But McCain is sui generis. If Scheunemann had never existed someone else would be writing precisely the same talking points for the presumptive Republican candidate. McCain's love of war and diplomatic brinkmanship is nothing if not sincere. . .

* * *
There is only one thing he cares about, and that is building an altar to Mars. War is the one fixed star in the McCain universe. You will find no flip-flopping or prevaricating there.

While McCain admits he doesn't understand the economy (and then denies that he doesn't), he claims unlimited expertise in national security matters. His belligerent megalomania with respect to the Georgian crisis has now, finally, even earned him a mild reproof from the neocon-friendly Washington Post: "Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president."

In a development little reported in the U.S., Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili "claimed that Georgia's ports and airports would be placed under U.S. military protection, a suggestion quickly denied by the Pentagon." Assuming that the Department of Defense is telling the truth (and granted that it is difficult to determine whether the Pentagon or Saakashvili is more prone to fabrication), then where did the Georgian president get his information that the United States would be militarily intervening? Given that McCain claims to talk to Saakashvili every day, and given a string of grandiose pronouncements by McCain and his handlers regarding Georgia, is it possible that he misled Saakashvili, either deliberately or by implication, to believe that U.S. military intervention would be forthcoming?

It is still unclear whether McCain promised Saakashvili anything, or whether it was simply the Georgian president's own delusion that he was the apple of Washington's eye, but McCain's buttinski tactics would already have been a major scandal if any other American politician who was not the sitting president had made such inflammatory pronouncements on foreign policy. As it is, McCain is already, in his campaign ukases, dramatically downgrading relations with Russia in a manner that suggests he thinks he is president.

. . . The really dangerous politician is one with an idée fixe, and when that obsession centers on the desirability of perpetual war, the possibility of catastrophe is all too real.

Given who he is, what makes him tick, and the potential that he might actually realize his ambitions on the world stage, John McCain is the most dangerous man in America.

For full article
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/werther.php?articleid=13325

Crisis in the Caucasus: What Were They Smoking in the White House?

By Eric Margolis*
lewrockwell.com, August 19, 2008
* Contributing foreign editor for Sun National Media Canada

The Bush administration appears to have pulled off its latest military fiasco in the Caucasus. What was supposed to have been a swift and painless takeover of rebellious South Ossetia by America’s favorite new ally, Georgia, has turned into a disaster that left Georgia battered, Russia enraged, and NATO badly demoralized. Not bad for two days work.

* * *

Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia was launched while the world was absorbed by the Beijing Olympics, and Prime Minister Putin was in the Chinese capital. The attack was clearly planned to be a lightening strike that would occupy all of South Ossetia and then Abkhazia before Moscow could react, presenting the Kremlin with a fait accompli.

Who in Bush’s or Cheney’s office approved this stupid adventure? Why did the very smart Israelis get sucked into this imbroglio?

Saakashvili’s stealth "coup de main" quickly turned into a disaster. Russia’s 58th Army responded by routing Georgian forces and delivering a humiliating strategic and psychological blow to the Bush administration. . .

For full article
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis120.html
or
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20556.htm