Feeding Russian Nationalism
Her car was destroyed as she tried to flee north from the fighting.
What really happened in South Ossetia?
Eighteen minute BBC video explores whether Georgia committed war crimes in South Ossetia.
The BBC has discovered evidence that Georgia may have committed war crimes in its attack on its breakaway region of South Ossetia in August.
Eyewitnesses have described how its tanks fired directly into an apartment block, and how civilians were shot at as they tried to escape the fighting.
Research by the international investigative organisation Human Rights Watch also points to indiscriminate use of force by the Georgian military, and the possible deliberate targeting of civilians.
At the start of the August conflict, western media reporting was relatively even-handed, but rapidly switched into full-blown cold war revival mode as Russia turned the tables on the US’s Georgian client regime and Nato expansion in the region. Clear initial evidence of who started the war and Georgian troops’ killing spree in Tskhinvali was buried or even denied in a highly effective PR operation from Tbilisi.
Thoughts On Russian Nationalism And The West
American Conservative blogger Daniel Larison thinks our aggressive stance towards Russia and. more recently, our backing of Georgia has enabled a robust Russian patriotic fervor.
......and Joe Biden hustled to Tiblisi to hold his friend Misha's hand as per request(?) and continues to bloviate about a hardliner policy based on on lies.
Our politicians, thinktankers and MSM are complicit in propagating completely distorted versions of reality that supposedly "explain" the rationales supporting our actions around the world.
Accounts published in the Israeli media revealed that Misha's Israeli advisors warned him not to pursue this adventure months before he pulled the trigger. All Israeli advisors and trainers left Georgia several weeks before the festivities began. Months earlier, the Israeli government announced that henceforth, they would only sell DEFENSIVE weaponry to Georgia. CYA. The Israelis knew what was in the works and didn't want Russian blowback to harm their national interests in regards to maintaining military dominance in the region.
This piece of analysis by a Canadian foriegn correspondent fills in some background on the situation from another perspective:
"But Misha's idealism and daring always had a dangerous side. His early victories led him to believe that it was only a matter of time before Georgia's other breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, would also succumb to Mishamania. Ignoring the one thing he could never change about his country - the fact that Russia, no matter how hard he pushed it away and tried to resist its influence, would always be Georgia's giant neighbour and most important trading partner - he insisted on flicking the Russian bear in the nose, almost to see how far and how long he could get away with it. His neocon allies in the United States (notably including Senator John McCain) cheered him every step of the way in his fight against what they saw as renewed Russian imperialism."
http://markmackinnon.blogspot.com/2008/08/mishas-terrible-gamble.html
We the people need to keep pushing the truth out and hold all the bums, including "our" own politicians, accountable for promoting versions of reality crafted in order to support agendas and actions that are against OUR national interests.
November 2, 2008 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is disingenuous to mention Biden's connection to Saakashvili without noting McCain's strong connections to the Georgian president and support of the Georgian action.
November 3, 2008 7:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Never mind, I missed that last quote.
November 3, 2008 7:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm... wonder what he thinks of things now.
What a dumbass.
November 3, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink