GEORGIA: FIGHTING RAGES IN S. OSSETIA, RUSSIAN TANKS HEAD FOR BATTLE

[munkey]

so by sending in Humanitarian aid, a couple of bombs could accidently fall out at the same time causing a retaliation from Russia.

The US is deliberately going to put themselves in harms way so they then have an excuse to attack.
Russia will be busy in Georgia and Iran will be left to fend off Isreal from the south and Western allies from the west and east.

WWIII anyone?

[Freeski]

?

[EvadingGrid]

I think the original plan was a conflict in Ossetia to provide cover for an Israeli strike on Iran.

Judging by the humilating defeat of the aggressor georgian bandits, the Israeli 'upgrades' and 'technical support' is substaintialy inadaquate..

Leading me to conclude that plans to attack Iran are shelved because the Israeli Electronic Warfare has been rubbished by the Russian Air Superiority and ground forces.

Judging by the burnt out wrecks, the georgian armour was shock and awe liquidated . . .

[Freeski]

I think the original plan was a conflict in Ossetia to provide cover for an Israeli strike on Iran.

Judging by the humilating defeat of the aggressor georgian bandits, the Israeli 'upgrades' and 'technical support' is substaintialy inadaquate..

Leading me to conclude that plans to attack Iran are shelved because the Israeli Electronic Warfare has been rubbished by the Russian Air Superiority and ground forces.

Judging by the burnt out wrecks, the georgian armour was shock and awe liquidated . . .

Holy crapola!!! English, dude, if you please.

[HYDROGENPAL]

[munkey]

I think the original plan was a conflict in Ossetia to provide cover for an Israeli strike on Iran.

Judging by the humilating defeat of the aggressor georgian bandits, the Israeli 'upgrades' and 'technical support' is substaintialy inadaquate..

Leading me to conclude that plans to attack Iran are shelved because the Israeli Electronic Warfare has been rubbished by the Russian Air Superiority and ground forces.

Judging by the burnt out wrecks, the georgian armour was shock and awe liquidated . . .

they can't leave it too long because it gives Iran even more chance to upgrade as well.

The bombs won't start hitting Iran until a peice of paper is signed between Isreal and Palestine for a truce, once that document is signed is when everything goes to hell in a hand basket.

[EvadingGrid]

I suggest that the air defence might now be proven effective . . .



 

[revolt426]

 Just came back from a few errands and flipped on CNN. They are currently running the following propaganda:

1. A massive Anti-Obama campaign highlighting Jerome Corsi's book "Obama Nation" and suggestiong it will make the NY times best seller list and sink the Obama camp. Also portraying Obama as inexperienced as he happened to be on vacation while this conflict broke out, while McCain is publicly treatening the Russians with tremendous critisism. Larry King is completely assaulting Obama as i speak.... Jerome Corsi, who hurt the John Kerry Campaign with his 04 swift boat book and is constantly on the Alex Jones Show. He is exposing Obama's muslim links as i type. CNN has a guy using talking points to discredit/attack him and is discrediting him, but regardless they are promoting the book "Obama Nation" by airing the interview

2. The McCain camp is putting out rumors that he may pledge to serve (1) term and not run for the second term. They are claiming this issue is because of his age (Complete Propaganda). This doesn't sound good at all it supports the theory that his purpose is to create a cold war and pave the way for the next admistrations complete fascism.... Not that i think Obama will anything to help either... its just scary

3. They openly said on CNN this is remenisent of the Cold War

4. "McCain VS. The Russian Bear" is the title of their newest story on McCain's verbal assaults on Russia.....  Portaying McCain is tough to the independend and right wing sect of the (sheeple) population. An amusing quote that has already been posted on the board ...McCain said something like "In the 21st century you can't just invade a Sovereign nation....." completely hypicritical laughable remark as he appearently is so old he forgot about the two Sovereign countries he invaded in 2002-2003 ... awww he has alzheimers or he's completely FULL OF SHIT. >_>

[Capt. Obvious]

What i don't get is if they seriously want us to believe that Russia invaded Georgia unprovoked what was their motive? Russia had Georgia for over 200 years, it's obviously a scam and they are being provoked.

I admit that I don't completely understand the motives of Georgia or Russia. I can see some benefits for each, but I don't know yet really why Georgia moved on S. Ossetia and why Russia reacted the way it did. And it keeps going... I haven't heard any explanations that really seem to make sense. That's why I think it's best to not try to figure out motive quite yet. I keep hearing talk shows give explanations and supplying stories about how terrible one side is versus the other (as if that somehow revealed motive) , but there must be other things driving this besides oil,  control of S. Ossetia, even using Georgia as a pawn to provoke war with Russia. Russia is damaging it's relationship with the US and much of the rest of the world, and they apparently don't care. I'm not sure why. Georgia just attacked S. Ossetia, and not very gracefully, and got whooped by the Russians, and they got whooped hard and fast. Strange.

[Cobra]

For Cobra-I really don't get why the Georgians would bomb hospitals and universities.  It seems from all the reports I read Russians were trying to protect innocent civilians while the Georgians have no problem bombing innocent people. 

If Russia does want a puppet state, which it might, is besides the point.  The georgians were the first to bomb their own people.  Russia tried to protect those people (who are sympathetic to Russia). 

From my point of view Russia has tried to stop the killing of innocents while Georgia has killed innocents and enlisted mercernaries from around the world to do the killing.  That signals this is an international war with Russia fighting people from around the world.  Russia would be the most right in this conflict. 

This is total Bullshit. I am reffering to the reasons for Russian responding and not denying that the Georgians targeted innocent civilians by shelling entire cities.

I was born in Belarus and am literate in Russian. I follow Russian news all the time.

I can tell you for a fact that the Russian government could care less about civilians in Ossetia especially the ethnic Ossetians who many Russians view as backwards and inferior (they view all non Russians in and around Russia as inferior to Russians). I need only the example of Chehcnya to know that saving any civilians is at the bottom of the list for Putin. Russia expelled or killed upwards of 80% of the Chechen population over a period of 10 years.

 Saving civilians is a cover story. This conflict has been brewing for almost 20 years. Before the Soviet Union Russia was an empire. How you ask? By conquering other nations. Most of the ethnic Russians live in a relatively small portion of Russia. The rest of Russia is occupied by many ethnicities. Russia has been an imperial nation for a long time. This is about restoring the old Russian empire. Not Soviet empire but Russian empire.

Both sides have taken aggressive moves within the last 20 years and frankly if the Georgians want to be puppets of the west because they are offered more rewards than so what? Isn't it their right? Where does it state that they have to be puppets of Russia? If Russia could offer them more maybe they'd be puppets of Russia.


I don't know why Alex keeps harping on the fact that Georgia was part of Russia for 2 centuries. So what? Georgians are not Slavs and are very different from Russians in every way. Georgians aren't even remotely affiliated with Russians. I can see this argument making sense regarding Belarus or Ukraine but not Georgia.

I don't care what the media is saying. We know the media has their own agenda in order to feed the sheep. We should go by facts.

[Cobra]

I admit that I don't completely understand the motives of Georgia or Russia. I can see some benefits for each, but I don't know yet really why Georgia moved on S. Ossetia and why Russia reacted the way it did. And it keeps going... I haven't heard any explanations that really seem to make sense. That's why I think it's best to not try to figure out motive quite yet. I keep hearing talk shows give explanations and supplying stories about how terrible one side is versus the other (as if that somehow revealed motive) , but there must be other things driving this besides oil,  control of S. Ossetia, even using Georgia as a pawn to provoke war with Russia. Russia is damaging it's relationship with the US and much of the rest of the world, and they apparently don't care. I'm not sure why. Georgia just attacked S. Ossetia, and not very gracefully, and got whooped by the Russians, and they got whooped hard and fast. Strange.

+1

In my opinion it looks like Sakhashvili got some beer balls after Georgian troops trained with US troops decided to take a gamble and attack South Ossetia all the while thinking that the worst Russia could do was to go back to the status quo. I don't think he ever anticipated that Russia would move as forcefully as it did.

Sakhashvili looks like a boy playing a man's game. He's a fool.

I don't think anyone put him up to do what he did this time. The US/NATO response was too hectic and convoluted to believe that they had anticipated this.

[Wanted]

This is total Bullshit. I am reffering to the reasons for Russian responding and not denying that the Georgians targeted innocent civilians by shelling entire cities.

I was born in Belarus and am literate in Russian. I follow Russian news all the time.

I can tell you for a fact that the Russian government could care less about civilians in Ossetia especially the ethnic Ossetians who many Russians view as backwards and inferior (they view all non Russians in and around Russia as inferior to Russians). I need only the example of Chehcnya to know that saving any civilians is at the bottom of the list for Putin. Russia expelled or killed upwards of 80% of the Chechen population over a period of 10 years.

 Saving civilians is a cover story. This conflict has been brewing for almost 20 years. Before the Soviet Union Russia was an empire. How you ask? By conquering other nations. Most of the ethnic Russians live in a relatively small portion of Russia. The rest of Russia is occupied by many ethnicities. Russia has been an imperial nation for a long time. This is about restoring the old Russian empire. Not Soviet empire but Russian empire.

Both sides have taken aggressive moves within the last 20 years and frankly if the Georgians want to be puppets of the west because they are offered more rewards than so what? Isn't it their right? Where does it state that they have to be puppets of Russia? If Russia could offer them more maybe they'd be puppets of Russia.


I don't know why Alex keeps harping on the fact that Georgia was part of Russia for 2 centuries. So what? Georgians are not Slavs and are very different from Russians in every way. Georgians aren't even remotely affiliated with Russians. I can see this argument making sense regarding Belarus or Ukraine but not Georgia.

I don't care what the media is saying. We know the media has their own agenda in order to feed the sheep. We should go by facts.

+1,   Loved that part. 

[Protean]

and he says Ron Paul is a fascist i agree Obama is scary as hell and even scarier than McCain, but not enough for me to fall for the lesser evil line, no not again not me anyway. Im voting Baldwin winner be damned

Please post articles or video/audio where Tarpley says this.
Thanks.

[revolt426]

I see the Neocons set a trap for Russia to fall into, then Russia saw the trap and set a larger trap and trapped the Neocons. Sakhashvili is a fool either way for even considering murdering russian soldiers or citizens even if the Kremlin doesn't care about them. Russia has the upper hand at the moment wheather or not it was planned. If Putin decides to forcefully overthrow Georgia or allow the U.S. to stick U.S. Military in a battle  zone this will lead to all out war. I don't think he's that stupid. CNN is already scapegoating Sakhashvili wihch will probably end up in his demise anyway. We have to wait and see if the Russian Military gets out of the other Georgian territories and stays within the S. Osettian borders. I hope they do.. they already have the upper hand they could make the U.S. look horrible

[Wanted]

I have logged into YouTube and sent a message to this Russian man who posted the video--hopefully he will join us here and help us understand the conflict from his perspective and location:

My message to him--

Hello roman7927,

Thank you for posting your video. Here in the U.S. we are trying to see through the lies in our mainstream news, so your video is a great help.

Would you help us again? There is a very good forum of discussion, Alex Jones PrisonPlanet Forum, and your input about Russia and the current conflict with Georgia would be extremely valuable.

Please join, it is free and we would love you hear more from you.

Thank you.

My screen name at the forum is Protean.

Here is the forum thread
GEORGIA: FIGHTING RAGES IN S. OSSETIA, RUSSIAN TANKS HEAD FOR BATTLE
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=52464

Here is where you can sign up, click on "register" at the top left of the page:
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php

Any replies?  

[k4l4sh]

Georgia loses the fight with Russia, but manages to win the PR war
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4518254.ece
I don't think I saw this one yet, I am Belgian so it's quite disturbing to hear it came from a Belgian PR group, I know them all and can't imagine which it would have been the only serious news-wire we have is Belga). Probably private?
Anyway ..

[revolt426]

Georgian president's Russia claims raise eyebrows
By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI – 2 hours ago

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — It was a claim that could have provoked a dangerous Kremlin response: The United States is readying to take over airports and ports in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
The claim, by U.S.-backed Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili on Wednesday was swiftly shot down by officials in Washington, who denied any such designs on Georgian soil.......................

On Wednesday, he said in an interview on CNN that Russian troops were "closing on the capital, circling," and planning to install their own government in Tbilisi.

Associated Press reporters in the area saw no sign of an impending coup. An AP reporter saw dozens of Russian trucks and armored vehicles heading south from the central city of Gori in the direction of Tbilisi, but they later turned away

Whole Report @http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmv0XbBBzeUNzHGqqQsfzKTcK6igD92HNIG80
Uhm yea they are def. scapegoating Saakashvili.

[Protean]

Any replies?  

Not yet. He had a zillion comments on his video page and some of them weren't too nice. I PM'd him from my YouTube
account, but me thinks we gotta take a number and get in line.
 

If he responds--I will post it...

[Protean]

The Zionist NWO Versus
A Sino-Russian NWO
By Karl Schwarz
8-13-8

http://www.rense.com/general83/zionnwo.htm


"At least for now, there is a tenuous 'cease fire' in Georgia as Medvedev called off the dogs. Reports on four different EU and Russian networks indicate sporadic shooting by Georgia (probably US, Israeli advisor-mercenaries) and the Russians are returning fire when fired upon.
 
After the Georgians stopped fleeing from their idiot escapade, there was a big speech by Saakashvili attended by about 50,000 of his backers. If one did not know better, one would think Georgia had just beaten the USSR:
 
"We are bidding final farewell to the Soviet Union. The USSR will never come back here. We urge Ukraine and other members of the CIS to leave the organization which Russia administers," ITAR-TASS quoted the Georgian president as saying.
 
Great, the US-Israel puppet is a screw-loose nutcase and seems not to know the 'USSR' has not existed since 1991. Well, he was educated in the US which could explain his total lack of knowledge of recent history and geography, or who his next door neighbors are.
 
Both Abkhasia and South Ossetia voted to stay with Russia long ago and those decisions were recognized by Georgia. Now Georgia (US andIsrael) want those areas back as a pipeline ROW for Big Oil and US 'geostrategic imperatives'. It will not happen, yet another failed Bush -Brzezinski idea. "
Excerpt--

[cathiasus]

So I just saw what I guess is a replay of Mikheil Saakashvili and Glenn Beck, just now on CNN, from earlier today I guess. Biggest bunch of horse dung I've ever seen. Check it out, Saakashvili says that Russia basically is acting as a New World Order would. WTF? They are using our terms against us.

They are also ripping on Obama, which we know is corrupt anyway, but now he is associated with the words NWO and being ruined apparently. It's bad and only getting worse. No Link yet from the CNN show, who cares anyways, this chit is making me want to vomit.

[revolt426]

Yes as i posted before there is a massive media assault on Obama and a blackout on Georgia/Russian Details. They are propping up the old nut McCain... No idea why but they're doin it.

[revolt426]

Excellent article from PRAVDU describing the U.S. Ambitions and media demonization of russia itself. More new Cold War evidence.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/ussr/11-08-2008/106054-georgia_usa-0

Stratfor acknowledges Russia defeated US, not Georgian army in South Ossetia

The USA acknowledged that Russia had virtually defeated the US, but not the Georgian army in South Ossetia. US instructors have spent four years training the Georgian army for an attack against Russian citizens. The US administration refused to help Saakashvili, because the true goal of the new game in the Caucasus is absolutely different.

 
 
Stratfor acknowledges Russia defeated US, not Georgian army in South Ossetia
 
 
 BREAKING NEWS
 
 Georgia declares war on South Ossetia
 
 
 Explosions continue to terrorize Russia's Black Sea coast
 
 
 Prons and cons of vegetarianism
 
 
 
 
Olympic fans prefer to ignore scandals and simply enjoy the Games
More...
 
 
Experts of Stratfor, the so-called Shadow CIA, stated that the Russian army had not only preserved its battling capacity but also proved to the whole world that was it capable of defeating an armed enemy, trained by US instructors.

A report from Stratfor particularly mentions that the operation in South Ossetia has exercised three things. First off, Russia has proved to have the army capable of conducting successful operations, in which many Western observers doubted before. Secondly, the Russians have showed that they can defeat the forces trained by US advisors. Finally, Russia has shown that the USA and NATO do not find themselves in the situation when they can interfere into a conflict from the military point of view.

At the same time, the experts consider it to be a military demonstration of Russia to former republics of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine, the entire Caucasus and Central Asia. In addition, they see a hidden warning to Poland and the Czech Republic against the background of a possible deployment of elements of the US missile defense system in those countries. However, the experts exclude an opportunity for Moscow to organize an intervention against some of the above-mentioned countries.

Stratfor’s statement means that the fight is over for Georgia and that the US administration is not going to cross the red line in its relations with Russia. Saakashvili’s hopes for NATO to become involved in a conflict with Russia went up in smoke.

The USA is pursuing absolutely different goals, and the creation of the Great Georgia is surely not on its list. The Republicans organized the provocation to portray Russia as a monster on the globe on the threshold of the November elections. This plays into the hands of John McCain, who openly says that “Russia’s imperial ambition” needs to be curbed.

This way or other, the USA has used the small country of Georgia as a toy.

[ramallamamama]

I found this, I thought it was appropriate. If anyone can do an analysis that'd be great. 

[Godsforce]

This is total Bullshit. I am reffering to the reasons for Russian responding and not denying that the Georgians targeted innocent civilians by shelling entire cities.

Fact is Georgia shelled hospitals and universities in South Ossetia before Russia moved into Georgia. Are you disputing this fact?  Are you saying Russia is putting on a show, like Freeski or that Russia is the aggressor? 

[Godsforce]

Yes as i posted before there is a massive media assault on Obama and a blackout on Georgia/Russian Details. They are propping up the old nut McCain... No idea why but they're doin it.

When Obama got all the media attention after winning the nomination I thought he'd go down like Hillary and Giuliani-supposedly the "frontrunner" is overexposed then demonized until the only one that looks good is the only one left.  Lindsey Williams said McCain's the oil tycoon's "man", looks like its going to happen.  Anyone ever play the game "Shattered Union"?-basically a very unpopular president (McCain?) gets elected and all hell breaks loose in the USA. 

[Sub-X]

EU wants peacekeepers 'on the ground' in Georgia
http://euobserver.com/9/26606
14 August 2008

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU foreign ministers on Wednesday (13 August) agreed to send peacekeepers to help supervise the fragile Russia-Georgia ceasefire, putting off discussions on potential diplomatic sanctions against Russia until next month.

"The European Union must be prepared to commit itself, including on the ground," the EU joint statement said, asking EU top diplomat Javier Solana to draft more detailed proposals for the ministers' next meeting on 5 September.
 
"Many countries have said that they are ready to join in," French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said, adding that any EU move would require a UN mandate. "We are encouraged by what we saw this morning, but we have to go through the United Nations."

Ministers did not specify if the EU mission will compose EU-badge wearing soldiers, policemen or civilian monitors. It also remains unclear if it would be part of a wider force involving the UN and the OSCE, or when deployment might start.

"You call it peacekeeping troops, I don't call it that...but controllers, monitors, European facilitators, I think the Russians would accept that," Mr Kouchner told reporters.

The Georgian government has called for an EU presence in its rebel-held Abkhazia and South Ossetia provinces for at least three years, but the EU has always maintained that Russia and the Russian-backed separatists must agree first.

Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb voiced optimism that Russia will now back the new initiative. "I'm convinced at the end of the day we will find an international peacekeeping [force] in the region, with the EU at its heart," he said, according to AFP.

Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt told Reuters he was less sure. "There are no signs of the Russians letting in anyone else...I don't really see it happening - at the moment the Russians are firmly in control."

The EU statement avoided any criticism of Moscow, despite widespread feeling among EU members that Russia's massive assault on Georgia has overshadowed Georgia's initial attack on the rebel town of Tskhinvali.

On Wednesday night, Russian soldiers continued to attack abandoned Georgian military facilities while Ossetian paramilitaries burned ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia and looted the Georgian town of Gori.

"I do not think we should get lost today in long discussions about responsibility or who caused the escalation of the last few days," German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said.

Russia sanctions debate

A discussion on the potential suspension of talks on a new EU-Russia strategic pact or other diplomatic sanctions against Russia has been scheduled for the next EU foreign ministers meeting in September.

"We will speak very specifically about that," France's Mr Kouchner said.

"The European Union will want to consider how it proceeds with the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement," UK foreign minister, David Miliband, said. "The sight of Russian tanks in Gori, Russian tanks in Senaki, a Russian blockade of Poti, the Georgian port are a chilling reminder of times that I think we had hoped had gone by."

The Polish and Lithuanian ministers echoed the British position.

"Of course some consequences must appear of the aggression," Lithuanian foreign minister, Petras Vaitiekunas, said. "There was clearly disproportionate force used by the Russians," Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski added.

In a separate event in Warsaw on Wednesday, the leaders of four former-communist EU states went further by calling for NATO to put Georgia firmly on the path to membership in order to "prevent similar acts of agression and occupation" in future.

The presidents of Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and the prime minister of Latvia also criticised the EU's endorsement of the six-point Russia-Georgia peace plan, saying "the principal element - the respect of teritorial integrity of Georgia - is missing."

The UK and eastern European states stand close to an increasingly hostile US line on excluding Russia from "the international system" and "international institutions" in punishment for the war.

'This is not 1968'

"This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government, and get away with it," US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said on Wednesday, before flying to Paris and Tbilisi this week.

But Russia is blaming the US for training and arming Georgian forces in a geopolitcal "project."

"It is clear that Georgia wants this dispute to become something more than a short if bloody conflict in the region," Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said.

"For decision-makers in the NATO countries of the West, it would be worth considering whether in future you want the men and women of your armed services to be answerable to [Georgian president] Mr Saakashvili's declarations of war."

[Triadtropz]

I dont think mccain will win...the NWO likes obama ..he's a fresh face in the con games...you can get change ?..a fresh kind of war, and imperialism. the american people have two choices in this election ..bad and worse.

[Sub-X]

US throws weight behind EU as Russia gets warning
Irish Independent
14 August 2008

President George W Bush promised large-scale humanitarian assistance for Georgia yesterday, announcing that a military cargo plane loaded with supplies was already on its way to Tbilisi.

In his first major statement on the crisis, Mr Bush threw America's weight behind a EU mediation effort led by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, who brokered a ceasefire agreement on a visit to Russia and Georgia on Tuesday.

The US president announced that both Condoleezza Rice, his secretary of state, and Robert Gates, defence secretary, would be visiting Georgia in the coming days.

Mr Gates would head a military-humanitarian mission and Dr Rice would concentrate on the diplomatic side, but only after holding talks in Paris with Mr Sarkozy.

Mr Bush said that he was worried about reports that Russian forces had taken up a position east of the city of Gori, effectively dominating the main east-west road through the country. He also spoke of reports that the Russians were blowing up Georgian vessels in the Black Sea port of Poti.

Supplies

A C17 military cargo aircraft loaded with aid supplies was already on its way, Mr Bush said, adding: "In the days ahead we will use US aircraft, as well as naval forces, to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies.

"The United States strongly supports France's efforts as President of the European Union to broker an agreement to end this conflict," he said. "Russia must keep its word to end this crisis."

Mr Bush said that the US "stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia and insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected".

His mention of territorial integrity, rather than just sovereignty, as mentioned by Mr Sarkozy, will be welcomed by the Georgians.

"To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis," he added.

In Brussels, EU foreign ministers agreed in principle to send monitors to supervise the ceasefire in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia itself.

"We are determined to act on the ground," Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said, after briefing an emergency meeting on his country's mediation efforts.

"The EU must be ready to engage, including on the ground, to support all efforts, including those of the United Nations and the OSCE for a lasting and peaceful settlement of the conflicts in Georgia," a joint statement said. Ministers also agreed to urgently step up humanitarian aid.

The head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that, as a first step, the pan-European security body would increase the number of monitors in place from 200 to 300, in order to help secure the fragile truce after six days of fighting.

Veto

The EU ministers made clear that any wider European peacekeeping operation would require a resolution of the UN security council, where Russia has veto power.

"Many countries are ready to go ahead with us," Mr Kouchner told a news conference. "We need to go through the United Nations."

The US, meanwhile, requested a meeting of Nato foreign ministers on the situation in Georgia, which could take place possibly early next week.

The six-point plan brokered Mr Sarkozy was widely seen to have taken Russia's military success as a fait accompli and, as such, infuriated Georgia's closest allies, among them Poland and the Baltic states, all ex-communist EU member states.

In a sign of heightened regional tensions, Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukranian president, signed a decree tightening restrictions on Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which is based in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol.

The decree bars Russian ships from returning to their base in the Ukrainian Crimea without permission from Kiev, requested 10 days in advance.

A Russian naval squadron has been deployed to Georgia's Black Sea coast as part of the military action against Georgia.

[Triadtropz]

The russians are playing a game with bush, condi, and gates..they arent stopping the advance in the war...the ceasefire has been broken...I say putin keeps going, til they show their cards..which they already have sort of..they have a pair of dueces,with there troops all bogged down in this NWO battle...the russians can do as they please .

[XR500Final]

See guys this is the most important part of the whole deal - it is actually more important than the actual fighting and remember this, because once you recognize the formula it will all click into sense.

  -- WHO GETS TO PROVIDE THE RECONSTRUCTION AND AID TO THOSE AFFECTED BY THE FIGHTING --

Why?

Here is how it works.

  1. First you create a villian (Slobodon Milosevic, Saddam Hussien, Osama Bin Laden)
  2. Dig up the odd atrocity that one of their thugs committed (genocide, beat womens feet in name of Islam etc...)
  3. Condition the people that they are REALLY EVIL.
  4. With or without a false flag you 'liberate the people' by bombing the whole country to pieces.
  5. Then you play the humanitarian and insist on helping those people affected by the fighting because you are the 'good guy'
  6. Occupy the whole country with 'peace keeping forces' which are in effect 'occupying forces while Shell and Mobil or Country X steals the resources'
  7. Leave everybody in the country in poverty (Afghanistans are still starving today after 6 years of American intervention)
  8. Allow the subcontractors to inflate costs 1000%...
  9. Submit the whole bill for the entire mess to YOU - JOE TAXPAYER.

First it was the Cold War.
Then the cold war fell..
So then we had to have the 'War on Drugs.'
But it was all too successful, with millions of Americans working in Prisons for 30 cents a hour...
So that wasn't enough they manufactured the 'War on Terror.'
And because the people found out it the War on Terror was a lie
They just had to start the Cold War all over again...

And here sir is your bill, your cities are in ruin, the roads are not paved, their is no money for education (heaven forbid your sons and daughters might actually become educated enough to not have to fight...) crime is rampant everywhere, masses are hooked on drugs, and so on.

[Sub-X]

Explosions in Georgian towns as Russian forces remain
Telegraph
14 Aug 2008

Russia has defied an order by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to obey the peace deal with Georgia, as its Foreign Minister announced the world can "forget about" Georgia's territorial integrity.

Earlier claims that Russian troops had commenced a withdrawal from Gori were dismissed as at least five explosions were heard in the town. Journalists were forced to leave by a Russian soldier firing shots into the air. Troops are also thought to have returned to the strategically important port town of Poti.

A Georgian spokesman said: "The Russian troops are destroying the city of Gori. They are mining the city. They are destroying everything in Poti port. They are destroying the newly built roads in western Georgia."

Reports of the explosions came as Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, reinforced suspicions that Moscow is expecting to set its own punitive terms for peace. He said: "One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree that they can be forced back into the Georgian state."

Earlier Ms Rice threatened Russia with international isolation unless it keeps to the plan, which was brokered by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, and calls for a return to the status quo that prevailed before the conflict, triggered by Georgia's attempt to reclaim South Ossetia, a breakaway province, and for the respect of Georgian sovereignty.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President, has made clear that the Kremlin would be making additional demands, including the eviction from the rebel provinces of all Georgian troops, and increased Russian presence in both the enclaves and "buffer zones" surrounding them.

It has emerged that Mr Medvedev, who also said he was committed to giving the populations of South Ossetia and Abkhazia the chance to vote on becoming part of the Russian republic, has been in talks at the Kremlin with the leaders of the separatist movements in both provinces.

As she was despatched for Tblisi by George W Bush, in a strong show of US support for Georgia, Ms Rice said Russian troops' violations of the truce since the agreement was reached have "only served to deepen the isolation into which Russia is moving".

The Secretary of State said there is a "very strong, growing sense that Russia is not behaving like the kind of international partner that it has said that it wants to be." Ms Rice, who will meet Mr Sarkozy before holding talks with Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President, said: "We expect Russia to meet its commitment to cease all military activities in Georgia."

Her statement came as US aid began to arrive in the former Soviet state in a further show of support. A military aircraft, packed with medical supplies, shelters and bedding, arrived in Tblisi along with promises that more will follow.

The Pentagon has said it will be "reviewing the needs" of the Georgian military, battered after the five-day conflict with Russia over the rebel region of South Ossetia.

However there have been reports of obstructions being made to humanitarian aid. Giorgi Gorgiladze, the Georgian Permanent Representative to the UN, said: "We would like to underline, that the representatives of international and humanitarian organisations have not been granted an access in the territories controlled by the Russian armed forces."

After a day in which its troops were accused of looting and burning villages, Russia earlier warned that America, which has a staunch ally of Tbilisi's pro-western government, would have "to choose" between building a relationship with Georgia or Russia.

"We understand that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of the United States, but one day the United States will have to choose," said Mr Lavrov.

Mr Saakashvili said that western leaders must send peacekeeepers to his country immediately, or risk having their rhetoric exposed as hollow. Writing in the Washington Post, he said: "Only Western peacekeepers can end the war. I have staked my country's fate on the West's rhetoric about democracy and liberty."

"Russia's invasion of Georgia strikes at the heart of Western values and our 21st-century system of security," he added.

"If the international community allows Russia to crush our democratic, independent state, it will be giving carte blanche to authoritarian governments everywhere."

[Sub-X]

Vladimir Putin's mastery checkmates the West
London Times
14 Aug 2008

The cartoon images have shown Russia as an angry bear, stretching out a claw to maul Georgia. Russia is certainly angry, and, like a beast provoked, has bared its teeth. But it is the wrong stereotype. What the world has seen last week is a brilliant and brutal display of Russia's national game, chess. And Moscow has just declared checkmate.

Chess is a slow game. One has to be ready to ignore provocations, lose a few pawns and turn the hubris of others into their own entrapment. For years there has been rising resentment within Russia. Some of this is inevitable: the loss of empire, a burning sense of grievance and the fear that in the 1990s, amid domestic chaos and economic collapse, Russia's views no longer mattered.

A generalised resentment, similar to the sour undercurrents of Weimar Germany, began to focus on specific issues: the nonchalance of the Clinton Administration about Russian sensitivities, especially over the Balkans and in opening Nato's door to former Warsaw Pact members; the neo-conservative agenda of the early Bush years that saw no role for Russia in its global agenda; and Washington's ingratitude after 9/11 for vital Kremlin support over terrorism, Afghanistan and intelligence on extremism.

More infuriating was Western encouragement of “freedom” in the former Soviet satellite states that gave carte blanche to forces long hostile to Russia. In the Baltic states, Soviet occupation could be portrayed as worse than the Nazis. EU commissioners from new member states could target Russian policies. Populists in Eastern Europe could ride to power on anti-Russian rhetoric emboldened by Western applause for their fluency in English.

Nowhere was such taunting more wounding than in Ukraine and Georgia, two countries long part of the Russian Empire, whose history, religion and culture were so intertwined with Russia's. Moscow tried, disastrously, to check Western, and particularly American, influence in Ukraine. The clumsy meddling led to the Orange Revolution.

Georgia was a different matter. Relations were always mercurial, but Eduard Shevardnadze, the wily former Soviet Foreign Minister, knew how to keep atavistic animosities in check. Not so his brash successor, Mikheil Saakashvili. From then on, hubris was Tbilisi's undoing.

It was not simply the dismissive rhetoric, the open door to US advisers or the economic illiteracy in forgetting dependence on Russian energy and remittance from across the border; it was the determined attempt to make Georgia a US regional ally and outpost of US influence.

Big powers do not like other big powers poaching. This may not be moral or fair but it is reality, and one that underpins the Security Council veto. The Monroe Doctrine - “hands off the Americas” - has been policy in Washington for 200 years. The US is ready to risk war to keep out not only other powers but hostile ideologies - in Cuba and Nicaragua.

Vladimir Putin lost several pawns on the chessboard - Kosovo, Iraq, Nato membership for the Baltic states, US renunciation of the ABM treaty, US missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. But he waited.

The trap was set in Georgia. When President Saakashvili blundered into South Ossetia, sending in an army to shell, kill and maim on a vicious scale (against US advice and his promised word), Russia was waiting.

It was not only Mr Saakashvili who thought that he had the distraction of the Olympics to cover him; the Kremlin also knew that Mr Bush was watching basketball, and, in the longer term, that the US army was fully engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. From the day that the Russian tank brigade raced through the tunnel into South Ossetia, Russia has not made one wrong move. Mr Bush's remarks yesterday notwithstanding, In five days it turned an overreaching blunder by a Western-backed opponent into a devastating exposure of Western impotence, dithering and double standards on respecting national sovereignty (viz Iraq).

The attack was short, sharp and deadly - enough to send the Georgians fleeing in humiliating panic, their rout captured by global television. The destruction was enough to hurt, but not so much that the world would be roused in fury. The timing of the ceasefire was precise: just hours before President Sarkozy could voice Western anger. Moscow made clear that it retained the initiative. And despite sporadic breaches - on both sides - Russia has blunted Georgian charges that this is a war of annihilation.

Moscow can also counter Georgian PR, the last weapon left to Tbilisi. Human rights? Look at what Georgia has done in South Ossetia (and also in Abkhazia). National sovereignty? Look at the detachment of Kosovo from Serbia. False pretexts? Look at Ronald Reagan's invasion of Grenada to “rescue” US medical students. Western outrage? Look at the confused cacophony.

There are lessons everywhere. To the former Soviet republics - remember your geography. To Nato - do you still want to incorporate Caucasian vendettas into your alliance? To Tbilisi - do you want to keep a President who brought this on you? To Washington - does Russia's voice still count for nothing? Like it or not, it counts for a lot.

[Please Wake Up!]

As someone noted above, Glenn Beck had the President of Georgia on last night.  Unbelievable.  Here are the videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z478VRTWYk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLH_8KDkTvk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FmxqoDNQtI

America = Freedom, Georgia = Freedom, Russia = Hates us for our (American and Georgia's) Freedom.

In the last video he states that this is about a New World Order.

Here we go!

Glenn Beck, What a tool!


 

[ConcordeWarrior]

Reuters
U.S. to take control of Georgian ports: Saakashvili
Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:07pm EDT

TBILISI (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's pledge to send aid to Georgia means that the U.S. military will take control of the ex-Soviet state's ports and airports, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Wednesday.

"You have heard the statement by the U.S. president that the United States is starting a military-humanitarian operation in Georgia," Saakashvili said in a television address.

"It means that Georgian ports and airports will be taken under the control of the U.S. defense ministry in order to conduct humanitarian and other missions. This is a very important statement for easing tension."

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSLD49893320080813

 

[joequinn]

We already know --- the article has been posted on this thread --- that one of McCain's senior advisers has a professional connection to Saakashvili and the Georgian state. But this morning I learned, quite by accident, while listening to the radio that McCain himself has known Saakashvili since he was a thirty-year-old law student here in America in 1997. And the moment that I heard this piece of information, I thought "Saakashvili --- PNAC's Man in the Caucasus."

Saakashvili is most assuredly what Bush says that he is, i.e. the democratically elected leader of Georgia. (Which only goes to show just how fascistic the Georgian people are.) But many people know the support that the CIA gave to Saakashvili's Rose Revolution in 2003, and it is no accident that Sarkozy, another beneficiary of CIA intervention in the electoral process, was the go-between between Saakashvili and his EU/American supporters.

I am certainly no friend of Russia, which has never forgotten the humiliations that the EU and America visited upon it during the 1990s and which will not rest until it calls the anti-American tune in the EU. But I despise both Georgia and Saakashvili as fascist pawns, fascist pawns whose country has been destroyed as nothing more than a minor move in the new Great Game.

[Sub-X]

Arms drawn in tense Georgian stand-off
London Times
14 August 2008

Russian and Georgian troops came close to a fire-fight today as a tense stand-off developed over the continued occupation of the strategic city of Gori.

As the first US humanitarian aid arrived in Georgia, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, met President Sarkozy of France in his summer residence on the Riviera to launch her diplomatic mission. She is due to fly into Tbilisi tomorrow, spearheading a high-profile US campaign designed to underline US support for Georgia.

On the ground, Russian tanks and troops remained at checkpoints blocking the road into Gori and showed no sign of handing it back to the Georgian authorities despite an earlier pledge to do so. Georgian police had been reported as taking back responsibility for patrolling Gori, but this has proved to be premature.

Alexander Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Commission, said that the Russian troops were refusing to leave today, despite a previous agreement to do so, and said that they would not withdraw from Gori until at least tomorrow.

"We have to agree on the gradual deployment of troops and police in Gori. But there are mutual suspicions," Mr Lomaia said before entering Gori with a Russian commander to continue negotiations.

"They suspect that the forces we are deploying are not police forces. The separatists are trying to intervene and meddle in the situation. It is quite tense and the ceasefire is quite fragile here.

"They promise to leave tomorrow. We have many reaaons not to believe them but we try to help them to stick to what they have said."

Fighters from South Ossetia are reportedly reluctant to surrender control of Gori to the Georgians and to retreat behind the border of their breakaway region. Irregulars among the South Ossetians were also continuing to steal cars belonging to Georgians, though one was returned later by a Russian officer.

A Georgian interior ministry spokesman said that Russian forces were "destroying" Gori, about 50 miles north west of Tbilisi. Red-faced with anger, the Russian commander berated the international media at the checkpoint for reporting this claim, saying: "Do you see the city? Is it destroyed? We have not done anything."

Fields were on fire outside villages close to Gori, however, and a plume of black smoke rose from behind a hill after an explosion. Journalists were prevented from entering Gori at the checkpoint and a soldier fired shots in the air to drive them away shortly before a series of explosions was heard.

The ceasefire came within a hair's breadth of being broken when a convoy of 20 pick-up trucks carrying heavily-armed Georgian troops approached the Russian checkpoint, apparently expecting the Russians to be withdrawing. Eyewitnesses said that the two sides drew weapons and confronted each other for several minutes until the Georgians retreated after Russian soldiers called up tank support.

The Times witnessed at least seven Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers blocking the route into Gori, with soldiers pointing weapons towards Georgian troops about 500 metres away. Thousands of Georgian troops were stationed along the route from Gori to Tbilisi and police had sealed off the road outside the capital to ordinary traffic.

A defence attache from a Western embassy was also on the scene to assess military developments. Asked whether Georgia had given advance warning to his and other governments about the decision to invade South Ossetia, he replied: "I don't think any of us were told because if we had been we would have told them they were on their own."

In his first major statement on the crisis, President Bush demanded yesterday that Russia respect the ceasefire accord brokered by President Sarkozy of France, under which both sides must retire to their positions before fighting erupted last Thursday night.

He also announced large-scale humanitarian assistance to be led by the US military - the first US aid flight has already landed - and said that he was sending Dr Rice to Georgia to help secure peace.

“The United States of America stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia, insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected,” Mr Bush said in a statement at the White House.

He scolded Moscow for its attacks on Georgia, and warned it had put Russia’s post-Cold War relations with the West “at risk".

“To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe, and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis,” he declared.

[Stan]

Who was that Georgian official who just mentioned the "new world order" twice on BBC News 24?

About 15:12. It was live so it might be repeated over the next few hours.

[larsonstdoc]

NBC has just reported that the truce may be breaking down in Georgia (but Condie "No Brain" Rice is heading to Georgia to save the day).  How can the US be taken seriously by sending a woman  to "scare the Russians"?  The US is a joke!

[Biggs]

apologies if this is a repost on this thread but it is well worth reading and provides the best summary of the overall strategic situation I have seen so far. Further it very much draws on Webster Tarpley's assertion that the old 'cold warriors' are back in charge of US foreign policy and that the neocons have been usurped as the masters of Washington: -

Putin Walks into a Trap

By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20508.htm

13/08/08 "ICH" --- - The American-armed and trained Georgian army swarmed into South Ossetia last Thursday, killing an estimated 2,000 civilians, sending 40,000 South Ossetians fleeing over the Russian border, and destroying much of the capital, Tskhinvali. The attack was unprovoked and took place a full 24 hours before even ONE Russian soldier set foot in South Ossetia. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Americans still believe that the Russian army invaded Georgian territory first. The BBC, AP, NPR, the New York Times and the rest of the establishment media has consistently and deliberately misled its readers into believing that the violence in South Ossetia was initiated by the Kremlin. Let's be clear, it wasn't. In truth, there is NO dispute about the facts except among the people who rely the western press for their information. Despite its steady loss of credibility, the corporate media continues to operate as the propaganda-arm of the Pentagon.

Former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev gave a good summary of events in an op-ed in Monday's Washington Post:

"For some time, relative calm was maintained in South Ossetia. The peacekeeping force composed of Russians, Georgians and Ossetians fulfilled its mission, and ordinary Ossetians and Georgians, who live close to each other, found at least some common ground....What happened on the night of Aug. 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas....Mounting a military assault against innocents was a reckless decision whose tragic consequences, for thousands of people of different nationalities, are now clear. The Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of U.S. instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of NATO membership, emboldened Georgian leaders into thinking that they could get away with a "blitzkrieg" in South Ossetia...Russia had to respond. To accuse it of aggression against "small, defenseless Georgia" is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity." ("A Path to Peace in the Caucasus", Mikhail Gorbachev, Washington Post)

The question for Americans is whether they trust Mikhail Gorbachev more than the corporate media?

Russia deployed its tanks and troops to South Ossetia to save the lives of civilians and to reestablish the peace. Period. It has no interest in annexing the former-Soviet country or in expanding its present borders. Now that the Georgian army has been routed, Russian president Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin have expressed a willingness to settle the dispute through normal diplomatic channels at the United Nations. Neither leader is under any illusions about Washington's involvement in the hostilities. They know that Georgian President Mikail Saakashvili is an American stooge who came to power in a CIA-backed coup, the so-called "Rose Revolution", and would never order a major military operation without explicit instructions from his White House puppetmasters. Most likely, the orders to invade came directly from the office of the Vice President, Dick Cheney.

The Georgian army had no chance of winning a war with Russia or any intention of occupying the territory they captured. The real aim was to lure the Russian army into a trap. US planners hope to do what they did so skillfully in Afghanistan; lure their Russian prey into a long and bloody Chechnya-type fiasco that will pit their Russia troops against guerrilla forces armed and trained by US military and intelligence agencies. The war will be waged in the name of liberating Georgia from Russian imperialism and stopping Putin from achieving his alleged ambition to control critical western-owned pipelines around the Caspian Basin. Much of this "think tank" generated narrative has already appeared in the mainstream media or been articulated by American political elites. Meanwhile, the fighting in the Caucasus has diverted attention from the massive US naval armada that is presently sailing towards the Persian Gulf for the long-anticipated confrontation with Iran.

Operation Brimstone, the joint US, UK and French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran, ended just last week. The war games were designed to simulate a naval blockade of Iran and the probable Iranian response.

According to Earl of Stirling on the Global Research web site:

"The war games included a US Navy supercarrier battle group, an US Navy expeditionary carrier battle group, a Royal Navy carrier battle group, a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine plus a large number of US Navy cruisers, destroyers and frigates playing the "enemy force. The lead American ship in these war games, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) and its Carrier Strike Group Two (CCSG-2) are now headed towards Iran along with the USS Ronald Reagen (CVN76) and its Carrier Strike Group Seven (CCSG-7) coming from Japan."

Stirling adds: "A strategic diversion has been created for Russia. The South Ossetia capital has been shelled and a large Georgian tank force has been heading towards the border....American Marines, a thousand of them, have recently been in Georgia training the Georgian military forces... Russia has stated that it will not sit by and allow the Georgians to attack South Ossetia...This could get bad, and remember it is just a strategic diversion....but one that could have horrific effects." ("Massive US Naval Armada Heads for Iran", Earl of Stirling, Global Research)

In June, former foreign policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, presented the basic storyline that would be used against Russia two full months before the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia. The article appeared on the Kavkazcenter web site. Brzezinski said the United States witnessed "cases of possible threats by Russia, directed at Georgia with the intention of taking control over the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline".

Brzezinski: "Russia actively tends to isolate the Central Asian region from direct access to world economy, especially to energy supplies..If Georgia government is destabilized, western access to Baku, Caspian Sea and further will be limited". http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2008/06/13/9798.shtml


Nonsense. Neither Putin nor newly-elected president Dmitry Medvedev have any such intention. It is absurd to think that Russia, having extracted itself from two pointless wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan, and after years of grinding poverty and social unrest following the fall of the Soviet state, would choose to wage an energy war with the nuclear-armed US military. That would be complete madness. Brzezinski's speculation is part of broader narrative that's been crafted for the western media to provide a rationale for upcoming aggression against Russia. Brzezinski is not only the architect of the mujahadin-led campaign against Russia in Afghanistan in the 1980s, but also, the author of "The Grand Chessboard--American Primacy and it's Geostrategic Imperatives", the operating theory behind the war on terror which involves massive US intervention in Central Asia to control vital resources, fragment Russia, and surround manufacturing giant, China.

"The Grand Chessboard" it is the 21st century's version of the Great Game. The book begins with this revealing statement:

"Ever since the continents started interacting politically, some five hundred years ago, Eurasia has been the center of world power.....The key to controlling Eurasia, says Brzezinski, is controlling the Central Asian Republics."

This is the heart-and-soul of the war on terror. The real braintrust behind "neverending conflict" was actually focussed on Central Asia. It was the pro-Israeli crowd in the Republican Party that pulled the old switcheroo and refocussed on the Middle East rather than Eurasia. Now, powerful members of the US foreign policy establishment (Brzezinski, Albright, Holbrooke) have regrouped behind the populist "cardboard" presidential candidate Barak Obama and are preparing to redirect America's war efforts to the Asian theater. Obama offers voters a choice of wars not a choice against war.

On Sunday, Brzezinski accused Russia of imperial ambitions comparing Putin to "Stalin and Hitler" in an interview with Nathan Gardels.

Gardels: What is the world to make of Russia's invasion of Georgia?

Zbigniew Brzezinski: Fundamentally at stake is what kind of role Russia will play in the new international system.(aka: New World Order) Unfortunately, Putin is putting Russia on a course that is ominously similar to Stalin's and Hitler's in the late 1930s. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has correctly drawn an analogy between Putin's "justification" for dismembering Georgia -- because of the Russians in South Ossetia -- to Hitler's tactics vis a vis Czechoslovakia to "free" the Sudeten Deutsch. Even more ominous is the analogy of what Putin is doing vis-a-vis Georgia to what Stalin did vis-a-vis Finland: subverting by use of force the sovereignty of a small democratic neighbor. In effect, morally and strategically, Georgia is the Finland of our day.

The question the international community now confronts is how to respond to a Russia that engages in the blatant use of force with larger imperial designs in mind: to reintegrate the former Soviet space under the Kremlin's control and to cut Western access to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia by gaining control over the Baku/Ceyhan pipeline that runs through Georgia.

In brief, the stakes are very significant. At stake is access to oil as that resource grows ever more scarce and expensive and how a major power conducts itself in our newly interdependent world, conduct that should be based on accommodation and consensus, not on brute force.

If Georgia is subverted, not only will the West be cut off from the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. We can logically anticipate that Putin, if not resisted, will use the same tactics toward the Ukraine. Putin has already made public threats against Ukraine." ("Brzezinski: Russia's invasion of Georgia is Reminiscent of Stalin's attack on Finland"; Huffington Post)

Brzezinski takes great pride in being a disciplined and rational spokesman for US imperial projects. It is unlike him to use such hysterical rhetoric. Perhaps, the present situation is more tenuous than we know. Could it be that the financial system is closer to meltdown-phase than anyone realizes?

It should be clear by Brzezinski's comments that Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia was not another incoherent exercise in neocon chest-thumping, but part of a larger strategy to drag Russia into an endless conflict that will sap its resources, decrease its prestige on the global stage, weaken its grip on regional power, strengthen frayed alliances between Europe and America, and divert attention from a larger campaign in the Gulf. It is particularly worrisome that Brzezinski appears to be involved in the planning. Brzezinski, Holbrooke and Albright form the "Imperialist A-Team"; these are not the bungling "Keystone Cops" neocons like Feith and Rumsfeld who trip over themselves getting out of bed in the morning. These are cold-blooded Machiavellian imperialists who know how to work the media and the diplomatic channels to conceal their genocidal operations behind a smokescreen of humanitarian mumbo-jumbo. They know what they are doing and they are good at it. They're not fools. They have aligned themselves with the Obama camp and are preparing for the next big outbreak of global trouble-making. This should serve as a sobering wake-up call for voters who still think Obama represents "Change We Can Believe In".

Richard Holbrooke appeared on Tuesday's Jim Lerher News Hour with resident neocon Margaret Warner. Typical of Warner's "even-handed" approach, both of the interviewees were ultra-conservatives from right-wing think tanks: Richard Holbrooke, from the Council on Foreign Relations and Dmiti Simes from the Nixon Center.

According to Holbrooke, "The Russians deliberately provoked (the fighting in South Ossetia) and timed it for the Olympics. This is a long-standing Russian effort to get rid of President Saakashvili."

Right. Is that why Putin was so shocked when he heard the news (while he was in Beijing) that he quickly boarded a plane and headed for Moscow? (after shaking his finger angrily at Bush!)

Holbrooke: "And I want to stress, I'm not a warmonger, and I don't want a new Cold War any more than Dimitri does....The Russians wish to re-establish a historic area of hegemony that includes Ukraine. And it is no accident that the other former Soviet republics are watching this and extraordinarily upset, as Putin progresses with an attempt to re-create a kind of a hegemonic space."

It is impossible to go over all of Holbrooke's distortions, half-truths and lies in one article but, what is important is to recognize that a false narrative is being constructed to demonize Putin and to justify future hostilities against Russia. Holbrooke's bogus assertions are identical to Brzezinski's, and yet, these same lies are already appearing in the mainstream media. The propaganda "bullet points" have already been determined; "Putin is a menace","Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet empire", "Putin is an autocrat". (Unlike our "freedom loving" allies in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt!?!) In truth, Putin is simply enjoying Russia's newly acquired energy-wealth and would like to be left alone. But it is impossible to be left alone when the US spends 24 hours a day pestering people. The world deserves a break from an extremely irritating USA.

So why are Brzezinski and his backers in the foreign policy establishment demonizing Putin and threatening Russia with "ostracism, isolation and economic penalties?" What is Putin's crime?

Putin's problems can be traced back to a speech he made in Munich nearly two years ago when he declared unequivocally that he rejected the basic tenets of the Bush Doctrine and US global hegemony. His speech amounted to a Russian Declaration of Independence. That's when western elites, particularly at the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Enterprise Institute put Putin on their "enemies list" along with Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, Morales, Mugabe and anyone else who refuses to take orders from the Washington Mafia.


Here's what Putin said in Munich:

"The unipolar world refers to a world in which there is one master, one sovereign---- one center of authority, one center of force, one center of decision-making. At the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.… What is even more important is that the model itself is flawed because at its basis there is and can be no moral foundations for modern civilization.”

“Unilateral and frequently illegitimate actions have not resolved any problems. Moreover, they have caused new human tragedies and created new centers of tension. Judge for yourselves---wars as well as local and regional conflicts have not diminished. More are dying than before. Significantly more, significantly more!

Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper-use of force – military force – in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts.

We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law. And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, coming increasingly closer to one state’s legal system. One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way. This is visible in the economic, political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other nations. Well, who likes this? Who is happy about this?

In international relations we increasingly see the desire to resolve a given question according to so-called issues of political expediency, based on the current political climate. And of course this is extremely dangerous. It results in the fact that no one feels safe. I want to emphasize this – no one feels safe! Because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them. Of course such a policy stimulates an arms race.

I am convinced that we have reached that decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security.”

Every word Putin spoke was true which is why it was not reprinted in the western media.

“Unilateral and illegitimate military actions”, the “uncontained hyper-use of force”, the “disdain for the basic principles of international law”, and most importantly; “No one feels safe!”

Putin's claims are all indisputable, that is why he has entered the neocons crosshairs. He poses a direct challenge to---what Brzezinski calls---the "international system", which is shorthand for the corporate/banking cartel that is controlled by the western oligarchy of racketeers.

South Ossetia was a trap and Putin took the bait. Unfortunately for Bush, the wily Russian prime minister is considerably brighter than anyone in the current administration. Bush's plan will undoubtedly backfire and disrupt the geopolitical balance of power. The world might get that breather from the US after all.
 

[Optimus]

South Ossetia, Abkhazia agree to ceasefire deal by Russia
http://www.sindhtoday.net/world/12001.htm
Aug 14th, 2008 | By Sindh Today | Category: World

Moscow, Aug 14 (DPA) In a development signalling a further move in the direction of a breakoff from Georgia, the leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia Thursday signed the ceasefire agreement for the southern Caucasus region.

With Russian President Dmitry Medvedev looking on, the internationally-unrecognised leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Eduard Kokoity and Sergei Bagapsh, signed the document, the Interfax agency said.

At the occasion, Medvedev expressed his understanding for the two regions’ desire to break away from Georgia, and pledged that ‘Russia will support every decision by the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia’.

The Kremlin leader also assured the two of further Russian support.

In order to prevent new ‘attacks by the Georgian side’, a beefed-up Russian peace force would remain in South Ossetia, Medvedev said, while adding that at the same time Russia would help in the search for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

The ceasefire deal was agreed Tuesday between Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, acting in his role as the current head of the European Union.