Thursday, August 14, 2008

Georgia: A Pawn in America's 'Great Game'

Welcome to the new Cold War and new Great Game,

what a new administration will inherit next year,

and the very worrisome thought that it will handle

things no better than the current one no matter

who's elected or which party controls Congress

Why did georgia invade South Ossetia, and what can Washington hope to gain when it's bogged down in two wars, threatening another against Iran, and thoroughly in disrepute as a result?

It's part of a broader "Great Game" strategy pitting the world's two great powers against each other for control of this vital part of the world.

Bush administration plans may come down to this - portray Russia as another Serbia, isolate the country, and equate Putin and/or Medvedev with Milosevic and hope for all the political advantage it can gain.

"The war on Southern Ossetia," according to Chossudovsky, "was not meant to be won, leading to the restoration of Georgian sovereignty over (the province).

It was intended to destabilize the region while triggering a US-NATO confrontation with Russia."

Georgia is its proxy. Its attack on S. Ossetia is a made-in-Washington operation.

"We're All Georgians" Bullshit: It's The Bush McCain Neocon 'New World Order' [Source]



The Great Game

What's at stake is what former National Security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski described in his 1997 book "The Grand Chessboard."

He called Eurasia the "center of world power extending from Germany and Poland in the East through Russia and China to the Pacific and including the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent."

He continued: "The most immediate (US) task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role."

Dominating that part of the world and its vast energy and other resources is Washington's goal with NATO and Israel its principal tools to do it:

* in the Middle East with its two-thirds of the world's proved oil reserves (about 675 billion barrels); an

* the Caspian basin with an estimated 270 billion barrels of oil plus one-eighth of the world's natural gas reserves.

"New World Order" strategy aims to secure them. Russia, China, and Iran have other plans. India allies with both sides. Former Warsaw Pact and Soviet republics split this way:

* NATO members include the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania;

* Georgia and Ukraine seek membership;

* Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazahkstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgystan ally with Russia.

Georgia now occupies center stage, so first some background about a nation Michel Chossudovsky calls "an outpost of US and NATO forces" located strategically on Russia's border "within proximity of the Middle East Central Asian war theater."

Breakaway S. Ossetia and Abkhazia, though small in size, are very much players in what's unfolding with potential to have it develop into something much bigger than a short-lived regional conflict.

In 2003 with considerable CIA help, Georgia's President Saskashvili came to power in the so-called bloodless "Rose Revolution." Georgia held parliamentary elections on November 2.

International observers called them unfair. Sackashvili claimed he won. He and the united opposition called for protests and civil disobedience. They began in mid-November in the capital Tbilisi, then spread throughout the country.

They peaked on November 22, the scheduled opening day for parliament. Instead, Saakashvili-led supporters placed "roses" in the barrels of soldiers' rifles, seized the parliament building, interrupted President Eduard Shevardnadze's speech, and forced him to escape for his safety.

Saakashvili declared a state of emergency, mobilized troops and police, met with Shevardnadze and Zurab Zhvania (the former parliament speaker and choice for new prime minister), and apparently convinced the Georgian president to resign. Celebrations erupted.

A temporary president was installed. Georgia's Supreme Court annulled the elections, and on January 4, 2004, Saakashvili was elected and inaugurated president on January 25.

New parliamentary elections were held on March 28. Saakashvili's supporters used heavy-handed tactics to gain full control, but behind the scenes Washington is fully in charge. It pulls the strings on its new man in Georgia and stepped up tensions with Russia for control of the strategically important southern Causasus region.

On January 5, 2008, Saakashvili won reelection for a second term in a process his opponents called rigged. Given how he first gained power and the CIA's role in it, those accusations have considerable merit.

After the outbreak of the current crisis, Russia's NATO envoy, Dmitry Rogozin, accused the Alliance of "encourag(ing) Georgia to attack S. Ossetia and called it "an undisguised aggression accompanied by a mass propaganda war."

Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, called attention to Georgia's "massive arms purchasing....during several years" and its use of "foreign specialists" to train "Georgian special troops."

In his August 10 article titled - "War in the Causasus: Towards a Broader Russia-US Military Confrontation?" - Chossudovsky notes how "attacks were timed to coincide with the Olympics largely with a view to avoiding frontpage media coverage" and to let saturation Beijing reports serve as distraction.

Now after days of fighting, headlines cite 2000 or more deaths (largely civilians), huge amounts of destruction, Tskhinvali in ruins, and many thousands of refugees seeking safe havens.

Accounts of Georgian atrocities have also surfaced, and according to Chossudovsky they're part of a planned "humanitarian disaster (against civilian targets) rather than (an impossible to achieve) military victory" against a nation as powerful as Russia.

Had Georgia sought control, a far different operation would have unfolded "with Special Forces occupying key public buildings, communications networks and provincial institutions."

So why did this happen, and what can Washington hope to gain when it's bogged down in two wars, threatening another against Iran, and thoroughly in disrepute as a result?

It's part of a broader "Great Game" strategy pitting the world's two great powers against each other for control of this vital part of the world.

Bush administration plans may come down to this - portray Russia as another Serbia, isolate the country, and equate Putin and/or Medvedev with Milosevic and hope for all the political advantage it can gain.

"The war on Southern Ossetia," according to Chossudovsky, "was not meant to be won, leading to the restoration of Georgian sovereignty over (the province).

It was intended to destabilize the region while triggering a US-NATO confrontation with Russia."

Georgia is its proxy. Its attack on S. Ossetia is a made-in-Washington operation.

But not according to George Bush (on August 10) who "strongly condemned (Russia's) disproportionate response," and Dick Cheney (on the same day) saying its military "aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community."

An EU statement agreed. It expressed its "commitment to the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Georgia" and pretty much accused Russia of aggression.

Russia's response and capabilities are unsurprising. It counterattacked in force, battered Georgian troops, inflicted damage at will, reportedly overran the Gori military base in Senaki, moved south into Georgia proper, and largely attacked military targets with great effect.

Welcome to the new Cold War and new Great Game, what a new administration will inherit next year, and the very worrisome thought that it will handle things no better than the current one no matter who's elected or which party controls Congress.

SOURCE

Russia vs. Georgia #2



Via independent.co.uk

Russia vs. Georgia #1