open Democracy News Analysis - conflicts - Comments

Tom Paine on "Georgia after war: the political landscape "

Tom Paine — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:21:38 +0100

He [Saakashvili] also provided a detailed account of the development
of Georgian-Russian relations in the period since he came to power in January
2004...

Given some of Saakashvili's statements so far in this conflict and the fact that he launched the war itself according to the US ambassador to Georgia, any claim Saakashvili makes has to be initially looked at in a highly skeptical manner.

Many of Saakashvili's pronouncements go way, way beyond spin and are flat out lies. Others are simple-minded propaganda that are so outrageous it's laughable (my favorite was his claim that Russian troops were stealing toilet seats -- that's even more funny than the US claim in 1991 that Iraqi troops were stealing baby incubators from Kuwaiti hospitals).

Tom Paine on "The miscalculation of small nations "

Tom Paine — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:54:14 +0100

Georgia acted alone without US knowledge?! What a load of rubbish! Let's look at this a different way.

The US has military advisors assigned to the Georgian military down to the battalion level.

So we're supposed to believe that large portions of the Georgian army moved into position to launch the attack on S. Ossetia and that those US advisors were not keeping the Pentagon informed? When the Georgian army was emptying ammo dumps to move the munitions into attack positions, those US advisors were not keeping their higher-level US commanders informed? Give me a break.

The Georgian attack was a clear case of the US attacking Russia via a proxy. It fits right in with the well-publicized US "Silk Road Strategy" and the neo-con/Brzezinski plan to control central Asian energy resources. This was not a case of a US puppet acting independently.

I also question the author's assertion that "...North Korea's then president Kim Il-sung to seize South Korea in a sudden attack in June 1950..." There was no sudden attack. If one studies the history of the Korean War, before the North Korean offensive there had been battles and dogfights going on along the 38th parallel for months. Some of those battles involved units of battalion size (500-700 men) engaging each other. This is hardly the "sudden", sneak attack portrayed in most western history books.

Likewise, the author's citation of Saddam Hussein's 1980 invasion of Iran ignores western cheerleading of Hussein and the west's funding and arming of Iraq's war of aggression, along with the west's support and UN diplomatic cover regarding Iraq's use of chemical weapons. This is at best heavy spin, or at worst a selective use of facts to support a straw-man argument.

The author did, however, hit the nail on the head on one point: Georgian President Saakashvili did initiate the assault, thus breaking the peace, breaking a Georgian gov't pledge not to resort to force made only days before the brutal assault, and breaking an international agreement in which Russia was made the guarantor of peace and which authorized Russian (and other) peacekeepers to be deployed to Georgia. As such, Saakashvili is a war criminal guilty of initiating a war.

One might argue that the Russians "overreacted" but that is of little weight in the big scheme of things. Initiating a war is the supreme war crime, because from it arises all other war crimes.

Saakashvili broke the peace, initiated the war, and as such should not whine because he lost his war. Given these facts, it's not surprising that the Russian military went out of its way to blow up US-supplied stocks of weapons in Georgia, destroy Georgian military bases and capabilities, and are reluctant to leave Georgia. As peacekeepers, the Russians would be fools to trust this war criminal a second time.

gerrym on "The miscalculation of small nations "

gerrym — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:29:53 +0100

Saakashvili is typical of many Georgians - he has an inflated sense of his own ability and of his country's importance. The "progress" Georgia has made since he came to power has been grossly over-hyped. A few licks of paint on Rustaveli Avenue and some shiny new police cars don't disguise the same crumbling shambles of a country; living on hand-outs, ruled by clans and riven with factions and corruption. The Ossetians and Abkhazians know that perfectly well.

Saakashvili's Georgia may be convenient as a pawn to pillory Russia but as a symbol of "democracy" it is an unfortunate example and about the last place on earth worthing starting a war - hot or cold - over.

anthony alcock on "The miscalculation of small nations "

anthony alcock — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:23:04 +0100

Sadly the whole region is rife with the sort of overt nationalism that has been reduced to phenomena such as sport in the West. A blunder of major proprtions was committed by the West when it supported the independence declaration of Kosovo.

DE Teodoru on "The miscalculation of small nations "

DE Teodoru — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:48:16 +0100

Saakashvili is a hustler who struted his stuff in the US, like African trial chielfs who come here to "study," and proved what a hustler he is in his relations all over this nation. He is typical of the stock of shysters that are taking over small ex-Soviet nations and deem the national treasury as their own. In doing so they either make their nations invisible, US lackeys or aggressive on the assumption that their "big 'Democracy' brother" is standing behind their bullying bravado.

Saakashvili thought that by buying Randy Sheidermann and some other lobbyists he could get support for violent bully action. Well, at the very least, now we know what "Republican" backing for McCain means, what with one top economic adviser who deems, we moaning pauperized victims of Bush's "entrepreneurs," a "nation of whiners" and a foreign policy adviser that, for a few bucks, assured this Americanized Georgian mad man that if he moved on Russia America would help him. Does this not tell you that the money borrowed for China that we distribute as dollars to so many countries, beggining with Israel, is not foreign aid, but like Rome in its twilight, TRIBUTE to the barbarians?

deborah.gordon on "The miscalculation of small nations "

deborah.gordon — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:25:07 +0100

an interesting article; i wondered why the author didn't connect Israel and Georgia, since the former has helped arm the latter. Saakashvili is like Olmert or Sharon, and like both of them he is "helped" in his arrogance by the Bush administration, which after all, has just this sort of mentality of a small nation as described here and shares with Israel a large robustly-funded military. In fact, hearing more about that triangle might have told more of the story Halliday wants to tell than doing the whirlwind tour of every miscalculation by "small nations," regardless of where, when, who (the Palestinians are not a nation like Greece or Georgia, since they are stateless--a refugee population not a citizenry), etc.

Anthony Barnett on "Russian war and Georgian democracy"

Anthony Barnett — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:29:48 +0100

This is a very well written and moving piece. I'm not sure that our Minister of Education in the UK could have produced anything so well articulated. Thank you

Cathy Fitzpatrick on "The miscalculation of small nations "

Cathy Fitzpatrick — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:38:16 +0100

Cathy Fitzpatrick

I'd have to strenuously disgree that "the chief responsibility" for this war belongs to Georgia, while noting that Georgia bears *some* responsibility of course. Russia is a great power and a UN Security Council member; it can be called upon to behave better and not cave to provocations, but of course, it had engaged in many of its own leading up to this point.

For years, Russia incited this unrest by issuing passports to people in South Ossetia and declaring them citizens, although as the OSCE has said, states are not entitled under international law to exercise such jurisdiction over other states' territories:

http://www.osce.org/hcnm/item_1_32663.html

Leading up to the war, in July, Georgia tried several times to get the UN Security Council to do something about Russia's provocative flights over the region, but no action was taken -- the SC freshly weakened by Russia's unexpected veto over the action on Zimbabwe the previous month.

It's curious to drive this whole discussion about the blame Georgia must take for being some sort of hothead nationalist, and yet remain silent about the provocative actions of the pro-Russian South Ossetian government, whose leader made has no secret of deliberate ethnic cleansing actions now.

It's good that you're criticizing the Palestinians, which so few on the left do, but your condemnation of Israel then doesn't quite wash, as they can then justify their actions based on having an unpredictable and extreme enemy.

And...what do you expect, Fred, of these small nations, that they will suddenly say, because they've been told, almost in racist terms, that they are Caucasian or Middle Eastern or Asian hotheads, that they'll say "Oh, ok, we'll stop now, thanks for pointing that out?"

Because the universality of human rights isn't helping them -- it doesn't work fast enough and the great powers, starting with Russia in this situation, don't uphold them -- they turn to nationalism. Nationalism works to mobilize people and make them cohese under attack and stress and you don't have to work hard to get people to feel defensive about their homeland where they live and where their ancestors are buried. Nationalisms of these ferocious sorts happen precisely because internationalism doesn't work; when it is imposed for years, as Soviet internationalism was, it doesn't deliver.

As for the "clash of civilizations", look at where most of the clashes occur, and by whom, and don't take these Caucasian exceptions as a discounting of the rule.

And regarding "arrogance, recklessness
and ignorance born of nationalist excess - which, to be sure, often uses
religion and associated "cultural" offerings as part of its packaging" -- well sure, but why does it even get started? Because internationalism is fake, and proven to be a vehicle for imperialism in this part of the world; because international institutions are weakened, by Russia's role in them.

http://3dblogger.typepad.com/un_tethered

http://3dblogger.typepad.com/ngo_accountability

Ram Mohan on "India at 61: here's looking at you, kid! "

Ram Mohan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:08:21 +0100

THE PEN AND THE SWORD
The author may have claim to being Amartya Sens daughter and a literary personality in India in her own right, but her perspective is blinded by sensationalism that todays jourlaists use to earn their livelyhood. The internet has made this far easier today. While her facts on the negatives of India may not be too far away from the truth, what she must realise that steering a billion people of several faiths with a unique national identity is not easy. Corruption is bound to humanity in a strange way. In my opinion every human being is a hyporcrite - it is only the degree or extent of hypocricy that varies. And every hypocrite is corrupt. THus we are all corrupt. In the West corruption is far greater in the corridors of power. In poorer nations such as ours, corruption is far more spread out. In the poorest nations Corruption has a base at the lowest echelons of society - as it becomes a way of earning a livelyhood in the absence of any social security. In Africa, 'dashing' an official is not seen as corruption - it is seen as a means of getting your job done while providing him with an incentive to do it. He feeds his family from the "dash". And this is true of the system in India to a large extent When you see countries with populations of 2-3 million having serious economic problems, that is when you realise that inspite of the negatives, Indian democracy is probably the only true democracy running efffctively. Ms Sen would probably be in all praise for China - who have leapt far ahead of India in development and other spheres of life. Yet if India had a government as autocratic as the Chinese with their stringent and martial laws of the past - Ms Sen would have been leading the protests on human rights etc.

THe media today are capable of doing irrepairable damage with very minimal accountability - Headlines with fine print can make and break lives.. The Scandal in our Parliament - was a media sting. It did irreparable damage to our nation. Yet the media is never held responsable. Stings have become an acceptable tool. They are enveloped in the principle of deceit. The use of deceit to trap deceit has brought us to a grim reality that the media can do anything to make an expose.It is known that the majority of stings involve huge payents to the media. It is more out of commercial gain that most media stings and conducted. Communal fires too are stoked by the media today for making their channels saleable. One look at STAR TV and ZEE TV News reports ( as with FOX NEWS) exhibits the amount of editing and use of all sorts of film editing and replay techniques with sound and music - while the masses are led into the news ( perfectly adapted to capture the efect they require) - The use of flm style editing with sound and music - has made news making more lucrative than film making. Here ploiticians are the stars that the media get free.

The blowing up of the Amarnath issue is a clear demonstration of an irresponsbale media giving separatists a national platform to speak from, all under the guise of a national platform provided by our media.

I would call upon Ms Sen to look at India in the right perspective - to encourage rather than write criticism of a country makking a mark against all odds. What Europe is trying to create in terms of a unified single currency bordeless entity was created in India many many centuries ago. It is time that the media learnt that their words with todays internet and satellite modes of mass communication - affect people out of the target zone as well.

david hayes on "Pervez Musharraf, the commando who couldn’t "

david hayes — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:59:35 +0100

Naseer, Many thanks, the text has been corrected. David

Naseer on "Pervez Musharraf, the commando who couldn’t "

Naseer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:42:38 +0100

I read Irfan Hussain in 'DAWN' newspaper.
It is two days since the article was posted on your website but has not been corrected.
The date of Musharraf speech and resignation is 18th and not 17th.
The name of Pak Army Chief of Staff is General Pervez Ashfaq Kiyani not 'Ashraf'.
However, as usual Irfan Sahib has written a good piece though I do not agree that MQM is an 'ethnic' party, like so many other 'mainstream' parties are not 'religious' ( I don't know what is a religious party).
The parties have no 'ideology'. This was somewhat true till the mid '70's. Ideology was given some credence then, not now.
It is western mind which is still myopic in terms of the East, which is us.
Irfan Sahib has conveniently forgotten to mention the 'Lal Masjid' tragedy which had an impact.

egil ruud M.Sc on "Abkhazia and South Ossetia: heart of conflict, key to solution "

egil ruud M.Sc — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:26:25 +0100

As it appears mr. Hewitt is an academic. A great admirer of old commies who, by mobilizing small ethnic groups, are able to stay in power by creating banana republics under the benevolent imperialist of Caucaus - the Russian mockrasy

syed salamah ali mahdi on "India at 61: here's looking at you, kid! "

syed salamah ali mahdi — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:27:50 +0100

The author has neglected to mention 'brain drain" that has resulted from rampant corruption and terrorism of other kinds; state sponsored as in Kashmir, Gujarat, Maharashtra and all places where the Muslims, low caste Hindus, indigenous tribals and the poorest of the poor farm serfs and city slum shanty dwellers.

max mix on "Abkhazia and South Ossetia: heart of conflict, key to solution "

max mix — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:57:40 +0100

Plots about war and accidents render what influence on mentality of the person? How, in your opinion, it is necessary to present the information connected with various accidents, wars? Whether it is necessary to limit display (on time, the maintenance)? Whether heightened interest to death, horrors and tragedies really today takes place? In what of the reason of this phenomenon?
qwcz@mail.ru

Subhash Dhuliya on "Abkhazia and South Ossetia: heart of conflict, key to solution "

Subhash Dhuliya — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:11:57 +0100

Russia throughout its history has use brutal force to crush any challenge emerging in it vicinity. Russia is still a super power if not hyper super power like United States of America. But it aggressive posture of US and other Western powers to pus NATO close to Russian border is not a pragmatic course to follow for peace in Europe and to give change to democracy to take roots. This kind of aggressive I becoming counter productive everywhere it has been undertaken. Restrain form all sides is need of hour and aggressive posture will attract same kind of response.
Subhash Dhuliya