Center for Research on Globalization, Canada
August 16, 2008
Putin’s Winning Hand
Once the Atlantic Alliance is shattered, America’s lifeline to the
world is kaput
by Mike Whitney
Global Research, August 16, 2008
Information Clearing House
There are no military installations in the city of Tskhinvali. In
fact, there are no military targets at all. It is an industrial center
consisting of lumber mills, manufacturing plants and residential
areas. It is also the home to 30,000 South Ossetians. When Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered the city to be bombed by
warplanes and shelled by heavy artillery last Thursday, he knew that
he would be killing hundreds of civilians in their homes and
neighborhoods. But he ordered the bombing anyway.
There was no "Battle of Tskhinvali"; that’s another fiction. A battle
implies that there is an opposing force that is resisting or fighting
back. That’s not the case here. The Georgian army entered the city
unopposed; after all, how can unarmed civilians stop armed units. Most
of the townspeople had already fled across the border into Russia or
hid in their basements while the tanks and armored vehicles rumbled
bye firing at anything that moved.
What took place in South Ossetia last Thursday, was not an invasion or
a siege; it was a massacre. The people had no way to defend themselves
against a fully-equiped modern army. It was a war crime.
In less than 24 hours, the Russian army was deployed to the war zone
where it chased the Georgian army away without a fight. Journalist
Michael Binyon put it like this, "The attack was short, sharp and
deadly—enough to send the Georgians fleeing in humiliating panic."
Indeed, the Georgians left in such haste that many of their weapons
were left behind. It was a complete rout; another black-eye for the US
and Israeli advisers who trained the clatter of thugs they call the
Georgian army. Soon vendors on the streets of Tskhinvali will be
hawking weapons that were left behind with a mocking sign: "Georgia
Army M-16; Never used, dropped once."
By the time the army was driven out, the downtown area was in engulfed
in flames and the bodies of those who had been killed by sniper-fire
were strewn along the streets and sidewalks. Many of people who stayed
behind were simply too old or infirm to leave. Instead, they huddled
in their basements waiting for the shelling to stop. It was a
bloodbath. The city’s only hospital was deliberately targeted and
destroyed; another war crime. By day’s end, over 2,000 people were
killed in an operation that was clearly engineered with the assistance
of the Bush White House. Bush regards Saakashvilli as his main client
in the region; they are friends. He is America’s cat’s paw in the
Caucasus. Saakashvilli’s assignment is to try to get Putin to
overreact militarily and demonstrate to European allies that Russia
still poses a threat to their national security. Fortunately, many
Europeans see through the ruse and know that the trouble originates in
Washington.
For the most part, Americans are still in the dark about what really
happened last weekend. There’s a great video circulating on the
Internet by a Russian citizen that has been living in USA for the last
10 years. He sums up the role of the US media with great precision. He
says, "The western media–especially CNN–is feeding you complete
horseshit. Russia did not invade Georgia first." The youtube can be
seen here:
The coverage of the western media has been abysmal. Nearly every
article and TV news segment begins with accusations of Russian
aggression concealing the fact that the Georgian Army bombarded and
invaded the capital of South Ossetia one full day before the first
Russian even tank crossed the border. By the time the Russians
arrived, the city was already in a shambles and thousands were dead.
These facts are not in dispute by those who followed the developments
as they took place. Now the media is revising the facts to manage
public perceptions, just as they did with the fictional WMD in
Iraq. Many people think that the media learned its lesson after they
were exposed for using bogus information in the lead up to the war in
Iraq. But that is not true. The corporate media–especially FOX News,
CNN and PBS (the smug, liberal-sounding channel)—continue to operate
like the propaganda arm of the Pentagon. Its disgraceful.
In a 2006 referendum, 99% of South Ossetians said they supported
independence from Georgia. The voter turnout was 95% and the balloting
was monitored by 34 international observers from the west. No one has
challenged the results. The province has been under the protection of
Russian and Georgian peacekeepers since 1992 and has been a de facto
independent state ever since. If Putin applied the same standard as
Bush did in Kosovo, he would unilaterally declare South Ossetia
independent from Georgia and then thumb his nose at the UN. (Sauce for
the goose, is sauce for the gander) But Putin and newly-elected
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have taken a conciliatory attitude
towards the international community and tried to resolve the issue
through diplomatic channels. So far, they have conducted themselves
with restraint and avoided any confrontation.
Still, Russia’s operation in South Ossetia has ignited a firestorm in
the US political establishment and Democrats and Republicans alike are
demanding that Russia be "taught a lesson". Condoleeza Rice flew to
Tbilisi on Friday and ordered Russian combat troops to withdraw from
Georgia immediately. Saakashvili topped off Rice’s comments by saying
that the Russian troops were "cold-blooded killers" and
"barbarians". So much for reconciliation.
Saakashvili’s hyperbolic rhetoric was followed by a surprise
announcement from Poland that they had approved Bush’s plans for
deploying the Missile Defense Shield in Eastern Europe. The system is
supposed to defend Europe from the possibility of attacks from
so-called "rogue states" like Iran, but the Kremlin knows that it is
intended to neutralize their nuclear arsenal. Political analyst
William Engdahl explains the importance of the proposed system in his
recent article, "Missile Defense: Washington and Poland just moved the
World closer to War":
"The signing now insures an escalation of tensions between Russia and
NATO and a new Cold War arms race in full force. It is important for
readers to understand…the ability of one of two opposing sides to
put anti-missile missiles to within 90 miles of the territory of the
other in even a primitive first-generation anti-missile missile array
gives that side virtual victory in a nuclear balance of power and
forces the other to consider unconditional surrender or to
pre-emptively react by launching its nuclear strike before 2012."
The new "shield" will be integrated into the larger US nuclear weapons
system placing the world’s most lethal weapons just a few hundred
miles from Russia’s capital. It is a clear threat to Russia’s national
security and it must be opposed at all cost. It is no different than
nuclear weapons in Cuba. The timing of the announcement is
particularly troubling as it only adds to the tensions between the two
superpowers.
President Medvedev made this statement after hearing of Poland’s
decision: "This decision clearly demonstrates everything we have said
recently. The deployment of new anti-missile forces in Europe is aimed
at the Russian Federation."
It was President Ronald Reagan, the darling of the neoconservatives,
who decided to remove short-range nuclear weapons from the European
theater. Now, ironically, it is his ideological heir, George W. Bush,
who is on track to restart the Cold War by putting a high-tech nuclear
system on Russia’s perimeter. The younger Bush has already broken his
father’s commitment to Mikail Gorbachev to never expand NATO beyond
Germany. Presently, Bush is pushing to gain NATO membership for two
former-Soviet states; Ukraine and Georgia. If they are approved, then
any future dispute with Russia will pit the United States and Europe
against Moscow. It’s no wonder Putin is trying to derail the process.
The Bush administration has been planning for a confrontation with
Russia for more than a year. In fact, Raw Story reported on operations
that were conducted by the military on July 14, 2008 which were
probably a dress rehearsal for the current conflict. According to Raw
Story:
"US troops on Monday (July 14) began military exercises near the
Russian border in ex-Soviet Ukraine and were poised to launch them in
Georgia, amid tense relations between Moscow and Washington. A
ceremony inaugurating the Sea Breeze-2008 NATO exercise was held off
Ukraine’s Black Sea coast against anti-NATO protests and a hostile
reaction from officials in Russia. Sea Breeze-2008…includes forces
from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France,
Georgia, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Macedonia and Turkey…’The
US-Georgia joint exercises will be held at the Vaziani military base’
less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Russian border with a
total of 1,650 servicemen taking part."
So, it appears the Bush administration, working in conjunction with
the Pentagon, did have contingency plans for dealing with a flare-up
with Georgia. The real question is whether or not they planned to
initiate those hostilities to advance their own regional agenda? No
one knows for sure.
Now that Georgia’s American-trained army has been humiliated in front
of the world, Bush is trying desperately to save face by demanding
that Russia allow the US Air force to deliver humanitarian aid via
C-17 military aircraft to the tens of thousands of Georgians who were
displaced in the fighting. It is worth noting that, as yet, Bush has
never delivered as much as a bag of rice to the 2 million Iraqi
refugees living in Jordan and Syria due to his war in Iraq. Bush’s
magnanimity is not only suspect, it also creates real problems for
Putin who will have to decide whether the offer is sincere or just a
ploy to open up the ports and airfields so that more weaponry and
ordnance can be delivered. As Barry Grey suggests in his article "Bush
Dispatches US Military forces to Georgia" the humanitarian operation
could be a scam:
"This is a formula for an injection of US military and naval forces
into Georgia of indeterminate scope and duration. It will certainly
involve the presence of hundreds if not thousands of uniformed US
military personnel on the ground, and a substantial number of warships
in the region. The US is introducing this military force into a
situation that remains highly unstable and combustible, raising the
possibility of a direct military clash between the United States and
Russia."
Grey is right, but what choice does Putin have? His task is to avoid a
military confrontation with the United States while demonstrating to
his Europeon partners that their future lies with Russia not
America. That’s the real goal. To achieve that, he needs to expose
Bush as reckless, petulant, and incapable of being a responsible
steward of the global system. Maybe Putin will have to back-down at
some point and swallow his pride; it makes no difference. What
matters, is the endgame; showing that Russia is strong and dependable
and will provide its European allies with oil and natural gas in a
businesslike manner. That’s the winning hand. Meanwhile, the United
States will be forced to take a long-overdue look in the mirror and
revisit its strategy for perennial war. Unfortunately, once the
Atlantic Alliance is shattered; America’s lifeline to the world is
kaput.
Global Research Articles by Mike Whitney