Confusion in the Caucasus

Saakashvili seems intent on making more foolish statements, designed to inflame tensions between the west and Russia. He also seems to think McCain is going to come to his rescue. Here is a newsflash: McCain doesn't actually give a damn about Georgia.

He only got involved in this affair thanks to his lobbyist/foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann who only got involved in Georgia's affairs for the lobbyist money (link). McCain's statements about Georgia and his ridiculous blustering is an attempt to gain votes here among the diplomacy challenged public. The west only gives a damn about the oil Georgia can transport out of central Asia. Thus why the coverage here has been so one sided. It's what the corporate/right-wing media wants.

Saakashvili said this yesterday:

“Yesterday, I heard Sen. McCain say, ‘We are all Georgians now,’” Saakashvili said on CNN’s American Morning. “Well, very nice, you know, very cheering for us to hear that, but OK, it’s time to pass from this. From words to deeds.” (link)

Does Saakashvili understand that McCain is not president? He's a senator, and his job is to represent his state of Arizona in the Federal government. His job is not to represent Georgia. Perhaps Saakashvili is still receiving advice from Scheunemann, and this bluster of his is somehow designed to give McCain cover to engage in looking "tough". Saakashvili also seems to think that America should help save him from his foolish decision to start a war. Sorry, we've got enough enemies thanks to previous meddling in other regions. I don't think Russia is some saint of a country, nor do I agree with some of their military tactics, but it's naive to think that civilians caught in the crossfire are not going to die or be maimed. Perhaps Saakashvili should have thought about that before he decided to attack South Ossetia.

If anyone thinks Obama is going to be clear headed about this, I would think again. He's already decided to take sides in this conflict, ignoring that it was Georgia who started the war. One of his top advisers is Zbigniew Brzezinski, who apparently would like nothing more than to resume the cold war and like the neo-cons, thinks Putin is the second coming of Stalin and this little war with Georgia is the prelude to the revival of the Soviet Union. Well, if we keep antagonizing Russia, feeding their paranoia and mistrust of the west, then Russia will surely oblige neo-con fantasies. (link to recent interview with Brzezinski concerning the conflict in the Caucasus.

If America and Russia would work together on common goals, the world would be more peaceful. Instead, each nation seeks to gain the upper hand in world influence (to control world resources), as if either has a right to treat the world as their own personal sandbox. Neither country has the right to meddle in the domestic affairs of other nations, just as people have no right to force me to live a certain way. National and person rights end when they infringe on other nations and people's self-determination. America has no business inserting ourselves in Russian-Georgian affairs, oil be damned.

I'll leave you all with the most bone headed and hypocritical statement ever made by John McCain:

"In the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations." (link)

I guess America isn't a nation, or he's saying Iraq and Afghanistan aren't nations.