High resolution version for printing purposes here:  http://ia311208.us.archive.org/2/items/Georgia-russiaConflict2/RussiaGeorgiaUsNato.gif

Dear Latuff,

You haven't got to worry about the cost of Switching on your light or turn on your gas in your penhouse whilst to gazing happy across your own beach in South America and wonder where you should go out to get a nice tan or play beach ball with the girls in their bikinis.

How life must be wonderful where you are with any fear of war breaking out other than the odd Italian with pidgin English about kicking Sand into your eyes. That you are able to spend your time drawing pictures and any to spend all day spaming poor indymedia who has the bear the cost of hosting all your diagrams. Who are plugged into the very same power source as the rest of use bearing the cost of living.

Maybe if you like come to my house and use my petal dynamo so that I can read your limited comments and views and opinions whist the poor people of Georgia which you have somehow forgotten are being killed by your freinds the freindly Russians. Strange but it's true you are quick to point these Civilians out when it's anything to do with the West bombing another country like somewhere in the Middle East or Afghanistan.

But atlas today you forgotten, as Capt. Bertorelli would say "What a mistake-a to make-a". It's time to bid you fair well and leave you to finish you drinking your Sangria, Perv at the girls on the beach, whist you whist away your day thinking of some other but same as before drawing. If you are lucky you might even pull one of the girls. (Or not).

seems a navel gazer isn't amused with your brilliance...

yes people really do get paid to get on the net and slander intelligent thought provoking material

it's all WWF mate... just like american wrestling pre-planned and pre-scripted.

all the big boys of the g8 nations long got into bed with each other for the great circle jerk on humankind.

what gos around will come around peacefully - i believe

there are more of us than there are of them

the inhumanity must end... civilains are not merely collateral damage

how many millions still are to die in the genocide of Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan?

the great imperialist eugenic crusade is on.

tony blair he don't care
he'll kill children anywhere
with a napalm phosperous radiation too
one day he may liberate you

peace is possible if we start telling the truth

no more lies

XXX

US-Russian tensions in Caucasus erupt into war

By Bill Van Auken
9 August 2008


Long-escalating tensions between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia erupted into full-scale war Friday, leaving hundreds if not thousands of civilians dead and turning thousands more into refugees, forced to flee for their lives.

The immediate focus of the fighting is the attempt by Georgia to militarily seize control of the enclave of South Ossetia, which has existed as a de facto independent entity for the past 16 years, and Russia’s armed intervention to counter this assault.

Underlying this military confrontation, however, are far broader conflicts. Feeding the bloody confrontation in South Ossetia is US imperialism’s drive to establish hegemony over the vast energy resources of Central Asia and the Caucasus through the assertion of American military power in the region. The Russian ruling elite, for its part, is seeking to reassert its grip over a region that was ruled by Moscow for two centuries before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

This bitter rivalry between Washington and Moscow—the world’s two greatest nuclear powers—lends the fighting in the Caucasus a particularly explosive and dangerous character. The tensions between the two countries have been exacerbated in the recent period by the Bush administration’s drive to incorporate Georgia into the NATO alliance, a move that Moscow sees as part of an attempt to establish a military encirclement of Russia.

The US-backed Georgian regime of President Mikheil Saakashvili sent massed military units into South Ossetia on Thursday morning, after claiming that South Ossetian military forces had shelled Georgian villages, supposedly violating a unilateral cease-fire declared by Tbilisi.

While the Georgian regime initially claimed it was carrying out a “proportionate response,” it quickly became clear that it had launched an all-out military offensive aimed at conquering the region. Using artillery, tanks, truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers and war planes, the Georgian military laid siege to the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali.

Much of the city was reportedly in flames Friday. The regional parliament building had burned down, the university was on fire, and the town’s main hospital had been rendered inoperative by the bombardment. The International Red Cross reported that ambulances were unable to reach the wounded.

“As a result of many hours of shelling from heavy guns, the town is practically destroyed,” Marat Kulakhmetov, the commander of Russian peacekeepers in the territory, told the Russian news service Interfax.

Eduard Kokoity, the South Ossetian leader, estimated late Friday that more than 1,400 civilians had been killed in the Georgian military assault.

“I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars,” Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, told the Associated Press after fleeing the city with her family to a village near the Russian border. “It’s impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov charged Georgia with utilizing massive violence with the aim of forcing the Ossetian population to flee. “We are receiving reports that a policy of ethnic cleansing was being conducted in villages in South Ossetia, the number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people are trying to save their lives,” said Lavrov.

According to Moscow, among the dead were ten Russian peacekeepers, while 30 more were wounded in the shelling of their barracks by the Georgian forces. The peacekeepers were deployed in the area as part of an agreement reached between Moscow, Tbilisi and South Ossetia to end the fighting that erupted following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the subsequent bid by the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to separate from Georgia. The inhabitants in both regions feared the newly independent Georgian regime would abolish their autonomous status.

Since then, however, Tbilisi has charged that the Russian troops are backing the South Ossetian forces.

Russia seized upon the deaths of its troops and the civilian casualties as the justification for sending a tank column and infantry into South Ossetia, where they have become engaged in fierce combat with Georgian units for control of Tskhinvali.

“In accordance with the constitution and federal law, I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told a meeting of his security council at the Kremlin. “We won’t allow the death of our compatriots to go unpunished.”

Meanwhile, Georgian authorities charged that Russian warplanes had struck the country’s military bases, airfields and the main Black Sea port of Poti late Friday and early Saturday, killing some civilians. Bombs reportedly fell on the capital of Tbilisi and on the area of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

“All day today, they’ve been bombing Georgia from numerous warplanes and specifically targeting (the) civilian population, and we have scores of wounded and dead among (the) civilian population all around the country,” Saakashvili told the US news network, CNN.

Saakashvili announced that he had called up the country’s reserves, while sources in Georgia said he was expected to announce the imposition of martial law.

The timing of the Georgian incursion, on a day when world attention was focused on the opening of the Olympics in Beijing, where both Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and US President George Bush are present, hardly seemed fortuitous.

Saakashvili, however, suggested that it was Russia that had chosen the date, calling it a “brilliant moment to attack a small country” and charging that the quick response by the Russian military demonstrated Moscow’s preparations for an intervention.

The Georgian president declared that his country was “looking with hope” to the US. The armed confrontation with Russia, he claimed, “is not about Georgia anymore. It’s about America, its values... America stands up for those freedom-loving nations and supports them. That’s what America is all about.”

Under the Bush administration, Washington has attempted to forge close ties with Georgia, particularly since the US-backed “Rose Revolution” that paved the way for Saakashvili’s rise to power.

US imperialism’s main interest in Georgia is as an American bridgehead into the oil and gas-rich Caspian Basin and as a strategic transit route for funneling energy supplies out of the region, while bypassing Russia.

To cement its ties with the Georgian regime, Washington has provided hundreds millions of dollars in military aid, while sending in large numbers of US military trainers for the country’s growing armed forces.

Georgian troops, meanwhile, account for the third largest contingent participating in the US occupation of Iraq, numbering some 2,000. Tbilisi indicated Friday that it would seek US help in bringing at least 1,000 of these soldiers back to participate in the fighting in South Ossetia.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov alluded to the US military support for Georgia, declaring, “Now we see Georgia has found a use for these weapons and for the special forces that were trained with the help of international instructors.” He added, “I think our European and American colleagues... should understand what is happening. And I hope very much that they will reach the right conclusions.”

Last month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a provocative visit to Tbilisi, denouncing Russia and reiterating US backing for Georgian NATO membership. Washington’s NATO allies in Western Europe, however, have greeted the proposal coolly, seeing it as an unnecessary provocation against Russia, upon which they depend for energy supplies.

Whether Rice during her visit gave an explicit green light for the intervention in South Ossetia, or whether the Georgian regime felt the demonstration of US support gave it the assurance of Washington’s backing for such a military action, is not known.

In the wake of Friday’s assault, Washington has stopped short of providing explicit support for the Georgian action, but has made it clear that it backs the position of its client state in the Caucasus.

The United Nations Security Council failed to support a Russian-backed resolution calling for an end to the fighting because of Washington’s opposition to a clause calling on all sides to “renounce the use of force.” The clear implication is that the US is backing Georgia’s right to take military action.

Secretary of State Rice, meanwhile, issued a statement effectively condemning Russia, while providing tacit justification for Georgia’s intervention. “We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia’s territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil,” she said. “We underscore the international community’s support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.”

The eruption of war in the Caucasus is the end product of the increasingly aggressive policy pursued by US imperialism in the wake of the dissolution of the USSR nearly 17 years ago. Washington has systematically manipulated national conflicts in the region to further its own aim of military and economic hegemony. This began with the bloody wars in the former Yugoslavia.

All of the arguments used by Washington to justify its support for Bosnia and Kosovo and its military assault on Serbia during the Balkan wars of the 1990s could be employed just as effectively to condemn Georgia’s intervention and defend South Ossetia, as well as Russia’s military intervention on its behalf.

In this case, however, Washington has elevated Georgia’s “territorial integrity” as the paramount principle in the conflict, effectively justifying Georgia’s military intervention and an assault on the province’s Russian population that Moscow has branded as “ethnic cleansing.”

The apparent contradiction between these two policies only underscores the fact that US imperialism’s supposed aversion to ethnic cleansing and the suppression of ethnic enclaves is entirely dependent upon who is doing it and whether or not it serves US strategic interests.

There is a direct link between this latest war and those waged by the US in the Balkans. In February, the US and the West recognized Kosovo’s “independence” based on its unilateral secession from Serbia, in direct violation of various UN resolutions. The aim in backing this secession—as in its support for the suppression of similar secessionist entities in Georgia—was to further US military plans for the encirclement of Russia and the securing of access routes to the Caspian Basin.

In the run-up to Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence, Moscow had repeatedly warned that it would set a precedent for similar actions by other territories in the former USSR—Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in particular. In its aftermath, the Russian regime stepped up its support for both territories.

Now, the eruption of war in South Ossetia poses the threat of a regional conflagration that can bring the world’s two biggest nuclear-armed powers, the US and Russia, into direct military confrontation, with the immense dangers that such a conflict poses to humanity.

deja vu

An excellent cartoon by Latuff. A pity about the childish comments that followed.

Friday morning, I turned on my radio and heard that Russian war planes were attacking Georgia, that Russian tanks were rolling into Georgia. A horrible sense of history repeating itself.

August 1968, I watched Russian tanks roll into Prague. August 2008, as the world is distracted by the Beijing Olympics, Russian tanks roll into Georgia. Summer 1956 when the world was distracted by the Suez Crisis, Russia attacked and occupied Hungary.

In 1921, Russian revolutionaries seized Georgia and made it part of the Soviet Union.

On Saturday, both sides escalated the situation, Georgia by declaring war on Russia, Russia by attacking Georgian towns. This is like the start of World War One when one shot dragged the world into a world war.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7551291.stm  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7550804.stm

Both sides have been very stupid. Georgia attacked Russian peacekeeping troops, knowing this would provoke the Russians into a counter attack. Georgia is trying to drag Nato into this conflict. If Nato is drawn in, countries like the Czech Republic will be drawn into this war and will not be safe. If Europe responds, Russia will cut off gas supplies to Europe.

This is about oil and pipeline routes.

We need to drastically cut our energy use so we are no longer dependent on unstable parts of the world. The need for oil only serves to escalate conflicts and create instability, be it Nationalists and Separatists in the Caucasus or Muslim Fundamentalists in the Middle East or conflict in the Niger Delta.

On the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian military machine was broken, its tanks rusting, its conscripts ill trained. It could not compete with the US on military spending. The West through oil revenues has financed and rebuilt the Russian war machine.

We in the West lack credibility when we attack and occupy Iraq and threaten to attack Iran.

Sunday, the Russian Ambassador to London, spoke of Kosovo independence, of Nato using disproportionate force to attack Serbia.

Monday night, an eye witness in the disputed region, spoke of Georgian artillery shelling civilians.

The West has been very stupid. When the Soviet Union collapsed, we should have recognised Russia as a friend, instead we raped and pillaged the country. Former Soviet Republics to the south, run by evil men, now have massive American bases. Russia is paranoid, feels surrounded by hostile neighbours. Missile defence systems to be deployed in Czech Republic and Poland have deteriorated East-West relations.

If Nato gets drawn in, Russia would be destroyed, but so would the former Easter Bloc countries in Eastern Europe.

It is like watching a nightmare unfold. A full scale war has suddenly erupted from nowhere.

It can only hoped both sides come to their senses and declare a cease fire before the war escalates and we all get sucked in.

Sunday, Georgia called for a ceasefire, but was ignored by Russian.

Russia seems to be determined to use the iron fist, to destroy what remains of any Georgian military capability, to teach Georgia a very harsh lesson.

It should be made clear to Russia, without isolating Russia, that force does not pay. Already foreign capital is thinking twice of investing in Russia. For the rouble and the Russian stock market, the conflict has proved to be a disaster. It is also putting a strain on already strained East-West relations.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7553889.stm

Russia is hoping to take advantage of a young and inexperienced and newly installed US President, as did Kruschov with Kennedy.

There are members of the Russian Parliament calling for nuclear weapons to be used!

The conflict indicates who is in charge in Russia. Vladimir Putin represented Russia at the Beijing Olympic Games, Putin then flew to the Russian-Georgian border and took control of military operations.

Once a ceasefire has been agreed, UN peacekeeping troops have to be deployed. Russian forces withdrawn, the disputed region declared a demilitarised zone. The UN, cf Cyprus, could be in place for decades.

Tuesday morning, the Russian president called for a cessation of hostilities, the Finnish foreign minister called for an end to the war of words and for an international solution.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7555858.stm

The US and Russia have to stop meddling in Georgia.

 http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=366000
 http://www.indymedia.org/print.php3?article_id=366181
 http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=366797&group=webcast
 http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=368917&group=webcast

Countries are squabbling over oil reserves, oil reserves that should remain in the ground. The greatest threat to humanity is global warming and climate change.

I have to disagree. This is actually about NATO expansion, idiotic asshole American leaders acting as provocateurs, and irredentist claims on both the Georgian and Russian sides. Struggles in the caucasus are way too complex to be boiled down to a single region.