Dismantle Civilisation

Surprise surprise! We’ve been watching the escalating war in Georgia, sanning the internet for information that really tells us what it is all about.

Michael Klare on commondreams.org tells us its all about oil, which doesn’t come as a surprise at all.

In commenting on the war in the Caucasus, most American analysts have tended to see it as a throwback to the past: as a continuation of a centuries-old blood feud between Russians and Georgians, or, at best, as part of the unfinished business of the Cold War. Many have spoken of Russia’s desire to erase the national “humiliation” it experienced with the collapse of the Soviet Union 16 years ago, or to restore its historic “sphere of influence” over the lands to its South. But the conflict is more about the future than the past. It stems from an intense geopolitical contest over the flow of Caspian Sea energy to markets in the West.

This struggle commenced during the Clinton administration when the former Soviet republics of the Caspian Sea basin became independent and began seeking Western customers for their oil and natural gas resources. Western oil companies eagerly sought production deals with the governments of the new republics, but faced a critical obstacle in exporting the resulting output. Because the Caspian itself is landlocked, any energy exiting the region has to travel by pipeline – and, at that time, Russia controlled all of the available pipeline capacity. To avoid exclusive reliance on Russian conduits, President Clinton sponsored the construction of an alternative pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan to Tbilisi in Georgia and then onward to Ceyhan on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast — the BTC pipeline, as it is known today.

Mike Rupperts blog is following the conflict, and is probably one of the most honest and truthful accounts of what is happening there and why.

This new Georgian conflict is not going away soon and I doubt if it’sgoing to calm down. In fact, the first 24 hours have signalled thatit is going to intensify rapidly. Russian planes have been shot downand there are heavy casualties on both sides. Today, Reuters is reporting that Georgian officials have claimed that Russian attack aircraft attempted (unsuccessfully) to hit the pipeline itself. Clearly it (which runs just south of the Georgian capital, Tiblisi) is threatened and going to stay that way. Europe is almost totallydependent upon Russian oil and especially natural gas to keep from freezing in the winter. That dependence has been worsening every year since (ironically) 2001. Just three years ago Britain surrendered its energy sovereignty to the EU because it couldn’t survive without Russian natural gas. So America will be going this one alone (again). Until this war started, Georgian troops represented the third-largest international “coalition” force in Iraq after the U.S. and Britain. Those troops have all just been called home. I tracked U.S. Special Forces activity in Georgia for many years. Georgia’s tough little army is a U.S. client, but no medium or long-term match for Russian military might. If — or should I say “when” — the pipeline isbreached it will signal a major earthquake along the over-strained east-west fault line that is Russia v. the West. This earthquake has been inevitable for years and I predicted it clearly. This conflict could signal a point of no return which would play into John McCain’seagerly awaiting hands. Brinksmanship is about to be reintroduced to awhole new generation only this time there is no place to “duck andcover”.

With US miltary support for Georgia, albeit camouflaged, this is a very cscary scenario. There is a real possibility of Russia and America coming to blows, and the US has little to threaten Moscow with, except nuclear and/or biological weapons. The American military is already overstretched with Iraq and Afghanistan and the 100s of bases worldwide, while Russia is in its home territory. The US has encouraged Georgia, who undoubtedly expect support from US & Nato, which is unlikely to come. Europe relies on Russian gas and oil, while America would be stupid to get (any more) involved. This is crazy, wars being fought over the last scraps of oil, instead of adopting a different and better social form and structure. Those in power need oil to continue to enslave us and exploit the world.

Larry Chin, at online journal states that this conflict has Bush and Cheney’s bloody fingerprints all over it, and they are not done.

Georgia/Ossetia is a perfect set-up. It is even better than a false flag operation. The Russian Threat will be the only issue, bar none, and Washington has only just begun pumping it up. It will be “it,” no matter which faction ultimately sits in the White House, and could well decide which faction manages to be installed.

The Cold War is back, and it may not be cold for very long: Toward a Broader Russia-US military confrontation?

Both neocons and neolibs now have a unified enemy again, and a propaganda cause behind which to mobilize.

Come on American, get these madmen out of office (preferably tried for all the murders they have committed) and stop electing madmen that jeopardise the safety of all of us.

The western media is trumpeting that “something has to be done to show the Russians that they can’t just run roughshod over the continent,” while the actions of US covert operations, unacknowledged American fatalities (dead intelligence assets, soldiers lying dead in the streets of Ossetia) get silence. Note how the massive propaganda apparatus, a save-Georgia public relations machine (identical to the save-Iraqi-babies campaign launched before the Gulf War) was in place, seemingly before the fighting even started.

There is a good reason why Kissinger and the Bush family appeared so relaxed at the Beijing Olympic Games. The top echelons of the Anglo-American empire have already set up the “chessboard,” with multiple contingencies. It’s all been taken care of.

Barring miraculous developments, Georgia has become the new Vietnam, complete with fear of commies, oil supplies threatened (genuinely as well as fictionally), and real world war. The perfect planetary conflagration.

Rank and file Americans, the entire world, may be sick of war and deception, but fear of a mightily-armed Russia — a true, living superpower adversary that actually dropped bombs and rolled in tanks — could do the trick in a way that 9/11 and phantom terrorists did not.

In an earlier article, ‘South Ossetia: superpower oil war‘, Larry Chin gives us far more information and warns us that this really could blow up into a nuclear war.

The spectacle of the Bush family, Henry Kissinger, Putin, etc., entertaining themselves at the Bejing Olympic Games, while South Ossetia burned, and neocons Dick Cheney and UN Ambassador (and CIA man) Zalmay Khalilzad manning the nuclear button in Washington (warning that “Russian aggression will not go unanswered”), should not only turn stomachs, but raise alarms like nothing since 9/11. Even more stomach-turning, but expected, is the near-total inattention to this gigantic war explosion. The eyes of the hopelessly ignorant and acquiescent public are transfixed on Beijing Olympics fun, and secondarily on the sexual misadventures of John Edwards. Again, the timing of all of this raises questions in and of itself.

Who knew what, and when? Who is in control? Who benefits? What horrific nuclear war scenarios are getting operational green lights?

If Bush/Cheney’s false flag event on 9/11, six horrific years of open criminality, its conquest and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the “war on terrorism,” have not already made painfully clear, this moment in history should serve as a wake-up call.

There has never been a more critical time to look past the billowing propaganda smoke.
This really is it.

This is really it. Michel Chossudovsky at globalresearch.ca asks whether this could lead to broader confrontation between US and Russia.

Georgia does not act militarily without the assent of Washington. The Georgian head of State is a US proxy and Georgia is a de facto US protectorate.

Who is behind this military agenda? What interests are being served? What is the purpose of the military operation.

There is evidence that the attacks were carefully coordinated by the US military and NATO.

Moscow has accused NATO of “encouraging Georgia”. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underscored the destabilizing impacts of “foreign” military aid to Georgia: .

“It all confirms our numerous warnings addressed to the international community that it is necessary to pay attention to massive arms purchasing by Georgia during several years. Now we see how these arms and Georgian special troops who had been trained by foreign specialists are used,” he said.(Moscow accuses NATO of having “encouraged Georgia” to attack South Ossetia, Russia Today, August 9, 2008)

Moscow’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, sent an official note to the representatives of all NATO member countries:

“Russia has already begun consultations with the ambassadors of the NATO countries and consultations with NATO military representatives will be held tomorrow,” Rogozin said. “We will caution them against continuing to further support of Saakashvili.”

“It is an undisguised aggression accompanied by a mass propaganda war,” he said.

(See Moscow accuses NATO of having “encouraged Georgia” to attack South Ossetia, Russia Today, August 9, 2008)

According to Rogozin, Georgia had initially planned to:

“start military action against Abkhazia, however, ‘the Abkhaz fortified region turned out to be unassailable for Georgian armed formations, therefore a different tactic was chosen aimed against South Ossetia’, which is more accessible territorially. The envoy has no doubts that Mikheil Saakashvili had agreed his actions with “sponsors”, “those with whom he is negotiating Georgia’s accession to NATO “. (RIA Novosti, August 8, 2008)

Contrary to what was conveyed by Western media reports, the attacks were anticipated by Moscow. The attacks were timed to coincide with the opening of the Olympics, largely with a view to avoiding frontpage media coverage of the Georgian military operation.

On August 7, Russian forces were in an advanced state readiness. The counterattack was swiftly carried out.

Russian paratroopers were sent in from Russia’s Ivanovo, Moscow and Pskov airborne divisions. Tanks, armored vehicles and several thousand ground troops have been deployed. Russian air strikes have largely targeted military facilities inside Georgia including the Gori military base.

The Georgian military attack was repelled with a massive show of strength on the part of the Russian military.

Chossudovsky asks whether this was a deliberate act to provoke Russia into retaliation. The Georgians aimed their offensive at civilian targets, which they would not have done to gain control of the region, but seemingly to create as much anger and desire for revenge from Russia (the area of Ossetia is largely inhabited by russian nationals).

In response to the attacks, Russian forces intervened with conventional ground troops. Tanks and armored vehicles were sent in. The Russian air force was also involved in aerial counter-attacks on Georgian military positions including the military base of Gori.

The Western media has portrayed the Russian as solely responsible for the deaths of civilians, yet at the same time the Western media has acknowledged (confirmed by the BBC) that most of the civilian casualties at the outset were the result of the Georgian ground and air attacks.

Based on Russian and Western sources, the initial death toll in South Ossetia was at least 1,400 (BBC) mostly civilians. “Georgian casualty figures ranged from 82 dead, including 37 civilians, to a figure of around 130 dead…. A Russian air strike on Gori, a Georgian town near South Ossetia, left 60 people dead, many of them civilians, Georgia says.” (BBC, August 9, 2008). Russian sources place the number of civilian deaths on South Ossetia at 2000.

A process of escalation and confrontation between Russia and America is unfolding, reminiscent of the Cold War era.

Are we dealing with an act of provocation, with a view to triggering a broader conflict? Supported by media propaganda, the Western military alliance is intent on using this incident to confront Russia, as evidenced by recent NATO statements.

ClubOrlov gives us an indepth analysis of the region.

The Abkhaz and the South Ossetians have made their preference very clear by applying for and being issued with a Russian passport. That’s right, the majority of the present native population of these two “separatist enclaves” are bona fide citizens of the Russian Federation with all the privileges appertaining thereto. Lacking any other options, they are happy to accept protection from Russia, use Russian as their lingua franca, and fight for their right to be rid of Georgians once and for all. One of the privileges of being a Russian citizen at this stage, when Russia has recovered from its political and economic woes following the Soviet collapse, is that if some foreign entity comes and shells a settlement full of Russian citizens, you can be sure that Russia will open one amazingly huge can of whoop-ass on whoever it feels is responsible. Add to that the atrocities allegedly perpetrated by the Georgian forces, such as finishing off wounded Russian peacekeepers, and you can see why the normally shy and reticent Russian army might get behind the idea of making sure Georgia no longer poses a military threat to anyone. The Georgians have really done it to themselves this time, and we should all feel very sorry for them. They are not evil people, just incredibly misguided by their horrible national politicians. The West, and the US in particular, bear responsibility for enabling this bloodbath by providing them with arms, training, and encouraging them to fight for their “territorial integrity.”

Thank you Dmitri for sharing your knowledge of ths area, which puts the present conflict into perspective. Russia is not ‘invading’, but is retaliating against a US back aggressor who attacked first, killing 1000s of russian civilians (they want to be russian, not georgian). The western media has (deliberately) gotten the wrong end of the stick.

If Kosovo is to Serbia as Abkhazia and South Ossetia are to Georgia, what, you might ask, is the key difference that mandates a different outcome for the latter? Well, there are quite a few (neither is Georgia’s historical homeland, both fought for independence and won, both are populated by indigenous tribes rather than newcomers from across the border), but the most salient seems to be this one: Serbia, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia are all BAD (aligned with Moscow) while Georgia is GOOD (aligned with the West and US, and wants to join NATO). Morality, which, I am sure, underpins Western and US foreign policy, dictates that the bad be punished, and the good rewarded. I submit to you that such self-serving logic is a political dead end, and that if senseless bloodshed is to be stopped and peace is to be restored to the Caucasus, Western and US leaders will have to activate several additional brain cells, and stop mindlessly repeating the meaningless phrase “Georgia’s territorial integrity.”

DemocracyNow has further reports, including an interview with Col. Sam Gardiner, retired Air Force Colonel.

James Howard Kunstler briefly examines the conflict on his blog, in relation to how this may affect the US’s oil addiction.

The US might talk tough about this threat to the status quo, but what is it going to do? Pull troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan to mount a land war against Russia in a landlocked region of its own neighborhood? Fuggeddabowdit. Notice, the Europeans are not making so much as a peep — because when the time comes that Russia does control that pipeline, the Europeans will do anything to keep the contents flowing toward them. Europe may be organized as a trade-and-currency confederation, but not as a military power. NATO is strictly a US auxiliary, not a power unto itself. The result of all this will be that Russia, already the world’s leading oil producer, even as it has entered depletion, will now possess a potent geopolitical-and-financial weapon with control of that pipeline. A collateral effect will be Europe’s inclination to bid more desperately for Middle East oil — the oil that comes via the Suez Canal — which can’t help but boost the price-per-barrel that the US is forced to pay.

And heres an article by Dale Allen Pfeiffer from 2002, at fromthewildreness.com, that looks at pipelines, the Caspian, and American foreign policy.

We suggest that everyone reading this research further by following the links above, and then spread the truth far and wide. Thats the joy of the internet, that we can all be reporters, blooging being much lke gossip, with information being passed from ont to the next, spreading information worldwide. The truth about this conflict is out, and we are morally bound to pass it on, to stop the lies promoted by the warmongers and others who stand to gain from war.

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