While the U.S. nears a depression, there have been loud voices calling for U.S. intervention in the conflict between Russia and Georgia. The primary voices for intervention come from the neo-con camp, the same chosen few who led the U.S. intervention in Iraq.
The conflict between Russia and Georgia has arisen over a region known as South Ossetia. Various international bodies recognize the region as Georgian territory, however a referendum of South Ossetian residents in November 2006 confirmed that a majority of the residents — indeed, 99% — favor independence (with 95% voter turnout).
At Antiwar.com, Pat Buchanan explains the American hypocrisy in the situation. As he explains, “[the neo-cons] have pushed to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. This would require the United States to go to war with Russia over Stalin’s birthplace and who has sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula and Sebastopol, traditional home of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.” According to The Seattle Times, earlier this summer Putin warned George W. Bush that the U.S. pushing for Georgian NATO membership was going too far.
The Times reports that Vice President Dick Cheney and his aides and allies, who view Georgia as a model for their democracy promotion campaign, pushed to sell Georgia more arms, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, so that it could defend itself against possible Russian aggression.
“Putin, angry at what he saw as U.S. infringement in his backyard, decided Georgia was the line in the sand the West would not be allowed to cross,” says the Times.
But, in the end, what the U.S. media does not report is that it was the Georgians who were the aggressors. As The Guardian reports, “Many had traveled in their nightclothes on rocky roads through the mountains and gave bloodcurdling accounts of Georgian atrocities. ‘I came in the boot of a car. Georgian snipers were firing at us from the forest. My brother stayed to fight. Our grandparents’ home was reduced to rubble. We don’t know where they are. Nothing is left of their village. It was totally destroyed by rockets and tank fire,’ Alisa Mamiyeva, 26, a teacher in Tskhinvali, said from the safety of Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia.” Justin Raimondo further details how the U.S. media has covered up the truth with propaganda.
Long story short, the U.S. should not involve itself in this conflict. The RLC supports military deployment in cases where there “is a clear threat to vital U.S. interests and only with the consent of the U.S. Congress.” The U.S. should get back to its own interests, not those of bastions of democracy, such as Georgia — which is really the aggressor in the conflict over South Ossetia.
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