In a court of law, once you are caught lying, you are through. The judge is no longer listening to you, for you have ruined your credibility in his eyes and you will never regain his trust again. Case closed, you lose.
And so it is with the western corporate media, caught lying once again by trying to pass off film footage of the destroyed Ossetian capital Tskhinvali and claim it was Gori, in Georgia, and a result of Russian bombing. Their history of lying is all too familiar to most: weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Iraq was behind 9-11, Sadaam’s people were throwing babies out of incubators. Now the latest, they are trying to paint Russia as an aggressor, as a country violating international law, knowing full well that both are bald faced lies.
A universal truth is that lies are the beginning of murder. All wars, all genocides, all acts of evil begin with lies.
The western concept of the “international community” is not their paltry 15% of world population, that is just how many people reside in the so-called west. The true international community is the 85% that never get a chance to be listened to or acknowledged. Even among their numbers are people who have risen above the norm to seek out the truth, so when Bush, Rice and company speak of an “international community” they are just talking nonsense.
The night-time bombardment of Tskhinvali by Georgian troops resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians. Among the dead were the Russian peacekeepers, who gave their lives in fulfilling their duty to protect women, children and the elderly. Official Tskhinvali reported that the number of deceased due to the August events totals 1692, according to South Ossetia’s prosecutor Teimuraz Khugava. Georgian attackers acted like barbarians, rather than descendants of one of the first Christian nations. For example, Georgians targeted churches because they knew civilians would be hiding in there. One priest said 60% of his flock was killed.
The Georgian leadership, in violation of the UN Charter and their obligations under international agreements, their agreements in regards to the Soviet constitution and contrary to the voice of reason, unleashed an armed conflict victimizing innocent civilians. Tbilisi hoped for a blitzkrieg that would have presented the international community with an accomplished fact, the elimination of a whole people.
To Russians and most of the international community, the Georgian attack of August 8 looks like the very same “ethnic cleansing” which the US and European powers asserted to be crimes against humanity on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. This was an older lie of epic proportions still being vomited by corporate western media, contrary to all the evidence.
Another lie they attempt to perpetrate on world opinion is a veil of democracy which doesn’t exist with leaders who do nothing but tell lies, threaten, bully, use double standards, think they can police the world and boss other countries, behave recklessly with diplomacy and international law, make noises of war, insult the Russian President, and basically ignore world opinion, instead pretending that they speak for everyone.
One essential truth is that Georgia is a non-country. According to western corporate media, we’re supposed to feel sorry for this poor, poor “country” that was “invaded” by bad, bad Russia for no reason at all. There are readily identifiable regions from Soviet times– Abkhazia, Adjaria, and South Ossetia– areas peopled by non-“Georgians.” Also add to that the Mtzkhetians (or Meskhetan Turks), the Armenians in Georgian-occupied Javakhk (yet another identifiable region) and the Azeri Turks in the Eastern part of the “country.” It should be clear that this amalgamation within a Georgian “state” was never meant to be. “Georgia” was always weak and needed to be protected. Thus far, the Soviet Union has been the only force to be able to keep peace between the various warring factions in the area.
The Georgian army charged into Ossetia under cover of the Olympic games in Beijing. An unknown fact is just a few weeks before the invasion, Georgian authorities had been instigating trouble among the Armenians of Javkhk with mass arrests, seizures and beatings. Apparently they were planning something and knew that Armenians have always been allies and friends with Russia so they needed to be out of the way. Calls for help went unheard and unheeded.
Also, when Saakashvili first ascended to the presidency of the “country,” one of his first steps was to banish the leader of Adjaria and try to assert control over the region. He has stated repeatedly his goal of “restoring” the “breakaway regions” of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgian subjugation. Unknown in the corporate media indoctrinated west is that Saakashvili has been jailing the opposition and squashing all vestiges of dissent. Some democracy!
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Georgians have been making life difficult for Armenians living in Georgia in many ways: language and history instruction, employment issues which require the knowledge of Georgian when the majority of the native population does not speak Georgian. Armenian churches have been and are at risk of being confiscated by the Georgian Orthodox Church.
South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity revealed that Georgia used mercenaries from several countries during its aggression against his nation. “There were many mercenaries from Ukraine and the Baltic states. We have found dead bodies of African Americans too,” Interfax quoted Kokoity as saying. The ‘territorial dispute’ matter was just an excuse. South Ossetia and Abkhazia have not desired to be a part of Georgia since the USSR disbanded in 1991.
“The territorial integrity and borders of Georgia must be respected, just as those of Russia or any other country,” according to President Bush. “Russia’s action only exacerbates tensions and complicates diplomatic negotiations. In accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolutions that remain in force, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are within the internationally recognized borders of Georgia, and they must remain so.”
However, on Kosovo, hypocrite duplicitous moron Bush said the following: “Independence for Kosovo is an opportunity to move beyond past conflicts and towards stability and peace. History will prove this to be a correct move, to bring peace to the Balkans,” he said. “The United States supports this move because we believe it will bring peace. And now it’s up to all of us to work together to help the Kosovars realize that peace.” This was in total disregard for UN Resolution 1244 which the United States signed and remains in force specifically recognizing Serbian/Yugoslavian sovereignty over Kosovo.
Scum like Bush, Cheney, Gates and especially Rice should be looking in the mirror instead of pointing their fingers. They appeared to be having a collective nervous breakdown over the situation in Georgia. One wonders if parrot Condoleeza Rice is ‘stupid.’ She did seem to have a rather one track mind saying: “Russian forces must leave Georgia now,” bawk, bawk, bawk. Apparently, her handlers forgot to program her for much more than that. She is nothing more than a neocon parrot who has been trained to ‘bawk’ and pee on cue.
This stunt by Georgia is going to hurt them big time economically (little things like tourism, foreign investment, putting in a McDonald’s franchise, little things like that). It will all add up and it will hurt. More than likely, people traveling to the 2014 Olympics will not book a room in Georgia, except maybe the US and Israeli teams. There will be war crimes charges brought against Georgia and its accomplices – which include Ukraine, Israel and the USA. In any case, people who start wars don’t get to decide how and when they end.
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Commentary: I decided to publish this article even though I have very mixed feelings about it. One one hand I really like the way Lisa Karpova bluntly denounces the West’s hypocrisy. On the other, I totally disagree with her response to the question “what is Georgia?”. For me, Georgia is an ancient, original and highly rich culture, it is a nation which immensely suffered for its Orthodox Christian faith and it is a people of legendary kindness and hospitality. Lisa Karpova in her disgust with the West ends up spewing much of her venom at Georgia as a country rather than at the Fascist regime which currently rules over it. Does she really think the Georgian people are to blame for Saakashvili or that this psychotic moron is in any way an expression of the Georgian culture?
I refuse to see this conflict as one opposing Russia to Georgia (after all, Russia also had a Western stooge a la Saakashvili in power form 1991 to 2000). This is a conflict for the survival and freedom of *any* nation threatened by the USraelian Empire. The Georgian people are at least as much the victims here as the Ossetians or the Russians.
The Saker
Hi there
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your great coverage of the Ossetia conflict.
You have provided very good information and articles this last 4 weeks.
What I can not understand, and if you could perhaps throw some light on this for me “why is Russia putting up with all the false Western Media that is still circulating”
I live in NZ and every day, the same BS. Now they are going on about UN taking steps against Moscow etc.
Why doesn’t someone make the likes of the UN officials – explain WHY Russia needs to be punished, WHAT did they do that was not acceptable etc
Why are these buffoons not recognising the suffering of civilian Ossetia people, you has the French man (who saw the pain and suffering 1st hand in North Ossetia) who is now sitting there supporting Russian punishment, still keeping quite on what he saw himself ???
This whole saga has really opened my eyes, and now I am looking back in history and realizing what a fool I have been all these years.
This article is a good one too, and I agree 100% with you – the Georgian people are also innocent Pawns in a very dirty cruel game for a few warped leaders/power freaks.
All the best
Peter – New Zealand
@Peter: What I can not understand, and if you could perhaps throw some light on this for me “why is Russia putting up with all the false Western Media that is still circulating”
Oh but I assure you Russia is not putting up with this one bit. In fact, the Russian media is full of reports about the anti-Russian campaign and so is the Russian blogosphere. The Russians are gradually coming to the realization that the West was only superficially anti-Soviet and that, in reality, it is far more anti-Russian. It took the post-Soviet Russians quite a while to come to terms with this reality. In many ways Russians were very sympathetic to the officially anti-Soviet stance of the West and after the fall of communism in 1991 many Russians sincerely wanted to have the West and, in particular, the USA as a partner. Now all this is long gone and the Russian population is fully backing its leaders in what I would call a resolutely firm stance against the Western imperialism and anti-Russian propaganda.
Kind regards,
The Saker
That’s absolutely true. I was in the USSR in April 1991 just before the anti Gorbachev coup and counter coup that brought the USSR down. At that time Moscow and Leningrad were filled with demonstrators who were all pro Western.
The Russian tricolour flag at that time signified a passionate desire to join the West. They embraced it because the red white and blue meant America, not the Tsar.
If Russia had been treated decently in the Nineties the country would now be a friend of the United States as Germany became after the war.