The Reality Behind Western Propaganda Regarding War In Georgia

By Damian Lataan

12/08/08 "ICH" -- - For many the war in Georgia may have seemed as though it
came from nowhere; as if it just suddenly erupted without any warning. And,
if one were to believe what the pro-western mainstream media are telling us,
one could be forgiven for believing that it did. The US and their western
allies have taken full advantage of this anomaly and turned it to their
advantage for propaganda purposes. They have been busy telling the world
that the Georgians have been overwhelmed by the Russian 'bully boys' to
their north when in reality the Russians were and are merely reacting to the
murderous bully boy tactics of the Georgian army and their supporting band
of US and Israeli mercenary thugs that ruthlessly attacked the civilian
population of south Ossetia in an effort to force them to give up their
demands for autonomy.

In fact the tensions in and around Georgia, once part of the Soviet Union,
have been simmering for years.

The Georgian state is made up of many ethnic groupings many of whom feel
more comfortable being part of Russia than having to be subservient to
Georgia. Over the years, since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the
birth of present day Georgia in 1991, two regions of Georgia in particular,
South Ossetia and Abkhazia, have evolved, against the wishes of the central
Georgian government, into semi-autonomous regions whose status has been
protected and supported by Russia. This has caused massive resentment from
the Georgians who insist that these regions come entirely under Georgian
control.

Every now and then the undercurrent of animosities between the Georgians and
the Russians over these two regions well up to the surface and become a
source of potential conflict. In the past Russia, simply by twitching a
military muscle, which, if push really came to shove, could flatten Georgia
in a flash, usually has seen an end to any further serious posturing by the
Georgians.

As well as the existence of these animosities, the old Cold War animosities
that existed between the US and her western allies and the Russians still
linger on long after what most people believed was an end to the Cold War in
1991. As the War on Terrorism replaced the Cold War as a vehicle for US
imperialism in its projection of hegemony into a resources-rich region of
our world, so some of those resentments have re-emerged as the new political
battles for increasingly diminishing resources intensify. The old East-West
polarisations of the post-Second World War are actually beginning to
replicate themselves almost as it was in the Cold War days. The
all-important difference this time, however, is the new places where the
East meets the West - and Georgia is one of those places.

Georgia has recently been making strong moves to become part of NATO and has
ambitions to become part of the EU. Russia is not very keen, and, given that
the US would like to put their anti-missile shield system into NATO
countries to protect them from the so-called threat of Iranian nuclear
weapons, understandably so, to limit the number of NATO nations it has on
its doorstep. As a result of Georgian aspirations about becoming part of
NATO, the Georgians have become close allies of the US and the West and also
of Israel who have ties to the small but influential Jewish community in
Georgia with some of those members having close links to Israel being in the
Georgian government including Georgia's Integration Minister Temur
Yakobashvili.

It was because of their strong relationship with the US that the Georgians
considered it safe to have another go at asserting its will over the
breakaway regions in the belief that the Russians wouldn't dare to counter
any Georgian moves against South Ossetia with Russian military action and,
if they did, the US and the West would immediately come to their aid in the
event of a Russian backlash against Georgian moves into South Ossetia.
Certainly, Georgia would not have made any such move into South Ossetia
without the backing of the US. It now seems, though, that both the US and
Georgia have badly misjudged the Russian reaction and the US are unable to
move. If they do, it will be the first time that the US and Russia have ever
directly confronted each other in face to face open warfare - and we all
know where that would eventually lead. As it is, American 'advisors'
(mercenaries), have in all likelihood been in combat with Russian troops in
this conflict as have Israeli 'instructors' (mercenaries).

The US and, to a lesser extent, the Israelis have painted themselves into a
corner. Neither can afford to upset the Russians too much because they need
Russian support over their stance on Iran's so-called nuclear weapons
program. Open hostility toward Russia, a veto-wielding power in the UN
Security Council, would mean the end of UN support for any moves toward a UN
endorsement of further sanctions against Iran. While Israel could
pre-emptively attack Iran and would get support from the US in doing so,
without UN supported sanctions in place there could be no reasonable casus
belli for such an attack. (With sanctions in place, Israel could always
claim that sanctions aren't working and attack anyway.)But if the UN were to
deny sanctions because of a Russian veto this would be tantamount to the
Russians saying it does not believe the Iranians need to have sanctions
against them because they do not have a weapons program and, since nobody
would know better than the Russians about what programs the Iranians do have
in place, they are, after all, the main suppliers of the Iranian nuclear
equipment, then bang goes any casus belli the Israelis might feel they can
use.

The geo-political reality, as we can see, is a far cry from the propaganda
and rhetoric the US and their western allies are trying to put out in the
mainstream media. And in this day and age of blogs and the internet which is
often nowadays keeping one step ahead of the mainstream media, the
propaganda and rhetoric is becoming increasingly more transparent in its
blatancy.

Damian Lataan is an aeronautical Engineer and Historian.
http://lataan.blogspot.com/