The ‘western’ endgame plan for the current conflict in Georgia comes into view. The aim is to declare Russia a ‘combatant’ in the fight over South Ossetia and to illegitimate it as the peacekeeper in the region. Russia, so the plan, could thus be pushed out of Georgia and its soldiers there replaced by ‘western’ forces.
Under the Sochi Agreement Russia is a recognized peacekeeping force and mediator in South Ossetia. A yet to be revised U.S. state department page explains:
The June 24, 1992 Sochi Agreement established a
cease-fire between the Georgian and South Ossetian forces and defined
both a zone of conflict around the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali
and a security corridor along the border of South Ossetian territories.
The Agreement also created the Joint Control Commission (JCC), and a
peacekeeping body, the Joint Peacekeeping Forces group (JPKF). The JPKF
is under Russian command and is comprised of peacekeepers from Georgia,
Russia, and Russia’s North Ossetian autonomous republic (as the
separatist South Ossetian government remained unrecognized).
The Georgian president (and U.S. puppet) Saakashvili used some skirmishes to open a surprising all out artillery barrage on the town of Tskhinvali. Some 1,500 people have been killed in that attack. Russia immediately tried to get a UN resolution to condemn the strike and to demand a return to peace.
When that failed because the ‘west’ delayed a resolution, Russia sent in armored troops and later reinforced these with paratroopers and special forces. It also bombed military sites in Georgia where preparations were ongoing to activate more troops against South Ossetia. Unfortunately the bombs also hit an apartment building in Gori killing 50 people. As an eyewitness describes it for the BBC:
We saw the impact of the air strikes – buildings on fire. We could hear the Russian jets above us. In one air strike the pilot missed the intended military base, instead hitting two apartment blocks.
…
One air strike had hit a military base, where apparently most of the soldiers had managed to get out before the bombs landed.Georgian soldiers told the BBC the targets were military bases in the town. There are three military bases, where thousands of Georgian troops are currently stationed.
The hit was certainly an error. Nevertheless, the pictures of those burning apartments will now lead the ‘western’ news, not the pictures of the obliterated town of Tskhinvali. Now all death in this war will be blamed on Russia.
For an example how this works see this obfuscating headline from the British Independent:
Who might have killed those 1,500 people? You will not learn that from the Independent piece at all. Read it! To any casual readers the impression is left that the Russian’s did so. This is clearly outright manipulation of news. (The same scheme was used when Chinese Han people were burned to death by Tibetian rioters in Lhasa earlier this year. The ‘western’ press, after first reporting correctly that the rioters were the culprits, took about two days to blame those death on Chinese state forces.)
But I digress. So what is the ‘western’ endgame? Via Reuters:
OSCE head: Russian mediator days over in S.Ossetia
Russia’s armed intervention means it cannot return as an honest broker between the sides in the South Ossetia conflict, the head of Europe’s main security and human rights group said on Saturday.
"Russia is at the moment a party in this conflict, not a mediator, and that has to be mirrored when ceasefire and peace talks begin," Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, current chairman of the 56-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told a news conference.
That statement is incorrect. Russia is the official peacekeeping force in South Ossetia. South Ossetia was attacked. Now the peacekeeping force tries to return the situation to the status quo ante:
"They must retreat to the place where they were before they started this aggression; they must retreat to where they were three days ago," [Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry] Rogozin told reporters in his residence in a Brussels suburb.
Otherwise, there will be no contacts and consultations, he said.
Unlike the Dutch in Sebreniza, the Russian’s here do not simply turn away. They try to prevent further slaughter. To use that in an attempt to kick them out is disingenuous and will not work.
But the U.S. pushes for it anyway:
"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," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.
The ‘western’ media reporting will now align with the official U.S. policy. Russia is the culprit for all these dead and it must be pushed out of South Ossetia aand punished to regain peace. Then the ‘west’ will come in and oversee the ethnic cleansing of Ossetians by Georgian forces. Kosovo anyone?
People who read those ‘left’ media like the Independent might fall to that line. The Russians will not and there is no chance that this U.S. policy will be implemented.