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August 17, 2008
Superpower-Hypocrisy

Should Moscow not scale back its actions, then the potential for escalation cannot be discounted. As a White House official explained to us: “This is a very appealing issue for Americans. We don’t like big nations bullying small ones.”

Swoop – Georgia: Checks on Pax Americana or a New Beginning?

Bullying?

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master — that’s all."

Lewis Carroll – Through The Looking Glass

Posted by b on August 17, 2008 at 13:16 UTC | Permalink
Comments

We don’t like big nations bullying small ones
that pretty much explains how Joe Sixpack sees things. It is very true, we don’t like it and are quite ready to come to the defense of the lesser ones. I suppose it is the chauvinistic instinct that men seem damned to possess. We have been taught that the great moments in history have been when the US has made huge sacrifices to save peoples in faraway places from the horrors of nazism, fascism, communism, and lately islamism.
but as the simple people we are, we don’t see that our own actions are bringing pain and suffering to others. “how can that possibly be?” we ask ourselves, we are a force for good, not evil. surely the others are mistaken or jealous of our position.
and so it goes.

Posted by: dan of steele | Aug 17 2008 13:36 utc | 1

Link to Germany to support Georgia’s NATO bid?????

TBILISI, Georgia – German Chancellor Angela Merkel is offering strong support for Georgia, saying the country is on track to become a member of NATO.
Merkel flew to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Sunday, two days after she met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
In a speech Sunday, Merkel also suggested that NATO could help rebuild the tattered Georgian military.
Merkel supports the EU cease-fire, saying it needs to be followed “immediately” and that Russian troops need to pull out of neighboring Georgia.

What did Merkel Tell Medvedev while she was their? This does not bode well for the world

Posted by: Lysander | Aug 17 2008 14:23 utc | 2

And to think I was reading this by Mark Whitney at globalreasearch.ca

Grey is right, but what choice does Putin have? His task is to avoid a military confrontation with the United States while demonstrating to his Europeon partners that their future lies with Russia not America. That’s the real goal. To achieve that, he needs to expose Bush as reckless, petulant, and incapable of being a responsible steward of the global system. Maybe Putin will have to back-down at some point and swallow his pride; it makes no difference. What matters, is the endgame; showing that Russia is strong and dependable and will provide its European allies with oil and natural gas in a businesslike manner. That’s the winning hand. Meanwhile, the United States will be forced to take a long-overdue look in the mirror and revisit its strategy for perennial war. Unfortunately, once the Atlantic Alliance is shattered; America’s lifeline to the world is kaput.

Now I have to wonder what will be Russia’s counter move, if anything? It seems the U.S. will make no concession to Russia and it appears it can drag Europe along with it. Also, Saak is likely to stay in power if he has total western support. Unless, of course, Russia just gets rid of him herself.
Perhaps trying to appear reasonable is not the best strategy.

Posted by: Lysander | Aug 17 2008 14:40 utc | 3

the russians have been entirely reasonable in this affair. the absence of moderation, indeed the madness on the part of saakshivili & his masters is perfectly clear
the west is bullying russia & merkel’s visit appears to be that of some pornographic pantomime.
paul craig roberts is explicit – evil has a face & that face is of the u s empire
& when moderation is not possible it logically follows that extremism becomes the rule
the u s has been brutalising countries, destinies & people so long it cannot accept even the hint of any real independance by an country
the eu will follow orders from washington – & it makes a mockery of friend slothrop’s argument against the existence of the u s empire
from birth, the cold war orchestrated by u s imperialism had tried to force my generation into their institutions of fear. the constant fear of nuclear war underpiined our childhoods.. we became defiled by that fear
it is clear georgia in nato is the beginning of even darker times

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 17 2008 15:24 utc | 4

does this woman do anything,that doesn’t
have to do with shopping?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 17 2008 15:28 utc | 5

& what we witness constantly is the only routine power knows – to humiliate
that is a central plank fot the mass media – to humiliate
a cocious amnesia constructe on cruelty
i know one day the u s empire, like all empires will be brought down by that absence of moderation

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 17 2008 15:32 utc | 6

“War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.” – Erasmus

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 17 2008 15:36 utc | 7

@2 – Lysander – looks like Merkel did a 180 degree turn on that within two days – just looked at a discussion-board at Spiegel – folks are furious

Posted by: b | Aug 17 2008 15:46 utc | 8

is there no depth to which that gonnoreah ridden golem wolf blitzer will not stoop into the slime to style his sentences of sickness & dread

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 17 2008 15:47 utc | 9

sheesh r’giap! why do you subject yourself to that tripe (Late Edition)? You have to admit, the Russian fellow got in a few licks and did not let the wolfman get away with too much. odd though that McCain is featured in a very favorable light regarding his performance on the televangelist’s show. obama is quoted only for a lead in to Lugar and Lieberman re-hashing cheney talking points

Posted by: dan of steele | Aug 17 2008 15:55 utc | 10

The position of Merkel, or Sarkozy, for the matter isn’t surprising at all. Even if they seem to be integrated in their local ‘moderated’ rigth wing parties they are from that new group of politicians that are completely subservients of the US imperial interests. There seems to be a lot of them lately around here, all them with close relation with the usual suspects controlling the media and the opinion building think tanks. Some of them may be retired, Aznar, Blair or Barroso but they are
The opinion of the european people, that may be less blinded by the propaganda to follow and support a unlimited endless war, doesn’t matter a bit right now. As in the US you can just choice between two faces for the same policies. There is no choice between policies in the western democracies. And in the coming years as the european media becomes less free and even more controlled by the same interest groups than the US media any remaining oposition or doubts will disappear. So for the Russians and chinease (don’t forget them even if they have been sidelined in the last week, remember Tibet, all those poor Han killers being tortured right and forgotten in the Olimpic circus!) there is no other option that submit to those interests or start a world war (that of course will become nuclear in hours) were they are to lose everything.
There is no hypocresy on their words. They are no longer a nation. Those rules don’t apply to them. They are the world, the rulers, The Borg.

Posted by: ThePaper | Aug 17 2008 16:05 utc | 11

you are right dan – i feel quite dirty after listening to that little shit. the foreign affairs fellow from the russian duma was lucid & ‘responsable’ – not a hint of hysteria in him
& thanks dan for the link on the other thread but i am finding paul craig roberts tone very close to my own
there seems to be something extraordninary in our much demeaned species – that even through the tidal waves of fear that swell around us – there is something innate which searches for justice
dumb as we have become – i feel the natural injustice against russia is felt by many people

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 17 2008 16:08 utc | 12

Sarkozy will fold without changing stride on his position on opposing Georgia in Nato. the elite in europe have all their people in place, berlusconi in Italy, Merkel in Germany, Sarkozy in France and so on. Nearly all the other countries are firmly right wing including scandinavia. only odd one is Spain but they still have the king there to make sure things don’t get too silly.
no, we all put our hope in the sanity of europe some seven years ago in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq and were severely disappointed. everyone went along, even Schroeder though he made a big show of not going along. Chirac was probably the only one to refuse to play all together. for that wingnuts in the congress changed the name of fried potatoes and toast. Sarkozy made sure he went to visit w and even vacationed with him, so we won’t be able to look to France to oppose NATO membership for Georgia either.
hang on folks, we thought it might get better but it seems they are just getting started.

Posted by: dan of steele | Aug 17 2008 16:27 utc | 13

When Kosova was given ‘independence’ – very relative, that, but officially it is so, many said it would give ideas to multiple small territories, separatist or set on independence; and would, by anticipation, provoke crack down by the controlling parties. Troubles in the ex-USSR was predicted by many commentators. I do think this is relevant. ‘Kosovo’ breached international law, changed it, destroyed it. This was of course more or less intended by the instigators (USuk/EU/UN etc.)
Naturally, Serbia being amputated of a ‘bit’ of territory, and Georgia potentially loosing a ‘bit’ of theirs is not at all similar; in the former case, the territory had, has, only one suitor left (EU – US, determined and acting according to long laid plans), in the latter one strong suitor (Russia) was bound to win out.
Uncle that picture was just obscene.

Posted by: Tangerine | Aug 17 2008 16:37 utc | 14

Seems M.A.D. has become a distant memory ? And is it going to take a couple of nuclear-tests by both USA & Russia so everyone can sober up again ?

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Aug 17 2008 16:52 utc | 15

Two side-by-side headlines in the conservative newsmax.com site struck me as an interesting juxtaposition:
Bush Warns Russia Against ‘Bullying’ Georgia
Iran: Regional Countries Should Help Protect Iraq
Now, if Russia can get away with intervening to protect oppressed minorities in Georgia, would that not mean that Iran might be justified in intervening – even indirectly – to protect oppressed minorities in Iraq?

Posted by: ralphieboy | Aug 17 2008 17:07 utc | 16

evil has a face & that face is of the u s empire
too lazy to find it and link but last night as i was watching a portion of the evangelical questionings i couldn’t help but notice the vast difference between obama and mcCains response to the question of evil. mcCain immediately started blathering over islam. disgusting. equating evil and islam! and they say this isn’t a crusade.

Posted by: annie | Aug 17 2008 17:27 utc | 17

Cross posted on “The Washington Note” a couple of days ago . . .
File under “give me a break”:
“Bush warns Russia against ‘bullying'”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/15/us.russia/index.html
. . . and why exactly do we even bother to attempt to bring any rationality to this looking glass world of politics and (US) media?
. . . shortly after linking to CNN they changed the headline.

Posted by: DonS | Aug 17 2008 17:38 utc | 18

annie
i watched parts of that while i was reading. & i found it creepy, really creepy. hollow men, all. & a crowd of creeps. they made of faith – a chattel – for all their brutal talk – there is about as much grace in men like that than there was in a mobute, a stroessner or a pinochet
the metaphysics they spoke of, my friends, was morosely moronic. their so-called spirituality is like a sledgehammer. they make a mockery of any individual sense of ‘other’ or ‘otherness’
on less intimate questions i found it like sludge – except for the revealing question on which supreme court justice they would not like to have seen nominated
i might not be long for this world but i wonder if the world is long for this world
& what kind of world is it today – in any case – except for latin america it appears vulgar & venal. & even though everything the empire has touched has turned to shit – their brute force alone – creates worlds of darkness & fear
deanander does well to float in this world on a boat

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 17 2008 17:47 utc | 19

paul craig roberts – press tv- “the u s govt is quite clearly, insane”

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 17 2008 17:55 utc | 20

Hypocrisy is an adjunct to the complete media domination of the West. “Journalist” factotums of the Borg switch on a dime and lie because they can.
What’s amusing is to see the leg humpers huff and puff that they are something other than neocon propaganda apparatchiks. In totalitarian states/times, there was no need. In the West, particularly in the AngloAmerican sphere, media lickspittles feel find it necessary to pretend they are anything but servants, hence the hypocrisy.

Posted by: Thrasyboulos | Aug 17 2008 17:57 utc | 21

excellent interview r’giap. i just ran into this )& quote over @ global security

Georgian authorities devised a secret plan to restore control over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia in 2006, a former Georgian defense minister said Wednesday.
“The deadline was the spring of 2006. Only three or four persons were privy to it: the president, myself, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, and Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili,” Irakly Okruashvili told Georgian Imedi TV channel.
…..”We launched a campaign to ensure the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Georgia, but the campaign went nowhere. The executive failed to do what parliament entrusted it with doing,” he said.

Posted by: annie | Aug 17 2008 18:40 utc | 22

)& ??? that’s from ’07

Posted by: annie | Aug 17 2008 18:41 utc | 23

Rogue elements in very small weak nation rashly goad neighbouring military power which happens to possess nuclear weapons. Military power responds – invades with tanks, artillery, bombs infrastructure, drives out inhabitants near border. Streams of terrified refugees flee down roads to capital. Hundreds, thousands die. Schools, hospitals, bridges, roads, homes destroyed.Appeals to US UN and world community for help by bullied little nation. US response?
Depends whether little nation is called Lebanon or Georgia and nulear power is called Israel or Russia. Also cf Somalia/Ethiopia.

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 17 2008 18:47 utc | 24

see 24

Posted by: Drongo | Aug 17 2008 18:50 utc | 25

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