More Bush Failure
The situation in Georgia is deteriorating rapidly. For those of you who have had your heads shoved up your asses, heres a recap and some history from Redbstrd. Georgia has been a tinderbox for years and the last thing one needs during a tinderbox situation is the simplistic, one note diplomacy of George Bush and company. He fucked the pooch on this one, plain and simple.
Historically, this is a very fucked up situation.Think Israel and Palestine. Georgia has been opposed to their aggressive Russian neighbors for centuries. And two regions inside Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, are opposed to aggressive Georgia rule. In the end, the regions dont want to be a part of Georgia, so they looked to Russia for help. Georgia invaded the capital of South Ossetia this week and Russia responded by invading, too. The conflict has now spread to Abkhazia and beyond. Thats the incredibly simplistic summary of a conflict that has been going on since the late 1700s. You want more, read this. Oh, and dont forget about the oil. Seems every conflict in the world includes oil as part of the equation.
We should be concerned about what our part in this mess is and how to make sure we dont do more damage.
The Bush administration encouraged Georgia president Mikheil Saakashvili to apply for NATO membership. This really couldnt have been a more ignorant stance to take. During a time of increasing nationalism in Russia, that reminds some of past fascist rulers, encouraging a Russian border country, with a history of conflicts, to join NATO is completely moronic. Oh, and Russia said they would not allow it.
Both Putin and his successor as president, Dmitri Medvedev, have reserved their starkest rhetoric for this subject. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has threatened that Georgia's ambition to join NATO "will lead to renewed bloodshed," adding, as if that weren't enough, "we will do anything not to allow Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO."
No, shit. Anyone who had bothered to read any history of the region would have known that, but we are talking about a president who didnt know the difference between Shiites and Sunnis when he invaded Iraq. Nuance and intelligence are the enemies of George Bush.
Bush has been giving weapons and training to Georgia for several years, while he pushed for the countrys entry into NATO. Europe said, No thanks, because they are not fucking morons. They knew if Georgia was allowed into NATO, it would mean war with Russia, which is exactly where we would be now if our retarded president had his way. We would be at war with Russia, obligated by NATO treaties to send troops to defend Georgia. Sound good? Thats how stupid Bush and his people are.
Now, throw in the fact that the U.S. has invaded two countries in the past seven years, and we actually dont have the ability to take a stance against an aggressive Russia. Bush invaded Iraq by using false intelligence, lying to the UN and the American people. Its kind of hard for a guy who killed someone, standing with blood all over his hands, to call someone else a murderer, without everyone looking at him funny. Also, any military or other support we could have given Georgia is being used in two wars. And Russia knows that.
But, its not like some in the Bush administration arent calling for the U.S. to jump into this fight. Colossal dipshit and the greatest threat to America since the Japanese, Vice President Dick Cheney, would like us to get in this fucker.
Cheney spoke Sunday afternoon with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. "The vice president expressed the United States' solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Cheney's press secretary, Lee Ann McBride, said.
Cheney told Saakashvili "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community.
Oh, good. Call up the president of Georgia and act like you are president of the United States, dick. What a completely insane promise to make. What the fuck does "not go unanswered" mean? Judging by past Bush administration responses, that ain't good. But then, these are the same neo-con idiots who have wreaked havoc on the world, so it cant be a big surprise.
At an emergency session of the United Nations' Security Council, the U.S. alleged Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili "must go."
"This is completely unacceptable and crosses a line," said the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, who made the allegation.
Okay. Line crossed. What do you propose, genius? The people of Georgia are expecting our support because of this EXACT TYPE OF LANGUAGE over the years.
One soldier, his face a mask of exhaustion, cradled a Kalashnikov.
We killed as many of them as we could, he said. But where are our friends?
Not coming. Not actually your friends.
When they met Western journalists, they all said the same thing: Where is the United States? When is NATO coming?
It's not and we're in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tell your government, said a man named Truber, fresh from the side of the Tbilisi hospital bed where his son was being treated for combat injuries. If you had said something stronger, we would not be in this.
He had not slept for three days, and he was angry at himself, at Georgia, but mainly at the United States. If you want to help, you have to help the end, he said.
Sorry about that. How about a mint?
Write exactly what I say, he said. Over the past few years, I lived in a democratic society. I was happy. And now America and the European Union are spitting on us.
It's called being on the other end of Bush foreign policy. Kind of a bummer, huh?
The biggest problem here is you, your country, he said. You said that the Soviets were an evil empire, but its you that are the empire.
Not you personally, of course, he added. But your government.
Smell that? Its smells familiar, kind of like the Shiites rising up against Saddam Hussein under the first President George Bush, after he encouraged them to fight, after he insinuated they would be aided in their battle, after he stupidly made public statements he should not have made. They were slaughtered, just as the Georgians are being slaughtered today.
It was he who in February 1991, as American forces were driving Saddam's troops out of Kuwait, called for the people of Iraq to rise up and overthrow the dictator. That message was repeatedly broadcast across Iraq. Eager to end decades of repression, the Shiites arose.
But then George H. W. Bush blew the whistle. Things had got out of hand. What Bush had wanted was not a messy popular uprising but a neat military coup -- another strongman more amenable to Western interests.
But the Bush administration didn't just turn its back; it actually aided Saddam to suppress the Intifada.
Bush I basically told the Shiites we had their back and they were slaughtered, while our soldiers were forced to watch, unable to engage. Now Bush II has done the same with Georgia and the result is not surprising.
John McCain, of course, wants to make the situation worse. Old School believes the situation escalated because NATO didnt vote Georgia into the organization. Uh, yeah. That would be true, I guess, in a world where Russia didnt say the exact opposite.
"I urge Nato allies to revisit the decision," McCain said. Echoing his past support for removing Russia from the G8, he urged the US to convene an emergency meeting of G7 foreign ministers.
Hey, World War III! How you been? John McCain actually wants us to do the exact opposite of what should be done. Just to summarize, he wants NATO to vote for a war with Russia. Because, you know, thats what happens when you bring a country into NATO who is at war with Russia. Johnny wants to play bluff with Russia and hope they would back down. You know, the Russia that is going through a bout of insane nationalism and knows the U.S. is incredibly weak militarily. Hey, draft age guys, you up for it, or what?
Oh, and please dont pay attention to the fact that McCain's top foreign policy advisor was a lobbyist for...Georgia.
John McCain's top foreign-policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, is a leading expert on U.S.-allied Georgia -- and was a paid lobbyist for the former Soviet republic until March.
Its interesting. A McCain win could mean World War III, but any destabilization in the world only helps McCain because of his military background. Its weird, but somebody predicted a more unstable world as part of his future election breakdown. And hey, he also predicted the surge would be a success! Who would have thought with all that paying off of the enemy and whatnot
.
FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comic. You can read more of his blathering on his blog, Stop All Monsters.
Condi Rice Celebrates Irony
Condoleezza Rice was having an irony blow out yesterday as she traveled the world and babbled from her mouth. Our Secretary of State decided to criticize Vladimir Putins power grab and to tell Israel not to mess up the peace process. This coming from a woman whose boss seems to think diplomacy is evil and his presidential power is above all other branches of government. Bush is the ultimate unitary president, which means Condi should shut her pie hole when it comes to criticizing other countries democracies.
How the fuck she could make these statements about Putin with a straight face is amazing.
In any country, if you don't have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development.
I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary.
Uh, hey lady, does that sound familiar to you at all? Seems you just described a fella named George W. Bush. He is actually your boss. Ever hear of the Department of Justice scandal? Read about any of his judicial appointments lately? Recall the 2000 Supreme Court decision that put him in office?
Earlier, Rice said she hoped the efforts of rights activists would promote universal values of "the rights of individuals to liberty and freedom, the right to worship as you please, and the right to assembly, the right to not have to deal with the arbitrary power of the state."
You should read this thing called the Patriot Act. It sort of undermines liberty and freedom here in the US. The "Right to assembly?" I guess that is why your boss has been using "protest zones" to keep anyone who disagrees with him far, far away. And I would consider warrantless wiretapping an arbitrary power of state, by the way. Same goes for kidnapping people off of streets around the world and detaining them without charges for as long as we like.
Does Putin deserve to be criticized? Yeah. Should it come from anyone working in the Bush administration? Fuck no. The White House lost that right long ago.
Thankfully, Condi wasnt done making an ass out of herself yet. Rice arrived in Israel today, in a pathetic attempt to get the peace process going. Kind of odd for a woman who helped start a pre-emptive war based on false information to think she can talk peace. But healthy shame has never been a part of the Bush White House.
Responding to a question about Israeli confiscation of Arab land last week, Ms. Rice told reporters on the plane to Tel Aviv the timing of the move had been too sensitive.
"The point that I will be making is that we have to be very careful as we are trying to move toward the establishment of a Palestinian state about actions and statements that erode confidence," Ms Rice said.
Oh, yeah. Youre the expert on avoiding actions that might lead to conflict. When I think of Condi Rice, I think of white doves, peace and happiness. She certainly isnt a liar. She definitely didnt have a hand in selling false information to the American public. And she has always been about the truth and peace.
Putin Takes A Dive Into Lake Hitler
Heres a delightful image. What if the United States had 120,000 male teenage Ann Coulters running around? Sounds like the ultimate nightmare, doesnt it? That is what seems to be happening in Russia. They are known as Nashi and they speak the same extremist language as Coulter. They fanatically support Putin, call the political opposition traitors and fascists and demonize foreign powers. The only difference between Coulter and the Nashi, is that the Nashi have no problem with using physical force to make their point.
The Nashi arent the only group. There are also the Young Guard and Walking Together. The one thing these groups have in common is their fanatical devotion to Putin, much like the Sturmabteilungs fanatical devotion to Hitler.
They are highly disciplined and sponsored by the Kremlin. They must receive basic military training before they can become members. The Nashi also have a volunteer police force, who patrol and if necessary beat hooligans." These young militants form what is essentially a private army, devoted to one man: Putin.
Meanwhile, Putin is stoking the fires of anti-Americanism. At a recent military parade, Putin made comments about new threats to the world as during the time of the Third Reich. Pretty much the same kind of talk Adolph was spewing out during his rise to power. And the crowd at the Independence Day parade soaked it up. Mostly because the only people allowed into Red Square that day were members of the youth groups. The kids are catching on to Putins message.
"It is time to put an end to America being the strongest and most influential empire. We won't let America make Russia another one of its colonies."
Super and totally not creepy.
The Nashi claim they are fighting against fascism. (Exactly the same claim made in the early days of the Nazi party and by Benito Mussolinis Blackshirts.) Unfortunately, fascists seem to only be defined as people who criticize Putin.
Meanwhile, the kids are doing some really quality work in Russia.
With parliamentary and presidential elections coming up, Nashi and its sibling movements have an obvious targetanyone who presumes to challenge Putin and his ruling clique for power. Who might they be? Nashi recently issued a leaflet identifying them. This "Gallery of Traitors," appearing in print and online, featured twisted portraits of such opposition leaders as former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and radical writer Eduard Limonov. They were declared enemies of the people, scheming to subvert their nation and turn it over to foreign spies and conspirators. Among them, too, are exiled Yeltsin-era oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former billionaire brought down after he began funding opposition to Putin in 2004.
And the Young Guards are doing their thing. They have staged training sessions in how to handle an Orange Revolution. At the end of one training session, the Young Guards grabbed baseball bats and smashed up a mock Orange tent camp. That might discourage any future protestors a bit.
The Nashi are also using technology in ways the Nazis could have only dreamed of. They pass out brochures and SIM cards in Moscow. The SIM cards allow users to text the Kremlin, where Nashi volunteers are waiting to receive the word of whatever horrible event is occurring on the streets and respond. If any Orange revolution activity is seen, the Nashi will send out texts to their foot soldiers to respond. (Might be a really great use for the new iphones, by the way)
The Nashi are also taking their message to outlying village schools, to teach the young minds about the truth.
"Putin is a lonely wolf surrounded by rats," says Panchenko to the schoolchildren. "Russia has become too corruptit is time to change things, time for stronger leaders, like us."
You cant really argue with that description of Putin. Poor, little, lonely wolf. Its really quite scary if you think about all the rats. The Kremlin has given $220 million to help fund these little fascists. And they get some sweet perks.
Members enjoy free admission to various schools of management, where they study government, business administration or public relations. They go on to allocated internships in top state enterprises such as Gazprom, Rosneft, state-owned television stations and even the Kremlin.
The Nashi are now paying off in spades. In May, Estonia removed a statue of a WWII Soviet soldier in Tallin. The small country suddenly found itself overwhelmed by a cyber attack. Servers went down and NATO Internet security experts were brought in to combat the assault. Russian sponsored protests in Estonia left 1 dead and 99 injured. In Moscow, Estonias ambassador was attacked by the Nashi and were only stopped when the ambassadors bodyguards sprayed them with mace. The ambassador and his staff were forced to flee the country. Nashi barriers shut down the highway from Moscow to Estonia. They created a large sign that read, You are driving toward fascist Estonia. This all happened because Estonia took down a statue. What if the small country had actually really done something negative toward Moscow. What would the reaction been then?
The world is, understandably, a little freaked out.
"Everyone is frankly scared of the way which Russia is going, but no one knows what to do about it," says one European diplomat in Moscow, not authorized to speak on the record.
Well, what can you do? This shit is off and running. Its 1933 Germany all over again.
And you thought Bush was bad news
.
Johnny Depp to Develop Alexander Litvinenko Story
Johnny Depp's production company, Infinitum Nihil, will develop a project based on the radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB agent who blamed Vladimir Putin for his death. The rights to Sasha's Story: The Life and Death of a Russian Spya book about Litvinenko that is being written by New York Times London bureau chief Alan Cowellhave been picked up by Warner Brothers on behalf of Depp's company. No word yet on whether Depp plans to star as Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23, 2006.
Litvinenko was a colonel in the Federal Security Service, FSB, the domestic successor to the KGB, who became highly critical of some of his superiors. He is well known for accusing FSB agents of involvement in apartment building bombings in 1999 that killed more than 300 people. Russian officials blamed the attacks on separatists from Chechnya and launched a new military offensive in the republic.
Bushs Stupidity May Cause Head to Implode
Our great leader is currently in Russia attending the G-8 conference. He took some time out of pretending to know what was going on in the meetings to hold a joint news conference with Putin. It did not go well. Heres what born-again Christian Bush had to say:
"I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same.
Nice. Deluded, uninformed and insulting all in one sentence. Here are some examples of the freedom of religion that has occurred in Iraq in the last week:
Shiite militiamen set up checkpoints, inspected ID cards and killed 42 people they identified as being Sunnis. They also broke into homes and killed their inhabitants. Corpses were found in the street with drill holes and pierced by nails and bolts. In turn, the checkpoint killings spurred two more huge Sunni car bomb attacks in the Sadr-dominated neighborhood of Talbiyeh, killing 25 and wounding 41.
In a predominantly Sunni area of Dawra, a district in southern Baghdad, gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Shiite mourners from the holy city of Najaf, where they had buried a relative, government officials and family members said. The gunmen pulled 10 people from the bus and executed them, the Interior Ministry official said.
Two mortar grenades hit a Shiite mosque in Dawra, killing 9 and wounding 11 civilians, the Interior Ministry official said.
In other violence, a family of five - a father, mother, grown daughter and two teenage sons - were found beheaded in a predominantly Sunni sector of Dawra, according to an official at Yarmouk Hospital, the main medical facility in western Baghdad.
The killings this week are similar to the "Black Saturday" massacre in December 1975 that started the Lebanese civil war. On that day, Christian Phalangist militiamen stopped 40 Muslims at a checkpoint in Beirut and cut their throats. In retaliation, Muslim militiamen set up their own checkpoint and slaughtered Christians. Things in Lebanon did not go so well after that.
So what was Putin's response to religious fanatic George Bush's statement? He handled it like a man talking down to a child.
"We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy that they have in Iraq, quite honestly."
Those in the audience who understand Russian then burst into laughter.
Putin Talks Smack
On the eve of this weekends G-8 summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin hit back at formidable monster, Dick Cheney. In May while on a trip in Lithuania, Cheney gave a speech criticizing Putin for moving away from democracy and cracking down on religious and political rights. Cheney, who drinks eight glasses of oil a day, also accused Russian of using their vast energy reserves as tools of intimidation or blackmail. Putin was not amused.
Today in an interview with hardball questioner Matt Lauer, Putin took a personal jab at Cheney.
I think the statements of your vice president of this sort are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot. Its pretty much the same.
Ouch. Last year, when Cheney was not drunk, he shot a friend in the face while on a hunting trip in Texas. Did I mention that Cheney was not drunk? Not at all. He was just hunting with a friend and shot him in the face. His friend later made a public apology for getting shot in the face. Cheney could not be reached for comment about Putins remark because he was somewhere in the Pacific fighting Mothra.
Other g-8 members are expected to put pressure on Putin over the issue of democracy in his country. Besides Russia, the other G-8 countries are: The United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Putin attempted to reframe the discussion over democracy in his country by claiming the Wests criticism of Russia is good, old-fashioned Cold War thinking, which is so 20th century.
I am concerned that this approach is based on the philosophy of the 20th century, when our partners always intended to harm Russia, seeing it as a political opponent, or even as an enemy. It is a remnant of Cold War thinking
Putin said Russian was developing democracy at its own pace, like a turtle or a sloth. Since his victory in the 2000 election, Putin has been getting rid of the democratic gains made in the 1990s. He has shut down media outlets, attacked and jailed independent businessmen tamed the judiciary and shackled opposition parties and politicians.
President Bush left today for the summit in St. Petersburg. He will stop first for a visit in Germany, where he is greatly loved.