Georgia? The Russian Bear Had It!
Berhane Alazar
August 11, 2008
For almost two decades, we have been hearing that the Russians were as good as dead after the demise of the Soviet Union, in which they were the major player. As we all know the now disbanded Soviet Union was the other Super Power that helped keep the balance of world power in check. For reasons that many historians and political pundits could not agree, the once mighty Soviet Empire seems to have disappeared into oblivion frankly to the dismay of many third world interests. As such, the western media were quick to administer the "last rights" to the once towering Soviet might and gleefully declared the supremacy of Capitalism over Socialism as it were. Thus the United States remained the de facto and thus, the sole Super Power in the world we all live in.
If this was a perfect world, a world that is governed fairly and in which one abides by the rule of law, the fact that we were stuck with a single Super Power may not have been that bad. After all, any Super Power could have been a sort of arbitrator where many nations would have sought its fair mediation without engaging themselves with the colossal but usually futile exercise to have the United Nations address the issue. The catch word is "Fair", which, unfortunately, as we all know is not part of the US Foreign policy makers´ vocabulary. To add an insult to injury, the US power system had lately fallen into the hands of, arguably, the worst president ever to occupy the White House. In Mr. George W. Bush´s presidency, we have a government that is run by, what a prominent radio talk show host, Dr. Michael Savitch, calls "Empty skirts and empty suits"! Some of the State Department personnel are not "experienced" diplomats as one of the least qualified personnel herself, Dr. Jendayi Frazer, explained in a recent speech she gave in Seattle. That wouldn´t have been as terribly damaging had they not done it based on some "Double standard" etiquette or in some cases no consistent code of ethics at all!
Many US administrations at various times in general, and more so since 1991 (the fall of Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev´s Perestroika) have been arrogantly following what can be appropriately called as "Might is right" doctrine. Because of that dangerous policy, the US has been rampant in bombing nations, destabilizing regimes and simply killing and maiming innocent civilians routinely and nonchalantly dismissed as "Collateral damage".
They have emboldened themselves to the point of treating the Russian Federation, in spite of its huge nuclear arsenal, as just another state with no significant fire power to be concerned about. In their inherent zeal to dominate the world, they figured they´ve got the entire world by the tail realizing full well that no Russian Federation would ever challenge the US led NATO might! For all practical purposes, they set out to dominate the world with or without the Russian acquiescence! The US ambitiously, but, in my opinion, foolishly, went about with their plan to install missile defense systems in Czech Republic and Poland literary on the Russian´s door steps! Surprisingly, for reasons that only the Russian leaders know, they attempted to negotiate the installation of these deadly equipments with the Americans. But, the Americans, smelling, the false blood as it were, would have nothing to do with any of that claiming that the missiles were not meant to threaten the Russian Federation, but that they were there to intimidate Iran, another country that has not received the blessing of the self appointed Judge, Jury and the Executor, the one and only, the mighty US of A! Talk about arrogance of the first order!
Then there was the issue of Kosovo´s "Desire" for independence from what was left of the former Yugoslavia´s Serbia. Here again, Uncle Sam was on the forefront pushing for the independence of that territory, the majority of whose inhabitants were of Albanian origin, to the chagrin of the Serbs and their Russian supporters who believed Kosovo should remain part of Serbia or what was left of it. The Russians went even further by warning the US that the recognition of Kosovo as an independent country would create a bad precedent considering that there are some territories here and there that wanted to go the Kosovo way. But, since the Americans and their western allies really thought of the Russians as nothing more than a toothless tiger, they went ahead with encouraging the leaders of Kosovo to declare independence with guaranteed West recognition to follow thereafter. And that is exactly what happened in spite of the possibility of having to deal with some pretty upset and ferocious Russia.
So far so good for there was not any significant or threatening action taken by the Russians. However, the US kept on pushing the Russians to the limit! This time the mechanism was to entice the inexperienced but, attention seeking, Mikheil Saakashvili to probe the Russian reaction by bombarding in broad day light the "Georgian" enclave of South Ossetia, whose majority residents were Russian citizens with strong "Secessionist" tendency and perhaps desiring to be united with the Russian Federation. As one can clearly see, this was too much for President Dmitry Medvedev to take it lightly; and the Russian counter offensive earnestly got set in motion and the rest is history.
But, the point of this piece was to underline how the United States has really turned into a selective actor with no coherent policy even when it may involve some powerful forces in a neighborhood. It can not be overstated the issue here is the DOUBLE STANDARD the US and its western allies routinely apply.
I do not have any problem with Kosovo gaining its independence if that is what the majority of its citizens wanted; or perhaps Georgia defending its territorial integrity if that was the case. But, I have some strong reservation when the US "Pushes" for such independence when it is on the record for being against the independence of Eritrea for a long time! I have a problem when the US feels it has some God given right to say who can have what – like having nuclear energy for the generation of electricity. I have a problem when the US sends its aircraft to bomb civilian targets in hard to justify sorties to kill some suspected terrorists with the inevitable death and mayhem that results with such callous and really cowardly act against people who may still be living in the stone age let alone to have any capability of defending themselves from high altitude aircraft. Somali nomads and their herds of camel come in mind that frequently ended up becoming victims of US air raids. The sad thing about all these kinds of thoughtless exercises is that the US air raids routinely end up killing and maiming innocent civilians with nothing to show for the terrorists that the missions were supposedly after!
So, if nothing else, it is imperative that there be a power that counter balances the one sided might of USA which sadly has been abused by the US policy makers against, all of us, the not so mighty which are the majority of the world populations.
If this was a perfect world, a world that is governed fairly and in which one abides by the rule of law, the fact that we were stuck with a single Super Power may not have been that bad. After all, any Super Power could have been a sort of arbitrator where many nations would have sought its fair mediation without engaging themselves with the colossal but usually futile exercise to have the United Nations address the issue. The catch word is "Fair", which, unfortunately, as we all know is not part of the US Foreign policy makers´ vocabulary. To add an insult to injury, the US power system had lately fallen into the hands of, arguably, the worst president ever to occupy the White House. In Mr. George W. Bush´s presidency, we have a government that is run by, what a prominent radio talk show host, Dr. Michael Savitch, calls "Empty skirts and empty suits"! Some of the State Department personnel are not "experienced" diplomats as one of the least qualified personnel herself, Dr. Jendayi Frazer, explained in a recent speech she gave in Seattle. That wouldn´t have been as terribly damaging had they not done it based on some "Double standard" etiquette or in some cases no consistent code of ethics at all!
Many US administrations at various times in general, and more so since 1991 (the fall of Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev´s Perestroika) have been arrogantly following what can be appropriately called as "Might is right" doctrine. Because of that dangerous policy, the US has been rampant in bombing nations, destabilizing regimes and simply killing and maiming innocent civilians routinely and nonchalantly dismissed as "Collateral damage".
They have emboldened themselves to the point of treating the Russian Federation, in spite of its huge nuclear arsenal, as just another state with no significant fire power to be concerned about. In their inherent zeal to dominate the world, they figured they´ve got the entire world by the tail realizing full well that no Russian Federation would ever challenge the US led NATO might! For all practical purposes, they set out to dominate the world with or without the Russian acquiescence! The US ambitiously, but, in my opinion, foolishly, went about with their plan to install missile defense systems in Czech Republic and Poland literary on the Russian´s door steps! Surprisingly, for reasons that only the Russian leaders know, they attempted to negotiate the installation of these deadly equipments with the Americans. But, the Americans, smelling, the false blood as it were, would have nothing to do with any of that claiming that the missiles were not meant to threaten the Russian Federation, but that they were there to intimidate Iran, another country that has not received the blessing of the self appointed Judge, Jury and the Executor, the one and only, the mighty US of A! Talk about arrogance of the first order!
Then there was the issue of Kosovo´s "Desire" for independence from what was left of the former Yugoslavia´s Serbia. Here again, Uncle Sam was on the forefront pushing for the independence of that territory, the majority of whose inhabitants were of Albanian origin, to the chagrin of the Serbs and their Russian supporters who believed Kosovo should remain part of Serbia or what was left of it. The Russians went even further by warning the US that the recognition of Kosovo as an independent country would create a bad precedent considering that there are some territories here and there that wanted to go the Kosovo way. But, since the Americans and their western allies really thought of the Russians as nothing more than a toothless tiger, they went ahead with encouraging the leaders of Kosovo to declare independence with guaranteed West recognition to follow thereafter. And that is exactly what happened in spite of the possibility of having to deal with some pretty upset and ferocious Russia.
So far so good for there was not any significant or threatening action taken by the Russians. However, the US kept on pushing the Russians to the limit! This time the mechanism was to entice the inexperienced but, attention seeking, Mikheil Saakashvili to probe the Russian reaction by bombarding in broad day light the "Georgian" enclave of South Ossetia, whose majority residents were Russian citizens with strong "Secessionist" tendency and perhaps desiring to be united with the Russian Federation. As one can clearly see, this was too much for President Dmitry Medvedev to take it lightly; and the Russian counter offensive earnestly got set in motion and the rest is history.
But, the point of this piece was to underline how the United States has really turned into a selective actor with no coherent policy even when it may involve some powerful forces in a neighborhood. It can not be overstated the issue here is the DOUBLE STANDARD the US and its western allies routinely apply.
I do not have any problem with Kosovo gaining its independence if that is what the majority of its citizens wanted; or perhaps Georgia defending its territorial integrity if that was the case. But, I have some strong reservation when the US "Pushes" for such independence when it is on the record for being against the independence of Eritrea for a long time! I have a problem when the US feels it has some God given right to say who can have what – like having nuclear energy for the generation of electricity. I have a problem when the US sends its aircraft to bomb civilian targets in hard to justify sorties to kill some suspected terrorists with the inevitable death and mayhem that results with such callous and really cowardly act against people who may still be living in the stone age let alone to have any capability of defending themselves from high altitude aircraft. Somali nomads and their herds of camel come in mind that frequently ended up becoming victims of US air raids. The sad thing about all these kinds of thoughtless exercises is that the US air raids routinely end up killing and maiming innocent civilians with nothing to show for the terrorists that the missions were supposedly after!
So, if nothing else, it is imperative that there be a power that counter balances the one sided might of USA which sadly has been abused by the US policy makers against, all of us, the not so mighty which are the majority of the world populations.
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