TBR News.org – August 15, 2008
“Perceiving an opportunity to make mischief with Russia, the American government, through the State Department, the CIA, the National Endowment for Democracy and other groups that are partially, or wholly, supported by the American government, fomented the so-called “Rose Revolution” in the former Soviet state of Georgia with cash and weaponry. Mikhail Saskashvili, a highly unstable Georgian politician, was lobbied into office as the president of Georgia . He is essentially very erratic, given to wide emotional swings that can cause him to act in an often dangerous manner.
Once their picked man was in office, the United States, in conjunction with Israel, (many top Georgian political leaders are Jewish) moved to develop as Georgia as a possible base of military operations against Russia, or most especially, Iran;, (a bete noire of Israel), to secure the vital oil pipelines across that country and to further their policy of containment against Vladimir Putin’s growing strength in Russia.
A Georgia , being armed and trained by both the United States and Israel , was then put forward as an applicant for membership in NATO. As expected both in Washington and Tel Aviv, this enraged the Russians. The Bush people and their allies have been gleefully gathering into the American-controlled NATO fold as many of former Russian areas as they can, to further annoy Russia .
A fake “missile shield” program was instituted in some of these countries whose dual purpose was to allow American attack,
not defense, missiles to be stationed on territory very close to Russia but also to further warn Russia against growing too strong militarily or attempting to interdict their own oil and natural gas into countries, under American control, that Russia might have disputes with.
Eventually, with Putin’s upgrading of the Russian military machine, it became obvious to Washington that some kind of a relatively safe military confrontation would be necessary. It was always the public posture of Saskashvili that he intended to take physical possession of former Georgian territories, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, by force. These provinces had broken away from Georgia when it became independent of Russia in the 1990s and Saskashvili was determined not only to reincorporate them into Georgia again (entirely against the will of their inhabitants) but to punish them for their independence..
At the time of the Russia/Georgia conflict, there were over 2000
US military personnel and special forces in Georgia, training and equipping Georgian units with American weaponry,
over 1000 Israeli troops, mainly intelligence units directed at Iran, over 150 CIA operatives, and many official intelligence surveillance units designed to spy on Russian and Iranian military and civilian radio, satellite and other internal communications. Given the usual poor security chronically evident in such American units, the Russians were early-on well aware of these hostile, but muted, anti-Russian activities.
The savage Georgian artillery and armored vehicle assault on South Ossetia was not unexpected by the Russian military and armored and armored infantry units had been quietly moved into North Ossetia . American attempts to search for a possible Russian military build-up in the area closest to South Ossetia were thwarted by the maintaining of strict radio silence imposed on all Russian military units and unmanned ‘Georgian’ reconnaissance drones, supplied by Israel , trying to conduct surveillance were promptly shot down, over Russian territory, by Russian military aircraft.
In essence, the Russians sat and waited for the attack and when the terrified residents of South Ossetia fled to Russian protection when the unannounced cannonading of civilian areas by the Georgian Army (during which Russian military peacekeepers were killed) was in progress, they entered South Ossetia in totally unexpected force, engaged the Georgians and drove them out of the country. The Georgians assumed that the Russians would halt at the border with Georgia but were horrified when Russian armored units crossed the border in hot pursuit. Initially shouting defiance, a chastened Saskashvili fled into hiding and then, foolishly, declared war on Russia (a fact seldom reported in the American media)
In essence, Russia occupied both South Ossetia and Abkhazia,, at the frantic requests of their occupants and then struck deep into Georgia , driving the Georgian military in headlong flight. Also fleeing were American and Israeli military, diplomatic and intelligence personnel, causing Saskashvili to shout that he was being abandoned.
The Americans, and the Israelis, at the higher levels in the field and in Washington, were well aware of the pending Georgian attacks and did nothing to either support or hinder them, but a possible military confrontation by American and Israeli military units with the Russians was completely impossible, hence the American and Israeli frantic withdrawals.
Once this exiting had been accomplished, but not before, both American and Israel shook their fists at Putin and made loud warning speeches to their constituents but in essence, Putin had trumped Bush’s ace and he and the war party in America had lost disastrous face. The hitherto monolithic image of the United States as a dominant world military force has been so shattered that a realignment of international thinking is quite certain. And though face-savings pacts and agreements have been signed, in the end, the Russians will retain a large number of well-armed and armored peacekeeping forces in the separatist region of South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, and the forces would have a broader mandate in South Ossetia . Further, there is no prohibition against these area petitioning to become a part of Russia . In point of fact, there is every indication that such requests will be made and certainly will be accepted. Then, any attack by Georgia would be a direct attack on Russia and in that event, the consequences would be monumental in nature.
And if the CIA doesn’t give Saskashvili a fatal heart attack, as they have done before in such circumstances, he will recover his wind and again try to attack Russia . But America cannot just write a shattered and militarily helpless Georgia off as an ally, because of the oil situation. An America , starved for oil and now in fierce competition for the world’s remaining supplies, has almost no choice but to try to secure the vital Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that is routed across Georgian territory.. This pipeline was constructed, at enormous cost, to bypass Russia and deliver oil to western countries. Now, With Russia armed and militant, the security of this pipeline is in serious question and it is this situation, rather than sticking American tongues out at Putin, that will determine the future. And on a lesser note, Israel has been ousted from its premier anti-Iranian base and is making strong representations to Bush to support their return to Georgia again. ”
www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2867.htm
For more background on the recent Georgian/Russian flare-up see the Harry Brunser Report.
See our Inside the White House archive:
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/category.asp?id=41
A Complete Copy of the Voice of the White House from TBR News April 18, 2004- December 29, 2005
Last updated 19/08/2008
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