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WAR IN THE CAUCASUS
Ghulam Asghar Khan
Frontier Post
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Pakistan
Eruption of war in the Caucasus underscores the tragic consequences of
the dismemberment of the USSR in early 1990s. It exposed the masses
of the former Soviet Union, Russia and other Soviet republics to
the dangers and predations of the US-led major imperialist powers to
exploit the resources that these republics possessed. Not withstanding
the reactionary designs of Moscow, no objective observer can
contest the fact that Washington's provocative policy toward Russia,
aimed at supplanting Russia in its long-time spheres of influence,
was the primary factor behind this outbreak of war between Georgia
and Russia. A month back, the US trouble-shooter Condoleezza Rice
visited Georgia and held talks with Saakashvili and held a press
conference at which she denounced Moscow and backed Saakashvili's
efforts to reassert Georgian control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
reiterating US support for Georgia's incorporation into NATO. It is
inconceivable that Saakashvili did not review his plans in detail
with Rice for a military assault on South Ossetia. Georgia, which is
entirely dependent on US military, financial and diplomatic support,
could not have indulged in this adventurism without Washington's
tacit consent, especially when the Georgian garrison is dominated
from top to bottom by US military advisers. Washington has been
pouring military hardware into Georgian capital Tbilisi since the
US-led air strikes against Serbia in 1999. The pace and scale of
military aid had accelerated since Washington engineered the so-called
"Rose Revolution" that had brought Harvard-educated Saakashvili to
power in early 2004. American experts trained the Georgian defence
force in the fundamentals of war strategy. At the same time, Georgia
began re-equipping its forces with Israeli and American firearms,
reconnaissance drones, communication and battlefield management
equipment, new vehicle convoys and stockpiles of ammunition. Washington
was surprised by the timing and blitzkrieg of Russian military's move
into South Ossetia and is still trying to sort out as to what happened,
said a US defence official on Monday. If there were any people in the
State Department who had ever studied history of Caucuses region,
particularly with regard to the resolve of the Russian government
when it feels under threat, the Georgian government would never have
been given a green signal by the US and NATO to try this non-planned,
fingers-crossed and insane incursion in South Ossetia. Of course, it
appears that the people who actually have the kind of background and
knowledge to give the military thoughtful, reasoned and timely counsel
are simply not the people who are hired to do so. For Washington it's
generally a matter of cronyism and not competence. That is why the US
military was surprised that there was no one to tell them what Moscow's
response would be. It was only when the Russian forces responded to
the Georgian attack with a rapid massive counteroffensive; crushing
the much smaller Georgian garrison that Washington became alarmed. In
a provocative statement issued from the White House Rose Garden on
Monday, President Bush escalated the confrontation between the US and
Russia over the current fighting in Georgia. Bush denounced what he
called Russia's "dramatic and brutal military escalation and demanded
of Moscow to immediately declare cease-fire and withdraw its forces
from Georgia. He accused Moscow of planning to bomb Tbilisi airport and
charged that Moscow was out to overthrow the pro-American government
of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, reiterating inviolability
of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia. Bush's remarks
followed a Sunday statement by Vice-President Cheney, who said
"Russian aggression could not go unanswered." Cheney's intervention
indicated the existence of a faction within Bush administration that
was pushing for a more aggressive US response to Russian intervention
in Georgia. The statement was a staggering example of hypocrisy. The
US government issued no protest when Georgian forces attacked Ossetia
last Thursday night, indiscriminately targeting apartment blocs in the
capital with tank cannon and mortars killing about 2,000 civilians;
a bloodletting that accounts for the vast bulk of civilian deaths to
date. Since the US was clearly at the back of Georgian assault on
Ossetia, it is difficult to believe that Washington believed that
Moscow would remain a silent spectator in response to such a grave
provocation. Why then, they supported a move that would bring Russia
in direct conflict with one of Washington' principal allies in the
Caucasus; a region that houses critical oil and gas pipeline and
constitutes a bridgehead between resource-rich Caspian Basin and
Western Europe? Russian officials believe that it was Washington
that orchestrated the current clash. The chairman of the State Duma
Committee for security, Vladimir Vasilyev believes that the current
conflict in Ossetia is an anecdotal of the wars in Iraq and Kosovo. "We
are following the same path. The more the situation unfolds, the
more the world would know that Tbilisi could never be able to do all
this without America. "In essence they have prepared the force that
destroyed everything in Ossetia," he said. The demands being raised by
Washington, the EU, the UN and others for a return to the "status quo"
in Georgia are drenched in hypocrisy. Moscow understands that the US
is not going to abandon what it has come to see as a critical prop
to its position in the Caucasus and its long-term perspective of
reducing Russia to a semi-colonial status. The resumption of something
akin to the Cold War underscores the real motives that underlay
the decades of confrontation between the US and USSR. Washington
considered the Soviet Union, and still continues to view Russia,
as an obstacle to its geo-strategic aims of securing hegemony over
Eurasia. Bush has a lurking fear that as a consequence to the present
Russo-Georgian conflict, Moscow may just re-absorb Georgia into the
Russian Federation that would extend its boundary all the way to
Armenia, which is friendly to both "Moscow and Tehran." President
Bush is now at the centre of possibly one of the most idiotic
foreign policy embarrassments into which the US has ever gotten
itself. By having "green-lit" a Georgian invasion of South Ossetia,
an action for which one cannot even use the word "planned", the
US hoped that this would crank up a long-term conflict between
Georgia and Russia. Unfortunately, there was no resistance by the
US trained Georgian forces, and the 'so-hoped' for long term battle
might well be over by the end of this week. Back in 2005, speaking
before a big cheering crowd, Bush made a promise to the Georgians,
"The path of freedom you have chosen is not easy, but you will not
travel alone. Americans respect your courageous choice for liberty,
and as you build a free and democratic Georgia, the people of America
will stand by you." But then, where was Bush when Russia launched
a major military attack on Georgia? Monkeying around with the US
women's volleyball team, or amusing himself at the Beijing Olympic
carnivals. He couldn't have possibly despatched the US Marines to
Tbilisi, but his impotence in the face of such a gravely destabilising
move highlights not only his personal loss of stature and how deeply he
has diminished US authority at the global stage generally, particularly
in the eyes of Russians. The US holds absolutely no leverage, and all
of Bush's blustering cannot take back the terrible carnage that has
come about due to the colossally bone-headed choice the US made to back
the Tbilisi invasion of Ossetia. Moscow is terribly angry over the sale
of unarmed aerial drones and security support to Georgia by Israel at
the behest of Washington. By such moves, Washington might risk Nuclear
War by miscalculations. This means that the attack on South Ossetia is
the first battle in a new proxy war between Anglo-US-Israeli nexus and
Russia. After being terribly mauled in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US
has limited options to take the risk of hugging the angry Russian bear.
Ghulam Asghar Khan
Frontier Post
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Pakistan
Eruption of war in the Caucasus underscores the tragic consequences of
the dismemberment of the USSR in early 1990s. It exposed the masses
of the former Soviet Union, Russia and other Soviet republics to
the dangers and predations of the US-led major imperialist powers to
exploit the resources that these republics possessed. Not withstanding
the reactionary designs of Moscow, no objective observer can
contest the fact that Washington's provocative policy toward Russia,
aimed at supplanting Russia in its long-time spheres of influence,
was the primary factor behind this outbreak of war between Georgia
and Russia. A month back, the US trouble-shooter Condoleezza Rice
visited Georgia and held talks with Saakashvili and held a press
conference at which she denounced Moscow and backed Saakashvili's
efforts to reassert Georgian control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
reiterating US support for Georgia's incorporation into NATO. It is
inconceivable that Saakashvili did not review his plans in detail
with Rice for a military assault on South Ossetia. Georgia, which is
entirely dependent on US military, financial and diplomatic support,
could not have indulged in this adventurism without Washington's
tacit consent, especially when the Georgian garrison is dominated
from top to bottom by US military advisers. Washington has been
pouring military hardware into Georgian capital Tbilisi since the
US-led air strikes against Serbia in 1999. The pace and scale of
military aid had accelerated since Washington engineered the so-called
"Rose Revolution" that had brought Harvard-educated Saakashvili to
power in early 2004. American experts trained the Georgian defence
force in the fundamentals of war strategy. At the same time, Georgia
began re-equipping its forces with Israeli and American firearms,
reconnaissance drones, communication and battlefield management
equipment, new vehicle convoys and stockpiles of ammunition. Washington
was surprised by the timing and blitzkrieg of Russian military's move
into South Ossetia and is still trying to sort out as to what happened,
said a US defence official on Monday. If there were any people in the
State Department who had ever studied history of Caucuses region,
particularly with regard to the resolve of the Russian government
when it feels under threat, the Georgian government would never have
been given a green signal by the US and NATO to try this non-planned,
fingers-crossed and insane incursion in South Ossetia. Of course, it
appears that the people who actually have the kind of background and
knowledge to give the military thoughtful, reasoned and timely counsel
are simply not the people who are hired to do so. For Washington it's
generally a matter of cronyism and not competence. That is why the US
military was surprised that there was no one to tell them what Moscow's
response would be. It was only when the Russian forces responded to
the Georgian attack with a rapid massive counteroffensive; crushing
the much smaller Georgian garrison that Washington became alarmed. In
a provocative statement issued from the White House Rose Garden on
Monday, President Bush escalated the confrontation between the US and
Russia over the current fighting in Georgia. Bush denounced what he
called Russia's "dramatic and brutal military escalation and demanded
of Moscow to immediately declare cease-fire and withdraw its forces
from Georgia. He accused Moscow of planning to bomb Tbilisi airport and
charged that Moscow was out to overthrow the pro-American government
of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, reiterating inviolability
of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia. Bush's remarks
followed a Sunday statement by Vice-President Cheney, who said
"Russian aggression could not go unanswered." Cheney's intervention
indicated the existence of a faction within Bush administration that
was pushing for a more aggressive US response to Russian intervention
in Georgia. The statement was a staggering example of hypocrisy. The
US government issued no protest when Georgian forces attacked Ossetia
last Thursday night, indiscriminately targeting apartment blocs in the
capital with tank cannon and mortars killing about 2,000 civilians;
a bloodletting that accounts for the vast bulk of civilian deaths to
date. Since the US was clearly at the back of Georgian assault on
Ossetia, it is difficult to believe that Washington believed that
Moscow would remain a silent spectator in response to such a grave
provocation. Why then, they supported a move that would bring Russia
in direct conflict with one of Washington' principal allies in the
Caucasus; a region that houses critical oil and gas pipeline and
constitutes a bridgehead between resource-rich Caspian Basin and
Western Europe? Russian officials believe that it was Washington
that orchestrated the current clash. The chairman of the State Duma
Committee for security, Vladimir Vasilyev believes that the current
conflict in Ossetia is an anecdotal of the wars in Iraq and Kosovo. "We
are following the same path. The more the situation unfolds, the
more the world would know that Tbilisi could never be able to do all
this without America. "In essence they have prepared the force that
destroyed everything in Ossetia," he said. The demands being raised by
Washington, the EU, the UN and others for a return to the "status quo"
in Georgia are drenched in hypocrisy. Moscow understands that the US
is not going to abandon what it has come to see as a critical prop
to its position in the Caucasus and its long-term perspective of
reducing Russia to a semi-colonial status. The resumption of something
akin to the Cold War underscores the real motives that underlay
the decades of confrontation between the US and USSR. Washington
considered the Soviet Union, and still continues to view Russia,
as an obstacle to its geo-strategic aims of securing hegemony over
Eurasia. Bush has a lurking fear that as a consequence to the present
Russo-Georgian conflict, Moscow may just re-absorb Georgia into the
Russian Federation that would extend its boundary all the way to
Armenia, which is friendly to both "Moscow and Tehran." President
Bush is now at the centre of possibly one of the most idiotic
foreign policy embarrassments into which the US has ever gotten
itself. By having "green-lit" a Georgian invasion of South Ossetia,
an action for which one cannot even use the word "planned", the
US hoped that this would crank up a long-term conflict between
Georgia and Russia. Unfortunately, there was no resistance by the
US trained Georgian forces, and the 'so-hoped' for long term battle
might well be over by the end of this week. Back in 2005, speaking
before a big cheering crowd, Bush made a promise to the Georgians,
"The path of freedom you have chosen is not easy, but you will not
travel alone. Americans respect your courageous choice for liberty,
and as you build a free and democratic Georgia, the people of America
will stand by you." But then, where was Bush when Russia launched
a major military attack on Georgia? Monkeying around with the US
women's volleyball team, or amusing himself at the Beijing Olympic
carnivals. He couldn't have possibly despatched the US Marines to
Tbilisi, but his impotence in the face of such a gravely destabilising
move highlights not only his personal loss of stature and how deeply he
has diminished US authority at the global stage generally, particularly
in the eyes of Russians. The US holds absolutely no leverage, and all
of Bush's blustering cannot take back the terrible carnage that has
come about due to the colossally bone-headed choice the US made to back
the Tbilisi invasion of Ossetia. Moscow is terribly angry over the sale
of unarmed aerial drones and security support to Georgia by Israel at
the behest of Washington. By such moves, Washington might risk Nuclear
War by miscalculations. This means that the attack on South Ossetia is
the first battle in a new proxy war between Anglo-US-Israeli nexus and
Russia. After being terribly mauled in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US
has limited options to take the risk of hugging the angry Russian bear.