The Georgia conflict has many people very confused. That would have included me until a few minutes ago when I saw Larry King “interview” Michael Gorbachev, and then “interview” Mikheil Saakashvili. Normally I’d have gone away just as confused by the arguments, but today I had read a disturbing article, forwarded by my dad.
The article disturbed me because it presented a view of the recent events in Georgia, Russia and America that would, if true, show that I have been sucked into the PR machine and been tricked. But, if they turned out to be false, then certain things I have observed to be true, would be wrong. Read it, all the way through, and then help me out.
It seems that the article is suggesting several things (forgive my childish summation here):
- Russia doesn’t give a toss about taking back control of Georgia.
- Russia doesn’t give a toss about the oil pipeline that goes through Georgia.
- America deliberately constructed the whole Georgia situation to undermine Russia. They hoped Russia would retaliate to the military action so that their credibility as a European ally would be bruised.
Now, to me that sounded way too far fetched. But over the course of the day, things started to become clearer. No matter which way I thought about this, the only logical reasons for what is going on over there were…well…bizarre. It would mean that the news networks of the world were being coerced into avoiding the truth. And I mean avoiding the truth. They weren’t necessarily lying (apart from Fox, but they don’t count), but they have clearly avoided certain facts. For example, do you know the answers to these questions ?
Who invaded whom first ?
Do you know ? Do you have an idea ? Did Russia invade Georgia ? Or did Georgia invade South Ossetia ? Is South Ossetia part of Georgia or part of Russia?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions then do some research. I’ll stop talking my bollocks now.
But the answers are pretty fucking clear. The conclusions (and answers) another evening.