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Friday, August 15, 2008 |
Telegraph: "The mass development of genetically modified crops risks causing the world's worst environmental disaster, The Prince of Wales has warned."
12:14:32 PM 
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Like the Catholic church was selling indulgences in the Middle Ages, America is strewing about immunities. It shows how corrupt the system has become. And how 9/11 was a boon for the Bush administration.
Yahoo: "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, four princes and other Saudi entities are immune from a lawsuit filed by victims of the September 11 attacks and their families alleging they gave material support to al Qaeda, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday."
FT: "The US on Wednesday warned Turkey not to strike an energy deal with Iran that undermined diplomatic efforts to halt Tehran's nuclear programme, on the eve of a visit to Ankara by Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the Iranian president.
A deal to increase Iranian natural gas supplies to Turkey is expected to form the centrepiece of the visit, giving Mr Ahmadi-Nejad a much-needed diplomatic boost as he attempts to defy pressure to isolate Iran."
Shows how freedom loving the US is.
WallStreetJournal: "U.S. inflation accelerated in July, as prices rose 5.6% from a year earlier, the fastest pace in 17 years."
Shows how successful the US is.
But don't you worry a bit, private contracting is booming. They spend, you pay. See, how fair it all is.
TruthOut: "Halliburton takes advantage of a European loophole that lets corporations hide beneficiaries and assets."
And if the OPEC countries dump the dollar there are many ways to profit from that too. No, not you!
See how clever they are. It's called 'disaster capitalism'.
12:13:15 PM
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JustWorldNews: "The NYT was able to use its people's good relations with the Georgian government to get hold of the text of the ceasefire agreement that Sarkozy got the Russians to agree to at 2 a.m. Wednesday. Here it is, in PDF, with the French original bearing handwritten notes representing the Georgian side's requests for further revisions, which according to this accompanying story by Andrew Kramer Russia had not accepted."
But you won't find very much in the New York Times about the destruction by Georgia of a hospital.
JustWorldNews: "Another great post from Bernhard of Moon of Alabama on the Georgian crisis, today.
What Bernhard really 'gets' about this crisis is the degree to which it reveals the extreme constraints on Washington's ability to exercise freedom of action - including military action - in parts of the world where, until recently, it felt quite confident of acting freely. The constraints being, as I've noted previously, both logistical and political (in terms of the balance of power in world politics, not- at this point - the balance within the US.)
From this perspective, the serried ranks of rightwing commentators who are published so widely in the US MSM suddenly look like (possibly quaint) dinosaurs as they bark out their calls for more 'robust' US action against the Russian bear... Max Boot, Richard Holbrooke, and of course - Charles Krauthammer.
I think we need to underline a few distinctive lessons and principles:
1. The US currently has little credibility when its leaders present themselves as guardians of 'international legitimacy'.
2. Thorny international political differences cannot be resolved through force - whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Georgia, or elsewhere. And the world's governments should certainly refrain from attempting to do this, since any use of force anywhere simply perpetuates the idea that using it is an acceptable way to behave while it also, importantly, diverts attention and resources away from the much-needed means of political engagement to the massively expensive means of military combat.
3. We do, luckily, have many international institutions and mechanisms that can help resolve such problems using nonviolent means and reference to neutral, long-agreed standards of behavior. Those mechanisms should be used and further strengthened, rather than derided or overlooked completely.
4. The US should be, along with the world's other governments according to their capacities, part of that effort to restore the UN and the world's other institutions of multi-lateral problem-solving. But unlike in 1945, the US is currently not in a position to dominate it. (Thanks, George W. Bush!)"
Saakashvili's first concern is not his people, but the interests of America. On the contrary, he has deliberately exposed his citizens to a retaliation from Russia; that was his aim, so he could cry for help from the West.
Saakashvili will continue to disturb the peace as long as he is in function.
EuroRus: "Russian security forces have arrested a top Georgian intelligence officer on charges of collecting data on Russian troops in the North Caucasus and breakaway South Ossetia's president, the FSB said on Tuesday."
Harper's: "Reports coming out of South Ossetia tell of Georgian rockets and artillery leveling every building in the capital city, Tskhinvali, and of Georgian troops lobbing grenades into bomb shelters and basements sheltering women and children. Although true casualty figures are hard to come by, reports that up to 2,000 Ossetians, mostly civilians, were killed are certainly believable, given the intensity of the initial Georgian bombardment, the wanton destruction of the city and surrounding regions and the generally savage nature of Caucasus warfare, a very personal game where old rules apply.
But you don't hear about this story from the Western media. Indeed, you hear little if anything about the Ossetians, who seem to hardly exist in the West's eyes, even though their grievance is the root cause of this war."
Sott: "The United States has been providing military and technical support to independent Georgia for almost 15 years. During this period, the overall amount of annual aid from Washington has increased by more than several hundred times, and reached its peak in the financial year till 2006."
WireDispatch: "John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia."
WashingtonPost: "Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser prepped his boss for an April 17 phone call with the president of Georgia and then helped the presumptive Republican presidential nominee prepare a strong statement of support for the fledgling republic.
The day of the call, a lobbying firm partly owned by the adviser, Randy Scheunemann, signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to the Georgian government in Washington."
EmptyWheel: "The White House has started to panic over a July 9 meeting between Condi Rice and Mikheil Saakashvili, desperate to suggest they didn't encourage Georgia's crack-down in South Ossetia. Given that panic, I wonder whether Karl Rove had any similar chats with Saakashvili when they were in Yalta together just days later?
I mean, given that Rove was talking about the upcoming election as Saakashvili was walking in the room, it sure does make you wonder whether Rove said anything to Saakashvili about how a firmer hand in South Ossetia might help Georgia ensure its strong relationship with the US going forward."
It seems as if the engineers of destruction were scheming behind Bush's back.
TheRealNews: "The hypocrisy of this so-called international community knows no bounds. If the US and Europe actually forced the independence of Kosovo, they should have to admit that the independence of South Ossetia and the other separatist Georgian province, Abkhazia, is also in the cards. And then there's oil and pipelines. That's where the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline fits in. The pipeline is just one factor in a much, much bigger picture. And that's the attempt sponsored by the US, and joined by many other former Soviet satellites, to cripple all traces of Russian influence, economic, politic, diplomatic, military, not only in the Caucasus, but in Central Asia as well.
The McCain campaign is infested with Rusophobia. McCain wants to expel Russia from the G8. But Brzezinski may be even more dangerous. This is the guy who gave the Soviets their Vietnam in Afghanistan, facilitating the rebirth of radical jihadist Islam. Brzezinski's the godfather of al-Qaeda. Brzezinski now says that the Russian invasion of Georgia - and he forgets to say that it was Georgia that attacked South Ossetia first - is like Stalin's attack on Finland."
Well, the export of revolutions by the US can be compared to the annexations by Hitler. And Brzezinski is the architect of the fascist rationale in his geostrategic Grand Chessboard.
NZHerald: "The three-day war in South Ossetia is settled, and the Georgians have lost. There may be some more shooting yet, but it is now clear that Georgia will never regain control of the rebel territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Now Saakashvili is playing on old Cold War stereotypes of the Russian threat in a desperate bid for Western backing."
Kommersant: "Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili will be probably put on trial under the RF laws for crimes committed in South Ossetia, the RF Prosecutor General Office representative Marina Gridneva told Interfax."
EuroRus: "South Ossetia's recent moves also show that Saakashvili may be punished by law. Its investigation committee has instituted criminal proceedings against Georgia. In response, the Georgian leaders have taken the case against Russia to the Hague Tribunal. It is hard to say who will win the legal battle. But thousands of victims cannot be deleted from evidence against Saakashvili."
TheNation: "A key element in a new security paradigm must include a US commitment to end eastward expansion of NATO, especially to Georgia and Ukraine. In return, Washington and Moscow should jointly guarantee the sovereignty of those two countries. NATO expansion has furthered no one's security - in fact, it has increased regional tensions, aroused Russian insecurity and hostility, and discouraged countries from pursuing independent relations with Moscow, leading them instead to adopt provocative policies and act, at times, like virtual US colonies."
The fight is now between hawks and those who want real détente. Rove and McCain are dangerous warmongers, with a fascist mentality. If the Brzezinski doctrine remains the leading principle in American policy, we have more wars coming, at best one of those another cold war.
America must choose now, either do what they preach - and allow other nations to decide on their own future and resources, or else take the road of imperial primacy and fascism, which is sure to end in the demise of the US as we knew it.
11:55:19 AM
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Today I woke up with a bright sun rising over our brave new world. Yesterday BBC Radio4 had put a link to my weblog on their webpage. The link has gone now and what remains on the BBC is the usual propaganda about Georgia. It looks like there will be no war in Georgia. So all is well that ends well, one could say.
The reality is different. So far most important papers have had op-eds in which the situation is reported from an alternative viewpoint. When those op-eds disappear what is left? Not very much to be positive about.
The mainstream media are as belligerent and unreasonable as ever. They follow the neocon directives. Never before has the Western propaganda machine been so close to that of Goebbels. Fortunately, you have the bloggers and investigative reporters who are still able to register the hatred and plain imperialism of the 'respectable' news outlets.
AlterNet: "Speaking to reporters about the situation in Georgia, Sen. John McCain denounced the aggressive posture of Russia by claiming that: 'in the 21st century nations don't invade other nations'."
This was said by someone who is a candidate for president. He is either a complete moron or a criminal. Or both. And he certainly believes he is speaking to morons. This is the kind of blindness that leads the world into madness. America has invaded other countries since its creation. It has killed millions of people. It has the worst record of war crimes in the world. Nagasaki and Hiroshima come to mind; these were attacks on civilians, and as such genocide. The same for their inhuman attack on Vietnam. The West excels in hypocrisy and double standards.
The US and Britain are increasingly denying any other country the right to their own sovereignty, to their own resources. It is plain imperialism that is hiding under the cloak of 'human intervention'. There was nothing human in the sanctions imposed in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Web of Deceit: "Sanctions have helped to kill more children per month in Iraq than were killed on September 11th. The UN estimates that 500,000 Iraqi children under five have died since 1990, as a result both of the sanctions and the effects of the Gulf War in 1990-1."
Let's look behind the Western propaganda. What it is all about is the geostrategic power of the US and its British satellite, as explained by Zbigniew Brzezinski in 'The Grand Chessboard - American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives'. This is the blueprint of the Western intentions, and human rights are irrelevant in this power struggle. Well, they are in so far as 'human rights' can be used against America's opponents, like in the International Criminal Court or the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The Grand Chessboard: "Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization."
That is an appeal for a fascist regime that rules the whole world. It will be undemocratic. It is all about imperial mobilization.
The human prospects this offers are bleak. Imperial mobilization is the official policy of the US and Britain, which simply boils down to plain fascism, the denial of human rights, natural resources and sovereignty to any other nation in this world.
CSMonitor: "Fierce American criticism of Russia's military action in Georgia is almost certain to jeopardize a very different US strategic objective: stepping up pressure on Iran with another layer of United Nations sanctions."
Now this is a crucial thing. The West needs Russia to impose its sanctions, this time on Iran. If the US does not remove a belligerent Saakashvili, Russia is not likely to support more sanctions against Iran.
However, if Russia allows the US to put the same inhuman pressure on Iran as they did on Iraq, then Iran is going the way of Iraq, total devastation and the annexation of Iranian oilfields by the West. Another jewel in the imperial crown of the neocon West. Which would leave Russia, China and India as the next enemies. So whatever Russia does, however nice and compliant they are towards the US, they will be met sooner or later with the same fascist approach that gave us Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, all illegal wars, with disastrous human consequences.
So even when no war will result in Georgia now, Russia can expect more destabilisation from the US later on, when Iran has been conquered. The US and Poland have just agreed to a missile 'shield' pact. Of course this is not a shield, it's a regular missile attack base aimed at Russia.
We have a serious problem here. America can be called a fascist state, tout court. Its aim is world domination. And its wars are already being fought by the most undemocratic means.
A brave new world is in the making. And it won't be to promote democracy, freedom or justice.
9:24:47 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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