Gorbachev: Georgia started conflict in S. Ossetia

[AntiFascist]

Source: CNN


(CNN) -- Georgian leaders may be blaming Russia for the conflict raging in South Ossetia, but former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said Thursday "there is no doubt" that Georgia provoked the clash.

Mikhail Gorbachev told CNN's Larry King that Russia called extra troops into Georgia to stem violence.

Gorbachev told CNN's Larry King that Russia moved additional forces into South Ossetia in response to "devastation" in the South Ossetia city of Tskhinvali.

"This was the use of sophisticated weapons against a small town, against a sleeping people. This was a barbaric assault," said Gorbachev, the last president of the former Soviet Union.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/14/gorbachev/index.html

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Neocons obviously staged this assault so that Russia would respond as they did. Bush, and McCain particularly, are playing right into this.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Actually, he's right. The over-confident prez of GA seriously miscalculated. nt

[IndianaGreen]

2. The BBC reported that Georgia attacked as peace talks were being held

I think that the McCain campaign gave Georgia the green light to attack South Ossetia.

[AntiFascist]

3. I hope you saw this thread too...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3791307

WH has started to panic over a July 9 meeting & Rove/McCain's Political Advice To Repub of Georgia

...

Karl Rove may have met with Saakashvili just days after the July 9 private dinner between Condi and Saakashvili that the White House, State, and DOD are now panicking about. Rove was in the neighborhood, in Yalta, at a conference with Saakashvili three days after the meeting

[Dover]

5. That seems a very narrow explanation of what's going down in Georgia and WHY.

While McCain and friends might try to piggyback their election agenda onto this situation,
it's primarily a contest for oil/gas/pipelines and geostrategic efforts.

I can see Rove gathering his notes on the plans in order to best exploit it to their purposes.

[AntiFascist]

6. Cui bono?

Western oil companies, who are primarilly responsible for Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove (and they hope McCain) being in power in the first place.

[Dover]

8. Yes, but I don't think it was designed just for McCain.

I'm saying he might benefit from it, but is not the reason for it.
The reasons for it are much MUCH broader.

[AntiFascist]

10. Fighting over oil pipelines and access to the port city? n/t

[IndianaGreen]

4. Georgian President tried to rename a mountain after Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Bush administration, which has strongly promoted Georgia’s membership in NATO (a direct threat to Russia, on top of so-called Missile Shield) has flooded Georgia with armaments and trainers, and was even engaged in full-fledged military exercises with Georgia at the time of the invasion – which strikingly coincided with the opening of the Beijing Olympics. The US government and the corporate media immediately sided with Saakashvili and its military invasion of South Ossetia.

Though Saakashvili has been described as "brash" and even "autocratic," with some observers questioning his mental capacity when he tried to rename a Georgian mountain after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, it seems doubtful that he'd risk Washington's ire on a dangerous military operation without the Bush administration’s go ahead. The proverbial green light was almost certainly given – or at least fully expected.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/7252/

[DianaForRussFeingold]

7. Mount Schwarzenegger

:spray: http://bp1.blogger.com/_0sEjSVLzPdQ/RvuTxOyslRI/AAAAAAAABF4/l1LMWmY-xls/s320/arnold+schwarzenegger.jpg :rofl:

[DarthDem]

9. He's Right

And there is no dark conspiracy here. Just an idiot getting the signals wrong. It happens.