By Ron Beasley
The Bush/Cheney cabal is going to get McCain elected in November by doing the only thing they really know how to do - start a war, this time with Russia. The LA Times reports that Cheney's man, Joseph R. Wood, was in Georgia shortly before the conflict began - surprise, surprise! Today, after talking to a paid representative of the Georgia government and a dog and pony show, neocon scribe Michael Totten explains that it was really Russia that started the war. James Joyner. who would really like to buy into Totten's "analysis" has to admit he really doesn't know what he's talking about.
I agree with this analysis insofar as it goes. I�d quickly add, however, a major caveat: Any search for blame in this matter that starts in the summer of 2008 � or, indeed, this century � is bound to fail. There�s been plenty of action and reaction going on for generations to pin the responsibility on any one person or event.
The signage pictured above, taken from Totten�s post, captures that fact rather nicely. It�s also, shrewdly, in English and therefore aimed at an external audience.
Joyner, to his credit, then directs us to a piece by Joshua Foust that shoots holes in everything Totten said and had this to say about Totten.
Totten is being fed disinformation. And he doesn�t know enough to say so, since by his own admission he went into the country�just like his colleague Brietbart in Baku�knowing absolutely nothing about the place beforehand. He does not understand enough about the hatred in the area that exists on both sides to parse through the endless dissembling (Goltz is an amazing writer, but he is also unabashedly anti-Russian). Nor does he seem to understand the right before president Saakashvili invaded the territory, he called for a unilateral cease-fire in an attempt to roll through Tskhinvali unopposed (Russian-sponsored teenagers reportedly hurled molotov cocktails at Georgian tanks).
For example, the Georgians were still incredibly brutal to the South Ossetians, which makes the complaints about Russian brutality ring a tiny bit hollow. Totten doesn�t get at any of this, because he didn�t do a single jot of homework before heading out to these places.
Of course Totten was just doing his job - create and external threat and scare the population so they will vote for John McCain. God knows the last thing on earth the Bush administration wants is a Democratic Attorney General.
I'm sorry but "We have to elect John McCain or the Russians will conquer a former Russian satellite nation!" doesn't seem to have the same ring to it that it might have some 30 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe wall came down and Ronny Raygun won us the Cold War singlehandedly. It's unpossible to believe that the same Vladamir Putin whom Bush declared soulfully pure and wonderful could suddenly be such a major external threat. At least, so long as he isn't an Islamofascist.
Seriously though, I just don't see this working too well in the run up to the election. The last six years has been nothing but "Scary Muslims! Scary Muslims! Scary Muslims!" You can't turn public attention on a dime like that. Three months just isn't enough time to build up anti-Russian political momentum after decades of general apathy.
There is a part of me that thinks you are correct but in truth I've overestimated the intelligence of the US voter before.
ReplyDeleteSo was David Ignatius beating the drums of war, oh my gosh! for DA NEOZCONSZ!@ when he pointed out that Russia had been fixing up rail lines and handing out passports like candy for years?
ReplyDeleteJoyner's point is well taken, but I don't think you've learned a thing from his post. The Lefto-boomersphere's talking point on the event was that Georgia--albeit weak and democratically aspiring--instigated matters, working off the assumption that they had done their part in Iraq and would get some capital from the West. This is one of several perspectives.
Michael Totten is a democrat (little D in the true sense, not a partisan party messaging hack). He's also a pretty damn good journalist who has reported on the ground from the Balkans, Iraq, Lebanon and all throughout the Middle East. He was in Azerbaijan at the time the conflict broke out, and he made his way there to report. He throws himself in the middle of conflict not for some neocon plot (Lord knows it doesn't pay well enough to do that), but for an earnest desire to show people what people are saying and feeling on the ground. If the Right wants to run with this and turn it into something, well, they'll do that anyway (just like the author of this post turned this into some nutty theory about President Bush avoiding indictment).
As for the history, Joyner is exaggerating a bit on the "century" comment and Foust is a blowhard. Last I checked, Kosovo was handed over this year, not last century. The Russians clearly used this as a pretext to make a land grab and put a former client in check. If you think this to be untrue, well, you simply didn't get Joyner's point and it's sort of odd of you to rely on it for validation.
Michael Totten is a democrat (little D in the true sense, not a partisan party messaging hack).
ReplyDeleteROFLMAO.
Commentary, NRO, WSJ, FrontPage, TechCentral.
At the moment, it looks to me like there is so much going on in the world that is counter to the Bushies' ambitions that foreign affairs will sink McSame's candidacy.
ReplyDeletePakistan's government crumbling with Taliban attacking. More civilians killed by air raids in Afghanistan. North Korea sticking up that middle finger again. Iraq telling us to get out.
Not to mention Russia.
Nobody wants a war except the 20% hardcore wingnuts.
But logic has not been the administration's long suit. They may figure that a war won for them once, it should do it again.
What I really worry about is what they may do in desperation as their world crumbles.