There has been a great deal of disinformation, ignoring of facts and downright lying on the part of the Bush Administration and members of the media this week pertaining to events in the Caucasus region. The Russo-Georgian War has really brought out the worst in the president and certain members of the so called “mainstream” media.
For starters, as far as I can tell from my vantage point in Zambia, the western media generally has been remiss in detailing the historical facts as they relate to the conflict. The history behind a crisis is vitally important to ultimately determine who started the problem and what should be done to rectify it. Contrary to the views of President Bush and his media buddies, the Georgians, not the Russians, are clearly at fault in this situation. As recently as yesterday, the president said that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are a part of Georgia. Historically, both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have never been a part of Georgia except at times when they were made so by the force of an oppressor. This happened twice to South Ossetia - in the 18th Century, when it was absorbed into Russia through an agreement with the Ottoman Empire, and in the 1920s, when the communists under Joseph Stalin made it a part of Georgia. As for Abkhazia, historically, it was a separate entity until Stalin incorporated it into Georgia in 1931. Now, I don’t expect this president to know this, since it would involve reading what he probably considers ancient history, but Bush should know that in the early 1990s, after the Soviet Union fell apart, there were two wars fought over South Ossetian and Abkhazian independence. Both peoples sought to rid themselves of the oppressive yoke placed upon them by their Soviet masters. A ceasefire agreement brought de facto independence to both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A peacekeeping force largely made up of Russian troops was left responsible for maintaining order in the territories.
With minor exceptions, order was in place until the night of August 7th 2008. On that night Georgian peacekeepers turned on their Russian comrades, killing 10 and wounding dozens, as Georgian president Saakashvili’s army invaded South Ossetia. According to the international news network Russia Today, the Georgian army began perpetrating a campaign of ethnic cleansing by assassinating clergy, shooting women and children in the streets and throwing grenades into random houses. These reports came complete with televised pictures of the carnage. As the Russians reacted to the aggression of the Georgians by coming to the aid of the defenseless South Ossetians, President Bush and his media cronies stirred up old Cold War sentiments in the U.S. by blasting the Russians for disproportionate use of force and imperialistic actions toward Georgia. In particular, Bush criticized Russian bombing of strategic locations inside Georgia even though this was precisely the same strategy his father pursued against Iraq to extract its army from Kuwait 17 years ago.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Media Tycoon
Sorry. I don't trust Russian news. Say what you like about the American media, but our media doesn't get murdered by our government. Also, nice try comparing Iraq to Georgia, but Iraq under Saddam had a pretty well established history of aggression and had one of the largest militaries in the world when it invaded Kuwait. It is not a comparable situation.
As for dishonesty, we know that Russia signed a ceasefire and violated it already.
2 - Jordan Richardson
had one of the largest militaries in the world when it invaded Kuwait.
OMGWTFROFL?!
3 - Ruvy
Kenn,
Do cue me as to when I start playing the Russian national anthem on the violin here....
Granting that any accounting of this nasty opening adventure in a much larger conflict that seeks to give sainthood to Sir Vladimir of the Holy Order of the KGB (blackbelt, first class) will differ considerably from reality, or from Dave Nalles's attempt to give sainthood to Sir Mikhail of the Order of St. George (Gruzian-American division), you seem to have missed quite a lot here.
Just go to my articles and save yourself a lot of time.
Oh, by the way, can you provide us borders for the Kingdom of Georgia that was annexed by the Russian Empire, and how the land lay then? Just curious....
I suggest that from your perch in Zambia, you need better binoculars to see the action....
4 - Dave Nalle
As the Russians reacted to the aggression of the Georgians by coming to the aid of the defenseless South Ossetians
One of the things which every observer agrees on and which you can see video of all over the place is that the Russian army is standing by while accompanying S. Ossetian forces commit attrocity after attrocity, ethnically cleansing almost 20,000 people, plundering, burning entire villages. This is all documented.
Are you getting your news from TASS?
Dave
5 - Dael
Don't forget people the only "facts" you know are "facts" given to you by the media. Unless you are living in the middle of the action you don't nor will you ever know the complete story. Please let others with a different view share it and perhaps we may someday get a "complete" story of whats really going on in this world.
6 - Andy Marsh
What I get from this writer is that we shouldn't believe the US news media, but we should believe what he's hearing from the Russian news media...
...but I'm sure the view of Georgia is so much better from AFRICA than it is from over here!
7 - Ruvy
NU??
Kenn, I'm been waiting for hours to be cued to start playing the Russian national anthem on the violin! And my arm is beginning to hurt, not to mention my cheek, which is sore from pressing into the violin;
and where is the link to that map of the Kingdom of Georgia?
8 - Kenn Jacobine
I do want to thank folks for reading my article. I appreciate the lively debate that usually occurs over the issues. I am not pro Putin or pro Russia. I do side spiritually with people who yearn to be free - like the South Ossetians. I don't know if the Russians will give them their freedom, but I do know that Saakashvili won't. Furthermore lets remember that Saakashvili's army attacked a de facto independent country.
Living abroad I have received I believe more balanced newscasts of the events in the crisis. I get CNN, BBC, Russia Today, Sky News and Al Jazeera. By the way, most journalists on Al Jazeera are westerners, not Muslim anti-American fanatics. The coverage has ranged from CNN-pro-American to Russia Today obviously pro-Russian and everything in between.
If we continue to blindly believe that what the U.S. media always says is the truth then we are doomed as a people. I did say always. Obviously they do tell the truth also as well. But in my view the coverage of this conflict by the U.S. media has been one-sided.
9 - Dr Dreadful
So, Tycoon, Dave and Andy, the American MSM are a lying bunch of groundhog turds in regard to their coverage of the US presidential election, but magically grow steel balls of journalistic integrity when it comes to reporting on Georgia? Is that about right?
10 - Andy Marsh
I never said that...what I said was, we shouldn't believe our MSM but we should believe what the writer is getting from the Russian MSM?
Care to point out to me where I said anything like what you suggest I said Doc???
I don't appreciate words being put in my mouth, or my fingers as the case may be...
On the other hand...groundhog turds is a pretty apt description of the American MSM, or MSM in general....I think you need to add old, dried up, to make it a really good description though....
11 - Jordan Richardson
So if you shouldn't believe the American MSM and you shouldn't believe the Russian MSM, I guess the next logical question is to ask where the hell are you getting your facts about this conflict?
Seriously. I want to know.
12 - Andy Marsh
I don't have any facts...only what I read from our liars and their liars...I'm trying to figure that one out myself!
I would imagine, finding a source on the ground would be the best way...but I haven't seen many of those reports either and the ones I have seen go both ways also...
13 - Dr Dreadful
I would imagine, finding a source on the ground would be the best way...but I haven't seen many of those reports either and the ones I have seen go both ways also...
And right there, Andy, you have put your finger on it. The truth, as almost always, is somewhere in between the two versions.
You got caught in the crossfire earlier, Andy, simply because you chimed in on the debate. I think Dave in particular needs to be taken with a pinch of salt on this issue, since he's been among those regularly accusing the media of bias or dishonesty in relation to the election yet is relying heavily on those very same sources for his interpretation of events in the Caucasus.
I'm just a bit fed up with the general view on BC that it's OK for Americans to be wrong in disputes with other Americans, but never in disputes with foreigners.
14 - Media Tycoon
Sorry Jordan, but Iraq did have one of the largest militaries in the world at the time they invaded Kuwait. It’s a fact.
As for the American MSM, I don't think they do that bad of a job, you just need to watch them with a filter. When Chris Mathews is drooling all over Obama's feet, it would be prudent to not take him too seriously when he says something in his favor. However, he doesn't drool all over Bush's feet, so if he takes the president’s side against Russia, I would be much more likely to listen to him and believe what he is saying.
15 - cjfredonia
Thank you, Kenn, for the other side. Having many friends from other countries, I KNOW how the media distorts. We are FED information to manipulate out thinking...and most Americans simply believe because we have been taught to trust our leaders, though they disappoint us time and time again. Look how many people are STILL convinced that Saadam had something to do with 911, etc. Why? Because that's what our "GREAT" president and his generals tell us (over and over again!) Brainwashing...pure and simple. My family goes back generations and I am grateful to have been born in the USA rather than some of the other wretched countries around the world, but I take everything I hear on the news with a huge grain of salt.
16 - Media Tycoon
I found it...
"In the late 1980s, Iraq had the world's third largest army," said John Thompson, a former Canadian army officer who heads the MacKenzie Institute, a Toronto-based think tank which studies global conflict.
In 1991, Iraq had an army of more than a million men and 5,550 tanks.
17 - Jordan Richardson
The army has shrunk to 375,000 today, with just 2,200 tanks.
That was from 2002. So it's interesting that in about a decade, give or take, Iraq lost well over 600,000 troops. Any word on how that happened?
18 - Dan Miller
It is comforting to learn Russia is honoring her obligations under the cease fire agreement in Georgia to the extent that one would have expected her to do: hardly at all. Perhaps if Secretary Rice can't convince Russia to get on the ball, President Obama will be able to deal with her forcefully, and get her to think about doing so whenever and if she wishes to.
Dan
19 - bliffle
NPR had a pretty good discussion today at noon on "Talk Of The Nation" between Strobe Talbott and Ted Koppel. I only heard a couple minutes of it. Here's the URL for the whole thing:
Radio cast
Media said: "When Chris Mathews is drooling all over Obama's feet, it would be prudent to not take him too seriously when he says something in his favor. However, he doesn't drool all over Bush's feet, so if he takes the president’s side against Russia, I would be much more likely to listen to him and believe what he is saying."
I think this contrarian logic is pretty weak.
20 - Franco
#18 â€" Dan Miller
Interesting news from your link. Here is something that comes from it.
An Associated Press cameraman was slightly injured outside Gori after four men in camouflage, possibly from an Ossetian militia, pulled up in a car and told him to stop filming.
When the cameraman resisted, the driver produced a pistol and started shooting at the ground. The cameraman, who sustained light ricochet wounds to his legs, handed over the cassette.
21 - Franco
The foreign minister of staunchly neutral Sweden, Carl Bildt, publicly drew an analogy between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's justification for dismembering Georgia to protect Russian citizens in South Ossetia, and Adolf Hitler's tactics vis-a-vis Czechoslovakia to "free" ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland.
Former U.S. national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski found another analogy “even more ominous”: Yosif Stalin’s move against Finland, “subverting by use of force the sovereignty of a small democratic neighbor. In effect, morally and strategically, Georgia is the Finland of our day. If Georgia is subverted, not only will the West be cut off from the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. We can logically anticipate that Putin, if not resisted, will use the same tactics toward Ukraine. Putin has already made public threats against Ukraine.”
22 - Dave Nalle
You got caught in the crossfire earlier, Andy, simply because you chimed in on the debate. I think Dave in particular needs to be taken with a pinch of salt on this issue, since he's been among those regularly accusing the media of bias or dishonesty in relation to the election yet is relying heavily on those very same sources for his interpretation of events in the Caucasus.
Just to correct a mistaken impression here, I have not particularly singled out the US MSM for criticism on their election coverage in the past, and I have also not used them as sources in the two articles I wrote on the Georgia situation. I've worked mainly from sources outside of the US and outside of the normal media structure.
When I first started writing about Georgia the US media was pretty much repeating what they were getting from Tass and taking the Russian side. They changed their tune and began being less pro-russian as the situation went on, though I'm not sure why. Possibly having their reporters shot at by Russian allied Ossetians had something to do with it.
It looks very much at this point like Russia's efforts to control public perception of their actions in Georgia have backfired on them. How deliberate and manipulated the whole situation was became impossible for the media to ignore and Russia's lies just couldn't be allowed to stand. Too much was at stake for the media to do anything but report relatively honestly, lest they be exposed.
To me one small thing is the most telling part of all of this and shows exactly what was really going on. Russian hackers began attacking the Georgian internet more than a week before Georgian forces moved into S. Ossetia, essentially cutting Georgia off from any conline contact with the rest of the world. If Russia was just defending the Ossetians from the Georgians, why did they shut down the Georgian internet days before the crisis even started?
Dave
23 - Condor
"Please let others with a different view share it and perhaps we may someday get a "complete" story of whats really going on in this world."
Tell that to Milosovich.
24 - Angela Chen Shui
"I suggest that from your perch in Zambia, you need better binoculars to see the action...."
"...but I'm sure the view of Georgia is so much better from AFRICA than it is from over here!"
I just came in to visit.. haven't been here for awhile and this piece's headline caught my attention.
In reading through the comments, the above two stuck way out because as a Jamaican I also have and use access to several non-US news sources to complement US cable news. This seems a great way to get a more balanced view of world events from all pespectives.
The tone of the comments highlighted above caught my attention though... Is there something inherently superior in the US perspective that allows a better viewpoint of this Georgia Russia conflict than what a third world, African viewpoint can offer? I'm sure it was not intentional but the 'perch' and the 'AFRICA' could leave that impression...
25 - Andy Marsh
Angela - try reading the entire comment and not just picking one line out of it that you don't like. The entire comment made mention of US MSM and Russian MSM...but you chose to just pick out the one sentence. The writer of this piece tells us basically that we should trust his news sources as gospel and that what we hear here in America is all lies. I don't buy it.
It's as if someone thinks I would ever believe news out of Russia. They never have told the truth and they probably never will. As hosed up as the US MSM is, it's not controlled by the govt.
And as sure as you are that it wasn't, I'm here to tell you it WAS intentional. Glad I got your attention.