Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Conspiracy Theory
I have no argument that this is true, I just think it would be diabolical: Through Randy Scheunemann, who was a lobbyist for Georgia, the McCain campaign, Bush government, and Georgian government have a ploy that buys Georgia sympathy in the eyes of the West, while simultaneously ratcheting up the foreign policy pressure/saber-rattling in the Presidential campaign. Why the hell did Georgia make the first move against Russia? Maybe there were back-channel direct promises of aid, as opposed to the public statements that have been made.
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3 comments:
Most Western governments, and even the mainstream media in the US, agree (1) that Saakashvili was the provocateur, and (2) that the US encouraged him by training his military, promoting Georgia's entry into NATO, etc. The presence of Scheunemann in McCain's campaign may have been one more thing that emboldened Saakashvili. But the whole thing is being viewed as yet another foreign policy disaster of Bush's making. Russia becoming dominant in the region, without challenge, is a huge development, a big setback for the US and Western Europe.
On second thoughts, at least one Russian analyst agrees with you:
http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/14/stories/2008081455901000.htm
When Mikheil Saakashvili’s plans misfired
Vladimir Radyuhin
Mr. Saakashvili has become a pawn in the U.S. presidential election game. A senior Russian parliamentarian said the neo-conservatives in the Bush administration prodded the emotionally unstable and arrogant Georgian leader into the armed misadventure to help Republican John McCain win points in the race against his Democratic rival, Barack Obama.
“I have information that Vice-President Dick Cheney was the brain behind the Georgian attack,” said Kremlin-connected Deputy Sergei Markov, who also heads the Institute of Political Analysis in Moscow. “The true goal of the operation was not to seize South Ossetia, but to trigger a full-scale conflict between Russia and the West.”
Mr. McCain used the Georgian crisis to push the security agenda in the face of what he described as “revanchist Russia’s” efforts to “drive to put an end to the existence of the Georgian state.” This enabled him to catch up with Mr. Obama in the race. Mr. McCain’s complicity in the Georgian war received further proof when it became known that his top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, had been hired by Mr. Saakashvili to lobby for Georgia in the U.S. Congress and made his firm $2 million off the Rose Revolution in Georgia.
A theme of neoconservatism has been that, when the U.S. puts its will to it, it can accomplish anything. The only way to derail it is for the American people to give up, à la Vietnam and Iraq. Thus, they may believe that, with this action, they can enter a new Cold War, with American approval, that they will win.
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