August 11, 2008
Russia makes war while the West tut-tuts and tsk-tsks
James Lileks notices the deafening silence from the left about Russia's attack on Georgia -- except for the obligatory whine that the United States is to blame.
The Georgian situation is complicated, granted, but you’d think someone would be planning a protest. After all, it’s war. War is bad. Something must be done. Well, the World Socialists have thought long and deep and hard, and concluded the enemy is the United States:
Underlying the military confrontation is US imperialism’s drive to isolate Russia and establish American hegemony over the energy resources of Central Asia and their transit routes through the Caucasus, utilizing the Saakashvili regime as its cat’s paw. The Russian ruling elite, for its part, is seeking to reassert its control over a region that was ruled by Moscow for two centuries before the break-up of the USSR.
Because, you see, no matter what's happening anywhere in the world, the U.S. is the source of all misery.
Pestilence?
U.S.A.!
Poverty?
U.S.A.!
Shortages of hemp clothing, patchouli oil and clove cigarettes?
U.S.A.!
Russia attacking a small, pro-Western nation?
U.S.A.!
TigerHawk notes that Russia aims to not just intervene on behalf of Ossetian rebels, but is actually trying to overthrow the democratically elected head of a sovereign nation -- not that you'd notice from the lack of interest in the anti-war community.
The evidence is growing that the Russian's are trying to conquer Georgia and oust its government:
In a heated exchange with his Russian counterpart at the United Nations, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad of the United States accused the Kremlin of seeking to oust Mr. Saakashvili.
He charged that Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, had said as much Sunday morning in a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, telling her "that the democratically elected president of Georgia 'must go,' " Mr. Khalilzad said. Mr. Khalilzad said the comment was "completely unacceptable."
In Washington, American officials said that Georgian troops had tried to disengage but that the Russians had not allowed them to.
"The Georgians told them, 'We're done. Let us withdraw,' " one American military official said. "But the Russians are not letting them withdraw. They are pursuing them, and people are seeing this."
Of course, the Russians have no meaningful justification under international law, far less than the imperfect case the United States and its coalition built to justify regime change in Iraq.
That caused me to wonder, where are the anti-war groups?
Well, as of this morning, you can find no mention of the war on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s home page. The group is addressing many other pressing matters, but apparently not the unremitting attack on Georgia. Code Pink? Nyet. Democracy Now!, which is a left-wing media group, has lots of news about American wars on its web page but nothing about Russia or Georgia. Nothing from the comrades at Peace Action. Stop the War Coalition? What war? You can search the home pages of left-wing groups until the cows come home and not find anything on the Russo-Georgia war.
C'mon guys, Human Rights Watch -- to its credit -- was all over this on Saturday with a boilerplate press release (although you would not know it from the scant press coverage it received, neither Israel nor the United States being involved). The least you can do is copy that one.
So far, at least, it is safe to conclude that these organizations are not so much anti-war as they are anti-American and anti-Israeli. It is useful to clear that up. And, by the way, if they decide to organize massive anti-war rallies against Russia and belatedly reveal themselves as intellectually honest, I will be the first to say so.
The Left's silence reminds me of the months after Hitler and Stalin signed their non-aggression pact; suddenly, American Socialists and Communists -- who had spent the previous months shouting about the Fascist threat -- fell silent, their former enemies instantly rendered into allies by their Soviet masters.
Isn't it clear that the only wars to be opposed are those that in some small way might be to the benefit of the American national interest?
In the meantime, Russia attacks, and the so-called human rights community slumbers.
Posted by Mike Lief at August 11, 2008 07:36 AM
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