I like many around here have been known to scream out loud at my TeeVee, and throw things in the general direction of it whenever Patrick J. Buchanan starts giving his "analysis" and opinions concerning Barack Obama. No need to go into the particulars of that.
This morning however, that other side of Pat Buchanan, the side that get's reasonable people nodding their heads in agreement, comes out in an article he writes on the RCP Blog:
Blowback from Bear Baiting
More below the fold............
Mikheil Saakashvili's decision to use the opening of the Olympic Games to cover Georgia's invasion of its breakaway province of South Ossetia must rank in stupidity with Gamal Abdel-Nasser's decision to close the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships.
For the past week, the MSM and the McCain Campaign have been bending over backwards to portray Georgia as the victim in the Russia/Georgia conflict.
It seems everytime I turn on the TeeVee, Saakashvili is on, talking to Wolf, Larry King, or whoever, stating his case for America to come to his aid against the Big Bad Bear. The MSM has been, once again, giving only one side of the story, and leaving out whatever doesn't fit the NeoCon Narrative of "Democracy Good, Russia Bad". Not one single news outlet was even reporting anything about this "conflict" until Russia responded. Then the narrative was established that it was RUSSIA that was using the Olympics as a cover to "take over" Ossetia.
This is a lie.
I really like how Buchanan actually deconstructs the timeline of events and actually uses reason and fact to make the case that Saakashvili and his NeoCon Buddies in the MSM and the McCain Campaign are once again trying to dupe the American People.
Reveling in his status as an intimate of George Bush, Dick Cheney and John McCain, and America's lone democratic ally in the Caucasus, Saakashvili thought he could get away with a lightning coup and present the world with a fait accompli.
He then goes on to make the case for not only Russia's response, but gives a "realist" view of just what the hell is going on over there. He actually brings into view the fact that our NeoCon Foreign Policy is not only stupid, but it is Hypocritical as well.
American charges of Russian aggression ring hollow. Georgia started this fight -- Russia finished it. People who start wars don't get to decide how and when they end.
Russia's response was "disproportionate" and "brutal," wailed Bush.
True. But did we not authorize Israel to bomb Lebanon for 35 days in response to a border skirmish where several Israel soldiers were killed and two captured? Was that not many times more "disproportionate"?
Russia has invaded a sovereign country, railed Bush. But did not the United States bomb Serbia for 78 days and invade to force it to surrender a province, Kosovo, to which Serbia had a far greater historic claim than Georgia had to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, both of which prefer Moscow to Tbilisi?
Is not Western hypocrisy astonishing?
Call me crazy, but that sounds pretty honest.
Now, don't get me wrong. The underlying theme of his reasoning is typical Buchanan Race Bullshit. He manages to weave in Kosovo and other conflicts in the region as being driven by a "natural" aversion to people of different Racial and Religious backgrounds having a "justifiable" desire to live apart from each other based on race. That is the hidden part of Buchanan's analysis here. It is a very short ride from the ethnic justification for war in Europe, to justifying whites not voting for a Biracial American Presidential Candidate. Believe me, I see it. But that is not the arch of his reasoning here. The overarching theme of his analysis is the ridiculousness of our Foreign Policy, and how utterly hypocritical and dishonest it is.
He talks about the fact that since the fall of the Soviet Union, how former Warsaw Pact Nations have been swallowed up into NATO, Pipelines to sevice the west have been built, missiles deployed, and then asks the question:
How would we have reacted if Moscow had brought Western Europe into the Warsaw Pact, established bases in Mexico and Panama, put missile defense radars and rockets in Cuba, and joined with China to build pipelines to transfer Mexican and Venezuelan oil to Pacific ports for shipment to Asia? And cut us out? If there were Russian and Chinese advisers training Latin American armies, the way we are in the former Soviet republics, how would we react? Would we look with bemusement on such Russian behavior?
I am not much of a writer, I know.
This article has much to chew over in it, and I have left a lot out.
The bottom line though for me is, When is Barack going to make any kind of a stab at giving an honest appraisal of what has gone on here? Is it just too damn dangerous politicaly for him to make an assesment like this in a Corporate Media Environment that seeks to paint him as "weak" and is bought and paid for by the Military Industrial Complex that will be making Billions off of arming Russian adversarial relationships in a 21st Century Iron Curtain?
Please Discuss.
*UPDATE*
Wow Guys, Thanks for the Recs!
Does anyone here know that McCain/Georgia Relationship extends to Randy Schuenemann(sp?) is a signatory on the PNAC?