I am sure most Kossacks are much better versed in Geography than I am, but thought I would try to share my morning's journeys with maps. Educated in the US after 8th grade, I have a shallow understanding of any region outside North America and Western Europe.
I will never forget when I first realized that Iran was sandwiched between Iraq and Afghanistan, well since Iran is considerable bigger than either - sandwiched may not be the right phrase. That simple peek at a map transformed my understanding of the Middle East and gave me to believe that perhaps Iranian oil was the real target after all in all this. Oh, how I long for an energy economy that eliminates all this intrigue.
More below the fold
So, leaving off reading news reports of the conflict in Georgia, after reading that somehow the US was as involved in fomenting trouble as Russia was, that US fighters, perhaps mercenaries, were found amongst the dead, and that both US and Israeli troops had been involved in training Georgian fighters, I decided that a consultation with maps of the region might again be in order. I don't, BTW, know the truth of the above statements about the US involvement, but past experience has taught me that my first gut instinct about CIA involvement in overseas conflict was usually right. But I digress.
So, first I googled map of Georgia, and found a decent one that showed the regions in question. I found that South Ossetia, most of whose citizens have Russian citizenship, was just South of North Ossetia(duh), which is a Russian territory, and that it would like to be reunited with its brothers and sisters after the country being divided by Stalin years ago. My imagination takes me to East and West Germany, North and South Korea and Vietnam...
Then I found a map of the Black Sea region, http://encarta.msn.com/...
I see that the Northern tip of Iran is closer to Georgia than a trip from Tucson, where I live, to Phoenix. EEK. And here I had tied Georgia in my mind somehow to Eastern Europe, on the OTHER side of the Black Sea. Maps ROCK!
So then I thought to look at the oil issue, which underlies the struggle between all the local players and faraway US through its "ties" in the region. Of course, there had been an oil pipeline for Caspian Sea oil through Russia to the Black Sea, but the UK, the US and Israel developed allies to run an alternate pipeline from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey... to cut both Russia and Iran out.
http://asianenergy.blogspot.com/...
This article has interesting history, and shows maps of the pilelines in question running from the Caspian Sea to the Mediteranian, just north of Syria, and the genral geography of the area.
..."Ultimately, this design is intended to weaken Russia's role in Central Asia and cut off China from Central Asian oil resources. It is also intended to isolate Iran. Meanwhile, Israel has emerged as a new powerful player in the global energy market."
Another google find:
http://www.thestar.com/...
This 2006 article was interesting, (and ties the 2006 Lebanon strikes by Israel to this story) but the instructive part is the comments, which however are not sourced.
..."though techically South Ossetia belongs to Georgia, it never had any ties to it before Stalin divided Ossetia into north and south and gave the later to the Georgia. In a number of recent referenda (which independent observers deemed free and fair), they have indicated an almost unanimaous desire to separate from Georgia. Hence, Georgia has very weak moral claim on this region. Why do we recognize Kosovo, Montenegro but not South Ossetia? Posted by aberibisky at 8:33 AM Saturday, August 09 2008"
and
..."Russia signed a gas and oil deal with Turkmenistan this week and the U.S. is furious and desperate. Georgia is a U.S. client state and were ordered to deliver a little payback to Moscow. One reason the U.S. wants to hit Iran is because the Iranians might also join the Russian fuel grid. As for writers upset that the U.S. gets blamed for almost everything, well, they are to blame. The U.S. has over 750 military bases around the globe so they can cause trouble around the globe! They share a lot of the blame for the killing going on as we write. Posted by Craig White"
SO, like the religious / sexual morality wars in the US, which are a cover for a greed for power and wealth, it is very clear when you look at the maps that the "Islamic extremist/terrorist threat is another convenient costume to hide the greed and is in part based on our American almost total ignorance of the world map.
Well, this helped me, maybe it strikes a chord with someone else..