This dairy began as a push against what I have seen in the media this week as our forth estate "covers" the Georgian conflict. However, as I began writing, I began feeling, and what follows is a very brief exploration of what surfaced.
I give a timeline for the beginning of this war. I challenge readers to contrast it with what they have heard reported by our leaders and on American television.
Timeline:
Russia called an emergency Security Council meeting (the first one) right after midnight on Friday morning, asking the Council to demand that Georgia stop its offensive on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. They would not. They did however express that all sides work the conflict out through diplomatic means, not through violence. Russia was furious that the US instead focused on telling Russia to respect the territory of Georgia. A second emergency meeting was held 12 hours later, where still there was no action taken. Russia didn't wait around, they didn't want to, and they didn't feel they needed to.
EVENTS:
President Mikheil Saakashvili, acted on his public vows to control S. Ossetia. It was a military move, the proof is that the capital is devastated.
Russia goes to the UN, not Georgia, Russia, and calls on the Security Council to demand that it call Georgia to stop this military offensive.
Security Council says we won't demand Georgia stop the offensive.
Russia says it will have no other choice but to counter.
Everyone says, "yeah right."
Russia counters.
President Mikheil Saakashvili says, "Oh Fuck!"
People lay dying in the streets.
Here are the summaries of the emergency UN meetings and 3 articles by the AP and AFP and Reuters, covering them. Browse 'em over.
http://www.un.org/...
http://www.un.org/...
http://www.reuters.com/...
http://afp.google.com/...
http://ap.google.com/...
.
If the Russians have Soviet-speak, we have Rovian-speak. If the Russians invaded a sovereign country, we have invaded two sovereign countries. If the Russian military has raided towns, looted, and killed civilians, we have leveled cities and killed hundreds of thousands. If the Russians acted unilaterally, without the UN, we have acted unilaterally, in defiance of the UN.
America, with its current leadership and recent actions, has no standing to contrast itself with Russia or its actions. We have no standing. We have carried out a "War on Terror" extra-legally, indifferent to world convention and our own Constitution. We have not and will not hold those accountable. Who are we, now?
I state that our country, these United States, is just another side of the same coin, against which we today, as Americans, are told to fight.