Saturday, August 09, 2008

More Lies from the U.S. News Media

The constant stream of lies from the U.S. Goverment on the situation in Georgia has gotten frustrating for me, so I'm going to speak out against the nonsense.

Take for instance this statement here (quoted by the news story here)

"This is a dangerous escalation in the crisis," the (U.S.) official said. Russia's military response "marks a severe escalation and is being conducted in areas far, far from the South Ossetia zone of conflict, which is where the Russian side has said it needed to protect its citizens and peacekeepers. So the response has been far disproportionate to whatever threat Russia had been citing."

What a pile of smoldering hogwash! This whole incident started when Georgia invaded one of their own provinces. First they bombed the hell out of a city (Tskhinvali, the capital of South Osetta) and then they sent in their troops (over a border, yes, they actually had a border into S. Osetta they had to cross killing the Russian Peace keeping troops who have been gaurding that border for nearly 10 years). The Russian government is well within their right to completely destroy any Georgian airforce bases being used in these attacks, even if they are well inside Georgia.

These people in Tskhinvali were Russian people, they and their families have lived there since long before the country became Georgia. They were sleeping peacefully in their beds when the Georgian government came and bombed them to splinters then rolled in their troops to supposedly "restore order" to a land that has been peaceful for many years. Then, according to reports out of Russia, they are actually rounding up enthic Russians and killing them by the time the Russian army comes and takes Tskhinvali back. (It is difficult to tell from the reports, but it does sound like they've taken back Tskhinvali at this point. But clearly the Georgians are still fighting them off at various places.)

When this whole thing started a few days ago, I read up on the history so I could understand what the situation is all about. The U.S. still stuck in it's cold-war mentatlity can't ever seem to get past the "Russia as an enemy" syndrome. Look at this crazy phrase here from the same news story:

"Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. "

They have toned it down a little bit. Earlier when I read the story (which they keep updating) it said "Georgia... was under Russian control for most of the two centuries..." etc. They made it sound like Russia is a constant agressor in the region. Well, I guess they were "agressors" in a sense: the same way that the U.S. was agressor with the native Americans. Russia took this land away from the nomadic sheep herders in the late 1600s the way the U.S. (well, then the British and French) took away North America from the Native Americans. It wasn't really so much like "invading a country" way back then, until the British came down there and fought the Russians over the caucauses, because they decided that they wanted it too.

So, much to say... the history is varied prior to the Caucauses being a part of Russian. But the history of this current event:

At the end of the Soviet Union, Georgia all the former Soviet Republics were proclaiming their indepencence as new countries. Well, the people in South Osetta and the people in Abkazia were primarily Russian and did not want to belong to some other country (Georgia). So Russia fought Georgia for many years for these territories. In the end the Russians finally signed a truce with the Georgians: You could claim these territories as part of Georgia so long as you let us keep Russian peacekeeping troops here, and so long as you give these territories some sort of autonomy.

Well, the people of S. Osetta and Abkazia didn't really like this agreement, they wanted to live in Russia, but it was better than constant war, so they agreed to it.

They have been living peacefully all this time until the current president of Georgia started making proclamations that he was going to "take back all the Georgian territories." Everybody wondered what he had in mind, and nobody thought he could be stupid enough to invade these territories, but last Thursday night (Friday in Russia) that's exactly what he did. Since Thursday there have been thousands of people killed, and I think it is likely that he has started a full-scale war with Russia over his ambitions.


The questions I have are: how much is the U.S. involved in this? Was the U.S. an instigator in this invasion? After all, it seems to be a constant concept of the current U.S. administration to make Russia appear to be an agressor. It is well known that we have U.S. troops stationed in Georgia and have provided training and assistance to the Georgian military. I'm sorry, but I just cannot help thinking that the CIA has been involved in assisting the Georgians.

Will our leaders never tire of their blasphemous hypocracy? Bush should know by now that he has a nice warm-and-cozy bed prepared for him in Hell by God and all his angels. Surely he doesn't think he can keep playing the same game and somehow save his soul?

I am thoroughly disgusted with the U.S. government.

Regards,
Basil

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Solzhenitsyn

I won't attempt to jump on to any band-wagon discussing Solzhenitsyn. But I shouldn't let his passing go by without a word.

Solzhenitsyn was a great man. He was a great thinker and a great author. Perhaps he will even become a Saint in our Church.

Now only was he a great thinker and a great man, but he took risks and actually stood up for what he believed in. After being called a "traitor to Russia" by the Soviets he went back to Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and kept up his work for positive change. That took a lot of guts. He could have just kept himself comfortable in some form of retirement like pretty much ALL of the other Soviet dissidents did.

Here's Solzhenitsyn with Fr. Schmeman at St. Vlad's:


There's some good articles on Solzhenitsyn right now at http://www.russiablog.org/

Regards!
Basil