So This Is What WWIII Looks Like

by Greg Moses / August 15th, 2008

On Sunday Michel Chossudovsky reasoned that the US-backed attack on the capital of South Ossetia was designed to produce a humanitarian crisis. On Wednesday, President Bush declared that the US military would spearhead a humanitarian mission to Georgia, which the Russians had better not bother.

Now Chossudovsky is concluding that the South Ossetia operation, by putting Russian troops in check, is one last step in the encirclement of Iran. All pieces are practically in place for a blockade, including plans to use a warship from Brazil. The anti-Iran coalition, which is global and bi-partisan, will be considering the use of pre-emptive nuclear strike.

And because of Iran’s strained relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which continues to express worry about Iran’s “transparency and full disclosure,” Iran now finds itself not only encircled but virtually friendless.

Markets, they say, hate uncertainty. Since this is what WWIII looks like, Dow futures this morning were up.

But speaking of “transparency and full disclosure” where is the international agency that will demand an answer to this question: were the civilian populations of South Ossetia and Georgia deliberately sacrificed to achieve these military ends?

Greg Moses is editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review and a member of the Texas Civil Rights Collective.. Read other articles by Greg, or visit Greg's website.

This article was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 5:59am and is filed under Asia, Caucasus, Imperialism, Militarism, Russia.

20 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. bozhidar balkas said on August 15th, 2008 at 6:57am #

    oh, there is so little we know about US/EU/Israel-Iran conflict. because of this there is much talk.
    and there are so many questions.
    if US attacks iran, how much destruction must it do in order to make iran cry uncle?
    how stable is iran internally? will other ethnic groups in iran turn against iran.
    what if iran already has bombs and means to strike a nearby area like israel?
    can iran significantly retaliate?
    what US planners know?
    how wld the world react to devastation of iran?
    these questions may lead one to opine that iran will not be attacked.
    thank u

  2. Michael Kenny said on August 15th, 2008 at 7:00am #

    I really have to laugh at the almost touchingly naive way in which Americans always assume that nothing can happen in this world without the master race giving the orders and the local chimpanzees blindly obeying, and, of course, the master race always getting what it wanted! Having postulated that, they then go searching for some hidden conspiracy which would explain why the US “wanted” a debacle which is probably America’s biggest defeat since the War of 1812. And the weeping and gnashing of teeth over at the neocon websites is all part of the dastardly plot to fool us good folks! US-backed attack, my foot! Humanitarian crisis, my foot! Encirclement of Iran, my foot!

    This is a screw-up concocted in Tblisi between Saakashvili and the Israeli extemist parties which appeal to the ex-Soviet Jews in Israel. The link is probably the Minister of Reintegration (George Orwell would have loved that title!), Temuri Yakobashvili, who is Jewish and speaks fluent Hebrew. It was also probably Yakobashvili who bamboozled Saakashvili inor beleiving that his Israeli friends had the clout to ensure US backing.

    Alexander Cockburn once put forward an excellent test for judging the credibility of conspiracy theories. They will not be credible if the plot is too complex (something always goes wrong!) or if too many people have to be in on the secret (somebody always blabs!). The idea that the Georgian attack was part of some vast US-masterminded plot certainly fails the first of those tests and probably the second as well. The idea of an Israeli-inspired screw-up makes sense, particularly give the parallels with the Israeli screw-up in Lebanon.

  3. Deadbeat said on August 15th, 2008 at 9:29am #

    Michael Kenny says…

    This is a screw-up concocted in Tblisi between Saakashvili and the Israeli extemist parties which appeal to the ex-Soviet Jews in Israel.

    Very interesting analysis. I was wondering why the Israelis would want to antagonize the Russians. Today on Democracy Now! they as usual was floating the same tired “War for Oil” explanation. There was little to no discussion about Israel’s involvement. The Democracy Now! narrative typically is that all roads leads to Washington. Thus Israel is off the hook for any scrutiny because the mainstream conventional wisdom promoted by the “Left” is that Israel is merely the U.S. “junior” partner. So whatever Israel does independently of Washington is the fault of Washington.

    However it makes sense that Israel has its own independent interests and motives. Therefore your explanation has a great deal of resonance and is much appreciated.

  4. Greg Moses said on August 15th, 2008 at 9:31am #

    I’m reminded of a wise folk saying: them that talkin don’t know, them that know ain’t talkin. And so we do our best to reason things out on the fly. In the end, we each apply a great deal of “orientation” for where we suppose the motives and causes lie. One analysis I’ve read says that the whole thing was deliberately planned and provoked by Russia, going back for months. That’s interesting to think about, too. Chossudovsky helps us to keep thinking. And so does Michael Kenny. If Israel deliberately misled Georgia, to what end? Meanwhile, there is a terrible situation on the ground which all of these arguments are likely to ignore. Whoever is responsible, and for whatever reason, there appears to be criminal misuse of power.

  5. cg said on August 15th, 2008 at 10:17am #

    The Russians were ready to rock, that’s for sure.

    http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/russo_georgian_war_and_balance_power

  6. bozhidar balkas said on August 15th, 2008 at 11:17am #

    well, we don’t know whether US knew of coming invasion of s.ossetia.
    however, we do know now that US is approving of it.
    is US sending its military to georgia?
    is UN involved in distribution of aid:food, medicine, etc?
    if not, why not? which countries are preventing UN legal/moral obligation to do what its charter demands?
    thank u

  7. MrSynec3 said on August 15th, 2008 at 3:38pm #

    To Michael Kenny, Deadbeat,

    Israel was never mentioned in this article. So, why both of you are huffing and buffing in defense of Israel with your shallow sophistry.
    Definietely you are nothing but couple of TROLLS and mouth pieces for AIPAC and Israel.

  8. cg said on August 15th, 2008 at 4:53pm #

    Deadbeat a troll for Israel?
    That’s a hot one!

  9. Danny Ray said on August 15th, 2008 at 8:02pm #

    I am curious as always why the blame for this is laid at the door of the Americans. Dose it not seem strange that the Soviet, Uh Read that, the Russian Army went into the attach mode within 24 hours of the Georgians movement?

    For the Russians to move from summer training cycles to a road march and from that into an offensive in a few hours is VERY hard to believe. Could it be that Moscow orchestrated this , You know, sucked the Georgians into the attach and then did a classic armor drive into Georgia to PROTECT the poor Russians living in south.

    I know a little about the way the red army handles business and I refuse to believe that they can launch a corps size attach on a few hours notice. They could not while Stalin was alive and they cannot now. No one can. It would take a week to get the trains and arty up to do a classic Russian slingshot.

  10. Danny Ray said on August 15th, 2008 at 8:04pm #

    Sorry spell check screwed me again ATTACK

  11. Socialist-Marxist said on August 15th, 2008 at 8:05pm #

    Fuck this article, this is a right-wing article written by an american who sees the world from an american’s view. This article is a slap in the face to honesty and objectivity. it is not true that Iran has nuclear bombs. and also it’s bullshit that the International Atomic Energy is worried about Iran.

  12. Socialist-Marxist said on August 15th, 2008 at 8:09pm #

    Alexander Cockburn from http://www.counterpunch.org is crazy and un-scientific, he said that JFK wasn’t killed by CIA, because of the fact that JFK was part of the elite. I didnt know that if u are rich you are immune to CIA or to conspiracies. So in Alexander Cockburn’s world, only poor people could be shot, and CIA don’t go after elites. hahaha

  13. Greg Moses said on August 15th, 2008 at 10:59pm #

    Namecalling. Namecalling. Namecalling.

    As for the issue of IAEA, here’s a quote released June 5, read it how you will: “The Director General urges Iran to implement all measures required to build confidence in the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme, including the Additional Protocol, at the earliest possible date.” If you have a more recent quote, please provide.

    http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Board/2008/gov2008-15.pdf

    As for the readiness of Russia to roll, I think of two things. It’s Russia’s border. And Georgia had begun saying things back in May. Hhere’s one thing the Russians heard on May 23 from a high ranking Georgia official: “we must return back not only Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but also Abkhazians and Ossets.”

    http://sojcc.ru/eng_activity/page/3/

  14. Greg Moses said on August 15th, 2008 at 11:03pm #

    Oh, I forgot to mention, the article by the American above does not claim that Iran has nuclear bombs. It does suggest, however, that a circling gang of nations may be thinking about using a nuclear bomb on Iran anyway, apparently because they think this is a good way to stop Iran from getting one.

  15. cg said on August 16th, 2008 at 10:36am #

    Georgia (at least the ‘government’) deploys its last and most effective weapon. The eternal Jewish victim WMD.
    How magnificently ironic that in this case it is used against Israel itself.
    One wonders if perhaps there are, in Georgia, any Christians or other ethnic peoples at all?

    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1011396.html

  16. AJ Nasreddin said on August 18th, 2008 at 3:06am #

    Personally, I was hoping WW3 would be more exciting and sexy. It seems like everyone in this flick wears black hats.

  17. DRL said on August 18th, 2008 at 4:25am #

    “well, we don’t know whether US knew of coming invasion of s.ossetia”.
    bozhidar balkas, August 15th, 2008 at 11:17 am

    It’s highly unlikely that the US was *not* aware of the Russian troop build-up on the South Ossetian border. You can hardly shift a wheelbarrow, today, without being picked up by US satellite surveillance, particularly in that region of the world. Russian troop movements were no doubt being monitored very closely, either by the US or by Israeli-made drones.

    The August 8 Georgian attack was preceded by a number of heated exchanges between Russians and Saakashvili over Georgia’s policies and massive military build-up, assisted by the US and Israel; two parties in which Medvedev / Putin have little confidence [and with good reason]. In sum, I have a hard time believing that Georgia’s attack was a surprise to either Israel or the US.

    This crisis is not over, yet. Russia remains very vulnerable to bogus Western media coverage and popular opinion, at this point. Shades of the brutal attack on Yugoslavia, in which world media played just as important a role as Nato and US troops.

    I suspect that before we know it, the US will be building a “peace-keeping” ‘Camp Bondsteel’ in Georgia, the better to control any wayward drifting, energy-rich former Soviet province, while moving in on both Iran and Russia.

    Seldom mentioned in the context of this conflict is (a) the deal Russia has just cut to process and deliver the quasi-totality of Turkmenistan’s natural gas, which has BushCo in near paroxysms of rage; and (b) Turkey and Iraq’s explicit refusal to cooperate with the US in an attack on Iran.

    A nice big base in Georgia would solve any number of problems for US and Israel, consumed as they are by their respective diabolical obsessions.

  18. DRL said on August 18th, 2008 at 4:56am #

    Greg Moses,

    It’s probably not a more recent IAEA statement you need, about Iran’s openness to supplementary inspections, but an older one.

    This, from December 2003:

    “On 18 December 2003, Ambassador Salehi of Iran and the Director General of the IAEA signed an Additional Protocol to Iran’s NPT safeguards agreement, granting Agency inspectors greater authority in verifying the country’s nuclear programme. Iran has stated that it is acting in accordance with the Protocol’s provisions, pending the Protocol’s formal entry into force”.

    Which is consistent with what I read at the time: Iran had implemented the Additional Protocol, voluntarily, even before the agreement went into effect.

    http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2003/iranap20031218.html

    The Director General has shown his disingenuousness on several occasions. I’d like to see evidence from a reputable source that Iran has gone back on the additional inspections Protocol, which is what your quote from the June 5 IAEA document appears to imply.

  19. bozhidar balkas said on August 18th, 2008 at 9:31am #

    DRL,
    i said (i had to reread my post) that we don’t know whether US knew of coming aggression against s. ossetia.
    however, you make a good point that one can hardly push a wheelbarrow w.o. US seeing it.
    but did the US know of the planning stage? that’s what i meant.
    knowing whether US was in on planning stage is important.
    guessing will not do; not for me.

  20. cg said on August 18th, 2008 at 11:19am #

    Most people have never heard of the NRO.
    Of all the many acronyms, this one is BIG.