Again, we see a common pattern forming:
The acute phase of the crisis provoked by the Georgian forces’ assault on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, is now behind us. But how can one erase from memory the horrifying scenes of the nighttime rocket attack on a peaceful town, the razing of entire city blocks, the deaths of people taking cover in basements, the destruction of ancient monuments and ancestral graves?Gorbachev/NYTimes 19.Aug.08
Russia did not want this crisis. The Russian leadership is in a strong enough position domestically; it did not need a little victorious war. Russia was dragged into the fray by the recklessness of the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili. He would not have dared to attack without outside support. Once he did, Russia could not afford inaction.
The decision by the Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, to now cease hostilities was the right move by a responsible leader. The Russian president acted calmly, confidently and firmly. Anyone who expected confusion in Moscow was disappointed.
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How can one erase from memory images that were never there to begin with?
The average American, the normal American, has no idea what happened in Georgia before Russia "invaded". Only that Russia "invaded" and hurt people, big ugly Russia, tiny vulnerable Georgia.
Why's that "tiny, vulnerable" thing sound so familiar?
I know I've heard it somewhere before.
The juxtapositioning of bombed-out wounded faces, usually female, whether South Ossetian or Georgian left unclear, but placed on top of text describing Russian tanks and Russian planes and Russian soldiers and Russian maneuvers leads without any direct accountability for what's being said to the idea that Russia began this, began it and carried it out with immoral motive all the way.
Much fuss is now made over who it was that lied to get us into Iraq.
Whether it was Colin Powell or Bush himself or Rice or Cheney or whoever, but it was FOXNews that lied to get us into Iraq, it was CNN, it was the New York Times, it was the Washington Post. All of them lied, in the most cunning ways possible, in ways that make accountability unattachable, in ways that make the responsibility for the lie seem to rest on the shoulders of the people who received it.
No media face or voice ever denied the Georgian atrocities against South Ossetia, they just never mentioned them at all, never described them clearly, never placed the numbers of the dead on a timeline the average normal American could grasp.
America is I don't know what now, but the American people are exactly like one of those kings from the old days who's gone soft in the head and is surrounded by manipulating crafty "advisers" who keep him spinning and unsure and gradually take more and more royal power to themselves, and run the kingdom into the ground with their myopic greed and lack of nobility.
The people, like one of those kings, feel helpless and powerless, but they're providing massive energy and resources to a minority of bent and incompetent shadows, the grey power behind the throne in this land where everyman is king.
Nobility isn't just a nice thing for leaders to have, it's a vital necessity - without it the path of leadership simply degrades and goes down.
