Is the Georgia crisis a CIA-induced case of the Cuban Missile crisis in reverse?
In outlining the crisis over Georgia and its root causes, French Historian Alexandre Adler examines the tightly-woven web of Russia-Georgia history, from the rise of Stalin to that fateful day on August 9, when Russian tanks rolled into Stalin’s birthplace of Gori, Georgia.
Writing of America’s culpability for the crisis, Adler is particularly harsh:
“The disproportion of the military force used by Russia against Georgia belongs then, to the deep history that remains common to both peoples. The other certainty, no less historical, is the bankruptcy of the hegemonic role of the United States: driven by a resentment as irrational as it is mean-spirited, the American republic has continued to practice the delusional encirclement of post-Soviet Russia. Without a doubt, the twisted minds at the inept CIA’s Langley headquarters or the brains at the Pentagon have dreamed of having their own Cuba [reference to the Cuban missile crisis]. They thought they had found it in Georgia with their agent of influence, the current president Saakachvili.”
And then, comparing Georgia to Cuba, Adler goes on:
“And just like that retard Fidel Castro who, in 1962, wanted to launch atom bombs against Washington before the terrified eyes of his reckless allies in Moscow, here we have “Frankenstein-Saakachvili” wanting to involve his American patrons in the extreme and absurd logic that governs those who exalt in the narrow nationalism of Georgia. Indeed in Washington today, the climate is not indignation over the childishness of our news commentary, but about mutual accusations of irresponsibility, just as it was in Moscow the day after the Kennedy-Khrushchev duel over Cuba.”
So what’s the solution? Adler suggests:
“In the first place, put a permanent end to the logic of force to which Russia has tendency to give in to. Then, definitely inhibit the use of force by giving Russia the decent and necessary place that it must occupy in the construction of Europe. In addition, we must not push Ukraine toward confrontation with Russia. But also for Russia, do everything possible to ensure its historic reconciliation with our Polish and Turkish allies. This is a very tough, but indispensable road.”
By Alexandre Adler
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
August 16, 2008
France – French – Original Article (French)
Several avenues are open to us in trying to shed some light on the conflict between Russia and Georgia. The first, which for once deviates from our usual custom, isn’t strictly about geopolitics. To speak of the relationship between Russians and Georgians, it is perhaps first necessary to envisage the complexity in terms of the societies involved, and the often deep and very profound ways they portray one another, which act as memes in the collective unconscious. We cannot, for example, put aside some of the places where the conflict is taking place, such as Gori, which is none other than the birthplace of Stalin.
The fact that the Russians have savagely bombed the town was unlikely due to strategic principles alone. Especially if, as I believe, Putin’s father had some trouble with the terrible Red Georgian Tsar. [There are rumors that Putin’s father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, fought Stalin as a Nazi-collaborator and that he was captured by British forces. See photo below ]. In some ways Russians feel a mixture of fascination and repulsion toward their former Soviet compatriots in Georgia that at the moment has been given free reign, which seems quite profound, and which goes far beyond strategic calculation. Under Stalin, the Georgians ruled Russia at a crucial time when the destiny of the nation itself was at stake, and with their methods of unspeakable brutality, for the most part they saved it.
Stalin, indeed, wasn’t the only one responsible: Sergo Ordjonikidze – before he committed suicide after being encouraged to do so by his leader – was the true architect of the country’s’ industrialization [Stalin suspected him of plotting against him]; Avel Enukidze , in his turn, single-handedly created the Kremlin administration, which is in place to this day. Liquidated by Stalin in 1937, he was undoubtedly the most brilliant of all Georgian Bolsheviks.”
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the unfolding crisis in the Caucuses.
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