Stop the War

Good post .

Absolutely

From the Tomb- ". . .the real victims of Russia's attacks will be not only the civilians cut down by their bombs, but also the Saakashvili regime's opponents, who have repeatedly bore the brunt of the state's crackdown whenever there is a flare-up of rivalry with Russia. . ."

An ill wind

There is rarely an upside to a war. However, to compound their problems the people involved in the current conflaguration in the Caucasus have the shuffling gimp French President Sarkozy himself to contend with. He is sticking his guele in with Putin and scuttling about ineffectually in an attempt to halt the fighting. The only compensation from all this is that the toady runt will be around less in France making things worse here with all his unimplemantable reforms and attacks on the non-rich.

To save time, though, he might as well do what the Georgian President did and order tank and artillery salvos on his own recalsitrant poplace. . .

Third world bore

There was a lot of chatter in the blogiverse about how the disasterous Georgian offensive in Ossetia was the start of the third world war. It wasn't and isn't. This operation was a desperate diversionary option by the Georgian PM to try to bolster support for his ailing regime. It could have worked, like Thatcher's Malvinas adventure, but this gamble backfired horribly for Mikheil Saakashvili whose time as President will soon be at an end.

The Americans are powerless to do anything in the immediate region. There is a lot of noise about a huge US fleet heading for Iranian waters, but this is just a bluff. Geo-politics is in a state of practical paralysis as economic woes and military shortfalls make it impossible for sides to win decisive victories (witness the appalling Israeli 2006 incursion into Lebanon). The only power able to shift things along is the international working class of all countries. We have always known, though have tried to convince ourselves otherwise, that 'our leaders' have our interests at heart. It is now glaringly apparent that they, like the class they represent, are resentful and fearful of us and our potential power.

Just a microglimpse of the evidence for this.....some friends come to visit and ironically brandish a copy of the truly terrible 'Paris Match'. Inside a jaw droppingly bad taste interview with France's topcops and political puppet controllers. The talk, at first, is all about how rozzer is going to deal with auto-crime, theft and street muggings with more technology à la US police forensic shows (the home secretary did actually take them seriously). So far so dull. But there on the next page in bold quote "The Police's main fear and targets are cybercrime and the rise of the far left." The rise of the far left. ?

It is certain that the governments of all countries are united on this matter. Here, the term 'far left' is code, bien sûr, for anticipated widespread social unrest provoked by the brutal measures that are being and will be introduced to reduce working class living standards.

That will be the real third world war.

Empty seats at Olympics

Boredom is a universal ailment. Minority sports events are one of its many harbringers. So the news that there are swathes of empty seats at many of the remarkably boring events taking place in Bejing comes as no surprise.

Moscow Rules. . .

Just because we're lefties over here at REL does not mean we are somehow 'pro-Russian'. After reading all the boooks 1917, the purges and the second world war, though, it is difficult to jump immediately on the anti-Russian bandwagon that is rolling in the media over the Ossetia question.

Take France 2 news last night. The Olympics (and surely the Georgian aggression last week was timed to perfection to coincide with the opening ceremony) and the war were the top stories. The news from the Olympics was that a Georgian judo player had lost in the first round. The explanation? Those dastardly Russians invading his country had kept him up all night with worry. The fact that he was rubbish might have had something to do with it, but that would have spoiled the propaganda effect presumably. Then on to a candle lit vigils outside the main Olympic building - held not for the Ossetian civilians killed in the Georgian attack, but for Georgian 'territorial integrity' , a candle 'SOS' message to urge the world to come to Georgia's aid ('Help we thought we could get away with this now it looks like we fckd up. Please send us some troops and stuff') and then a fully subjective report from the Georgian capital mainly about how everyone is feeling ok about the invasion. Throughout, the news gave the impression that it was Russian aggression that was at the root of this episode and that France would be condemning Moscow in stringent terms.

British media, same schpeel. Today's Guardian news story tags on the end of its latest hate piece that "Moscow says 2,000 civilians were killed and thousands made homeless when Georgia attacked South Ossetia last week in an attempt to bring the separatists to heel. Witness accounts suggest the death toll was far higher." with, after the bias in the rest of the article, the "Moscow says. . . " the tag at the start of the sentence acting as a bracing dose of scepticism to the Russian claims. No such doubt is expressed over Georgia's position of innocent victim in this terrible, tragic farce.

The Americans are in their element here, at once annoyingly self-righteous, belligerent and meddlesome. 'Self righteous' in their condemnation of the hallowed Goergian territorial sovereignty (a claim after Yugoslavia, Iraq etc. that bears no further examination for its sheer criminal hypocricy) 'belligerent' in that Cheney has made some threatening noises over the issue with clear intent to ramp up the crisis, and 'meddlesome' in the provocative intervention of flying the 2000 Gerogian troops currently stationed in Iraq. Russian jets and US transport planes in the same air-space - - what a good idea.

Clearly, socialists are on no one's 'side' in all this other than that of the working class - the class of people who end up paying the most for these Summer warfest media entertainment shows. But it is clear that the consistent western media bias in this putrid affair reveals a profound rivalry that has far more deeper roots than the cold war. In a heavily armed capitalist context amidst one of the worst economic crises of the last hundred years, one would be justified, at the moment, for feeling a little bit nervous. Arise ye masses from your slumber, indeed.

Market euphoria

There must be more than one leftie who was disappointed with last week's little flurry on Wall Street. The DJIA closed up about 600 points on the week. Analysts have all but given up hope as to the logic of the New York Exchange's ups and downs. Maybe more astute heads rule in Bejing, though, from where we hear, "China's main stock index tumbled more than 5 percent to a fresh 19-month low on Monday, hit by concern about slowing economic growth and rising producer price inflation, which threatens to squeeze corporate profit margins. "

Even the crisis has to experience its own moments of . . . crisis.