THE FLASHLIGHT, August 9-15
THE FLASHLIGHT
August 9 – 15, 2008
No Peace without Justice, No Justice without the Facts
Mary K. Matossian, Editor
The Sequoias 9-M
mary@matossian.net
Transcaucasia [Lands just south of the Caucasus Range]
Events
NYTimes 8-8 – 8-9. Georgian troops, attempting to re-assert Georgian authority over a break-way region, South Ossetia, attacked the local capital, Tshinvali, killing and wounding some and causing c. 30,000, mostly women and children, to flee north into Russian held territory. Russian armored troops responded promptly by moving into South Ossetia, while Russian bombers flew over the Georgian Republic. There appeared to be a threat of full-scale war, as Russian troops moved also into another breakaway region, Abkhazia, which is located on the eastern shore of the Black Sea and is also claimed by Georgia.
8-11. After the Georgian government offered a cease-fire, Russian armored troop assaulted central Georgia, attacking Gori and bombing Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, told US Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice that the US backed, democratically elected, President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, “must go.” US Ambassador to the UN Khalilzad said that the Russian demand was “completely unacceptable.” About 170 Americans were evacuated from Tbilisi to the Armenian Republic to the south.
8-12. The Russians ordered a halt to military operations in Georgia. The Georgians report continued Russian maneuvers and attacks, however.
Agence France Presse 8-12. The British Petroleum Company (BP) shut one of its pipelines, that which runs from Baku through Georgia to the Black Sea. BP also closed the second longest pipeline in the region from Baku via Tbilisi to Ceyhan, Turkey. Instead BP sent supplies by railroad from Baku to the Georgian port of Batumi on the Black Sea.
The Russians agreed to a truce. But on 8-13 CNN reported that alien irregulars were looting and killing Georgian villagers.
NYTimes, Guardian 8-14. The Russians occupied Gori, sent troops in Poti (Georian port). US sent troops to oversee humanitarian air cargo mission, said Russians sabotaged Georgian airfields and other military infrastructures.
NYTimes 8-15. Human Rights watch confirmed 44 deaths, 293 wounded in Ossetia. Confirms Ossetians attacked Georgian villages.
Russia enraged by US-Polish deal, signed after 18 months delay on 8-14, to set up anti-missile defense system in Poland. White House claimed it is oriented to “rogue” nations like Iran.
The Transcaucasian Background
Wikipedia et al. The Georgian Republic, like the other independent states to the west and south of Russia, was once a subject territory of the Tsars and then the Soviet Union. Its population is fiercely nationalistic and unusually well educated. Blessed with a mild climate, it has long been a center producing high quality wine, fruits, vegetables and flowers. The Georgians belong to an independent national Christian Church founded in the early fourth century A.D. Their independent language, Kartvelian, is not a member of the Indo-European or Semitic families.
In the early nineteenth century the Georgians welcomed annexation by tsarist Russia, another Christian state, which drove out the Muslim Persians.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Georgians began to receive military, political, and economic aid from the United States. Georgia became a democracy and embraced a free market policy. President Saakashvili took office in January 2004.
But when the Soviet Union collapsed and Georgia obtained its independence (1991-1992) two of its ethnic minority groups, the Ossetians and the Abhazians, resentful of Georgian dominance, proclaimed their own independence.
South Ossetia is a small region in the south Caucasus, just south of the border between Russia and Georgia. Another small region, North Ossetia, is located immediately to the north inside Russian territory. In South Ossetia, two-thirds of the population are Ossetians, (c. 70,000 persons) and most of rest, Georgians.
The Ossetians speak an Indo-European language which is part of the Iranian (Persian) language group. Their homeland is the Ukrainian steppe, south of the Don River. They became Christians in the early middle ages and belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church. But in the 13th century they were pushed south by the Mongols. Russia has long been friendly toward them.
The Abkhazians (c. 95,000) occupy territory on the eastern shore of the Black Sea and through which an oil pipeline passes to Abkhazian held Sukhumi. Their language belongs to the North Caucasian language group, which is neither Indo-European nor Semitic. Some are Christians, some, Muslims. They are also allies of the Russians.
Geopolitical Context
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Tsarist Russian Empire expanded to the west, south, and east. The most powerful states in Europe, especially Austria and after 1871, Germany, sought to build a dam of buffer states against further Russian expansion The European powers regarded these lands as a “cordon sanitaire” – a quarantine line of neutral buffer states.
In the period between World War I and II the east European nationalities gained independence, but Communist Russia retained control of the Caucasus Mountains and Transcaucasia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan asserted their independence. The discovery of large oil deposits around the Caspian Sea made Georgia geopolitically significant as a transit territory for oil pipelines to the Black Sea.
The US has invested heavily in the Georgian Republic. As long as Georgia remained neutral or friendly toward Russia this caused no trouble. But Georgia’s recent attack of South Ossetia was an anti-Russian move. The US can do little to stop the Russians from crushing border states like Georgia if they attack lands inside the Russian sphere of influence. Moreover, the US has an interest in working with Russia to deal with Iran’s nuclear energy program et al.
Israel
An-Nahar 8-13. Ehud Barak, Israeli Defense Minister, says that the US is opposed to any Israeli attack on Iran. The US has said such an attack would be against US interests. Barak said Israel would still keep all its options open. [“barak” means “blessed”]
Iraq
Az-Zaman 8-13. Tensions are rising in oil-rich Kirkuk province as the Kurds, Sunnis et al. prepare for a long struggle.
Pakistan
NYTimes 8-14. Musharraf expected to resign in a few days.
US Politics
NY Times 8-8. John Edwards, former candidate for President, admitted an affair with a campaign worker in 2006.
NY Times 8-13. The GAO (Government Accounting Office), the investigative arm of Congress, reported that between 1998 and 2005 two out of three corporations paid no federal income tax. The basic corporate tax rate is 35%, but corporations can and do subtract deductions, write-offs, operating losses, and tax credits. Thus, their actual tax payments are much lower.
Washington Post 8-13. Mark D. Warner, former Governor of Virginia, will give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
US Economy
NY Times 8-10. The US cannot solve its energy crisis by digging for more oil. It uses one fourth of the world’s oil, but has less than 3% of the world’s oil resources.
PBS 8-12. The price of oil fell to $113 a barrel, a 23% decline since the July high.
PBS 8-8, When Google, the leading search engine on the Internet, went public with its stock in 2004, its shareholders became multi-millionaires and its two founders, multi-billionaires. It is now the most popular employer in the US economy. Its current new projects include giving the public free access to all library books and journals; enabling children to teach themselves how to use a computer; and mapping the whole world from above and from street level.
August 9 – 15, 2008
No Peace without Justice, No Justice without the Facts
Mary K. Matossian, Editor
The Sequoias 9-M
mary@matossian.net
Transcaucasia [Lands just south of the Caucasus Range]
Events
NYTimes 8-8 – 8-9. Georgian troops, attempting to re-assert Georgian authority over a break-way region, South Ossetia, attacked the local capital, Tshinvali, killing and wounding some and causing c. 30,000, mostly women and children, to flee north into Russian held territory. Russian armored troops responded promptly by moving into South Ossetia, while Russian bombers flew over the Georgian Republic. There appeared to be a threat of full-scale war, as Russian troops moved also into another breakaway region, Abkhazia, which is located on the eastern shore of the Black Sea and is also claimed by Georgia.
8-11. After the Georgian government offered a cease-fire, Russian armored troop assaulted central Georgia, attacking Gori and bombing Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, told US Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice that the US backed, democratically elected, President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, “must go.” US Ambassador to the UN Khalilzad said that the Russian demand was “completely unacceptable.” About 170 Americans were evacuated from Tbilisi to the Armenian Republic to the south.
8-12. The Russians ordered a halt to military operations in Georgia. The Georgians report continued Russian maneuvers and attacks, however.
Agence France Presse 8-12. The British Petroleum Company (BP) shut one of its pipelines, that which runs from Baku through Georgia to the Black Sea. BP also closed the second longest pipeline in the region from Baku via Tbilisi to Ceyhan, Turkey. Instead BP sent supplies by railroad from Baku to the Georgian port of Batumi on the Black Sea.
The Russians agreed to a truce. But on 8-13 CNN reported that alien irregulars were looting and killing Georgian villagers.
NYTimes, Guardian 8-14. The Russians occupied Gori, sent troops in Poti (Georian port). US sent troops to oversee humanitarian air cargo mission, said Russians sabotaged Georgian airfields and other military infrastructures.
NYTimes 8-15. Human Rights watch confirmed 44 deaths, 293 wounded in Ossetia. Confirms Ossetians attacked Georgian villages.
Russia enraged by US-Polish deal, signed after 18 months delay on 8-14, to set up anti-missile defense system in Poland. White House claimed it is oriented to “rogue” nations like Iran.
The Transcaucasian Background
Wikipedia et al. The Georgian Republic, like the other independent states to the west and south of Russia, was once a subject territory of the Tsars and then the Soviet Union. Its population is fiercely nationalistic and unusually well educated. Blessed with a mild climate, it has long been a center producing high quality wine, fruits, vegetables and flowers. The Georgians belong to an independent national Christian Church founded in the early fourth century A.D. Their independent language, Kartvelian, is not a member of the Indo-European or Semitic families.
In the early nineteenth century the Georgians welcomed annexation by tsarist Russia, another Christian state, which drove out the Muslim Persians.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Georgians began to receive military, political, and economic aid from the United States. Georgia became a democracy and embraced a free market policy. President Saakashvili took office in January 2004.
But when the Soviet Union collapsed and Georgia obtained its independence (1991-1992) two of its ethnic minority groups, the Ossetians and the Abhazians, resentful of Georgian dominance, proclaimed their own independence.
South Ossetia is a small region in the south Caucasus, just south of the border between Russia and Georgia. Another small region, North Ossetia, is located immediately to the north inside Russian territory. In South Ossetia, two-thirds of the population are Ossetians, (c. 70,000 persons) and most of rest, Georgians.
The Ossetians speak an Indo-European language which is part of the Iranian (Persian) language group. Their homeland is the Ukrainian steppe, south of the Don River. They became Christians in the early middle ages and belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church. But in the 13th century they were pushed south by the Mongols. Russia has long been friendly toward them.
The Abkhazians (c. 95,000) occupy territory on the eastern shore of the Black Sea and through which an oil pipeline passes to Abkhazian held Sukhumi. Their language belongs to the North Caucasian language group, which is neither Indo-European nor Semitic. Some are Christians, some, Muslims. They are also allies of the Russians.
Geopolitical Context
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Tsarist Russian Empire expanded to the west, south, and east. The most powerful states in Europe, especially Austria and after 1871, Germany, sought to build a dam of buffer states against further Russian expansion The European powers regarded these lands as a “cordon sanitaire” – a quarantine line of neutral buffer states.
In the period between World War I and II the east European nationalities gained independence, but Communist Russia retained control of the Caucasus Mountains and Transcaucasia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan asserted their independence. The discovery of large oil deposits around the Caspian Sea made Georgia geopolitically significant as a transit territory for oil pipelines to the Black Sea.
The US has invested heavily in the Georgian Republic. As long as Georgia remained neutral or friendly toward Russia this caused no trouble. But Georgia’s recent attack of South Ossetia was an anti-Russian move. The US can do little to stop the Russians from crushing border states like Georgia if they attack lands inside the Russian sphere of influence. Moreover, the US has an interest in working with Russia to deal with Iran’s nuclear energy program et al.
Israel
An-Nahar 8-13. Ehud Barak, Israeli Defense Minister, says that the US is opposed to any Israeli attack on Iran. The US has said such an attack would be against US interests. Barak said Israel would still keep all its options open. [“barak” means “blessed”]
Iraq
Az-Zaman 8-13. Tensions are rising in oil-rich Kirkuk province as the Kurds, Sunnis et al. prepare for a long struggle.
Pakistan
NYTimes 8-14. Musharraf expected to resign in a few days.
US Politics
NY Times 8-8. John Edwards, former candidate for President, admitted an affair with a campaign worker in 2006.
NY Times 8-13. The GAO (Government Accounting Office), the investigative arm of Congress, reported that between 1998 and 2005 two out of three corporations paid no federal income tax. The basic corporate tax rate is 35%, but corporations can and do subtract deductions, write-offs, operating losses, and tax credits. Thus, their actual tax payments are much lower.
Washington Post 8-13. Mark D. Warner, former Governor of Virginia, will give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
US Economy
NY Times 8-10. The US cannot solve its energy crisis by digging for more oil. It uses one fourth of the world’s oil, but has less than 3% of the world’s oil resources.
PBS 8-12. The price of oil fell to $113 a barrel, a 23% decline since the July high.
PBS 8-8, When Google, the leading search engine on the Internet, went public with its stock in 2004, its shareholders became multi-millionaires and its two founders, multi-billionaires. It is now the most popular employer in the US economy. Its current new projects include giving the public free access to all library books and journals; enabling children to teach themselves how to use a computer; and mapping the whole world from above and from street level.
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