Project Palin: Neoconservatives Seize Upon Palin’s Cluelessness To Shape Her Foreign Policy Agenda
Project Palin: Neoconservatives Seize Upon Palin’s Cluelessness To Shape Her Foreign Policy Agenda
In her first interview with ABC News last week, Sarah Palin made several bellicose statements — openly musing about war with Russia and refusing to “second guess” Israel if it were to attack Iran. She has ditched her previous talk of an “exit plan” for Iraq, and now supports John McCain’s endless war. At a troop deployment ceremony last week, Palin even linked Iraq to 9/11.
Palin’s hawkish turn is likely due to the influence of neoconservatives who have made Palin their new pet project. A former Republican White House official, who now works at the American Enterprise Institute, proudly declared Palin to be “a blank page. She’s going places and it’s worth going there with her.” Asked if he sees her as a “project”, the former official said: “Your word, not mine, but I wouldn’t disagree with the sentiment.”
The London Telegraph reports that neoconservatives long been trying to make Palin a messenger for their cause:
Sources in the McCain camp, the Republican Party and Washington think tanks say Mrs Palin was identified as a potential future leader of the neoconservative cause in June 2007. That was when the annual summer cruise organised by the right-of-centre Weekly Standard magazine docked in Juneau, the Alaskan state capital, and the pundits on board took tea with Governor Palin. […]
A former Republican White House official, who now works at the American Enterprise Institute, a bastion of Washington neoconservatism, admitted: “She’s bright and she’s a blank page. She’s going places and it’s worth going there with her.” Asked if he sees her as a “project”, the former official said: “Your word, not mine, but I wouldn’t disagree with the sentiment.”
Said Pat Buchanan: “Palin has become, overnight, the most priceless political asset the movement has. Look for the neocons to move with all deliberate speed to take her into their camp…and steering her into the AEI-Weekly Standard-War Party orbit.”
As the Wonk Room has documented, neoconservatives like Randy Scheunemann run the McCain’s foreign policy team. Scheunemann briefed Palin on international affairs prior to the ABC interview; the Telegraph reported that he “quickly made Steve Biegun, a former number three on the National Security Council, her chief foreign policy adviser.” Steve Clemons said Biegun “will turn her into an advocate of Cheneyism and Cheney’s view of national-security issues.”
Indeed, it should come as no surprise that prominent neoconservative Bill Kristol was the earliest advocate of Palin for VP. “In 1988, Mr. Kristol became a leading adviser of another inexperienced Republican vice presidential pick, Dan Quayle, tutoring him in foreign affairs,” the Telegraph observes.
In a way, neoconservatism is a perfect fit for someone like Palin. It’s an ideology is built upon a reflexive skepticism toward scholarly expertise, tending toward more emotionally satisfying — not to mention politically profitable — policy answers than the boring, reality-based stuff offered by analysts who have spent their entire careers studying these questions.
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As the Wonk Room has documented, neoconservatives like Randy Scheunemann run the McCain’s foreign policy team. Scheunemann briefed Palin on international affairs prior to the ABC interview;
Either he did a piss poor job of it or Ms. Sarah isn’t a quick learner. I find the idea of them “molding” someone into their image to be terrifying. What that means is that Sarah Palin will be a puppet VP or President with the neocons running the government. I think that’s pretty much what we have had for the last 8 years and we certainly can’t weather another 4 years of it.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:35 amPalin is not their “pet project”, she is their next puppet.
No one thinks McCain will live out his term, should he get elected. By installing Palin, the Neocons get their next Reagan/GWB.
Nothing could be scarier…
PEACE
September 15th, 2008 at 11:36 amA former Republican White House official, who now works at the American Enterprise Institute, a bastion of Washington neoconservatism, admitted: “She’s bright and she’s a blank page. She’s going places and it’s worth going there with her.” Asked if he sees her as a “project”, the former official said: “Your word, not mine, but I wouldn’t disagree with the sentiment.”
_______
Amazing. The PNAC Neocons aren’t even trying to fake democratic governance anymore. They’re just flat out saying that what they want in office is a puppet whose strings they can pull.
Hey, look on the bright side. We had almost 2 1/4 centuries of democracy. It was a pretty good run, right?
September 15th, 2008 at 11:38 amIt worked with Reagan….
September 15th, 2008 at 11:38 amSaid Pat Buchanan: “Palin has become, overnight, the most priceless political asset the movement has. Look for the neocons to move with all deliberate speed to take her into their camp…and steering her into the AEI-Weekly Standard-War Party orbit.”
So, essentially, you folks have solidified your base – who were going to vote for you no matter what – while in the process, chasing away millions of undecideds and independents with another war-mongering sociopath in charge?
Brilliant.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:39 amPNAC PALIN
YOU GUYS MISSED A GOOD TITLE
September 15th, 2008 at 11:39 amNeoconservatives Seize Upon Palin’s Cluelessness To Shape Her Foreign Policy Agenda
– - Bill Kristol’s pablum takes a feminine form.
Yes, there’s a joke in there too.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:41 amhussein toasterhead Says: Hey, look on the bright side. We had almost 2 1/4 centuries of democracy. It was a pretty good run, right?
Don’t give up yet. The next American Revolution may not be televised, but it does exist, and it is us.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:42 amA former Republican White House official, who now works at the American Enterprise Institute, a bastion of Washington neoconservatism, admitted: “She’s bright and she’s a blank page.”
This statement/thought process is absolutely insane ; how in the hell can anyone be considered ‘bright’ if they’re a ‘blank page’ ?
What is their ‘brightness’ based upon ?
These people are insanely stupid………………
September 15th, 2008 at 11:43 am‘This Page Intentionally Left Blank‘
September 15th, 2008 at 11:47 amPalin = a tabula raza for more Cheneyesque manipulations ad infinitum!?!?
September 15th, 2008 at 11:49 amObama On Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers And Wall Street Crisis
CHICAGO — Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Monday the upheaval on Wall Street was “the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression” and blamed it on policies that he said Republican rival John McCain supports.
“This country can’t afford another four years of this failed philosophy,” Obama said after the shock-wave announcements that financial giant Lehman Brothers was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while titan Merrill Lynch was being bought by Bank of America for about $50 billion.
Obama’s statement, issued as he prepared to fly to Colorado to begin a swing through contested Western states, was intended to serve two purposes: to link McCain with the unpopular presidency of George W. Bush and to express sympathy with the anxiety of most Americans who say the economy is issue No. 1 in the election.
“The challenges facing our financial system today are more evidence that too many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren’t minding the store,” Obama said in a statement. “Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/obama-on-merrill-lynch-le_n_126392.html
September 15th, 2008 at 11:51 amSo with these statements the GOP is admitting that Palin is NOT QUALIFIED, in fact she is a “blank page” (read: no-nothing idiot)! They are also admitting that they are molding her into a PNAC/AIPAC neoconservative mouth piece. That sure is refreshing! I guess in the GOOPER Party, your experience and free will are not necessary, just your willingness to trade your soul to the neoconservative New World Order movement for a powerful political position. It worked for George W. Bush, Dan Quayle, Ronnie Reagan (Pappa Bush and Dick Cheney were allready on-board). WAKE UP AMERICA! YOU ARE BEING DUPED BY ISRAELI AGENTS INTO GIVING AWAY THE NATION YOU LOVE! Until we purge ourselves of all these stinking neocons in politics, the media and in big-business they will constantly be asserting their influence against the will of American citizens. A big, bright light needs to be shone on this war-hungry group of thugs and their influence in this Country before they destroy everything we love about America.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:52 amThis article forgot to mention that the neoconservative view has been a total failure over the past eight years, weakening our foreign policy position, deepening our federal debt by hundreds of billions (perhaps trillions) of dollars, killing our soldiers for nothing in Iraq, not to mention displacing two million innocent Iraqi civilians and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. You’d think all that failure would merit a mention.
Also Palin has been a Republican science project, apparently, since her early days in Wassilla (sp?) when she signed up for Gingrich’s PAC, if I recall. She’s been one of their robots for a long time, injecting national issues and ideas into odd places like local elections that typically are non-partisan.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:53 amThe country’s at war, the economy is weak, unemployment is up, and we are ill-prpared for another disaster of any form. This is not the time for filing in the blank. We’ve got all these problems and they’re playing in the clay, making mud pies. I didn’t need another reason to never vote republican, but this pick has soured me even more. I didn’t think that was possible.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:54 amIndeed, it should come as no surprise that prominent neoconservative Bill Kristol was the earliest advocate of Palin for VP. “In 1988, Mr. Kristol became a leading adviser of another inexperienced Republican vice presidential pick, Dan Quayle, tutoring him in foreign affairs,” the Telegraph observes.
If William the Effeminate Kristol is extolling your virtues , you know you really don’t possess any ……….
September 15th, 2008 at 11:54 amOne of the commenters on the article I just posted brought up this excellent point:
September 15th, 2008 at 11:55 am
JaneDoe Says:
This article forgot to mention that the neoconservative view has been a total failure over the past eight years, weakening our foreign policy position, deepening our federal debt by hundreds of billions (perhaps trillions) of dollars, killing our soldiers for nothing in Iraq, not to mention displacing two million innocent Iraqi civilians and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. You’d think all that failure would merit a mention.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:53 am
________
A total failure for who?
For the corporate executives running Halliburton and Bechtel and ExxonMobil and SAIC and Raytheon and Blackwater and Chevron and all the other companies at the federal feed trough, the last eight years have been a resounding success.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:56 amNote that this effort to craft Palin into a neocon icon is taking place almost entirely in staged events and pundit circles. She has still done just the one interview with with Charlie Gibson. Note also that since July 27 (50 days), John McCain himself has only appeared before reporters twice.
They are both stonewalling the press, but still manipulating it by getting them to air their lie-filled ads and rally stump speeches.
The Palin Watch
September 15th, 2008 at 11:56 amPNAC Palin and
September 15th, 2008 at 11:56 amPANIC Palin.
JaneDoe Says:
“…since her early days in Wassilla (sp?)”
Jane, it is spelled “Wasilla”, although I certainly understand the inclination to insert “ass” in the name.
PEACE
September 15th, 2008 at 11:59 amMCMetal Says:
… how in the hell can anyone be considered ‘bright’ if they’re a ‘blank page’ ?
– - Some blank pages are a very bright white, ifyacatchmydrift.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:59 amOH NO! I hadn’t thought about it, but remembering the hints that someone has been pulling Dumbya’s strings.
What about someone pulling Palin’s strings and a senile McCain being easily swayed (if not already in the pocket of his lobbyist handlers).
September 15th, 2008 at 11:59 amMcCain’s Cousin: John “Replaced by A Desperate Version Of Himself”
So, where is the straight-talking, commonsense John McCain of 2000? I’m afraid he is long gone, replaced by a desperate version of himself who seems to contradict nearly everything he once stood for.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/mccains-cousin-john-repla_n_126470.html
September 15th, 2008 at 12:02 pmThe Liar is at it again even this morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVzmn1EAeBY&eurl=
Shameless. just shameless.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pmThese people are insanely stupid
Hockey Moms and NASCAR Dads of the jury…all the evidence points to the fact that my client doesn’t have the mental capacity to determine right from wrong, Iran from Iraq or national security expertise from osmotic geographic proximity and thus cannot be held responsible for her own words and actions and therefore must be acquitted of all charges.
But furthermore she was and is being guided and influenced by the criminally insane!
Therefore, being doubly impaired she not only deserves to be forgiven but actually rewarded! She is in fact the victim, and should be compensated with a highly paid job at taxpayers expense.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:05 pmI put it to you, it would be the Christian thing to do. I rest my case.
I wish that ThinkProgess would create a chart starting with the Project for a New American Century and then follow the personnel links to Bush, Cheney, McCain’s campaign (his official blogger) AEI and Gary Bauer.
Keep in mind that PNAC sent that open letter to Bill Clinton in 1998 proposing the overthrow of Sadam. Signers included the usual subjects like Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:08 pmHe got the call at 3:00 a.m., but McGeritol can’t find his damn cape…
September 15th, 2008 at 12:08 pm#15 Bob Says:
The country’s at war, the economy is weak, unemployment is up, and we are ill-prpared for another disaster of any form.
“You know, I was campaigning in Chicago and somebody asked me, is there ever any time where the budget might have to go into deficit? I said only if we were at war or had a national emergency or were in recession. Little did I realize we’d get the trifecta.” —President George W. Bush, Charlotte, North Carolina, Feb. 27, 2002
In 2008 we are still at war, just had another national emergency (Ike) and we’re in ANOTHER recession ( a HUGE one this time), and McCain wants to pile on even more of Bush’s policies!
September 15th, 2008 at 12:10 pmDavidHart Says: I wish that ThinkProgess would create a chart starting with the Project for a New American Century and then follow the personnel links to Bush, Cheney, McCain’s campaign (his official blogger) AEI and Gary Bauer.
Don’t forget McCain comparing himself to Jack Bauer :)
Oh, and I second David’s request. 9 out of 10 people are visually-dominant, so graphics generally make the largest impact.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pmThis Country has suffered through eight years with a President that supports and is controlled by neo-conservatism. The LAST thing America needs is another cheerleader for the neocons and THAT is exactly what the hockey mom will bring you!
September 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pmPalin=lipstick on William Krystal
Palin’s hawkish turn is likely due to the influence of neoconservatives who have made Palin their new pet project.
i have heard PIGS make GREAT pets!
September 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pmI knew that with the failure to launch Fred Thompson the AEI would try something else.
The AEI’s web site posted an article today calle, “Give ‘em Hell, Sarah” in which the writer seems to try to portray her as the sort of candidate the founding fathers would approve of and ties her to this country’s ideals concerning self-government and the idea that all citizens are equal.
In short, she’s the outsider and the purest candidate and the others (even McCain) are elitist and concerns about her represent the snobbery of “The Establishment”. The author compares her to Reagan (”made his career in Hollywood”) and Truman (”not a college graduate”).
Here’s an excerpt in which the author basically asserts that if citizens are good enough to vote then they should be good enough to rule! (Knowledge of foreign policy or economic or environmental issues etc. is not necessary you see because according to the author Sarah is a “natural aristocrat”.)
‘The issue is not whether the establishment would let such a person as Palin cross the bar into the certified political class, but whether regular citizens of this republic have the skill and ability to control the levers of government without having first joined the certified political class. But this begs an even more troublesome question: If we implicitly think uncertified citizens are unfit for the highest offices, why do we trust those same citizens to select our highest officers through free elections?’
Palin is the AEI’s candidate.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:12 pmThis is exactly what they did with the moron Dubya Bush. They took a moron and molded him into the fascist, wacko, thing we have suffered through the past seven plus years.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:16 pmOf course the PNAC’ers have their eye on molding Palin. They need to do so quickly, as their plans for Iran are not far off.
Guess what diverts people’s attention from a bad economy? War!
Bush sells 1,000 bunker buster bombs to Israel
IAEA cites Iran’s non-cooperation in latest report
Bush/Cheney are ready to launch a game changer for both elections and the world. Hold onto your hats! Or should I say pants? Change, my arse!
McCon-Pullin’ “Fabric ‘08 America”
September 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pmThis is getting more and more scarey folks.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pmYou can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pm“Project Palin: Neoconservatives Seize Upon Palin’s Cluelessness To Shape Her Foreign Policy Agenda”
The neocons are one-hundred percent right. They don’t need any pesky counter ideologies to get in their way of global domination. They only want those in power to follow through on the objectives they lay out, the same way Bush has already done.
That is what is so scary about all of this. The sheep in this country seem to prefer to have mindless morons lead them, not realizing, or caring, who leads them.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
September 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pmSarah Palin is a complete fiction. She’s as authentic as the Bush “uniter, not a divider” drivel foisted on America in 2000.
Rather than return America to its idealistic roots, Palin will continue the Bush bleeding of the average citizen. She’s a leech, a lamprey on so many levels.
Palin, the slippery vote sucker…
September 15th, 2008 at 12:22 pmmary Says:
The AEI’s web site posted an article…in which the writer seems to try to portray her as the sort of candidate the founding fathers would approve of and ties her to this country’s ideals concerning self-government and the idea that all citizens are equal.
“Self-government” being a sophist argument of course. The FF’s ideal was for representative government and NOT ‘government of, by, and for the self‘ which is what the entitlement classes of the GOP are interested in.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:24 pmhttp://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13457
The Neocons grooming of Sarah Palin is not because she knows a lot, but because she does not know so much.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:27 pmSarah Palin was the best candidate for Neocons handlers.
Once upon a time we told children that anybody could grow up to be President. Now what do we tell them? That anybody can grow up to be human clay?
September 15th, 2008 at 12:29 pmPalin- Bush on raging hormones + PMS.
Be afraid.
Be VERY afraid.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:33 pmsatirev, I certainly understand your frustration (I’m sick to death of this woman-who-has-ruined-the-name-sarah-for-me) but it’s very scary stuff when the neocons at the AEI admit that she’s just another puppet. A puppet that they intend to control.
Do we want the neocons running things for another four years?
September 15th, 2008 at 12:36 pmMary, thanks for the link to the AEI piece titled “Give ‘em hell, Sarah”. The irony is Harry Truman was a Democrat. He railed against Republicans, over and over.
The author of the AEI piece said, “So far no one has picked up on the significance of Palin’s invocation of Harry Truman in her convention speech.”
Wrong, I wrote about her half hearted attempts to “pull a Harry”. Truman would be most disturbed over the Republican led deterioration of human rights regarding torture. He also had little use for Sarah’s party, saying:
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Republican. But I repeat myself.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:36 pmSuppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Republican. But I repeat myself.
I’d never heard that quote stateofthdivision! Classic!
September 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pmAnother Neocon Puppet? You betcha, she will say anything this Fascist Mafia Criminals tell her to say. They have firmly got their puppet hands up her …. well, you know.
Prepare to have America destroyed and in ruin if the Repukian Mafia steals the election for a third time…if people actually vote for this and let this happen, then we get what we deserve…complete destruction of our society.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:10 pmBoth McCain and Palin support the little tyrant war-criminal Saakashvili, the President of Georgia. Here is a recent statement from Russiatoday news, at http://www.russiatoday.com:
Georgian aggression against South Ossetia chronology of war by RussiaToday 14 Sept 08
About 7 PM on August 7, 2008 Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said live on TV: “Let’s stop the escalation and begin negotiations – direct, multilateral, what else. Let us give peace and dialogue a chance”. Saakashvili added that a few hours before he, as the commander of Georgian army, had ordered all units of the Georgian Defense Ministry and police not to open fire.
The statement calmed the citizens of South Ossetian capital, Tskhinval, who were living in anticipation of escalating conflict. The people believed that there were ways out of crisis and that the Georgian leadership would do all everything necessary for a peaceful settlement.
But within the next few hours tons of hot lead from artillery, howitzers and “Grad” rocket systems were hurled on the peacefully sleeping and defenseless city. Tskhinval plunged into chaos. People died in their beds, on the streets, and in the basements of the houses where they tried to escape the ruthless bombing.
“The Georgian side has virtually declared war on South Ossetia”, – said the commander of the peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia, Marat Kulahmetov, after the firing commenced.
The operation conducted by Georgian troops aimed “to establish constitutional order in the Tskhinvali region” and received the code name of “Clear Field”. There are no doubts about what should have been a result of these actions. There are no buildings, infrastructure, human beings in the clear field. Following the logic, none of this should stay in the zone where the Georgian army was firing. The carpet bombing of civilian building were labeled “the destruction of a criminal regime” by Georgian Minister Temur Yakobashvili. But he didn’t specify how he suspected the residents of Tskhinval of being criminals.
Early in the morning of August 8, another massive wave of shelling from all kinds of weapons commenced, hitting the town. Georgian artillery was aiming at the Tshinval Republican hospital, where the wounded were brought throughout the night. In the middle of the day there were 270 people with gunshot and shrapnel wounds. Medical Personnel were unable to take new patients and had to evacuate the injured to the building basement.
Georgian tank columns entered Tskhinval. The Russian peacekeepers didn’t return fire, but the Georgian tanks, and artillery, attacked their positions. The first tank shot destroyed the observation post on the roof of the barracks of the Russian peacekeeping battalion, located in Tskhinval. As a result, Russian soldier, Sergey Kononov, was killed. The next series of bursts destroyed the battalion’s equipment, including hospital vehicles, which were clearly marked with Red Cross signs.
After this began a massive offensive on the battalion position, by infantry backed with tanks and artillery. In the first hours of battle, Russian peacekeepers suffered serious casualties – ten people were killed, and 25 wounded.
The shelling of South Ossetia was accompanied by an attack from the air. Five Georgian Su-25 aircraft attacked the village Tkverneti. In addition, planes were dropping bombs on the village of Kvernet and bombed a convoy with humanitarian aid, which was going into Tskhinval by the Zarskaya road.
In Tskhinval, now cut from the outside world, Georgian punishers were restoring “the constitutional order” with fire and sword. Saakashvili’s soldiers were opening fire at all moving targets: men, women, elderly people and children. Georgian tanks were shooting at vehicles stuffed with panic-stricken people trying to escape the burning city. Heavy vehicles ran over burning cars with people inside them. Basements, which sheltered those who could not run away, were bombarded with grenades. Georgian snipers occupied the key heights, showering the city with bullets from all the sides.
The essential priority in the protection of human rights is the right to life. Killing for the sake of a national idea cannot be justified. In South Ossetia, the key legal and human values, worked out by the world community over the course of centuries were crossed out by barbarity, by absurd and blind aggression, in one night.
The war in South Ossetia, Georgia unleashed on the opening day of the Olympic Games in Beijing, only produced the concern of the international community. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated that he was extremely concerned by the outbreak of violence in South Ossetia. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council, called for an emergency session on South Ossetia, was unable, not only to stop Georgia’s aggression but even come up with a joint resolution on the situation in South Ossetia. EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana had a telephone conversation with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, urging him to take all necessary measures to stop violence in South Ossetia.
The reaction of the international community did not stop the Georgian military machine. On August 8, fighting went on for the whole day. A small group of Ossetian militia and police resisted the Georgian army – trained by American and Israeli instructors and equipped with brand new arms. Georgia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Gurgenidze stated that “government troops must establish guaranteed peace” and that the military operation would continue until the population is in security.
While exterminating the residents of Tskhinval and South Ossetian villages, the Georgian leadership made repeated statements insisting on a peaceful settlement of the conflict. By 3 p.m. on August 8 the Georgian authorities announced a shooting moratorium for the organisation of a refugee corridor. However, peacekeepers who stayed in the area refuted these statements, saying that the city was under constant shelling.
Could Russia not give an adequate response to the unprovoked, barbaric actions of the Georgian leadership? Thousands of Russian citizens live in South Ossetia, Russian peacekeepers with international status have been ensuring security in the region over the course of 15 years. All earlier agreements reached between Georgia and South Ossetia, with the participation of Russia, the European Union, and OSCE, were cancelled by war crimes which could not be left unpunished. The residents of South Ossetia wanted to survive at all costs while the Georgian authorities were doing their best to keep their grip on the occupied territory.
Taking into account the indistinct stance of the U.S. and the EU, the extermination of the South Ossetians could only be stopped by the tough and proportionate use of force. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took the decision about a “peace enforcement operation”. On August 8, units of Russia’s 58th army entered the territory of South Ossetia.
In the evening of August 9 the Russian army started pushing Georgian forces out of Tskhinval. By this time, the peacekeeping camp was almost destroyed. At seized observation points Georgian soldiers were shooting at peacekeepers and local residents, preventing medical services from evacuating the wounded from the combat area. Hundreds of refugees were seeking rescue at the Zarsk road. Noticing tanks, people would rush to soldiers for help and protection. However, taking advantage of the similar look of the military equipment being used by both sides, the Georgian military coolly shot and burned defenseless people in their cars.
Supported by the South Ossetian militia, the Russian army was able to push the Georgian aggressors to the outskirts of the city, and a part of Georgian army was encircled. The Russian air force struck Georgian air bases from where Georgian planes were carrying out regular air strikes on Tskhinval. The fighting continued on August 10 and 11. On these days the Georgian military continued shelling the capital and villages of South Ossetia. On August 12 Georgian military bases near the city of Gori were destroyed. It was not until August 13 that the first columns with the humanitarian aid could make their way to Tskhinval and affected villages.
Georgian aggression claimed the lives of hundreds of South Ossetian civilians. Hundreds of injured filled the hospitals of Vladikavkas, in Russia’s republic of North Ossetia. In the first days of the war thousands of refugees crossed the border to North Ossetia. People were forced to leave their houses and belongings. They had to flee, leaving the bodies of their killed relatives unburied. By August 14 there were 34,000 people in refugee camps in Russia’s republics of North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and its Stavropol, Krasnodar and Rostov regions.
The Georgian military blew up the water pipeline in Tskhinval, which severely exacerbated the humanitarian disaster. People who stayed in the city during the military operation and the following week had no fresh water and food. Emergencies workers set up hospitals in Tskhinval and the village of Java, and started providing assistance. They also organised water supply and distribution of food.
The investigation of crimes in South Ossetia shows that the shelling residential areas by Georgia’s military used cluster bombs as well as various multiple artillery rocket systems; notably the GradLAR-160, and the 262 mm Orkan. A 46-kilogramme rocket launcher contains 104 dual purpose M85 cluster bombs produced in the U.S. One shell can cover a massive area. These are exactly the shells in service with the Georgian army.
From August 7 to 8, 18 Grad units, each containing 40 rocket missiles, were shelling Tskhinval. 720 missiles were fired in 30 seconds. The large coverage area of the shells coupled with the non-specific targeting resulted in multiple civilian casualties and victims in Tskhinval, and other cities and villages in South Ossetia.
According to the specialists’ assessment, 70 per cent of the South Ossetian capital was ruined. A calm and cozy city turned into Stalingrad, destroyed by the Nazi in 1942-1943. As a result of Georgia’s aggression, industrial facilities and government buildings are destroyed. Cultural and historic monuments suffered particularly, as they were deliberately targeted by the artillery and tanks. This shows that the Georgian military aimed to annihilate not only the people but their cultural heritage.
The historical part of the city, considered to be an architectural conservation area, has been completely wiped out. During the war of 1991-92 it was severely damaged, and this time it has been completely burnt down. After Grad shelling no joist has been left which would allow an assessment or determination of the age of the buildings, many of which having a thousand-year history. The city’s synagogue survived the bombing but was severely ravaged. Blast waves have caused deep cracks in the walls of the orthodox church of Georgy Kavtinsky, which dates back to the 9th century. The foundations of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, built in 1718, have been shaken.
The memorial house museum of prominent Iran researcher Vasily Abayev has been burned down, while his monument, in Teatralnya square in central Tskhinval, was beheaded. Georgian tanks virtually wiped off the face of the earth a memorial cemetery, in the courtyard of school #5, where those perished in the war of the 1990s are buried. All cultural institutions in Tskhinval suffered. The local history museum, “Chermen” and cinema are ruined, the Culture Ministry building with documents concerning South Ossetia’s more than 700 historical and cultural monuments, is burnt down. The Parliament building of South Ossetia, which is an architectural monument constructed in 1937, has also been reduced to ashes.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pmAnd no thinking is required! Just blink and boom! another country is attacked.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:56 pmWow. Just what this country needs. Another power-hungry politician with an agenda.
While I believe that Bush’s agenda was to line Daddy’s friends’ pockets with money.
I believe Sarah Palin’s will be to bring about Armageddon.
September 15th, 2008 at 2:01 pm“and the pundits on board took tea with Governor Palin. ”
Took tea????
how elitist.
September 15th, 2008 at 2:36 pm