[Marxism] "Russo-Georgian conflict is not all Russia's fault"

[Fred Feldman]

I want to comment here on disagreement with my admitted speculation that
Georgian President Saakashvilli got a green light from whoever he is
assigned to call in Washington when he does sometbing major. I think he did
do so, and would not have made such a step without asking, because of his
central orientation toward Washington and NATO. What would his contact have
said? "Great! Give the Russians a good slap in the face!"  If he asked what
if the Russians responded, his interlocutor would have assured him: "They
wouldn't dare! They would be taking on the whole world. Do what you think is
right!" 

Did he or she make specific guarantees of what they would do if Russia did
not obey the prediction? I doubt it, and it was in accepting their
statements at this point that his stupidity comes into play-- normal
stupidity, not the kind that assumes he left his favored unipolar dominator
completely out of the loop in creating a world crisis, with -- I insist
along with JB despite our differences in details -- a situation that points
clearly toward a potential World War III. 

And the Georgian president acted, assuming he was in the clear with the
powers whose domination he gladly accepts rather with the power whose
domination he indignantly rejects.

Will we learn about this? Doubtful. Maybe only if Sakaashvilli 's political
survival or physical survival hinges on convincing Georgians that his
decision to assert Georgian power over S. Ossetia was not just crazy, and I
don't think he is just crazy.
Fred Feldman

The always valuable Marxmail contributor Walter Lippmann submitted (from the
Christian Science Monitor):	
"For Georgia, this war has been a disastrous miscalculation. 
South Ossetia and Abkhazia are now completely lost. It is almost impossible
to imagine a scenario under which these places - home to perhaps 200,000
people - would ever consent to coming back into a Georgian state they
perceive as an aggressor."