Georgia is nervously calling “for an independent investigation into who started the war between Russia and Georgia…after the New York Times and BBC's Newsnight programme raised serious doubts about Georgia's claim that its attack on the breakaway Georgian enclave of South Ossetia on August 7/8 was in response to Russian aggression”.
But it was the Amnesty International report comdemning both sides that is really significant, due to Amnesty's reputation as an impartial and respected source that rarely sides with Russia.
“The rights group said the use of notoriously inaccurate Grad rockets in the Georgian assault on Tskhinvali resulted in “scores of civilian deaths” and violated international law on the conduct of war.
Amnesty also took Moscow to task for failing to stop killings, torture and abuses against civilians perpetrated by Russia's allies ‚ the South Ossetian militias ‚ in ethnic Georgian enclaves inside the breakaway region”.
Now, in light of this joint culpability (if anything, Georgia's was active – shelling civilians 0 and Russia's passive -failing to rein in allies), the question that I asked in August remains:
Why [did] CNN care more about Russian violence in Gori than Georgian violence in Tskhinvali?
Mark Ames has some excellent hunches over at his zine Exiledonline.
This is also a perfect time to remember Barack Obama's original declaration at the start of the crisis, for which he was roundly ridiculed for being a wimp and even, in McCain's words, “bizarrely in synch with Moscow”:
“I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict,” Obama said in a statement. “Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint”.
At that time, McCain responded with these now embarassing histrionics:
"That's kind of like saying after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, that Kuwait and Iraq need to show restraint, or like saying in 1968 [when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia] … that the Czechoslovaks should show restraint," he said.
We can only hope that Americans hawks, of all political stripes, learn some lessons about the wisdom of reflexive, ill-informed bellicosity, and that Obama feels vindicated enough in his moderation to ward off similar attacks at the future US president.
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