Merkel offers reason amidst the right wing lies.

Amid the US's more lurid accusations against Russia, which tend to ignore the fact that Georgia was the aggressor in this current situation, Angela Merkel has come across as the voice of reason by stating, "Some of Russia's actions were not proportionate."

That's true. But if one were to listen to Bush, McCain and Rice, one would have to reinvent what actually happened here to make any sense of their public statements.

Unlike the Americans and some European states who are saying the Russians should face "consequences" for their invasion, Merkel said negotiations with Moscow on a whole range of issues would continue as before and spread the blame for the conflict. "It is rare that all the blame is on one side. In fact, both sides are probably to blame. That is very important to understand," she said.

In Tbilisi, Rice was much more forthright, saying that the invasion had "profound implications for Russia ... This calls into question what role Russia really plans to play in international politics.

"You can't be a responsible member of institutions which are democratic and underscore democratic values and on the other hand act in this way against one of your neighbours."

Again, Rice's logic appears to be saying that Georgia, because it is "democratic", is to be allowed to invade and attack South Ossetia and that it is an attack on democracy itself for Russia to make any kind of move to protect the South Ossetians. It's insane, I know, but what else can she mean when she talks of the way Russia has behaved towards it's neighbours? Rice makes no mention at all of the way Georgia has behaved towards an enclave it regards as it's own.

The Russians have not yet left Georgia because Georgia has not yet signed the ceasefire plan, although that all changed yesterday when Saakashvili finally put pen to paper whilst denouncing his Russian opponents in terms which Cheney would be proud of:

Saakashvili signed yesterday, while accusing the Russians of being "evil" and "21st century barbarians". Rice said Medvedev had also signed it.

"Russia has every time been testing the reaction of the west. It's going to replicate what happened in Georgia elsewhere," said Saakashvili. "We are looking evil directly in the eye. Today this evil is very strong, and very dangerous for everybody, not just for us."

Here, of course, Saakashvili gets it precisely wrong. The US, through their puppet Georgia, tested the reaction of Russia, and what's infuriating Rice, Saakashvili and other right wing loons is that Russia was well prepared for their intervention and responded quickly and with great force. This leads the right to charge that Russia was obviously prepared for this, as if being prepared is, in itself, a bad thing.

What's simply astonishing throughout this dispute is the way that the US media are accepting the narrative, which they know to be false, which Rice and others are pedalling. Only because the US media are behaving in this way is Rice able to make statements like this:

"Georgia has been attacked. Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once," said Rice. The withdrawal "must take place, and take place now ... This is no longer 1968," she added in reference to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia 40 years ago next week.

What's angering Rice and others in the Bush team is that Russia are most probably going to remove South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgian control and that there is nothing that they can do about it. They are screaming about "territorial integrity" and generally making a lot of noise because their plans have failed. They are trying to hide from the American public the sheer scale of their failure.

But people like Angela Merkel are offering a rare glimpse at reality. "Some of Russia's actions were not proportionate." It's shameful to note that, in the current atmosphere surrounding this dispute, Merkel is one of the few people who is actually not outright lying.

The American right have been lying about this dispute from the moment it kicked off with people like John McCain pretending that it will up to historians to work out who provoked this war.

However, the war has had one very serious consequence. Poland has agreed to host US missiles as part of the Pentagon's missile shield system. The Russian reaction to that has been severe:

Russia's deputy chief of staff turned on Warsaw and said it was vulnerable to a Russian rocket attack because of Thursday's pact with the US on the missile defence project.

"By deploying, Poland is exposing itself to a strike - 100%," warned Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn. He added that Russia's security doctrine allowed it to use nuclear weapons against an active ally of a nuclear power such as America.

Since 9-11 the world has come together to support the US in her time of strife. And yet, as we see from the conflict in Georgia and South Ossetia, the US has continued to play the same tiresome Cold War games which she has always played.

The US is making the world a more dangerous place by refusing to recognise that she is not the only country with legitimate interests.

And the arguments she is making to back up her blatant Cold War posturing in the Caucasus' are infantile. The fact that a nation is democratic does not make it immune from the charge that it has behaved aggressively, which appears to be the ridiculous argument the American right wing are putting forward. I'm pleased to note that even Merkel isn't joining them in that insanity.

Click title for source.

Tags: Merkel, Rice, South Ossetia, Russia, Georgia, Abkhazia