On Cold War 2
They say now blogs can do some influence. So, this is my drop in a sea.
The first cold war between USA and USSR ended in early 90-s with a break-up of USSR. Now it has the second incarnation. This time between USA and Russia and the battlefield is former USSR republics.
Who is interested in this war? Economically: everybody who is profiting from USA defense budget and weapon production plus some of their partners in Russia. Politically: the existence of "axises of evil" helps politicians to move the public focus from some other internal problems.
Who is losing in this war? Both Russia and USA are damaging their economies, but it is incomparable to the damage done to the former republics where are provoked nationalistic confrontations and even civil wars.
I call up to the people of former USSR republics to stop electing politicians who support either of the sides. Elect the ones who are able to increase the welfare of your country, not just their own welfare and international debts.
# posted by romka,
Thursday, August 28, 2008
15:17
Before elections they usually just distribute pictures of themselves with blue background and white smiles. If you want to change the world, start a blog where you collect info about the candidates: what did they study, what they have done so far, what they have said-as many facts as possibly available. You would help in fact thousands of people to get to know more than the shape of the smile.
good idea. i would say it is a job of not not-corrupted journalists. but may be i can contribute somehow. i will search for a chance.
Telling just something from the point "where are we now?", without examining the roots and causes is worse than not telling anything at all.
If you find yourself sitting in shit, I suggest you first to step out and only then think of how you got there, in order not to do it again. Also the question "where are we now" in many cases is more difficult than "how did we come here".
I meant it like putting the same responsibility weights for Russia and USA, just because USA has taken the most well-established and solid position against Russia doesn't make their fault equal. So if you claim that the actual war is between Russia and USA then I can congratulate you with complying with the most of Russian citizen thoughts - 79% agreed with the claim that Georgia is USA pawn and 52% of them - that USA oredered Georgian president to "attack Russia".
In short from my positions I've seen that western world is operating with facts, Russia - with lies and exaggerations, but they don't care, because everybody knows that any military force against Russia would mean Nuclear war and any sanctions would mean the Europe without energy - and believe me - they won't back off as long as they see that they can get what they want and nobody can do nothing to stop it.
I think that this should give some more insight: http://latviaforgeorgia.blogspot.com/
I think the lies in the media are equal from both sides, just from USA side they are more prepared (just recall USA activities in Iraq). But overall, intelligent villains are not far better than stupid ones.
I clearly cannot say who is more guilty for the situation in Georgia. I support Georgia and I don't support any current or past presidents leading their country to civil wars.
I talk only about this occasion not all the rest of the conflicts the both sides have been into, because it almost directly has something to do with me as Latvian - it's a well planned aggression attack and occupation against sovereign, democratic, former soviet union country who has dared not to comply with Russia's interests and policies. If Russia now will stand its ground and get home-free then Baltic, Polish, Ukrainian leaders would have been right - who's next? Currently it's Russia against the rest of the world - the catalizator is China - it's dead silent, even though Russia has done everything to lean into its butt (even by gifting some stretches of their own territory) to put up together a reasonable opposition to western Europe. And I've always claimed that Western world has interests and principles, Russia has only interests.
My point is that neither Russian government nor USA government cares about the welfare of ex-Soviet republics. I don't know if Switzerland-like neutral position can be applied in such situation, but it might be a solution.