Russians Sponsoring Ethnic Cleansing in Georgia: US Media Remains Silent

Russia shows no sign of withdrawing from Georgian territory. Instead, Russian troops are overseeing a murderous round of ethnic cleansing in the Georgian city of Gori and surrounding areas. US media appear to be boycotting much of the Russian misconduct, for curiously unstated reasons. Can any readers think of why the US media would focus on a dud of a tropical storm Fay, rather than cover an ongoing war?

...the Times Online informs us that Russians have been forcing the people of Gori - an extremely important rail and road junction that is the lifeline for the capitol Tblisi - to leave. And they are killing them if they stay:

"We didn't have any guns, so he shot Georgi in front of me without saying a word," she said. "A neighbour helped me to bury him in our garden and then I just fled."

Manana Galigashvili, 53, whose husband Andrei stared vacantly from a bed behind her, said that Ossetian soldiers had returned later and torched the house. They, too, had left after a soldier threatened to slit their throats.

Frightened refugees told similar stories all over the city of Gori yesterday as the Russian army extended its reach deep into Georgian territory despite a ceasefire agreement signed by President Medvedev that requires them to withdraw.

Back in Gori, the forcible depopulation of a city under threat of death represents an escalation in Russian brutality. So where's the American media? All we are getting from the New York Times is story after story that this is our fault, or Georgia's fault, or NATO's fault - anything but face the fact that Russia is raping and pillaging a tiny neighbor. _AT

Russia has suffered significant problems in the course of its barbaric treatment of a non-threatening neighbor:

As hundreds of battered Russian armored vehicles wound through the mountain passes toward Tskhinvali, an AP reporter saw a number of tanks broken down in the road, blocking traffic; or being repaired, with soldiers working underneath them with wrenches; or even being towed by other vehicles....Russia said 74 soldiers died and more than 170 were wounded in fighting, but Georgian officials claimed Russian losses were much higher....While Russia would have to expect to lose some low-flying ground attack jets, former Russian air force chief Anatoly Kornukov said the loss of the heavy bomber - which the military said was on a "reconnaissance mission" - should have been avoided... _PostIntelligencer

A half dozen other Russian planes were shot down, and a handful of Russian boats were sunk by the Georgian navy. Russia's decrepit military could barely handle the feeble defense of tiny Georgia! I wonder how it intends to maintain its hold on Georgia after pressure from the international community led by the US and UK forces them to pull back at least to Ossetia and Abkhazia? Oh, right. They are ethnically cleansing huge swathes of Georgia and arming Ossetian and Abkhazian rebels--using them as cats' paws--as well as leaving Spetnatz commandoes embedded with the terrorist rebels. Very clever, although brutal beyond what Serbia's fascists did in Kosovo. I wonder if the world court will indict Putin?

So why is the US media boycotting coverage of an ongoing ethnic cleansing in a country friendly to the west? Because revealing the true extent of Russian brutality and blatant dishonesty in perpetuating an ongoing genocide in Georgia would reveal how wrong their analyses have been, and would also make their boy Obama look bad. As simple as that. Obama really and truly dropped the ball here, and no one in the media wants to put that brutal reality front and center in front of voters just before the DNC Denver festivities begin.

Everyone who wants to relax and take a complete "hands off" approach--just let Russia do whatever it wants within its "sphere of influence," must not play strategy games very well. Because Putin thinks Russia's sphere of influence encompasses all of Europe, all of Central Asia, and most of the Arctic. Bad boy Putin is on a collision course with reality, but how many will he take with him when he goes? The longer he is allowed to crash through newly democratic neighborhoods, the freer he will feel to reach out further and further--sound like any other hyper-ambitious lebensraum seeking dictator you may have read about somewhere?