Everybody's Wrong But Me

Russia invaded Georgia mainly because it was in its own interest.  Using pretext that Georgia was doing a military operation in one of its own province (the breakaway province of South Ossetia who is de jure part of Georgia but de facto an independent country), Russia just invaded its neighbour.  The operation by the Georgian forces was admittedly a bit foolish, but certainly not a reason for invasion.

Most world leaders have condemned Russia for its bold move against international law on the day of the Olympics openings.  Without exception, George W. Bush is one of them.  But frankly, when it comes to give lessons on respect of international law, the inventor of the “pre-emptive war” is the worst person to give advices.

For its own interest, the US invaded Iraq in 2003.  Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world (after Saudi Arabia).  The Persian Gulf (where both Iraq and Saudi Arabia are located) is well under the American sphere of influence.  The Caspian Sea region has the second largest oil reserves in the world.  During the Cold War, the Caspian Sea was largely under the control of Moscow.  But since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the USA has grown to become a strong influence in the region.

Because of Geography, the Caspian Sea reserves are landlocked inside the Eurasian continent.  To get it out of there, the oil must transit into other countries.  But for a series of reasons going from geography and politics, until recently all the oil from the Caspian Sea and Central Asia transited through Russia.  But a new pipeline was built in 2005, making Georgia the only country outside of Russia where the Caspian Sea oil can be exported.  Russia does not want money or oil (they have both), what Russia wants in dominating Georgia is control.  The control of the world’s second largest oil reserves.

In the last few years, Russia has grown rapidly to be a secluded and authoritarian regime.  Long gone are the times of the early 90s where the country experienced a time of political freedom.  Along with restrictions of liberties, Russia has grown to be more and more defiant to the West.  The Putin regime transformed a promising democracy into an authoritarian regime.  Unfortunately, for most people in Russia, democracy has been synonym with corruption and unemployment while the Putin authoritarianism is associated with order and economic growth.  For this, democracy has almost no chance to succeed in Russia any time soon.

To control the access of Caspian Sea oil to Western democracies, Moscow invaded Georgia.  For the same concept of blind national interest, Bush invaded Iraq five years ago.  In both cases, the reason for the move (protecting ethnic minorities in Georgia; removing WMD in Iraq) has been seen as a weak pretext that did not convince much people.

When he talks about respecting other countries territorial integrity, Bush has absolutely no credibility.  Russia’s move is basically applying the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strike in its own national interest, without any regard to international law or just plain decency.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 13:35 and is filed under International, Issues & politics.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.