Friday, August 15, 2008

Georgie Porgy Puddin and Pie...

I need to blog more often. There's a bunch of stuff (the garden, Damien's by the River, cheese, the Olympics....) screaming in my head to get out right now but some of it will just have to wait. The loudest scream by far is Georgie boy. If you think you can tell me what to write about here, your wrong. My blog, my thoughts. I don't mind intelligent disagreement and discourse, but it doesn't matter what the argument is about, I win. I try not to talk about politics in person, but here I can do whatever I want. Don't read it if you don't want to, but it's mine.

I had the pleasure of driving between home and Syracuse, NY this week for business. For me the ride goes across some fairly small state highways in southern New Hampshire and southern Vermont. If you ever get a chance to make this drive, please do, you won't be disappointed. To name a few, the towns of Dublin, Brattleboro and Bennington (the statues!!!) are very interesting. When I'm alone in the car I listen to either sports, talk or news radio because the act of concentrating on the conversation helps to keep me awake. NPR was available so I spent most of the trip listening. In spite of what the conservative right will tell you, they provide a balanced, intelligent view of the issues. After listening to the local news reports, they switched to the BBC news hour. Both reports spent significant time discussing the latest reports out of Georgia and Ossetia (my co-rider later on referred to it as Ossipee). I think I understand the issues at least in a fundamental way. The Ossettians are the typical "breakaway" republic for Georgia. We have this problem all over the world. In Iraq and Turkey it is the Kurds, in Spain the Basques, in Columbia the FARQ, in China it's Tibet. The problem of ethnic majorities within regions of a country of a different ethnic majority is a common issue throughout the world. The issues in each of these regions are complex and have been there in some cases for centuries.

Georgia decided (or it's president Shaskavilie ??SP??) it was time to bring it's breakaway republic of Ossetia back into the fold by sending troops. Since Russia agreed with Ossetia, Russia decided to support the Ossetians and sent in troops. Small country vs big country; guess who won. Georgie boy decided we needed to put our two cents worth in and stated his "moral" outrage at the invasion of Russian troops into the sovereign nation of Georgia. I'm sorry Georgie boy, but no one is listening. You lost that little item several years ago in Iraq. You know the one I'm talking about. It's called the moral high ground. Thanks to you we are now looked on as just another power hungry country in the world. Afganistan was justified and needed to take place after 911, but the decision to go into Iraq, the lies and misdirection on weapons of mass destruction, the later excuse of freeing the Iraqi people from the dictatorship of Saddam, the need to control the news media reports of your administration and the use of interrogation techniques just this side of torture has left the world with a bad taste in it's mouth. I support our troops and the wonderful job they do following orders, but you have now left them exposed to the same torture techniques (sleep deprivation. water boarding, dogs ...etc) that you yourself condoned.

Imagine the conversation taking place between Georgie boy and Mr.Putin.

Putin: Ah, George, I've decided to invade Georgia.

Georgie boy: I don't think the people in Atlanta are going to like that Vlad.

Putin: Not that one Georgie boy, the one over here.

Georgia boy: I didn't know you had one over there. Why do you want to do that Vlad?

Putin: Because your tied up with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also, because I can. Georgie boy, at least this one is near my home. Now you better not say anything to the rest of the world because they don't really like you right now. Everyone is laughing because your just like us now.


Sigh... Since WW2 we have been the supporter of human rights and freedom everywhere. Now we're just another land of politicians hungry for power. And everyone knows it.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I recently saw some pics of the conflict and thought I'd share. A couple are pretty graphic, but you have to choose to view them. I just think the landscape in the first shot is GORGEOUS!!!