- A Europe united under the EU and especially NATO is to
be strong enough to contain, isolate and increasingly confront Russia as
the central component of U.S. plans for control of Eurasia and the world,
but cannot be allowed to conduct an independent foreign policy, particularly
in regard to Russia and the Middle East. European NATO allies are to assist
Washington in preventing the emergence of "the most dangerous scenario...a
grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran" such as has been
adumbrated since in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
-
- Four years after the publication of The Grand Chessboard,
Brzezinski's recommended chess move was made: The U.S. and NATO invaded
Afghanistan and expanded into Central Asia where Russian, Chinese and Iranian
interests converge and where the basis for their regional cooperation existed,
and Western military bases were established in the former Soviet republics
of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, where they remain for the indefinite
future.
-
- As the United States escalates its joint war with NATO
in Afghanistan and across the Pakistani border, expands military deployments
and exercises throughout Africa under the new AFRICOM, and prepares to
dispatch troops to newly acquired bases in Colombia as the spearhead for
further penetration of that continent, it is simultaneously targeting Eurasia
and the heart of that vast land mass, the countries of the former Soviet
Union.
-
- Within months of the formal breakup of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics in December of 2001, leading American policy advisers
and government officials went to work devising a strategy to insure that
the fragmentation was final and irreversible. And to guarantee that the
fifteen new nations emerging from the ruins of the Soviet Union would not
be allied in even a loose association such as the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) founded in the month of the Soviet Union's dissolution.
-
- Three of the former Soviet republics, the Baltic states
of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, never joined the CIS and in 2004 became
full members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in all three cases
placing the U.S.-led military bloc on Russian borders.
-
- That left eleven other former republics to be weaned
from economic, political, infrastructural, transportation and defense sector
integration with Russia, integration that was extensively and comprehensively
developed for the seventy four years of the USSR's existence and in many
cases for centuries before during the Czarist period.
-
- A change of its socio-economic system and the splintering
of the nation with the world's largest territory only affected U.S. policy
toward former Soviet space insofar as it led to Washington and its allies
coveting and moving on a vast expanse of Europe and Asia hitherto off limits
to it.
-
- Two months after the end of the Soviet Union then U.S.
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz and his deputy in the
Pentagon, Lewis Libby, authored what became known as the Defense Planning
Guidance document for the years 199499. Some accounts attribute the
authorship to Libby and Zalmay Khalilzad under Wolfowitz's tutelage.
-
- Afghan-born Khalilzad is a fellow alumnus of Wolfowitz
at the University of Chicago and worked under him in the Ronald Reagan
State Department starting in 1984. From 1985-1989 he was the Reagan administration's
special adviser on the proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan
and on the Iran-Iraq war. In the first capacity he coordinated the Mujahideen
war against the government of Afghanistan waged from Pakistan along with
Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Robert Gates, now U.S.
Secretary of Defense. (Gates has a doctorate degree in Russian and Soviet
Studies, as does his former colleague the previous U.S. secretary of state
Condoleezza Rice.)
-
- The main recipient of U.S. arms and training within the
Mujahideen coalition during those years was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose
still extant armed group Hezb-e-Islami assisted in driving American troops
out of Camp Keating in Afghanistan's Nuristan province this October. Hekmatyar
remains in Afghanistan heading the Hezb-e-Islami and top U.S. and NATO
military commander General Stanley McChrystal in his Commander's Initial
Assessment of September - which called for a massive increase in American
troops for the war - identified the party as one of three main insurgent
forces that as many as 85,000 U.S. and thousands of NATO reinforcements
will be required to fight.
-
- The Wolfowitz-Libby-Khalilzad Defense Planning Guidance
prototype appeared in the New York Times on March 7, 1992 and to demonstrate
that the end of the Soviet Union and the imminent fall of the Afghan government
(Hekmatyar and his allies would march into Kabul two months later) affected
U.S. policy toward Russia not one jot contained these passages:
-
- "Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence
of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere,
that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union.
This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy
and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating
a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient
to general global power."
-
- "We continue to recognize that collectively the
conventional forces of the states formerly comprising the Soviet Union
retain the most military potential in all of Eurasia; and we do not dismiss
the risks to stability in Europe from a nationalist backlash in Russia
or efforts to reincorporate into Russia the newly independent republics
of Ukraine, Belarus, and possibly others....We must, however, be mindful
that democratic change in Russia is not irreversible, and that despite
its current travails, Russia will remain the strongest military power in
Eurasia and the only power in the world with the capability of destroying
the United States."
-
- In its original and revised versions the 46-page Defense
Planning Guidance document laid the foundation for what would informally
become known as the Wolfowitz Doctrine and later the Bush Doctrine, indistinguishable
in any essential manner from the Blair, alternately known as Clinton, Doctrine
enunciated in 1999: That the U.S. (with its NATO allies) reserves the unquestioned
right to employ military force anywhere in the world at any time for whichever
purpose it sees fit and to effect "regime change" overthrows
of any governments viewed as being insufficiently subservient to Washington
and its regional and global designs.
-
- Five years later former Carter administration National
Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who launched the Afghan Mujahideen
support project in 1978 and worked with Khalilzad at Colombia when the
latter was Assistant Professor of Political Science at the university's
School of International and Public Affairs from 1979 to 1989 and Brzezinski
headed the Institute on Communist Affairs, wrote an article called "A
Geostrategy for Eurasia."
-
- It was in essence a precis of his book of the same year,
The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And It's Geostrategic Imperatives,
and was published in Foreign Affairs, the journal of the New York-based
Council on Foreign Relations.
-
- The framework for the piece is contained in this paragraph:
-
- "America's status as the world's premier power is
unlikely to be contested by any single challenger for more than a generation.
No state is likely to match the United States in the four key dimensions
of power - military, economic, technological, and cultural - that confer
global political clout. Short of American abdication, the only real alternative
to American leadership is international anarchy. President Clinton is correct
when he says America has become the world's 'indispensable nation.'"
-
- Brzezinski identified the subjugation of Eurasia as Washington's
chief global geopolitical objective, with the former Soviet Union as the
center of that policy and NATO as the main mechanism to accomplish the
strategy.
-
- "Europe is America's essential geopolitical bridgehead
in Eurasia. America's stake in democratic Europe is enormous. Unlike America's
links with Japan, NATO entrenches American political influence and military
power on the Eurasian mainland. With the allied European nations still
highly dependent on U.S. protection, any expansion of Europe's political
scope is automatically an expansion of U.S. influence. Conversely, the
United States' ability to project influence and power in Eurasia relies
on close transatlantic ties.
-
- "A wider Europe and an enlarged NATO will serve
the short-term and longer-term interests of U.S. policy. A larger Europe
will expand the range of American influence without simultaneously creating
a Europe so politically integrated that it could challenge the United States
on matters of geopolitical importance, particularly in the Middle East...."
-
- The double emigre - first from Poland, then from Canada
- advocated a diminished role for nation states, including the U.S., and
Washington's collaboration in building a stronger Europe in furtherance
of general Western domination of Eurasia, the Middle East, Africa and the
world as a whole.
-
- "In practical terms, all this will eventually require
America's accommodation to a shared leadership in NATO, greater acceptance
of France's concerns over a European role in Africa and the Middle East,
and continued support for the European Union's eastward expansion even
as the EU becomes politically and economically more assertive....A new
Europe is still taking shape, and if that Europe is to remain part of the
'Euro-Atlantic' space, the expansion of NATO is essential."
-
- While giving lip service to the role of the European
Union, he left no doubt as to which organization - the world's only military
bloc - is to lead the charge in the conquest of the former Soviet Union
as well as the world's "periphery." It is NATO.
-
- Already stating in 1997, two years before his native
Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary would become full members of the
Alliance, that "Ukraine, provided it has made significant domestic
reforms and has become identified as a Central European country, should
also be ready for initial negotiations with the EU and NATO," he added:
-
- "Failure to widen NATO, now that the commitment
has been made, would shatter the concept of an expanding Europe and demoralize
the Central Europeans. Worse, it could reignite dormant Russian political
aspirations in Central Europe. Moreover, it is far from evident that the
Russian political elite shares the European desire for a strong American
political and military presence in Europe....If a choice must be made between
a larger Europe-Atlantic system and a better relationship with Russia,
the former must rank higher."
-
- That a former U.S. foreign policy official and citizen
of the country would so blithely determine years before the event which
nations would join the European Union went without comment on both sides
of the Atlantic. That the nominal geographic location of a nation - placing
Ukraine in Central Europe - would be assigned by an American was similarly
assumed to be Washington's prerogative evidently.
-
- Despite vapid maunderings about desiring to free post-Soviet
Russia from its "imperial past" and "integrating [it] into
a cooperative transcontinental system," Brzezinski presented a blueprint
for surrounding the nation with a NATO cordon sanitaire, in truth a wall
of military fortifications.
-
- "Russia is more likely to make a break with its
imperial past if the newly independent post-Soviet states are vital and
stable. Their vitality will temper any residual Russian imperial temptations.
Political and economic support for the new states must be an integral part
of a broader strategy....Ukraine is a critically important component of
such a policy, as is support for such strategically pivotal states as Azerbaijan
and Uzbekistan."
-
- Adding Georgia and Moldova, the three states he singles
out became the nucleus of the GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan,
Moldova) bloc originally created in the same year as Brzezinski's article
and book appeared. (Uzbekistan joined in 1999 and left in 2005.)
-
- GUAM was promoted by the Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright
administration as a vehicle for planned Trans-Eurasian energy projects
and to tear apart the Commonwealth of Independent States by luring members
apart from Russia toward the European Union, the so-called soft power preliminary
stage, and NATO, the hard power culmination of the process.
-
- In the above-quoted article Brzezinski also wrote, in
addressing Turkey, that "Regular consultations with Ankara regarding
the future of the Caspian Sea basin and Central Asia would foster Turkey's
sense of strategic partnership with the United States. America should also
support Turkish aspirations to have a pipeline from Baku, Azerbaijan, to
Ceyhan on its own Mediterranean coast serve as a major outlet for the Caspian
sea basin energy reserves."
-
- Eight years later, in 2005, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
transporting Caspian Sea oil to Europe came online, followed by the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum
natural gas pipeline and the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway, with
the Nabucco natural gas pipeline next to be activated. The last-named is
already slated to include, in addition to Caspian supplies, gas from Iraq
and North Africa.
-
- The book whose foreword Brzezinski's "A Geostrategy
for Eurasia" in a way was, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy
And It's Geostrategic Imperatives, laid out in greater detail plans that
have been expanded upon in the interim.
-
- The volume's preface states, "It is imperative that
no Eurasian challenger emerges capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of
also challenging America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated
Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book....Potentially,
the most dangerous scenario would be a grand coalition of China, Russia,
and perhaps Iran....Averting this contingency, however remote it may be,
will require a display of US geostrategic skill on the western, eastern,
and southern perimeters of Eurasia simultaneously."
-
- In pursuance of "America's role as the first, only,
and last truly global superpower," Brzezinski noted that "the
chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia. For half a millennium, world affairs
were dominated by Eurasian powers and peoples who fought with one another
for regional domination and reached out for global power. Now a non-Eurasian
power is preeminent in Eurasia - and America's global primacy is directly
dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian
continent is sustained."
-
- The military fist inside the diplomatic glove is and
will remain NATO.
-
- "The emergence of a truly united Europe - especially
if that should occur with constructive American support - will require
significant changes in the structure and processes of the NATO alliance,
the principal link between America and Europe. NATO provides not only the
main mechanism for the exercise of US influence regarding European matters
but the basis for the politically critical American military presence in
Western Europe....Eurasia is thus the chessboard on which the struggle
for global primacy continues to be played."
-
- In a section with the heading "The NATO Imperative,"
the author reiterated earlier policy demands: "It follows that a wider
Europe and an enlarged NATO will serve well both the short-term and the
longer-term goals of US policy. A larger Europe will expand the range of
American influence - and, through the admission of new Central European
members, also increase in the European councils the number of states with
a pro-American proclivity - without simultaneously creating a Europe politically
so integrated that it could soon challenge the United States on geopolitical
matters of high importance to America elsewhere, particularly in the Middle
East."
-
- A Europe united under the EU and especially NATO is to
be strong enough to contain, isolate and increasingly confront Russia as
the central component of U.S. plans for control of Eurasia and the world,
but cannot be allowed to conduct an independent foreign policy, particularly
in regard to Russia and the Middle East. European NATO allies are to assist
Washington in preventing the emergence of "the most dangerous scenario...a
grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran" such as has been
adumbrated since in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
-
- Four years after the publication of The Grand Chessboard,
Brzezinski's recommended chess move was made: The U.S. and NATO invaded
Afghanistan and expanded into Central Asia where Russian, Chinese and Iranian
interests converge and where the basis for their regional cooperation existed,
and Western military bases were established in the former Soviet republics
of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, where they remain for the indefinite
future.
-
- Western-controlled pipelines traverse the South Caucasus
- Azerbaijan and Georgia - to drive Russia and Iran out of the European
and ultimately world energy markets, with a concomitant U.S. and NATO takeover
of the armed forces of both nations. The two countries have also been tapped
for increased troop deployments and transport routes for the war in South
Asia.
-
- The West is completing the process described by Brzezinski
in his 1997 book in which he stated "In effect, by the mid-1990s a
bloc, quietly led by Ukraine and comprising Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan
and sometimes also Kazakhstan, Georgia and Moldova, had informally emerged
to obstruct Russian efforts to use the CIS as the tool for political integration."
-
- Note, not to obstruct a new "imperial" Russia
from exploiting the Commonwealth of Independent States to dominate much
less absorb former parts not only of the Soviet Union but of historical
Russia, but to integrate - or rather maintain the integration of - nations
which were within one state until eighteen years ago. At that time, 1991,
the Soviet Union precipitately disintegrated into fifteen new nations and
four independent "frozen conflict" zones - Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh,
South Ossetia and Transdniester - and Russia made a 180 degree turn in
its political structure and orientation, both domestically and in its foreign
policy.
-
- The response to those developments by the U.S. and its
NATO cohorts was to scent blood and move in for the kill.
-
- Starting in 1994 NATO recruited all fifteen former Soviet
republics into its Partnership for Peace program, which has subsequently
prepared ten nations - all in Eastern Europe, three of them former Soviet
republics - for full membership.
-
- As noted above, in 1997 the West absorbed four and for
a period five former Soviet states - Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova
and Uzbekistan - into the GUAM, now Organization for Democracy and Economic
Development, format, which has recently been expanded to include Armenia
and Belarus with the European Union's Eastern Partnership initiative. The
latter includes half (six of twelve) of the CIS and former CIS nations,
all except for Russia and the five Central Asian countries. [1]
-
- Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian and Ukrainian troops
have been enlisted by the U.S. and NATO for the war in Afghanistan, with
Moldova to be the next supplier of soldiers. All five nations also provided
forces for the war and occupation in Iraq.
-
- The five Central Asian former Soviet republics - Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - have provided the
Pentagon and NATO with bases and transit rights for the war in South Asia
and as such are being daily dragged deeper into the Western military nexus.
Kazakhstan, for example, sent troops to Iraq and may soon deploy them to
Afghanistan.
-
- In recent days the West has stepped up its offensive
in several former Soviet states.
-
- GUAM held a meeting of its Parliamentary Assembly in
the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on November 9 and the leader of the host
nation's parliamentary majority, David Darchiashvili, said "GUAM has
significant potential, as its member states have common interests while
the CIS is a union of conflicting interests" and "It is important
for GUAM members to have a specific attitude to the EU. GUAM has a potential
to develop a common direction with the EU under the policy of the Eastern
Partnership." [2]
-
- Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said at the
event that "Our relations are extending, new partners appear. The
US, the Czech Republic, Japan and the Baltic states will become GUAM partners
soon. They will participate in economic projects with us." [3]
-
- The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Torbjorn
Jagland met with GUAM member states' permanent representatives to the Council
of Europe and during the meeting "the Azerbaijani side emphasized
the need to intensify the Council of Europe's efforts in the settlement
of 'frozen conflicts' in the GUAM area." [4] The allusion is again
to Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Transdniester where several
thousand lives were lost in fighting after the breakup of the Soviet Union
and, in the case of South Ossetia, where a Georgian invasion of last year
triggered a five-day war with Russia.
-
- Later at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Edinburgh,
Scotland from November 13-17, Azerbaijani member of parliament Zahid Oruj
said that "the territories of both Georgia and Azerbaijan were occupied
and the Collective Security Treaty Organization's policy in the region
proved that" and he "characterized these steps as an action against
NATO." [5] The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is a
post-Soviet security bloc consisting of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Belarus (initially) and Uzbekistan
both boycotted the creation of the new CSTO rapid reaction force last month
and the Eastern Partnership is designed in part to pull Armenia and Belarus
out of the organization. Comparable initiatives are underway in regards
to the four Central Asian members states, with the Afghan war the chief
mechanism for reorienting them toward NATO.
-
- During the NATO Parliamentary Assembly session, for example,
a Turkish parliamentarian said "Armenia's releasing the occupied Azerbaijani
territories [Nagorno Karabakh] will create a security zone in the South
Caucasus and pave the way for NATO's cooperation with this region."
-
- An Azerbaijani counterpart was even more blunt in stating
"NATO should defend Azerbaijan" and stressing "that otherwise,
security will not be firm in the region, stability can be violated anytime
[and a] new military conflict will be inevitable." [6]
-
- The day after the NATO session ended the president of
Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, revealed the context for NATO "defending
Azerbaijan" when he announced that "There is strong support for
building the national army. Our army grows stronger. We are holding negotiations
but we should be ready to liberate our territories any time from the invaders
by military means." [7]
-
- The same day Daniel Stein, senior assistant to the U.S.
Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, was in Azerbaijan where he confirmed
strategic ties with the nation's government and said that as "global
energy security is one of the priorities of US foreign policy, his country
supports diversification of energy resources while delivering them to world
markets." [8]
-
- Also on November 18 Stein's superior, U.S. Special Envoy
for Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar, addressed the European Policy
Center, a Brussels-based think-tank, and said "Turkey will become
a very strong transit country in transporting the gas of the Caucasus and
Central Asia to Europe" - via Azerbaijan and Georgia - and "Turkmenistan
and Iraq could join in as other suppliers besides Azerbaijan...."
[9]
-
- The following day, November 19, a conference on NATO's
New Strategic Concept: Contribution to the Debate from Partners was held
in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The host country's deputy foreign minister,
Araz Azimov, stated at the meeting:
-
- "I offer the signing of bilateral agreements between
NATO and partner countries to cover security guarantees for partner countries
along with the responsibility and commitments of the parties.
-
- "Yes, we (partner countries) are important for NATO
in general for the security architecture of the Euro-Atlantic area. Today
Azerbaijan's borders are the borders of Europe." [10]
-
- On November Azerbaijan hosted an international conference
titled Impediments to Security in the South Caucasus: Current Realities
and Future Prospects for Regional Development, co-sponsored by Britain's
International Institute for Strategic Studies. Speakers included Ariel
Cohen, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and the Washington,
D.C.-based Jamestown Foundation's President Glenn Howard and Senior Fellow
Vladimir Socor.
-
- Socor, a Romanian emigre and former Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty employee, in addressing the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno Karabakh, "stressed the necessity of an undertaking by NATO
of analogous steps in this conflict taken for the settlement of the conflicts
in the Balkans and former Yugoslavia." [11]
-
- Novruz Mammadov, head of the Foreign Relations Department
of Azerbaijan's presidential administration, said that "Azerbaijan
is the only country in the post-Soviet space usefully and really cooperating
with the West," and Elnur Aslanov, head of the Political Analysis
and Information Department for the President of Azerbaijan, said:
-
- "The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum and
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
- projects...stimulate the development of regional cooperation,
and also are important from the security standpoint....Azerbaijan is a
reliable partner of the European security architecture...the country plays
an important role in ensuring European energy security." [12]
-
- Jamestown Foundation chief Glenn Howard added "that
Azerbaijan is an important partner for NATO in terms of energy security,"
and backed the nation's deputy foreign minister's demand the previous day
that NATO must offer Yugoslav war-style support to its Caucasus partners
"especially after the war in Georgia last year."
-
- Howard added:
-
- "NATO can give security guarantees to a country
in case of an attack, which is what happened in 1979 in the Persian Gulf
- after the fall of the Shah of Iran the US gave security guarantees to
countries through bilateral agreements with those countries....If Azerbaijani
troops are going to help in one area, that will lessen the need for NATO
troops in this particular area, so that they can be involved in some other
area, for example, that helps put more troops in fighting the Taliban...."
[13]
-
- Azerbaijan is not the only former Soviet republic the
U.S. intends to use to penetrate the Caspian Sea Basin. After leaving Baku
the State Department's Daniel Stein arrived in Turkmenistan where he stated
that "The United States offers its mediating mission in Turkmen-Azerbaijan
disputes over the Caspian status," in relation to a border demarcation
conflict in a sea that the two nations share with Russia and Iran. He added,
"The U.S. and EU member countries try to assure Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan
that they should reach an agreement on the division of the Caspian to create
real opportunities for Nabucco and other projects." [14]
-
- The same day U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
for South and Central Asia George Krol was also in the Turkmen capital
to deliver an address at the the annual Oil and Gas Conference there and
said, "The U.S. considers energy security as a priority issue, and
Central Asia is an important region in the global energy map." [15]
-
- In Azerbaijan's fellow GUAM member state Moldova, the
new government of acting president Mihai Ghimpu, which came to power after
April's so-called Twitter Revolution, announced that it was establishing
a national committee to implement an Individual Partnership Action Plan
for NATO membership. To indicate the importance the new administration
attaches to integration with the bloc, "Minister of Foreign Affairs
and European Integration Iurie Leanca has been appointed committee chairman."
[16]
-
- Earlier this month it was reported that the government's
Prosecutor General's Office had "dropped criminal proceedings against
the people accused of masterminding riots in the republic's capital in
April, following the Opposition's protest against the results of the parliamentary
election....After the early parliamentary election on July 29 when the
Opposition came to power, most cases were closed" and instead "When
the new prosecutor general was appointed, criminal cases were opened against
police who took part in driving the protesters from the city center and
their arrests." [17]
-
- On the same day that the Jamestown Foundation's Glenn
Howard and Vladimir Socor were in Azerbaijan advocating NATO intervention
in the South Caucasus, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden held a phone conversation
with Georgian president and former U.S. resident Mikheil Saakashvili in
which the first "reiterated the United States' 'strong support' for
GeorgiaZs sovereignty and territorial integrity" and "underscored
the importance of sustaining the commitment to democratic reform to fulfill
the promise of the Rose Revolution." [18]
-
- Also on November 20 a major Russian news source reported
that Washington had shipped nearly $80 million in weapons to Georgia in
2008 and plans to supply more in the future.
-
- "Despite the economic crisis, Georgia is increasing
expenditure on arms purchases in the U.S.," although "Independent
sources say[ing] GeorgiaZs unemployment stands at about one-third of its
able-bodied population." [19]
-
- On the same day a delegation from the Pentagon was in
the Georgian capital to meet with Temur Iakobashvili, the nation's State
Reintegration Minister - for "reintegration" read forcible incorporation
of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - and the Georgian official announced "We
introduced to the guests our plan to ensure security in the occupied territories.
We also talked about the role the U.S. will play in assisting the ensuring
of regional security." [20]
-
- The U.S. Defense Department representatives, including
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia Celeste
Wallander, met with Georgian Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia "to hold
consultations on defence cooperation issues concerning the two countries,"
and "Wallander personally inspected ongoing military trainings aimed
at the preparation of the 31st Battalion of the GAF [Georgian Armed Forces]
for participation in the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. The sides evaluated
the US assistance provided during 2009 and considered in detail future
cooperation prospects for 2010/2011.
-
- "Under the visit's agenda the high-ranking US official
met with the Security Council Secretary, Eka Tkeshelashvili, State Minister
for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili and Defence and Security Committee
members of parliament." [21] The inspection mentioned above was of
training following that conducted by U.S. Marines. The first contingent
of new Georgian troops thus prepared was sent to Afghanistan four days
before.
-
- Two days earlier NATO spokesman James Appathurai announced
that the Alliance was forging ahead with plans for both Georgia's and Ukraine's
full membership and that "assessments would be made at a meeting of
the NATO-Ukraine and NATO-Georgia Commissions to be held in Brussels in
early December at the level of NATO foreign ministers." [22]
-
- Also on November 18 Georgian Vice Premier and State Minister
for Euro-Atlantic Integration Giorgi Baramidze met with NATO Secretary
General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Brussels. "The Georgian delegation
also included Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria and Deputy Defense Minister
Nikoloz Vashakidze. A meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission at the ambassadorial
level was also held in Brussels." [23]
-
- The day preceding the meeting, U.S. Assistant Secretary
of State Michael Posner and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Tina Kaidanow were in Georgia to convene "working
meetings with Georgian authorities within the Strategic Partnership Charter.
-
- "The delegation will monitor the implementation
of the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Plan" inaugurated in January
of this year, less than four months after the war with Russia. [24]
-
- The prior week Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
accused Western and allied nations of continuing to arm Georgia, stating
"I hope many take lessons from last year's August events. But I have
to say that according to the reports of various sources, some countries
are sending arms and ammunition demanded by the Georgian leadership via
different complicated schemes." [25]
-
- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin warned
on the same day that "[Georgian] military drones have started flying
over South Ossetia and Abkhazia" [26} and the day before Nikolay Makarov,
Chief of the General Staff, said "Georgia is getting large amounts
of weapons supplied from abroad" and "Georgian military potential
is currently higher than last August." [27]
-
- Makarov's contention was confirmed by Georgian Defense
Minister Bacho Akhalaia on November 14 when he said "the country's
defense capabilities are now better than they were a year ago and they
are further improving."
-
- The defense chief added, "a strong army will be
one of our key priorities until the last occupant leaves our territories."
[28] The "occupants" in question are Russian troops in Abkhazia
and South Ossetia.
-
- Azerbaijan is not the only South Caucasus NATO partner
preparing for war.
-
- Regarding the recently concluded two-week Immediate Response
2009 exercises run by the U.S. Marine Corps in Georgia, a leading Russian
news site wrote "Perhaps, the exercises were aimed at issuing a warning
to Russia." [29]
-
- On November 13 the Russian General Staff revealed that
"Russian secret services have declassified information about Georgia's
plans to start forming its special forces in a move that will be implemented
in close cooperation with Turkey," and "voiced concern about
Georgia's ongoing push for muscle-flexing amid efforts by Israel, Ukraine
and NATO countries to re-arm the Saakashvili regime." [30]
-
- In Ukraine, on November 19 Deputy Foreign Minister Kostiantyn
Yeliseyev said of American ambassador to Georgia and ambassador designate
to Ukraine John Tefft that "The U.S. Senate [Foreign Relations] Committee
has approved his candidacy and we are expecting him to arrive soon."
[31] In time for January's presidential election. Incumbent president and
U.S. client Viktor Yushchenko is running dead last among serious candidates
and his poll ratings are never higher than 3.5%. Tefft's task is to engineer
some variant of the 2004 "Orange Revolution."
-
- Yushchenko is a die-hard, intractable, unrelenting advocate
of forcing his nation into NATO despite overwhelming popular opposition
and for evicting the Russian Black Sea Fleet from the Crimea.
-
- On November 16 NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
addressed High-Level NATO-Ukraine Consultations at the Alliance's headquarters
in Brussels and said:
-
- "In 2008 at the Bucharest Summit NATO Heads of State
and Government welcomed Ukraine's aspirations for membership in NATO and
agreed that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance. To reflect this
spirit of deepening cooperation, Ukraine has developed its first Annual
National Programme which outlines the steps it intends to take to accelerate
internal reform and alignment with Euro-Atlantic standards." [32]
-
- The same day Reuters revealed that "Poland and Lithuania
want to forge military cooperation with Ukraine to try to bring the former
Soviet republic closer to NATO." Poland's Deputy Defense Minister
Stanislaw Komorowski was quoted as saying of the initiative, "This
reflects our support for Ukraine. We want to tie Ukraine closer to Western
structures, including military ones." [33]
-
- The agreement was reached at talks in Brussels attended
by Ukraine's acting Defense Minister Valery Ivashchenko, Lithuania's Minister
of National Defense Rasa Jukneviciene and Poland's Komorowski.
-
- The combined military unit will be stationed in Poland
and include as many as 5,000 troops. The joint buildup on Russia's western
and northwestern borders "may have a political objective. It is meant
to set up an alternative center of military consolidation for West European
projects, a center which could embrace former Soviet republics (above all
Ukraine), now outside NATO. There is no doubt who will control this process,
considering U.S. influence in Poland and the Baltics." [34]
-
- On the same day that the Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian
defense chiefs reached the agreement, Poland hosted multinational military
exercises codenamed Common Challenge 09 with "2,500 troops from Germany,
Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland - forming the so-called EU Combat
Group....Common Challenge is being held for the first time in Poland. Exercises
are conducted simultaneously in Poznan, western Poland, and the nearby
military range in Wedrzyn." [35]
-
- In a complementary development, The Times of London published
an interview with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on November
15 in which he "said Italy would push for the creation of a European
Army after the 'new Europe' takes shape at this week's crucial November
19 EU summit following the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty." [36] A
commentary from Russia, which of course will not be included in the plans,
mentioned that "NATO has been actively discussing the possibility
of establishing a joint European army for a long time" and that Frattini
had "reiterated the need for deploying a joint naval fleet or air
force in the Mediterranean or other areas crucial to European security."
[37]
-
- In a Wall Street Journal report titled "Central
Europe Ready To Send More Soldiers To Afghanistan," Polish Foreign
Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, again emphasizing the connection between war
zone training in Afghanistan and preparation for action much closer to
home, was quoted as saying "The credibility of NATO will be decided
in Afghanistan. If NATO can be successful with what was a success in the
Balkans and Iraq, its deterrent potential will rise, and it is in Poland's
national interest." [38]
-
- On November 18 the ambassadors from all 28 NATO member
states gathered in Brussels commented on Belarusian-Russian military exercises
conducted months earlier, Operation West, and "expressed concerns
about the large scale of the exercises and a scenario that envisioned an
attack from the West...." [39]
-
- Sikorski's allusion to so-called NATO deterrent potential
is, then, clearly in reference to Russia.
-
- On November 17 the European Union's Special Representative
for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby announced that the first foreign ministers
meeting of the Eastern Partnership program will be held next month. He
said that "The Eastern Partnership will be under the jurisdiction
of a new representative for foreign affairs and security. The appointment
will come after the Lisbon summit," [40] as will the creation of the
new European Army Italian Foreign Minister Frattini spoke of earlier.
-
- Participants will include the foreign ministers of Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, half - six of twelve
- of the members or former members of the Commonwealth of Independent States
and all those in Europe and the Caucasus except for Russia, which is not
invited.
-
- Comparable efforts to pull the five Central Asian CIS
members - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
- away from cooperation with Russia through a combination of an analogous
EU partnership, energy project agreements and involvement in the Afghan
war are also proceeding apace.
-
- The eighteen-year-old project of Paul Wolfowitz, Zbigniew
Brzezinski et al. to destroy the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent
States and effect a cordon sanitaire around Russia, enclosing it with NATO
member states and partners, has continued uninterruptedly since 1991.
-
- Washington will not tolerate rivals and will ruthlessly
attempt to eliminate even the potential of any nation to challenge it globally
or regionally. In any region of the world. Russia, because of what it was,
what it is, where it is and what it has - massive reserves of oil and natural
gas, a developed nuclear industry and the world's only effective strategic
triad outside the U.S. - is and will remain the main focus of efforts by
the United States and NATO to rid themselves of impediments to achieving
uncontested global domination.
-
- Carthage must be destroyed is the West's policy toward
the former Soviet Union.
-
- NOTES
-
- 1) Eastern Partnership: The West's Final Assault On the
Former Soviet Union, Stop NATO, February 13, 2009
- http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/eastern-partnership-
- the-wests-final-assault-on-the-former-soviet-union
- 2) Georgia Online, November 9, 2009
- 3) Azeri Press Agency, November 10, 2009
- 4) Azeri Press Agency, November 12, 2009
- 5) Azeri Press Agency, November 17, 2009
- 6) Azeri Press Agency, November 16, 2009
- 7) Azertag, November 18, 2009
- 8) Azeri Press Agency, November 18, 2009
- 9) Azeri Press Agency, November 18, 2009
- 10) Azerbaijan Business Center, November 19, 2009
- 11) Azertag, November 20, 2009
- 12) Ibid
- 13) Ibid
- 14) Azeri Press Agency, November 18, 2009
- 15) Trend News Agency, November 18, 2009
- 16) Focus News Agency, November 11, 2009
- 17) Itar-Tass, November 12, 2009
- 18) Civil Georgia, November 20, 2009
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