As a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, a civil war ensued -- resulting in a de facto secession of these two regions from under Georgian control, an expulsion of ethnic Georgian refugees into Georgia proper and an imposition of effective Russian control of these regions. (A similar scenario was played out in the Transdniester region of Moldova.)  For many months preceding Saakashvili’s ill-fated preemptive occupation of Tshinvali (and indiscriminate use of Grad missiles on civilian targets) on 07Aug2008 to forestall the permanent loss of this Georgian province, Ossetian separatists harassed and shelled Georgian villages (further ethnic cleansing) in the region and Russia made unmistakable preparations for the final outcome. The Russian army was fully prepared to intervene in the conflict, which they did in spades.

As a Canadian of Ukrainian ancestry, I am particularly hurt by your description of Ukrainian patriotism as "sick nationalism". Such Ukrainophobia can only encourage Mr. Putin and Russian chauvinists to repeat their Georgian scenario in Ukraine. Since the appearance of your offending article, many issues have been clarified in the region. I would urge you to rewrite your article from a more balanced perspective.

There May Be Many Mushroom Clouds In Our Future

By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20526.htm

15/08/2008 "ICH" -- - The success of the Bush Regime’s propaganda, lies, and deception with gullible and inattentive Americans since 9/11 has made it difficult for intelligent, aware people to be optimistic about the future of the United States. For almost 8 years the US media has served as Ministry of Propaganda for a war criminal regime. Americans incapable of thinking for themselves, reading between the lines, or accessing foreign media on the Internet have been brainwashed.

As the Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, said, it is easy to deceive a people. You just tell them they have been attacked and wave the flag.

It certainly worked with Americans.

The gullibility and unconcern of the American people has had many victims. There are 1.25 million dead Iraqis. There are 4 million displaced Iraqis. No one knows how many are maimed and orphaned.

Iraq is in ruins, its infrastructure destroyed by American bombs, missiles, and helicopter gunships.

We do not know the death toll in Afghanistan, but even the American puppet regime protests the repeated killings of women and children by US and NATO troops.

We don’t know what the death toll would be in Iran if Darth Cheney and the neocons succeed in their plot with Israel to bomb Iran, perhaps with nuclear weapons.

What we do know is that all this murder and destruction has no justification and is evil. It is the work of evil men who have no qualms about lying and deceiving in order to kill innocent people to achieve their undeclared agenda.

That such evil people have control over the United States government and media damns the American public for eternity.

America will never recover from the shame and dishonor heaped upon her by the neoconned Bush Regime.

The success of the neocon propaganda has been so great that the opposition party has not lifted a finger to rein in the Bush Regime’s criminal actions. Even Obama, who promises “change” is too intimidated by the neocon’s success in brainwashing the American population to do what his supporters hoped he would do and lead us out of the shame in which the neoconned Bush Regime has imprisoned us.

[W.Z. Up to this point and in many places below, I agree with the assessment of Paul Craig Roberts as to U.S. actions and policies. However, he should not automatically depict Russian actions and policies as being of saintly intent. Russian chauvinism and territorial expansion policies were the hallmarks of the Tsarist Russian Empire from the middle ages, of the Bolshevik Russian Empire of the 20th century and continue into the 21st century.]

This about sums up the pessimistic state in which I existed prior to the go-ahead given by the Bush Regime to its puppet in Georgia to ethnically cleanse South Ossetia of Russians in order to defuse the separatist movement. The American media, aka, the Ministry of Lies and Deceit, again accommodated the criminal Bush Regime and proclaimed “Russian invasion” to cover up the ethnic cleansing of Russians in South Ossetia by the Georgian military assault.

[W.Z. Ethnic cleansing of Russians??? Is Mr. Roberts referring to the so-called Russian "peacekeepers", who have condoned, aided and encouraged the separatists in Ossetia and Abkhazia to ethnically cleanse the ethnically Georgian population (who had lived there for centuries) from these regions since about 1991?  Is he referring to the ethnic Russians (or other ethnic groups), whose forebearers lived in the region before the establishment of the Soviet Union circa 1920?  Or is he referring to the separatist-minded Ossetians and Abkhazians, who have recently been granted Russian passports such that the Kremlin can now claim that they are intervening to protect "Russian citizens"?

"Although not stated explicitly, these concepts also imply that no person on the planet should possess more than one passport. I further maintain that entering or leaving a country on a false passport should result in immediate incarceration for a period of one year, during which the circumstances of the fraud could be established and appropriate legal penalties imposed."

This passport-citizenship game being played by Russia, Israel and several other states is self-serving and extremely dangerous to the stability of the world. I would suggest that any Ossetians or Abkhazians, who accept Russian passports-citizenship, should be required to leave internationally-recognized Georgian territory and settle on the territory of the Russian Federation.]

Only this time, the rest of the world didn’t buy it. The many years of lies -- 9/11, Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda connections, yellowcake, anthrax attack, Iranian nukes, “the United States doesn’t torture,” the bombings of weddings, funerals, and children’s soccer games, Abu Ghraib, renditions, Guantanamo, various fabricated “terrorist plots,” the determined assault on civil liberties -- have taken their toll on American credibility. No one outside America any longer believes the US media or the US government.

The rest of the world reported the facts -- an assault on Russian civilians by American and Israeli trained and equipped Georgian troops.

The Bush Regime, overcome by hubris, expected Russia to accept this act of American hegemony. But the Russians did not, and the Georgian military was sent fleeing for its life.

The neoconned Republican response to the Russian failure to follow the script and to be intimidated by the “unipower” was so imbecilic that it shattered the brainwashing to which Americans had succumbed.

McCain declared: “In the 21st century nations don’t invade other nations.” Imagine the laughs Jon Stewart will get out of this on the Daily Show. In the early years of the 21st century the United States has already invaded two countries and has been beating the drums for attacking a third. President Bush, the chief invader of the 21st century, echoed McCain’s claim that nations don’t invade other nations. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7556857.stm 

This dissonant claim shocked even brainwashed Americans, as readers’ emails reveal. If in the 21st century countries don’t invade other countries, what is Bush doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and what are the naval armadas and propaganda arrayed against Iran about?

Have two of the worst warmongers of modern times--Bush and McCain--called off the US/Israeli attack on Iran? If McCain is elected president, is he going to pull US troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan as “nations don’t invade other nations,” or is President Bush going to beat him to it?

We all know the answer.

The two stooges are astonished that the Americans have taught hegemony to Russians, who were previously operating, naively perhaps, on the basis of good will.

Suddenly the Western Europeans have realized that being allied with the United States is like holding a tiger by the tail. No European country wants to be hurled into war with Russia. Germany, France, and Italy must be thanking God they blocked Georgia’s membership in NATO.

The Ukraine, where a sick nationalism has taken hold funded by the neocon National Endowment for Democracy, will be the next conflict between American pretensions and Russia. Russia is being taught by the neocons that freeing the constituent parts of its empire has not resulted in their independence but in their absorption into the American Empire.

[W.Z. "The Ukraine"? "sick nationalism"? What is he talking about? Is Mr. Roberts deliberately promoting Ukrainophobia? Does he not support Ukraine's independence? Is he unaware that patriotic Ukrainians have been striving to escape Moscow's clutches and re-establish an independent Ukraine for centuries? And that Moscow/Russia has been for centuries striving to destroy the idea of an independent Ukraine and a Ukrainian ethnicity -- including the Holodomor famine-genocide of 1932/33, which claimed the lives of some 10 million Ukrainians?] 

Unless enough Americans can overcome their brainwashed state and the rigged Diebold voting machines, turn out the imbecilic Republicans and hold the neoconservatives accountable for their crimes against humanity, a crazed neocon US government will provoke nuclear war with Russia.

The neoconservatives represent the greatest danger ever faced by the United States and the world. Humanity has no greater enemy.

[W.Z. In my opinion, Paul Craig Roberts misses the real message of this Russia-Georgia (or Putin-Saakashvili) fiasco. The military-industrial-terrorism complex won a major victory. Mr. Saakashvili wasted (was forced to waste?) hundreds of millions of dollars to buy useless military equipment to try to preserve Georgia's territorial integrity.  This "war" complex is as deeply ingrained within the Russian political elite as it is in the United States of Israel. Beneath the facade, they are really blood-brothers looking for ways to profit at the expense of ordinary human beings. The world can now look forward to another round of arms escalation. And there is very little you and I can do about it.]