(The following article is from the September 1-15, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial

Mainstream news coverage of the conflict in the Caucasus is utterly hypocritical, to say the least, but not unprecedented. One historical parallel is from June 1950, when the US-armed South Korean dictator Syngman Rhee attacked the northern half of the peninsula. The socialist Democratic People's Republic of Korea quickly repelled the invasion. Just as reunification of the country was at hand, the US and its allies intervened, leading to years of bloodshed and decades of division. But in the upside down universe of imperialist folklore, the DPRK was demonized as the "instigator," not the US which divided Korea.

     This time, alleging vague "provocations," the pro-US government of Georgia launched a massive artillery attack on August 7, killing thousands in South Ossetia. The background is that during the breakup of the USSR, Georgian nationalist forces fuelled divisions in the Caucasus by eliminating the autonomous status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and by driving out many of their residents. Since 1992, Russian troops have protected the two areas, which have functioned as independent entities. It is Georgia and its imperialist masters which have violated peace and borders in the region, not Russia or the Ossetians. But one would never know this from the corporate media, which paints an absurd picture of Russian "violations" of Georgia's "territorial integrity".

     As in the destruction of Yugoslavia, imperialist motives in the Caucasus have nothing to do with "defending freedom" or "liberating oppressed peoples." The Georgian attack was a cynical scheme to test Russia's military response and capabilities, and to ratchet up regional tensions as a preliminary to new imperialist aggression and seizure of oil reserves. Make no mistake, the Cheney-Bush clique wants to keep the Republican grip on the White House and to prepare the world for war against Iran. The lies spread to justify this criminal strategy must be exposed!