The Pot and the Kettle

Once upon a time there was a pot and a kettle. Both were paying regular visits to the old log stove, which left on each its black mark in equal measure. Yet one day, in a fit of vanity and self-righteousness, Pot launched a scathing attack on Kettle, accusing Kettle of being rather sooty - quite unbecoming amongst respectable utensils. Of course such hypocracy was utter folly, as Kettle retorted with indignation. And so a rather tense chill descended upon the kitchen for years to come.

On 7 and 8 August, Georgia attacked seperatists in Ossetia to which Russia responded by sending in the troops en force. The consequent, brief war that ensued drew the expected howls and strident rhetoric from the USA, calling the Kettle names while herself unbecomingly sooty from past and present military interference in the Middle East, Far East, Africa, and Central America. Nasty words went about, such as bully and intimidation. In fact, it seemed that the USA was picking a fight with Russia by proxy of the tiny Georgia.

If true, and recent movements [1, 2] seemed to suggest some truth in the notion, it would not be the first time the USA had picked a proxy war with some significant opponent by virtue of indirect campaigns. Usually, the front was the ever popular spread of "freedom and democracy", the holy grail of foreign, indirect interference. In the case of Georgia, it fitted the profile with excellence.

Stemming from American doctrines of the Cold War era in the sixties and seventies of the previous century, indirect involvement had become a favourite of cloak and dagger politics. Overtly in opposition to Soviet expansionism, or another dark force in more recent years, some ensnared and oppressed nation would be picked. By remarkable coincidence and without exception such a nation would also fall into the strategic importance category. The chosen nation could expect all kinds of covert and open support, viz. military; financial and economic favours from the USA and her partners. Support for and pressure on either ruling leaders or the opposition would attempt to steer social, political and ultimately, economic developments towards the strategic goals of the USA and her partners [3].

That leaves Georgia and the question where she fits into the above. The answer lies in the true consideration behind the overt goal of these covert involvements - resources.

With uncanning regularity, energy; mining and industrial interests correlated in the past with indirect involvement. Georgia hosts an important gas pipeline from Central Asia to the West. Russia sits on at least 30% of the world's oil and gas resources and it has become less generous to the West since the restoration of order in the Russian post-Soviet economy. One senses a few probable causes for instigating a proxy fight with Russia on Georgian ground. So Georgia has become a chosen one, receiving significant aid from the USA since independence from the Soviet Union.

Of course there is always enormous economic benefit in bolstering the old dragon, fear, within the public, at home and abroad, which in turn open their wallets in support of the military industrial complex - to fend off new threats in the East. Such a windfall can only be good, given the horrid economic outlook in the USA at present, as long as it can be financed still.

That was the Pot, so what about the Kettle you may ask? Well, perhaps the tale should be retold as the Joker and the Dark Knight. It is left as an exercise to the reader to pick the cast.
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Footnotes:
[1] The USA bolstered Georgian defences with military equipment and training over the past decade and pushed a NATO ascension program for Georgia.
[2] The USA military transported Georgian troops from Iraq to Georgia around the time of the conflict.
[3] A careful reading of the history of Afghanistan, Angola, Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, Somalia and Vietnam would support the foregoing opinion. Sometimes the pot boiled over and direct war with the USA errupted as in Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam.