Recently, unrest in Georgia has brought the country to the forefront of Eurasian politics. George Soros’ Open Society-funded colour revolutionaries are fomenting trouble. To this end, James Corbett interviews Riley Waggaman in this audio presentation:

This brings to mind the Russo-Georgian war of 2008. In it, Russia established de facto control of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. These regions had strong cultural ties to Russia. It should be noted by those who hold the war with Georgia as an example of Putin’s imperialist ambitions, Russia stopped when it achieved its objectives and did not go on to conquer the entire country, something they could have done easily.

In 2008, NATO published its Bucharest Summit Declaration. Key points are listed below with the relevant section in brackets.

  1. (2, 21) we have decided to invite Albania and Croatia to begin accession talks
  2. (3) We continue to transform our Alliance with new members;
  3. (6) Involvement in Afghanistan (why?): as a peaceful, democratic state, respectful of human rights and free from the threat of terrorism.
  4. (8-11) Involvement in Kosovo (why?)
  5. (16) NATO has agreed to provide support to the AU Mission in Somalia
  6. (17) commitment to support the Government and people of Iraq and to assist with the development of Iraqi Security Forces.
  7. (18) NATO’s ongoing enlargement process has been an historic successNATO’s door will remain open to European democracies willing and able to assume the responsibilities and obligations of membershipWe reiterate that decisions on enlargement are for NATO itself to make.
  8. (20) an invitation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be extended as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached.
  9. (23) NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO..
  10. (25) We welcome Bosnia and Herzegovina‘s and Montenegro‘s decisions to develop an Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO.
  11. (26) We stand ready to further develop an ambitious and substantive relationship with Serbia
  12. (28) Partners but not membership: we stand ready to continue working with Russia as equal partners in areas of common concern, as envisaged by the Rome Declaration and the Founding Act.
  13. (35) The Alliance places a high value on its expanding

In the list, items 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 35 either state NATO’s expansion as explicit policy or as implicit expansion in invitations to join NATO to new countries shown in emphasized text above. Item 9 directly invites Ukraine and Georgia for membership. This was done knowing full well that Russia could not accept further expansion of NATO on its borders.

The above points are expanded on in the following article, The U.S. and NATO Helped Trigger the Ukraine War. It’s Not ‘Siding With Putin’ to Admit It. Further, the invitation to join was still on the table in October 2021: NATO’s flirtation with adding 2 more members runs the risk of starting a war the US can’t afford to fight.

So why stir up Georgia now? Russia’s military is arguably the strongest it’s been in decades and could make short work of Georgia. Is the US trying to open a second front now that Ukraine is not going well? Is Soros using the war to mask more of his meddling in Eastern European politics? Is it both or is it something else?

Commentary

I’m adding this after publishing to include late night ruminations.

The overall message that I got – and it was very strong – is that NATO has a vision of itself as the global peacekeeper. It is on a stated mission of expansion of membership, and has signed military cooperation deals with a wide array of other countries globally.

An observation is that NATO did not invite Russia to join although some mention of Russia’s joining had been raised in the past. Apart from the visceral hatred of Russia by American neocons which would preclude Russia from ever being allowed to join, there is a more important reason.

NATO is, by its charter, a defensive organization. Read articles 3 and 5 of The North Atlantic Treaty. To maintain relevance, NATO needs a potential enemy. This is Russia’s role, and the nreadson it can never be part of NATO. Even in recent years, all its activities have been offensive in nature only and not NATO member territory. Its many offensive actions some of which are identified in this declaration.

One curious point that stood out when I reread the treaty is found in articles 10-13. All require membership issue documents must be deposited with the Government of the United Staes which will distribute material as appropriate. guess who was running the show? This may preclude an offical NATO headquarters, but still …

Budapest 1994 Documents

In researching NATO expansion of the era I came across a trove of recently declassified US government documents surrounding a meeting in Budapest involving Clinton and Yeltsin: NATO Expansion – The Budapest Blow Up 1994. The documents shed light on the internal politics of both countries at the time.

The importance of these documents is that they show the deep concern that Russia had at the time of NATO expansion. American duplicity is revealed.

Another document has come to light indicating that the West had a verbal agreement that there would be no further eastward expansion: Has NATO reneged on a 1991 agreement with Russia.

Also from the Clinton era, we have Putin Says He Discussed Russia’s Possible NATO Membership With Bill Clinton.

Current news and Views of the War

The Frontline As I Publish

Here is the report from earlier today (8:31 minutes).

Wagner Advances in Southern Bakhmut | Full Front Update 22/03/23

Articles In This Series

Refer to the series index in The WWIII Chronicles.

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The POOG

I started a blog in 2011 called The POOG, an acronym for "pissed off old guy". This is the current incarnation.

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