Anti-Russian Bias in US Media

Masha Lipman, not exactly pro-Kremlin, harshly criticizes the recent russophobia and anti-Russian bias in the US media.

If this interview isn't enough to convince someone that Misha has unduly influenced US policymaking and institutions with his Beltway lobbyists and visceral appeal to Cold War fear, maybe this will prove convincing -- Saakashvili, unbeknownst to me until a few days ago (and I would assume the rest of the American expats living in Tbilisi) is a close friend of John McCain. Funny. He's keeping the same Republican company as his predecessor, Eddie Shevernadze, who thanks to the persuasion of his good friends, Jim Baker and George H. Bush, agreed to pass the Georgian crown to Misha without a fight.

To me, this is just another example of painfully misinformed, do-gooder US politicians meddling in the internal affairs of countries that they have absolutely no knowledge about. Perhaps we should blame Americans for not holding their leaders accountable for their ignorance, but that's hard to do when most Americans are
unintentionally ignorant of the existence of Georgia. Blame Americans all you want, but it was a rare thing that I came across a Georgian in Tbilisi or elsewhere who knew anything about my homestate, Ohio -- a state with 2.5 times the population of Georgia and 20 times the annual GDP.

Do you think when the Brits tried to take my state in the War of 1812 that Ohio seized the frontlines of news in Paris, London and St. Petersburg? I doubt so. Thankfully Commodore Perry and his naval squadron kicked the crap out of those pesky Brits in the Battle of Lake Erie, but then again, that was probably because they took a few minutes to draw up a plan of attack as opposed to unleashing cannon
fodder every which way as soon as they saw the Brits on the horizon.


Evidence of Georgia's meddling in US internal affairs --

McCain's Focus on Georgia Raises Question of Propriety
After Chiding Obama, He Dwells on Crisis as a President Might

By Dan Eggen and Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 15, 2008; A16

Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted
senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a
moment that he was only running for president.

Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia,
McCain began: "If I may be so bold, there was another president . . ."

He caught himself and started again: "At one time, there was a
president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America's
advocacy for democracy and freedom."

With his Democratic opponent on vacation in Hawaii, the senator from
Arizona has been doing all he can in recent days to look like
President McCain, particularly when it comes to the ongoing
international crisis in Georgia.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili says he talks to McCain, a
personal friend, several times a day. McCain's top foreign policy
adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for
Georgia's government. McCain also announced this week that two of his
closest allies, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I.
Lieberman (I-Conn.), would travel to Georgia's capital of Tbilisi on
his behalf, after a similar journey by Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice.

The extent of McCain's involvement in the military conflict in Georgia
appears remarkable among presidential candidates, who traditionally
have kept some distance from unfolding crises out of deference to
whoever is occupying the White House. The episode also follows months
of sustained GOP criticism of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who was
accused of acting too presidential for, among other things, briefly
adopting a campaign seal and taking a trip abroad that included a huge
rally in Berlin.

"We talk about how there's only one president at a time, so the idea
that you would send your own emissaries and really interfere with the
process is remarkable," said Lawrence Korb, a Reagan Defense
Department official who now acts as an informal adviser to the Obama
campaign. "It's very risky and can send mixed messages to foreign
governments. . . . They accused Obama of being presumptuous, but he
didn't do anything close to this."

But McCain and his aides say his tough rhetoric on the Georgia crisis,
along with his personal familiarity with the region, underscores the
foreign policy expertise he would bring to the White House.

His focus on the dispute has also allowed McCain to distance himself
somewhat from President Bush, who has been sharply criticized by many
conservatives for moving too slowly to respond to Russia's military
incursion into Georgia and South Ossetia, the breakaway province at
the heart of the dispute. McCain's first statement on the conflict
last Friday came before the White House itself had responded.

In often-lengthy remarks about Georgia this week on the campaign
trail, McCain repeatedly talked of how many times he had been to the
region, let it be known that he had talked daily with Saakashvili
since the crisis began and made it clear that there had been times he
thought Bush's response could have been stronger.

He provided a primer for why Americans should care about the "tiny
little democracy" and tried to tie the foreign crisis with a domestic
one: oil. Georgia is "part of a strategic energy corridor affecting
individual lives far beyond" the region, he said.

"His statements have been very presidential," said John R. Bolton, a
former U.N. ambassador under Bush who has since become one of the
sharpest critics of the administration's recent foreign policy. "These
are the kinds of things that the president should have been saying
from the beginning."

At the same time, McCain also appears sensitive to going too far. In
remarks both Wednesday and yesterday, for example, McCain explicitly
ruled out direct military action against Russia, a step advocated by
some hard-line conservatives.

"We want to avoid any armed conflict, and we will not have armed
conflict," McCain said at a fundraiser yesterday in Edwards, Colo.
"That's not the solution to this problem. But we have to stand up for
freedom and democracy as we did in the darkest days."

McCain's ties to Saakashvili go back to the 1990s, when the future
leader of the "Rose Revolution" was a student at George Washington
University. In an interview this week on CNN, Saakashvili said he was
"talking to Senator McCain several times a day."

"You know, I think he spends less time on his presidential campaign
these days and lots of time on Georgia," Saakashvili said. "And I
really appreciate that, because Senator McCain has been fighting for
freedom of Georgia for many, many years."

He added a moment later: "And the same for Senator Obama."

The Obama campaign has been generally cautious in its remarks about
the Georgia conflict, and the campaign yesterday declined to comment
on the appropriateness of McCain's role. But earlier this week, Obama
adviser Susan Rice said McCain "may have complicated the situation"
with his early tough rhetoric on the dispute.

"John McCain shot from the hip," Rice said on MSNBC, calling his
initial statement "very aggressive, very belligerent."

Lieberman, one of McCain's most ardent and vocal supporters, responded
by criticizing Obama's more cautious first statement on the Georgia
situation an example of "moral neutrality" that showed his "inexperience."

By Wednesday, however, both McCain and Obama had come together to
praise the Bush administration's announcement of humanitarian aid and
the secretary of state's diplomatic journey. McCain also told
reporters that "this isn't the time for partisanship, sniping between
campaigns," and declined to comment on Rice's or Lieberman's remarks.