This video is quite shocking, if only for revealing the extent of things.

The speakers are John Howard, then PM of Australia, and Stephen Harper, now PM of Canada. As you can see, within 2 days of each other, they give identical speeches to their respective parliaments, both calling for their countries to join the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Let it be known that any coincidence theorists commenting on this post shall be hereby laughed at - and maybe also detained indefinitely in our secret prisons - for propounding their silly views. (Incidentally, synchronicity theorists will not be laughed at, although I think in this case, the conspiracists have it).

Today I had the rare opportunity to watch the music channels on TV, and so I flicked over to Kerrang. The first thing I noticed (after the shocking lack of new music in the past 5 years) was the presence of British Army recruitment ads in the commercial break. It’s extremely naive of me, but I did half-expect alternative music to be somewhat suggestive of anti-war sentiments. (But then again, how alternative can a channel be when its parent company also owns most of the available pop stations?)

The second thing was Metallica’s new video The Day that Never Comes, which ostensibly features US soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan (or maybe Pakistan?).

Immediately I was reminded of this Guardian news piece about US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay (and other sites?) playing certain songs, repeatedly and at deafening volumes, as a form of torture. That Guardian article does a good job of explaining why ‘torture’ is the appropriate word here. Now, one of those songs was Metallica’s Enter Sandman. Did they object? Well, allow me to quote the band’s vocalist James Hetfield:

“If the Iraqis aren’t used to freedom, then I’m glad to be part of their exposure”

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So what are the US special forces up to this week? I’ll give you three guesses. No, go on! What’s that, you say? Killing civilians and causing needless destruction again? Well I don’t know how you did that, but godamnit, you’re right. Have a cookie - or a prozac, whichever gets you through the day.

Yep, democracy is on the rampage again but this time in Pakistan. The ’smart bombs’ are officially confused. This story first came to my attention way back into The Guardian (in print last Thursday), I believe it was around p. 22. So it’s there if you want to find it (funny how the news works isn’t it?).

Since then, more updates have arrived on The Guardian online to a grand total of four as far as I can tell. We know that it was bound to happen soon, but I will admit I was mildly surprised. It’s being reported as an accidental spill-over from the Taliban hunting festivities in Afghanistan, reports are varied on what actually took place. Speaking generally, it seems as though between 7 -20 civilians were killed in their homes via several helicopters and heavily armed commandos.

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We’ve all heard the debate about whether video games affect our thoughts and behaviour. Personally, I have no problem with indiscriminate violence in games. Some senseless murders in Grand Theft Auto 4 can be highly cathartic, diminishing rather than exacerbating those murderous urges we all get (eh? anyone?). But there’s a worrying trend of videogame violence becoming discriminating, and senselessly so.

Case in point - Mercenaries 2, released this week. As far as I can tell from its wikipedia entry and various trailers, the game is set in Venezuela, in the year 2010. Megalomaniac ‘Ramón Solano’ has just seized power and become dictator. He takes control of the nation’s vast oil reserves and declares “It is time the Venezuelan people stop paying for the greed of foreign interests, we will make them pay dearly for our oil. From this day forward everybody pays”. And so you, the maverick mercenary, have to overthrow the Venezuelan government. (Apparently, because ‘Solano’ didn’t pay you for a previous job. Of course…)

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Diego Garcia is a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. These days, it is known as a ‘British Overseas Territory’, though before this it was less euphemistically called a colony. The island has been under British control for over 200 years, having being conceded by France at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. French-owned slaves from West Africa first inhabited the island in the 18th century, developing their own idiosyncratic language and culture, and calling themselves the Ilois (‘islanders’).

But, only a few decades ago, the islanders’ way of life came to an end, following a clandestine political agreement which still influences events today.

In the early 1960s, American officials decided they needed a military base (‘communications facility’) in this strategically important area. Originally they had planned on using the uninhabited Aldabra Atoll, but environmental groups successfully lobbied for the protection of the rare tortoises living there. Plan B was Diego Garcia, which they intended to lease from Harold Wilson’s Labour government as part of a joint military venture.

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I don’t know what ‘liberal’ is supposed to mean these days, but I always understood it as having something to do with the prioritisation of individual liberty (hence the etymology of the word). So when I heard Barack Obama’s new running mate summed up as ‘a liberal’ by the BBC last night, I did have to wonder.

Joe Biden supported the PATRIOT act, of all things. Now, admittedly he does want to restore the habeas corpus rights of detainees, but really - is that a specifically *liberal* position these days? It’s a central tenet of the US constitution, from which all US government officials, republican or democrat, (supposedly) derive their power. The constitution says: ‘The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.’  And let’s be clear, the USA have neither been invaded, nor have they revolted.

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Yesterday - Friday, August 22nd - a coaliton airstrike took place in the Herat province of Afghanistan. That is what we do know. And then the fun guessing game begins. You see, once again depending on who you ask, something wildly different actually happened.

Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry is claiming that 76 civilians were killed when the airstrike took place yesterday afternoon (19 women, 7 men, 50 children). Conversely, US forces claim that they took out roughly 25-30 terrorists and Taliban members that had been planning to attack US bases. It’s good to see them really going for this pre-emptive strike thing, isn’t it? (Remember when they did that and managed to wipe out everybody at an entire wedding reception?). Yeah, fighting the good fight for freedom. But I digress - the military is also claiming that the strike occurred in the early hours of the morning and that there were no further attacks that day. Oh yeah, and there were no civilian casualties. Reuters must be full of bullshit, right?

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On 14 August, this World Health Organisation draft on pandemic flu preparedness was leaked on Wikileaks.

This passage is perhaps most striking:

‘global influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity is insufficient to meet demand in a pandemic and […] in the absence of a multilateral system of benefit sharing, some Member States, particularly developing countries, can neither afford nor access the vaccines’

In other words, ‘there isn’t enough vaccine to go around, poorer countries will be priced out of the market, and millions will die in the event of a pandemic’. Basically, this passage amounts to the blackmailing of developing countries into accepting the WHO’s particular ‘virus sharing’ system. Indonesia has felt the need to withhold virus samples from the WHO in protest of the current system, so what does this system entail?

Click ‘Read more’ to read the rest of this article…

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George Soros, for the uninitiated, is a Hungarian-American financial speculator worth approximately $9 billion. Why is he the topic of this post? Well, he’s been pouring his personal wealth (over $6 billion of it so far) into his ‘Open Society Institute‘ and its various branches.

As a result, he’s been subject to some pretty significant allegations about his role in international politics. In short, he’s supposed to have orchestrated the Rose Revolution in Georgia that took Mikhail Saakashvili to power. And he’s supposedly ‘the financial and political godfather’ of Barack Obama. (click read more…)

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Above: Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski.

Reuters:

“The United States has shown that Russia is the true target of its planned missile defense shield by signing a deal with Poland during an international crisis over Georgia, Russia’s NATO envoy told Reuters on Friday.

Poland agreed on Thursday to host elements of a U.S. global anti-missile system after Washington agreed to boost Poland’s own air defenses.

“The fact that this was signed in a period of very difficult crisis in the relations between Russia and the United States over the situation in Georgia shows that, of course, the missile defense system will be deployed not against Iran but against the strategic potential of Russia,” Dmitry Rogozin said in a telephone interview.”

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This is a bit of a mammoth post.

I’m hoping here to provide a bit of context on current world affairs. The conflict between Russia and its pro-Western, American-funded neighbour Georgia, seems to have something to do with a nearby oil pipeline which supplies the West. At the same time, Peak Oil scaremongering attaches itself to the environmental movement, fuel prices continue to rise, and oil companies make record profits. What to make of it? Let’s see… (click ‘read more’).

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Via Reuters:

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Washington had to choose between partnership with Moscow and the Georgian leadership which he described as a “virtual project”.“We understand that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of the United States, but one day the United States will have to choose between defending its prestige over a virtual project or real partnership which requires joint action,” Lavrov told reporters.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday demanded Russia resolve a crisis with Georgia and said he would dispatch U.S. military aircraft with humanitarian supplies.

Lavrov, speaking to reporters at a state residence outside Moscow, hit back, saying Moscow had warned Washington about the dangers of backing Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

“Bush’s speech said nothing of how Georgia was armed all these years, including by the United States,” Lavrov said.

“We have more than once warned our partners that this is a dangerous game. It (the Bush speech) said nothing about what had happened on Aug 8, when Western leaders maintained silence when Tskhinvali became a target of massive bombing,” Lavrov said.”

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Over the past few days, the news media has been full of quotes such as these:

‘The US stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia and insists the territorial sovereignty of Georgia be respected’ - George Bush

The obvious implication is that South Ossetia is a part of Georgia, and the situation is framed as a simple invasion of a smaller country (Georgia) by a much larger one (Russia). And this neatly ties in with Bush’s decision to send ‘humanitarian aid’, (in the form of military forces), to heroically support the little guy. (Never mind the 1000 American troops in Georgia recently for training, or the American funding and equipping of the Georgian military since 2002).

But, as Russian deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov said on BBC’s hardtalk:

“We recognise the sovereignty and independence of Georgia … But territorial integrity, it’s just another matter. South Ossetia and Abkhazia never were part of Georgia as an independent country”.

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Source: Georgiandaily.com

Details can be found here of a joint military training programme known as ‘Immediate Response 2008′, which took place at the Vaziani military base in Georgia only a couple of weeks ago. It involved 1000 US soldiers.

There’s been little to no mention of this in the mainstream coverage of the recent conflict. Searches for Immediate Response 2008 on the BBC website come up blank, as too on ITN news, Sky etc. Most news organisations don’t even seem to return any hits for the Vaziani base. (Though there is this Guardian article from 2002, which refers to US plans to set up a ‘terrorism school’ [sic] at the base. I can only assume they meant ‘anti-terrorism school’, though maybe it was a Freudian slip).

So was there a media blackout? Well, on the morning of July 15, the day the initiative began, Reuters covered it, even being so explicit as to use the term ‘wargames’.

U.S. troops start training exercise in Georgia (Reuters, July 15 2008)

The Associated Press carried it too, on the same day. Maybe we’re a bit strange here at One More Promethean, but we just thought that information might be relevant to understanding current affairs. We could be wrong.

I really am having a hard time finding any mentions of this minor detail in any of the recent news coverage (I’m mainly going on the BBC website here,  but it seems the same goes for ITV, Sky and the rest). The Georgian military bases are just called ‘Georgian military bases’, and the Georgian army is apparently just the ‘Georgian army’. And who’d believe that Georgia would dare attack Russia?

Maybe Joe Public already knows all about the Krtsanisi US military base right next to Tbilisi, but you’d think it’d be worth a quick mention anyway. Y’know, just as a refresher course in any of the Georgian geopolitics we might have missed in school.

Still, at least there’s not a conspiracy to delete the BBC News archives:-

US role in Georgia alarms Russia - BBC  (Feb 2002)

US army trainers land in Georgia - BBC (May 2002)

US army steps up Georgian training - BBC (Sept 2002)

US military will stay in Georgia - BBC (Jan 2004)

See? It even forms an understandable narrative and everything. Shocking.

But that’s not relevant to coverage of a Russia/Georgia conflict, is it? What is worth referring to are such delicious George Bush quotes as…

“Russia’s government must respect Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”. (source: BBC)

We’ll just ignore the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, then. Oh, and how’s this for hypocrisy…

“[Russia] threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century”. (source: Guardian)

I guess this hinges on your particular definition of ‘democratic’, but I don’t think the Bush administration is an authority on the matter. In any case, President Chavez and President Ahmadinejad might take issue with Bush’s position.

I’ll not pretend to know anything much about this situation - I don’t. The point is, however, that the mainstream news is not really helping to alleviate my ignorance.