Friday 5 September 2008

United States, United Kingdom: hypocritical rhetoric

This is just a short note objecting to the United States' and United Kingdom's hypocritical rhetoric about this hot flash in the Second Cold War.
The United States is at Georgia's side, [U.S. Vice President Dick] Cheney said, "as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory and an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change your country's borders by force, that has been universally condemned by the free world".
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned Russia's 'unilateral attempt to redraw the map', and although he was referring to the territorial changes at the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was at least ironic that he had to specify that 'Russia is not yet reconciled to the new map', when his state had not been reconciled to the old map.

Presumably the United States is at Georgia's side in the same way that it was at Serbia's side as it worked to overcome an attempt to change its borders by force by... the United States (and the United Kingdom and, since the post-invasion peace-keeping began, Georgia and Ukraine), and in the same way that it was at Iraq's side as it worked to overcome an invasion of its sovereign territory (and if some observers are correct, also an attempt to change its borders by force) by... the United States (and the United Kingdom and, since the post-invasion occupation began, Georgia and Ukraine).

I'm not saying that I object to Georgian territorial integrity, although I do not see how South Ossetia or Abkhazia can be expected to live under Georgian control when its "administration" is "attack", but I do find it absurd that the the United Kingdom and the United States can even dare to employ, or that others can bear to entertain, their rhetoric about Russia's invasion of Georgia after the U.K. and the U.S. have invaded Serbia and changed its borders - when there is still United Nations legislation guaranteeing its territorial integrity - and when the U.K. and the U.S. have invaded Iraq - and privatised and annexed its oil - and continue to occupy it (and might, in the future, support a declaration of independence by the Kurdistan Regional Government).

1 comment:

  1. Politics is based on hypocritical rhetoric. Just see the UN or human rights issues.

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