Petiton for unbiased US public debate regarding the Russia-Ossetia-Georgia conglict

To: Senator Obama (CC: Democratic Congressmen and Senators)

Please let me first of all state that the inner workings of both Congress and political campaigns are very familiar to me, and in writing this letter I do not want a generic response.  What I would like to ask is that someone who advises Mr. Obama on foreign policy closely examines the information in this letter and the two attached articles.

SO FROM HERE ON IS THE LETTER:

Senator Obama should be aware that Senator McCain has pushed Senator Obama into a political trap on the Georgia-Russia situation. This letter is written to inform the Obama campaign of some aspects of the situation that are hard to learn about in the sensationalist 24-hour news cycle.

The first thing that needs to be clear is that the war was started when Georgian forces bombarded the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali on the night of August 8th. Tshinvali has one or two military targets, yet 70% of the city was destroyed, with schools, hospitals, and apartment complexes attacked by direct fire from Georgian artillery and tanks.

According to South Ossetian Ministry of Health, Georgian artillery bombardment of a peaceful city killed somewhere between 1300-2000 innocent men, women, and children. If one is to consider that the entire South Ossetian ethnos numbers roughly around 100,000 people the actions of the Georgian army could hardly be viewed as anything but crimes against humanity and genocide.

There are plenty of video and photo evidence of these atrocities, however the David Vs. Goliath, black-white storyline of %u201Ca small democratic country facing a giant oppressor from the north%u201D is too difficult for 24-hour news to pass up. Instead CNN shows videos of the destroyed city of Tskhinvali and says that it is the Georgian city of Gori (the cameraman who made the video recently spoke out about this, but his voice was of course never heard in the US).

The assertion that "Russia started this aggression" seems even more laughable when you realize that the Russian President, Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, and the head of the 58th Army (based in Vladikavkaz that went in to protect the citizens of South Ossetia) were all on vacation the night of August 8th.

Mr. Saakashvili has long been an ally of the US but became an adversary to the Georgian people. If you need more proof of who he really represents just take a look at his announcement of the state of war; he spoke English. This is the first time a leader of the country spoke a language known only by about 10% of his people to make an announcement as significant as a declaration of war (imagine FDR speaking Russian in his "Day of Infamy" speech!)

Obviously, Mr. Saakashvili would not initiate an attack on Russian citizens and peacekeepers without either concrete or misinterpreted signs from Washington. The logical question is who in DC benefits from this situation?

Would that be the %u201Cnewbie, inexperienced%u201D Senator from Illinois who %u201Ccalls for negotiations with terrorists%u201D, or an %u201Cexperienced%u201D Cold Warrior who has long warned about how %u201Cevil%u201D the Russians are, and now happens to be %u201CGeorgian%u201D?

Senator McCain whether willingly or not, has found himself in the perfect situation to once again play his favorite %u201Cyou can%u2019t handle the tough world we live in%u201D card.  Unless Senator Obama gets more accurate information regarding the conflict into the public debate he will be outplayed by Senator McCain, and even if he wins, his administration will be hostage to his campaign rhetoric.

This will damage, if not destroy any hopes of working with the Russian Federation in such important areas as Iran, North Korea, nuclear nonproliferation, and many others.

If these arguments are not enough, please take a look at the two articles below. They are from respected publications on both sides of the Atlantic. The articles give analysis, as well as history and potential consequences of the conflict. Neither publication has any history of pro-Russian bias, but in this case the facts are too overwhelming to ignore.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200808u/georgia-russia-war

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary-dejevsky-russia-the-bad-guys-who-are-the-west-trying-to-kid-897498.html

Sincerely,

!!SIGNATURE!!


(Please copy-paste this letter and send it to your members of Congress and to the Obama campaign

You can find out who is your Member by entering your zip code on this site:

http://www.house.gov/

Your can find out who your Senator is on this site:

http://www.senate.gov/

and to the Obama campaign:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/contact2

Thank you for your help in getting the truth out into the public debate, and may the souls of ALL the people lost in this conflict rest in peace!)