The New Georgian Reasoning

After speaking with lots of Georgians, in Georgia, recently, several things become obvious: while they blame Saakashvili for the war, or rather loosing the war, they are still in absolute denial about who started the fight or what their own army did. At worst, on the subject of atrocities, they claim the Russian army did the same. Obviously, when faced with endemic denial, bombing hospitals and sleeping civilians in Tskinvali is the same as the Russian air force bombing military bases and a munitions plant (which was disserted first).

Were Georgian civilians killed, yes. Of course the fact that their military posts are surrounded by high story apartment buildings, which were not evacuated and turned citizens into human shields for their murderous regime. Of course the West never seemed to be bothered by that point, indeed delighted by the casualties, as they made good reporting.

This mentality of equality of action is reminiscent of the Islamic Arabs screaming about Israeli action, after their own countless rockets on civilians. Simply put, it stinks and is indicative of a victim mentality by a failed bully. The big kid came to protect the little kid I was beating up, I am the victim here. Of course in this case it was not just kids fighting but a US/NATO trained client exterminating women and children.

However, the most disturbing new mentality for reasoning away their leadership’s atrocities, reminds one of the Japanese claim to be saving the Asians they were invading and enslaving. The Georgian new rational for the Abkhazians runs like this: first, there are no real Abkhazians or rather just a few, see, most of the Abkhazians are really Georgians who changed their names many years ago and besides, if they enter Russia, they will be Russified and disappear as a separate culture (which one would guess they are not since after all there are no real Abkhazians just Georgians with funny family names). This would sound almost plausible until one considers that in 1922, 1991 and if 2008 had succeeded in South Ossessia the Abkhaz would have faced a third extermination attempt by the Georgians in less than 100 years.

They are all also equally in historic denial that Abkhazia entered the Soviet Union as an independent Soviet republic that was than annexed by Stalin to Georgia and flooded with Georgian colonists who displaced the native Abkhaz from all positions of value. Of the several dozen tourist resorts (the main cash industry), one was run by an Abkhaz director, one by a Russian, the rest by Georgians.

One thing is certain, the Georgians will be in a state of shock by the upcoming European Union report of the war that places the blame squarely on the shoulders on Georgia. That this report will be blocked by the government’s absolute control of main media is one thing, that the Georgians, in absolute denial, would never read it or believe it, is another.