The "October" Surprise

Has the Media Failed Us Once Again?

While the world was focused on the Olympic opening ceremony, and in the cloak of night, the Georgian military attacked the separatist region of South Ossetia. The timing suggested Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili may have been counting on surprise to fulfill his longtime pledge to wrest back control of South Ossetia - a key to his hold on power. Russia responded by aggressively entering South Ossetia and even further into Georgia proper with Air attacks, tanks, and ground troops.

Since the attack was during the Olympics there was little reporting of the Georgian attack and much more coverage of the Russian retaliation. When the world woke up Saturday morning President Saakshvilli was pleading to the world for help from the bombardment of the Russian imperialists. The West responded accordingly, backing our ally and NATO candidate Georgia. Mainstream media (MSM) covered the story as Russia the aggressor, Georgia the victim of an imperialist neighbor, and the United States (and the West) as the condemner of the Russian response. This viewpoint continues through today. 

There may have been an active information campaign to influence MSM's coverage of this flare up. The timing of the invasion, President Micheil Saakshvilli's relentless TV appearances desperately attempting to frame the issue, and President Bush and company's continuous statements warning the Kremlin have successfully guided the media to report on just that, and nothing more. Russian renditions of the incidents are quickly disregarded as product of the KGB propaganda machine. The start of the conflict was not adequately reported and it has still been left ambiguous at best.

Aside from MSM, there are a few sources who have explanations other than Russian neo-imperialism for the conflict in the Caucuses. Paul Craig Roberts, the former assistant secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan, defines the turn of events differently. He sees this as a planned aggression by American neoconservatives in an attempt to further their ideological beliefs that America is a dominating hegemon that should neutralize Russia by surrounding it with NATO nations. In an interview with Larry King Thursday night, Mikhael Gorbecov stated that Georgia had instigated the conflict and that "it was a well-prepared project" with strong signs that "they [Georgia] wanted to put the blame on Russia." Mikheil Saakishvilli was interviewed on the same show after Gorbecov. Saakishvilli entered into an ad hominem argument against Gorbecov attacking his character for "vindicating lies and deceptions." Gorbecov also said Saakishvilli "misled the United States, unless to think that it was an American project and that Saakashvilli just implemented it." Robert Shear expanded on these thoughts by reporting the links between Senator McCain's top foreign policy advisor, McCain himself and the Georgian government. Please read Mr. Shear's article.

To further the suspicions of such an "october surprise" Carl Rove met Mikeil Saakishvilli at a Conference in Yalta on July 12. Also Condi Rice met with Saakishvilli days earlier. 

Was the Media tooled again? Was there in fact a plot to shift the election to a platform that John McCain can win on? The dots continue to connect. Developing...