{"id":88717,"date":"2013-11-02T19:12:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T18:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?guid=815690700fdce9dcd6eb87cd2afc0b90"},"modified":"2013-11-02T19:12:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T18:12:00","slug":"georgias-saakashvili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/georgias-saakashvili\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia’s Saakashvili"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Georgia’s Saakashvili<\/b><\/div>\n
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by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n
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Wall Street Journal editors call him “Georgia’s Washington<\/span><\/a>.” Turning truth on its head is official editorial policy. More on how they reinvented a first class thug below.<\/div>\n
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On October 27, Georgians elected Giorgi Margvelashvili president. He won decisively. He’ll replace Mikheil Saakashvili. <\/div>\n
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He’ll have less power. Constitutional amendments shifted it more to the prime minister and parliament.<\/div>\n
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Sunday’s vote marked the end of an era. It didn’t come a moment too soon. Georgians deplored Saakashvili’s ruthlessness. Despotism defined his rule.<\/div>\n
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He backed David Bakradze. He finished second with less than 22% of the vote. Former parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze got slightly over 10%. Margvelashvili got over 62%.<\/div>\n
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In a televised speech, Saakashvili called his election a “serious deviation” from how he governed. Ordinary Georgians surely hope so.<\/div>\n
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He was a US-installed stooge. He gained power the old fashioned way. Ruthlessness defined his administration. <\/div>\n
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He maintained close ties to NATO and Israel. He spurned international laws and norms. He did so consistently. He did it with impunity.<\/div>\n
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In 2003, he led Georgia’s bloodless “Rose Revolution.” He replaced Eduard Shevardnadze. Without evidence, he called November elections unfair. He claimed he won.<\/div>\n
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He called for protests and civil disobedience. They began days later in Tbilisi. They spread nationwide. On November 22, they peaked. It was parliament’s opening day.<\/div>\n
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His supporters placed roses in the barrels of soldiers’ rifles. They seized the parliament building. They interrupted Shevardnadze’s speech. He left for his safety.<\/div>\n
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Saakashvili declared a state of emergency. He mobilized troops and police. He convinced Shevadnadze to resign. A temporary head of state was installed.<\/div>\n
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Georgia’s Supreme Court annulled the elections. On January 5, 2004, Saakashvili was elected president. On January 25, he was inaugurated.<\/div>\n
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On March 28, new parliamentary elections were held. Saakashvili supporters used heavy-handed tactics to win. US-backed scripting assured it. <\/div>\n
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So did generous funding from the National Endowment of Democracy, George Soros, Freedom House, and other US-allied organizations.<\/div>\n
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Posing as independent NGOs, they support Washington’s imperial agenda. They deplore democratic values. They do business the old fashioned way.<\/div>\n
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They use familiar tactics. They include election rigging, organized street protests, major media agitprop, and whatever else it takes to prevail.<\/div>\n
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Neoliberal harshness followed Saakashvili’s election. State enterprises were privatized. Georgia’s civil service was gutted. Business-friendly tax cuts were enacted. Widespread corruption gamed the system for personal advantage.<\/div>\n
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Georgia became a ruthless police state. Rule of law principles were spurned. Heavy-handed repression targeted nonbelievers. Legitimate opposition was crushed.<\/div>\n
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Saakashvili’s tenure included suspicious deaths, disappearances, mass arrests, detentions, torture, loss of civil liberties, mass media control, and allying with Washington’s imperial agenda.<\/div>\n
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He partnered in Bush’s Afghan and Iraq wars. In August 2008, he waged US proxy war on South Ossetia. It’s Georgia’s breakaway province.<\/div>\n
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He picked the wrong fight against the wrong adversary. South Ossetia has lots of Russian citizens. Moscow intervened to protect them. It did so for other strategic reasons.<\/div>\n
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It justifiably called Saakashvili’s invasion flagrant aggression. It responded forcefully. Saakashvili’s insurgency was crushed. CIA operatives orchestrated it covertly.<\/div>\n
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In January 2008, election rigging gave Saakashvili a second term. In May, angry Georgians demanded change. They had to wait five more years. What follows his departure remains to be seen. For now, it’ll too early to tell.<\/div>\n
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Wall Street Journal editors regret Saakashvili’s departure. He “made many mistakes but got the big things right,” they said.<\/div>\n
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He “led the peaceful and democratic Rose Revolution in 2003. He brought energy and ideas to a small war-ravaged nation struggling to survive under Russia’s heavy paw.”<\/div>\n
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It’s hard imagining analysis more convoluted. It’s typical WSJ editorial style. Its editors had lots more to say. They claimed Saakashvili “rooted out a culture of petty corruption.”<\/div>\n
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He replaced it with greater amounts writ large. He, his cronies, and corporate friends profited at the expense of millions of ordinary Georgians.<\/div>\n
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“He<\/span> made it easier to start a business and make an honest buck than in any place within several time zones,” said Journal editors. <\/div>\n
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Their type honesty is grand theft. They support the worst of Wall Street practices. They do abroad in countries like Georgia.<\/div>\n
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They called Saakashvili “a charismatic leader.” Whatever charisma he had vanished soon after taking office.<\/div>\n
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“After a decade in power, he wore out his welcome.” It was gone long before Journal editors admitted it.<\/div>\n
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He’ll “leave office as Georgia’s George Washington,” they said. America’s father would roll over in his grave hearing it.<\/div>\n
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He “nurtured a transition to democracy in a region where elected leaders too often turn into dictators,” said Journal editors.<\/div>\n
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He matched some of the world’s worst. Georgians wanted him gone long ago. Whether constructive change follows his departure remains to be seen. <\/div>\n
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Washington’s dirty hands will try every dirty trick possible to prevent it. Journal editors will be on the sidelines cheering them.<\/div>\n
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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. <\/div>\n
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His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”<\/div>\n
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http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanII.html<\/div>\n
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Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. <\/div>\n
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Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n
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It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.<\/div>\n
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http:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia’s Saakashviliby Stephen LendmanWall Street Journal editors call him “Georgia’s Washington.” Turning truth on its head is official editorial policy. More on how they reinvented a first class thug below.On October 27, Georgians elected Giorgi Mar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-88717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}