(Russian Times): The United States has in recent years given Georgia more than just its unflinching support, having trained and armed its military. One man who thinks this means Washington has a lot more to answer for in the Sout Ossetia conflict is Paul Craig Roberts. He's a former Assistant Secretary to the Treasury during Ronald Reagan's administration, and he joins me on the phone now.
Thanks for joining us. Now, you've published an article saying the entire world knows the outbreak of conflict between Russia and Georgia was entirely due to the U.s. and its Georgian puppet Saakashvili. What's the basis for such strong claims?
(Roberts): A militarily insignificant state such as Georgia would not attack a Russian population on Russia's border without a green light from the United States government.
The Georgian attack had two purposes: one was to ethnically cleanse the separatist Russians from South Ossetia; and the other was to convince the European members of NATO that delaying Georgia's membership had made Georgia a victim of Russian attack.
The American neoconservatives have published their plans: arraying Russia with American bases, in order to establish American hegemony over Russia; and the American government wants to control the oil flows to the west.
(Russian Times): Mr. Roberts, what, do you think, does the U.S. have to gain with such unwavering support for Georgia?
(Roberts): Americans themselves have nothing to gain. What is operating is the dangerous ideology of the American neoconservatives, whose goal is to exert American hegemony over the entire world. The neoconservatives have written that the huge American empire is more powerful than the Roman empire. Because America is so powerful, it can control the entire world.
(Russian Times): Mr. Roberts, in your assessment, what are the underlying reasons for Georgia's attack on its own province?
(Roberts): To ethnically cleanse South Ossetia of Russians, thus ending the seccessionist, or separatist, movement.
(Russian Times): Mr. Roberts, you say western media, especially in the United States, have fallen for government propoganda. Now, why should they toe the line, when some U.S. media has previously opposed its own government-led wars, such as Iraq?
(Roberts): No important part of the United States' print and TV media has opposed the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Indeed, the invasion could not have occurred without Judith Miller at the New York Times printing lies about Iraq, just as today the New York Times prints lies about Iranian nuclear weapons which do not exist.
There has been no independent American press for any media since 1997, when President Clinton admitted five oligarchs to concentrate the United States' media in a few hands, dependent on the U.S. government for broadcast licenses. The opposition to Bush, and his agression, is entirely an internet phenomenon.
(Russian Times): Finally, Mr. Roberts, if the U.S. is as implicit in the design of this conflict as you say it is, where does this leave the relationships of Washington, Europe, and Moscow?
(Roberts): Russia no longer has troops in the constituants of the Soviet empire; but the United States still has troops in Germany, in Japan, in Korea, and in more than seven hundred bases around the world. The United States has turned NATO, which was originally a military alliance against Soviet intrusions into western Europe, into an auxillary army of American empire. NATO troops are now the main military force attempting to occupy Afghanistan for the Bush regime.
THe United States is Russia's greatest enemy. The American-Israeli neoconservatives intend to neutralize Russia by placing America military bases in Poland, the Czech Republic, Kosovo, Ukraine, and Georgia. These governments have been purchased with American money. Europeans need to realize: being the remaining allies with the United States means that Europe will eventually be brought by America into a war with Russia. Most European people know this. The problem is that the American government purchases with money the loyalty of Europe's political leaders. Russia and China are the only countries capable of resisting American world hegemony.
(Russian Times): Well, thank you very much Mr. Roberts for your opinion.