I Think I Might Smell a Rat

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those conspiracy theorists. I generally don’t assume that most of our buffoonish clowns in Washingtonand surrounding environs have the ummm, smarts shall we say, to pull off such grandiose schemes. Yet, when I read this article, well, I was at least intrigued by the possibilities. And I certainly don’t put it past the folks in question to well, push such an agenda in the hopes it might bear pickable fruit.

Okay, here it is: We know for instance that McBush’s chief foreign policy advisor is one Randy Scheunemann. Mr. S up until only March or so of this year was an avid lobbyist for who? None other than the independent state of Georgia (the one over there near Russia, the big bear). In fact, Mr. S. was working for the Georgians even though he was working for Senator McShame. That of course, caused the usual ruckus and Mr. S. quit his lobbying and old fart claimed that everybody had been purged who were still actively engaged in lobbying.

Following so far? Okay. So also, we know, because Mr. McDope said it, that he favored admitting the Georgian State into the NATO alliance. Isn’t that interesting? And Mac also at least toyed with the idea of kicking Russia out of the G8 remember?

Now Mr. S worked for the Georgians for 4 years. And he has also worked on McCain’s 2000 bid for president, so we can assume that the Georgians (read President Mikhail Saakashvili) knew him well, and certainly McCain knew him well as well. Now I am not suggesting that Mr. S. is responsible for the Georgian action against the non-independent province, South Ossetia. But listen the evidence is certainly there to draw from.

McCain and Mr. S. on the Campaign trail

Mr. S. accompanied McCain to Georgia where Mac met Pres. Saakashvili. In a speech there McCain, declared Georgia to be America’s “best friend” and declared Russian peacekeepers should be “thrown out.” Mr. S. helped draft the congressional resolution calling for Georgia’s entrance into NATO.  McCain has been quite vocal about his distrust of Putin and company. (Oh, in case you weren’t aware: There is a rumor that there is a good year of McCain’s captivity in North Vietnam that is unaccounted for. There has always been talk that McCain was turned over to the Russians for some serious torture to get him to divulge whatever they thought he knew. So there is some reason to understand McCain’s fairly abiding hatred of all things Russian.)

Then you add in that Mr. S. was a big supporter of the Iraq invasion in 2003. He was President of the club called “Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.” He was one of those calling for it, and pushing for it. (You wonder why McCain would have such an idiot as his Chief foreign affairs advisor given that everybody on the planet pretty much knows that decision was a freaking disaster? Yes, sane people would ask that question. Worse yet, as if it could be worse, S. worked for Rumsfeld as an advisor on the Iraq war. ) So Mr. S. certainly is of that ilk of neo-con that would be likely to ummmm, push war should he have the ear of Pres. Saakashvili perhaps?

It gets dirtier than this however. Mr. S. also worked for badboy and recently discarded Bush supporter Stephen Payne, owner of Caspian Alliance Oil, which—you got it— runs a pipeline through Georgia!

Of course Johnny boy went slightly bizzerk at the evasion, calling for NATO to convene immediately and to “stabilize this situation.” Of course no such thing occurred. Now add the apparent surprise of the Georgian government that the US has done absolutely zero to help them in this recent debacle and as we just said, neither did NATO. Could it be that Mr. Saakashvili was led to believe otherwise? By none other than Mr. S? if not McCain himself?

It is clear that McCain wishes to demonize Putin in the extreme. It is clear that a cooling of relations with the Russians plays into his hands as the “foreign affairs expert” we can trust in dangerous times. Is it possible that all this fits together?

Robert Sheer lays this out in a post in The Nation. You should take a look at it. It seems the pieces seem to fit together. It is an ugly little idea, certainly, but we have a candidate who makes it pretty clear that winning is the only option.

For a historical prospective of the region, read Margarita Akhvlediani’s report here.

Trying to understand McCain’s mixed up calls for action is Mark Ames, here. That McCain has lost his marbles is apparent. He called for the UN security council to meet, AFTER Russia had already done so. Bush neo-cons don’t support Russia’s call for “renouncing force.” When you couple this with his NATOization attempt, it seems clear McCain wants some kind of war here.

So, far be it from me to connect the dots and claim that McCain’s dirty little paws, along with his bizarre foreign affairs advisor’s, is smack dab in the middle of this mess. But knowing how the gutter politics of John and others work, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me. You didn’t read it here first, but well, you can at least say you heard it here. It might be a rat, but then again, it could just be bad cologne.