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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (467)	12/10/2002 4:43:09 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

Actually, it is not. Do take a minute to take a look at the history of their struggle, and the history of the region. Actually, the struggle IS largely religious since Islam is the mechanism by which the Chechyan rebels are advancing their stuggle. One would be completely ignoring reality to deny that when a rebel movement establishes Islamic law, (sharia) as Chechyan leaders did in 1999, that it's not. Furthermore, one would have to ignore the fact that Chechyan leaders invaded neighboring Dagestan, an independent republic, seeking to merge the two states together. But this is peripheral to the real issue, which is oil. Chechnya, and in particular Grozny, was the hub of the Soviet/Russian oil refining industry, as well as being the primary hub for transporting oil from the Caspian oil fields. Those oil facilities were produced for the benefit of, and with the resources from, every other portion of the former Soviet Union, and they are extremely important to Russia's economic recovery. That's the read power play being displayed here... one more struggle over oil... covertaction.org Religion is just something that grew stronger as the resistance progressed - something that was theirs and not Russian Ohh... or is it that their TRUE colors began to show as they found that hiding behind mere "nationalism" wasn't sufficient to win their state?? It's not like ANY "nationalistic" movement is monolithic. There are always secularists, religious militants, and a few anarchists thrown for spice, when we see rebellions. The secularists lost to the militant Islamics, and now we have their leadership seeking to create an Islamic republic in the Caucasus. Now Zonder... you should understand that I'm not particularly keen on granting every nationalistic movement that manages to grab a headline or two their own state. And let's not deceive ourselves into believing that US "concern" over Russian operations in the area was strictly "humanitarian".. We have our own oil companies over there in Georgia and elsewhere, thus we had every interest in preventing the Russians from being able to compete with the plans of US oil companies. Again... we're talking BIG MONEY here... So don't believe that anyone there is acting solely in the interest of nationalism or Federation. And given that Chechnya is landlocked, they have every interest in obtaining access to waterfront property eventually. Again... I'm not judging "right and wrong" here... But the Chechnyans have not done themselves any favors, post 9/11, by presenting themselves as an Islamic republic under Sharia. Personally, under present circumstances, I'm no more excited about a chechnyan "homeland" than I am about the prospects of a militaristic and Islamo-fascist Palestinian state. Again... I don't believe every ethnicity deserves their own homeland. To subscribe to such a belief would threaten to launch the entire world into any number of "wars of liberation".. Thus, we have to look at what quality of culture and social progress such a nationality might implement that justifies establishing a homeland. Hawk