Once again, in the spirit of blind nationalism, phony patriotism and dripping with the stench of hypocrisy, mainstream America has swallowed the Bush administration’s spew of propaganda without thinking about it twice; just as they did in the buildup to the Iraq War.

This time it’s the Russia/Georgia Conflict, which began about the same time as the opening day of the 2008 Olympics in China with a brutal military assault on the tiny separatist province of South Ossetia by Georgia, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths, as well as some Russian peacekeepers and thousands of civilian displacements.

As might be expected, the Bush administration, along with contenders for the throne and pretty much the rest of the political backbone of America, has taken the one-sided approach and lashed out with insults, tough talk and promises of serious punishment for the “evil doers,” without a thorough study of the evidence, or looking at both sides of the board fairly.

And once again the mainstream media has dishonored the purpose of its freedom and taken the path most traveled by jumping onboard instantly with the government line, painting a picture in broad brush strokes that would make it appear to the average reader that Russia, the “Evil Empire,” is the super villain in this conflict because it attacked the good, democratic, sovereign nation of Georgia, in response, with a wrath unbecoming of the 21st Century.

War is hell and should be eliminated as a means by which nations settle their disputes. But using war and military might as a means of pushing foreign policy is still here with us after all these years of what we call civilization, and there is not a greater exponent of it today than the good ole USA. That alone makes whatever America has to say about the Russia/Georgia Conflict subject to question.

Pious condemnation by a hypocrite nation guilty of the exact same thing and worse is so ridiculous as to be an insult to the universal mind and a terrible stumbling block on the road to peace on earth. My advice to America is please shut up, or say something honest and intelligent, or at least helpful in resolving this conflict and making sure it doesn’t evolve into something a thousand times worse.

Take the response of Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain: “In the 21st Century, nations don’t invade other nations,” he said. The territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected, and “This behavior is not acceptable in the 21st Century,” he said at the Saddleback Church, where he and Obama made an appearance and affirmed their faith in Jesus in an attempt to garner the support of the Evangelical Christians.

Oh really? Didn’t America break International Law and the U.N. Charter which we signed, and push the United Nations aside and attack Iraq under false pretenses, even though Iraq had done us no wrong and was not a threat to us or its neighbors? And wasn’t McCain not only in complete support of this but is still one of the greatest supporters of the Iraq War and believes that we should continue with the war until hell freezes over or until we achieve victory, or whichever comes first?

What is wrong with McCain’s response? Bald faced hypocrisy is what’s wrong with it. The horror is that he is applauded for it. And that’s not even to mention the fact that we also invaded the sovereign nation of Afghanistan in 2001 and are still there trying to kick that nation into shape and form it into our own image, regardless of how much blood has to flow, innocent or otherwise.

Our illegal conquest, invasion and occupation of Iraq has been a bloodbath, with mostly the civilians, in the hundreds of thousands, taking the bath. And we’re still there, trying to win a victory, under the pretext that we’re still on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and terrorism wherever we can find it. We attacked in March, 2003, and we’re still there in August, 2008, trying to groom that nation into our image and force it into our service in pursuit of our national interests.

When one steps back from the picture, being drawn by the mainstream media, the “talking heads”, the politicians, the government leaders, preachers, power brokers and the Bush administration’s relentless spewing of hypocrisy and propaganda, and looks at the painting in its entirety, frame and all, it becomes a completely different picture.

If a person can distance themselves just a little from boneheaded nationalism and fake patriotism and look at all the evidence clearly in the light of day and “justice for all,” it becomes obvious that America’s foreign policy rests on a foundation of political intrigue and operates solely on the absolute belief that military might makes right … and it must be right, or else God would not have allowed it to become the greatest military threat on earth, with the right to do as it pleases.

That has been the mark of civilizations for centuries. But that doesn’t make it right and it doesn’t bode well for the hope that we might avoid a nuclear showdown and get through the 21st Century alive, or even the next decade. The fact is, we need something new. We need a new approach that is different from the idea that God placed us on an imperial throne with the power to rule over the world and be the decider of who’s right and who’s wrong.

If one really takes a close look at the entire picture, it appears that America has used the United Nations when it wanted to and abused and undermined its purpose when it saw fit, which, in effect, has made it fairly useless as an organization working for world peace. What good is NATO or any other international organization if America pulls them around by the nose and decides who should be a part of the international community and who should be isolated and grouped among the bad guys, or labeled rogue nations?

Hypocrisy, rooted in power and the lust for world domination, is actually the thing that has no place in the 21st Century, especially due to the fact that we are now more than 62 years into the Nuclear Age with the possibility of Nuclear War always in front of our nose, regardless of the hypocritical belief that God loves us no matter what we do and will back us until we have subdued the world.

Because of our own actions in the world, President Bush’s cry that Georgia’s sovereignty must be respected and that Russia has damaged its credibility in the free world and is guilty of “bullying and intimidation,” comes across as hypocritical rhetoric at the least and foolish provocation at the worst.

Bush says that freedom is a God-given right, that all people should have it. And yet, what have the two separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia been struggling for, even long before the breakup of the Soviet Union? Their freedom from Georgia. And why did Georgia attack South Ossetia? To keep them from having it. And what made Georgia think that it could get away with its brutal attack? Because it has been armed by the U.S. and taken under its wing because of its oil pipeline and because it borders the Russian Federation, and because Georgia didn’t think that Russia would risk doing anything about it.

Russia, serving in a well-established role as peacekeepers for these two provinces that have considered themselves as independent republics since the breakup of the U.S.S.R., responded initially to Georgia’s assault by convening an emergency session of the UN Security Council and attempting to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, but the U.S. and others wouldn’t agree to it.

The next day, reports of deaths among Russian troops and civilians began to come in and Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedey announced that he was “obligated to defend the life and honor of Russian citizens, wherever they may be,” adding “We will not let those responsible for the death of our people go unpunished.”

Russia responded on Aug. 7 by coming to the aid of South Ossetia and driving the Georgia military back, deep into Georgia, and then driving the Georgia forces out of Abkhazia and deep into Georgia.

Russia can’t use “disproportionate force” against Georgia and still be welcomed into the halls of international institutions, U.S. Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice responded. “It’s not going to happen that way,” she said. “Russia will pay a price.”

It was only about two years ago when Israeli forces drove deep into Lebanon and Palestine in retaliation for the Hezbollah and Hamas capture of some Israeli soldiers, savaging both nations and killing right away in Lebanon alone about 1,000 people, mostly civilians, while losing about 100 of her own, mostly soldiers, while America stood by and refused to ask for a ceasefire so that Israel could do as much damage as possible.

Rice insisted that an immediate and unconditional ceasefire was no good because it would just mean a return to the status quo ante. So America let the killing and destruction go on for weeks and even passed a near-unanimous resolution in the U.S. House reaffirming our 100 percent support for Israel as if she had done absolutely no wrong.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates responded to this Russia/Georgia Conflict by saying that actions need to be taken against the Russians “for what they’ve done.” He added that the “U.S. and Russian relationship could be adversely affected for years to come,” and that “Russia’s got some serious work to do to work their way back into the family of nations.”

At the same time that all this was going on, America signed a deal with Poland to place a ballistic missile defense system in that nation which also borders on Russia, which will be linked to an air-defense radar system in the Czech Republic which agreed in April to take part in the system. America also agreed to modernize Poland’s military as part of the agreement.

Bush promised Russia that it was purely a defensive measure to protect Russia and Europe from nuclear attack from rogue nations (meaning Iran); but Russia, realizing that there was no legitimate evidence that Iran had nuclear weapons or any inclinations to acquire them, could not escape the possibility that the U.S. might turn those guns on them, if the U.S. decided it was in their national interests, to the chagrin of the Bush administration.

That and the fact that under NATO nuclear weapons sharing, the U.S. has provided nuclear weapons for Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, under the stipulation that they can only be fired by America; along with all the other American allies with nuclear weapons and the fact of America’s military aggression in the Middle East and its imperial behavior on the world stage being suggestive of a large snake tightening its coils, it should not be a surprise that Russia might be a little worried about America’s latest love affair with Georgia and her intentions towards Russia.

What nation can honestly escape the fact that America has a larger military budget than all the nations of the world combined? And who cannot escape the fact of our military actions and threats of military actions and punishment for any nation that doesn’t toe the American line?

The bottom line is that this type of behavior on the part of America is old hat, is not working and will not work in the future. We have drifted too far away from truth, justice and the American way. We have, based on our military actions since the end of World War II, forfeited our right to lead the family of nations to peace.

We’ve either got to find a better way or shut up and take a backseat and leave it to others to lead, because we have, beyond any question of a doubt, barring some miracle which has not yet made itself known, come to the end of the line in terms of our desire for world domination and our right to the throne as the ruler of the Earth and the King of Kings among nations.

Naman Crowe, a Vietnam veteran, began his award-winning journalism career in 1971. He has written for numerous publications. He can be reached at namancrowe@yahoo.com.