Arabeyes: Third World War in the Making?
See Global Voices special coverage page on the South Ossetia crisis.
Bloggers in the Middle East are closely following the developments in Georgia, with some saying it could usher in World War Three. Here's a quick review of what bloggers in Yemen and Jordan are writing.
From Yemen, Omar Barsawad says a Third World War is probable – almost a century after the first. He explains:
Will NATO push on with its expansion? That would be reckless and extremely dangerous. As in both the first and second World Wars, accidentally – ‘one thing leads to another’ until it becomes too late to stop events. The First World War happened, accidentally, mainly because one part of Europe wanted to be the dominant power there; the Second One, planned, was for the same reasons, but Hitler too – wanted to settle old scores and expand. And both World Wars, in one way or the other – were about power and dominating resources; mainly oil.
“Hasn't Europe learnt enough from their history of the last Century?” asks Barsawad. His other questions are:
Hasn't enough suffering, destruction and horrors happened there for them to learn to live with and accommodate each other, rather than one part wanting to expand and dominate? NATO continuously preaches that every country should respect each others borders, and yet it is aggressively expanding; what kind of message does that send? If Russia or China act in the same way – extending and spreading their arms and missiles, would NATO quietly and passively accept that?
Barsawad concludes:
Rubbing Russia's nose more and more and pushing it further and further could accidentally lead to the unimaginable: the Third World War. Any body ready for that? Nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction which both sides posses have so far been deterrents, but for how long?
Meanwhile, “Where's Georgia?” asks Jordanian blogger Naseem Tarawnah after discovering that is has been wiped off the map – Google Map, that is.
When you’re my age and you read about wars and conflict in history books, everything always seems so formulaic and perhaps even a bit ancient. So I was surprised to see today, something that speaks a little more to my generation. Apparently, the Russian-invaded country Georgia that has been making headlines this month, has been wiped off the map of the world. Google maps that is.
Tarawnah then explains the reason why Georgia doesn't appear on the map:
With infrastructure being the first target of most conflicts, the search engine giant, Google, doesn’t want to be seen as helping either side with its mapping technology. The company has since removed all the details normally seen on Google maps of a country, that include roads, towns and cities in Georgia, as well as from the maps of neighboring countries Azerbaijan and Armenia
Fellow blogger Hareega, also from Jordan, uses the crisis as an opportunity to poke fun of US President George Bush, calling his geographical knowledge into question:
The war between Russia and Georgia has got ugly. When President Bush heard about Georgia being under heavy fire, he asked the citizens of Atlanta to hold on and keep hosting the Olympics the best they could.