17 January 2011 By Rick Rozoff Recent reports in the Russian news media have
detailed plans by the U.S. to provide the Mikheil
Saakashvili government in Georgia with tens of
millions of dollars worth of anti-aircraft and
anti-tank weapons. The Russian government's Itar-Tass news agency and
Voice of Russia have confirmed the arms package with
officials from the Russian special services and the
Joint Staff of the armed forces. An official from the second source responded to the
proposed arms sale by stating: "We deeply regret that
the reset of US-Russian relations declared by the
administration of Barack Obama does not change
anything in Washington's military support for the
Georgian leadership, which began the war in the
Caucasus in August 2008 and which is continuing to
mastermind aggressive plans against the independent
states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia." [1] The Georgian-South Ossetian-Russian war of 2008 was
preceded by Georgian artillery barrages against the
South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali on August 1 which
killed six people including a Russian peacekeeper
stationed there. That attack occurred within hours of 1,000 U.S.
Marines, airborne forces and other troops completing
the two-week Immediate Response 2008 North Atlantic
Treaty Organization Partnership for Peace exercise in
Georgia. Six days afterward the Saakashvili regime launched
an all-out assault against South Ossetia, timed to
coincide with the opening ceremony of the Olympic
Games in Beijing. American troops and military equipment remained in
the war zone throughout the five days of fighting
between Georgia and Russia which began after the
latter nation reacted to the deaths of Russian
peacekeepers and South Ossetian civilians (who
overwhelmingly hold Russian passports) caused by the
Georgian onslaught. U.S. military transport aircraft ferried home 2,000
Georgian troops deployed to Iraq – the third largest
national contingent after those of the U.S. and
Britain at the time – as the fighting was still
raging. Five days after the war ended, Joseph Biden – then
senator and chairman of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations, now vice president – rushed to the
Georgian capital to support Saakashvili and offer $1
billion in "emergency aid" to the U.S. client. After returning stateside, Biden, never reticent in
respect to high-blown rhetorical excesses, stated: "I left the country convinced that Russia's
invasion of Georgia may be…one of the most significant
event[s] to occur in Europe since the end of
communism….[T]he continuing presence of Russian forces
in the country has severe implications for the broader
region….Russia's actions in Georgia will have
consequences." Later in the month the U.S. dispatched the USS
McFaul guided missile destroyer (part of the Aegis
combat system designed to fire interceptor missiles),
USS Mount Whitney (the flagship of the U.S. Sixth
Fleet) and a Coast Guard cutter to the Georgian Black
Sea coast, immediately south of Abkhazia and not much
farther from the Russian shoreline. The heavily armed
warships were, if one trusts Washington's account of
their mission, engaged in a humanitarian operation.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused the U.S. of
bringing weapons into Georgia. The American ships, joined by as many as fifteen
other NATO vessels, and Russian opposite numbers
deployed to the region were only some ninety miles
apart. Georgia's head of state Mikheil Saakashvili, a
graduate of Columbia Law School in New York City, was
brought to power seven years ago on the back of an
extra-constitutional putsch in 2003-2004 that he and
his supporters and admirers in the West refer to as
the Rose Revolution. He remains the preeminent American political client
in the world along with Kosovo's prime minister and
president presumptive Hashim Thaci, recently accused
in a report to the Council of Europe of being the
ringleader of a grisly crime syndicate that trafficked
in narcotics, weapons and human organs extracted from
at least 500 ethnic Serbian and other civilians
murdered for that purpose. An empire can be judged by
the satraps it arms and in other manners indulges. After Saakashvili's Pyrrhic attempt to eliminate
the two barriers remaining to dragging his country
into NATO – unresolved territorial disputes and the
presence of foreign troops on its soil (at the time a
small number of Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia
and Abkhazia) – with the invasion of South Ossetia and
following that an offensive against Abkhazia, the U.S.
and NATO hastened to shore up their outpost in the
South Caucasus. In mid-September NATO's Secretary General Jaap de
Hoop Scheffer and its North Atlantic Council (the
permanent representatives – ambassadors – of all its
26 member states at the time) visited Georgia and,
guided by the host country's defense minister,
inspected air force and infantry bases. During the trip, the U.S.-controlled military bloc
signed a framework agreement on creating the
NATO-Georgia Commission, out of which developed an
Annual National Program to further Georgia's
integration into the Alliance, an exceptional measure
to circumvent the standard stages through which a
candidate nation passes to achieve full NATO
accession. The Russian Foreign Ministry responded by issuing a
statement that said in part: "Instead of drawing serious conclusions about the
failed attempt by Saakashvili to forcefully resolve
the many-year-old conflict [with South Ossetia], NATO
has again demonstrated its support towards his [Saakashvili's]
campaign of disinformation, and has promised to
rebuild the military infrastructure of this country."
[2] Washington followed suit in December when
then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza announced a
framework agreement on a U.S.-Georgia Charter on
Strategic Partnership, which was formalized by
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Georgian
Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze in Washington on
January 9, 2009. In October of 2008 Washington deployed the
destroyer USS Mason to Georgia for training exercises
and in the same month the Georgian defense minister
met with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the
sidelines of a NATO defense chiefs meeting in Hungary,
after which it was announced that "U.S. military
assistance will be aimed at strengthening Georgian air
defenses." [3] At the same time the Pentagon sent "an assessment
team to Georgia to determine what role the US should
play in rebuilding that country's military after its
military conflict with Russia last August. "After the assessment, Pentagon officials will
review how the United States will be able to support
the reconstruction of Georgia, including armed forces
aid." [4] Toward the end of the month a delegation headed by
Frank Boland, head of Force Planning for the NATO
Defense Policy and Planning Directorate, visited
Georgia to meet with the country's top defense and
military officials and prepare the nation for the next
stage of NATO integration. The month before, only weeks after the war had
ended, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Eric
Edelman told the Senate Armed Services Committee that
"Georgia, like any sovereign country, should have the
ability to defend itself and deter renewed aggression,
and there should be not be any question about whether
Georgia is entitled to military assistance from the
United States or, indeed, from NATO or any of the NATO
allies." President George Bush supported Biden's call for $1
billion worth of non-military aid to Georgia, which at
the time was remarked would "dwarf the 63 million
dollars that Washington provided to Georgia last year.
Excluding Iraq, the infusion would make Georgia one of
the largest recipients of American foreign aid after
Israel and Egypt." [5] Georgia has a population of 4.6
million, Egypt of 80 million. Until now, however, the U.S. has been cautious
about rebuilding and upgrading Georgia's military
arsenal or at least acknowledging that it is doing so.
If recent reports prove true, Georgia is to receive a
large quantity of high-tech weapons from the U.S.,
including surface-to-air missile complexes, Stinger
and other portable surface-to-air missiles, Javelin
third generation guided missiles and Hellfire
air-to-surface missiles, the latter two designed for
penetrating armor. Three weeks ago South Ossetian President Eduard
Kokoity warned that "Georgia only pays lip service to
peace, continues to rearm and refuses to sign
non-aggression pacts that can avert another South
Caucasus war." [6] According to Russian military expert Victor
Baranets, "Georgia is buying anti-missile and
anti-tank weapons because the 2008 war showed that
these are weak points of the Georgian army." [7] In short, the U.S. will provide precisely the
weapons Tbilisi needs for a new assault against South
Ossetia and a new war with Russia. Saakashvili is now in Washington, where "the
purchase of weapons will be the main topic of his
talks with American leaders." His trip is centered on
attending a memorial to the late White House
Afghanistan-Pakistan special representative Richard
Holbrooke in Washington, D.C. on December 14 at which
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton will pay tribute to the deceased. On January 12 Saakashvili became the first foreign
leader to meet with the new Speaker of the House of
Representatives, John Boehner. The latter released a
statement after the meeting which said: "The American people will continue to stand with
others struggling for democracy over the forces of
despotism, dignity over degradation, and freedom over
subjugation." [8] His statement also expressed
appreciation to Georgia for supplying the Pentagon
with 2,000 troops for the war in Iraq and 1,000 so far
for that in Afghanistan. The Georgian leader met with other lawmakers,
including Senator Joseph Lieberman, upon whom he
bestowed the St. George's Victory Order. Saakashvili
announced last month that he – not the mayor of
Tbilisi – would named a street in his nation's capital
after Holbrooke, a "trusted friend and confidant" who
co-authored a piece in the Washington Post during the
2008 war denouncing what he termed the "full-scale
Russian invasion of Georgia." While Washington's favorite foreign head of state
is being hailed and regaled with attention and praise
in the capital, his foreign minister referred to a
recent agreement between Abkhazia and Russia as
"fascism." [9] The day before he arrived in the U.S., Saakashvili
said in an interview to a Ukrainian television
station: "As for NATO, I am absolutely convinced that this
is just a matter of time." "Nobody can ensure their security on their own,
especially small countries, but I think this concerns
Ukraine as well," he added. After seven years of mercurial, megalomaniacal,
adventurist, dictatorial and murderous rule [10],
Saakashvili remains the Washington political
establishment's pampered darling ne plus ultra. At the NATO summit in November of last year,
President Obama met privately with him the day before
the NATO-Russia Council meeting with President
Medvedev occurred. Last July Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
visited Georgia as Saakashvili's guest and lambasted
Russia for "occupying" Abkhazia and South Ossetia,
described as Georgian territories although neither has
ever been part of an independent Georgia. In her own
words: "We, the United States, was appalled, and
totally rejected the invasion and occupation of
Georgian territory. I was in the Senate at the time,
and, along with my colleagues and the prior
Administration, made that view very clear. We continue
to speak out, as I have on this trip, against the
continuing occupation." [11] At a joint press conference with Georgian Prime
Minister Nikoloz Gilauri ahead of the second omnibus
meeting of the U.S.-Georgia Charter on Strategic
Partnership in October, she stated: "The relationship between Georgia and the United
States stands on a foundation of shared values and
common interests….The United States will not waver in
its support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial
integrity. That support is a core principle of our
Charter on Strategic Partnership, and it is
fundamental to our bilateral relationship." "The United States remains committed to Georgia's
aspirations for membership in NATO, as reflected in
the Alliance's decisions in Bucharest and Strasbourg-Kehl.
We strongly support Georgia's efforts related to its
Annual National Program, which promotes defense reform
and guides cooperation with NATO. And we continue to
support Georgia's efforts on defense reform and
improving defense capabilities, including NATO
interoperability and Georgia's contributions to ISAF
operations in Afghanistan." "We continue to call on Russia to end its
occupation of Georgian territory, withdraw its forces,
and abide by its other commitments under the 2008
ceasefire agreements." [12] Her comments led the government of Abkhazia to
challenge her to acknowledge countries like
Afghanistan and Iraq as American-occupied territories. Later in the month a NATO delegation inspected the
Krtsanisi National Training Center and its Simulation
Training Center – built by the U.S. – in Georgia
(where U.S. Marines have trained Georgian soldiers and
where three Georgian soldiers were killed and thirteen
wounded in an explosion this month) as part of NATO
Days events in the nation. Also in October, Italian Admiral Giampaolo Di
Paola, chairman of the NATO Military Committee,
visited the Krtsanisi National Training Center and the
simulation facility to view training exercises of the
Georgian battalion that would replace one serving
under NATO command in Afghanistan. He also toured the
newly established NATO Liaison Office in the Georgian
capital. In November Assistant Secretary of State for
European Affairs Phillip Gordon told BBC:
"We…recognize Georgia's sovereignty and integrity. We
are absolutely clear with Russia, we disagree on
Georgia. [W]e want to see an end to Russian occupation
and…we stand by Georgia`s sovereignty and territorial
integrity." [13] At the same time Georgian Deputy Minister of
Defense Nikoloz Vashakidze was sequestered with top
U.S. officials in closed-door meetings at the
Pentagon. The "negotiations were held within the
framework agreement on cooperation in the defence
sector between the US and Georgia." [14] As the Georgian deputy defense chief was in
Washington, South Ossetian First Deputy Foreign
Minister Alan Pliev warned: "We are concerned about Georgia's intention to
increase its military capacities. Now Georgia is
planning to buy a number of Merkava 4 Israeli tanks,
which are clearly not meant for defensive action. "The activation of the Georgian Defense Ministry,
increased flights of Georgian drones near the borders
of South Ossetia, as well as the maniacal opposition
to signing a non-aggression agreement give rise to the
reasonable assumption of a newly designed bloody
venture by Georgian authorities." [15] The official also stated that due to assistance
from the U.S. and other NATO states the
military-technical capacity of the Georgian armed
forces currently exceeds that at the start of the war
in 2008. On November 16 the NATO Parliamentary Assembly met
in Poland and passed a resolution referring to
Abkhazia and South Ossetia as "occupied territories."
The Abkhazian Foreign Ministry issued a statement
in response which included the following: "The Abkhazian party considers this biased
interpretation of the events yet another manifestation
of NATO's pro-Georgian position. "NATO is an organization that has been contributing
to the intensive militarization of Georgia for many
years, stirring up the revanchist mindset of the
Georgian leadership, which led to the August 2008
bloodshed in South Ossetia." [16] At their meeting during the Lisbon NATO summit,
Obama "thanked his Georgian counterpart Mikheil
Saakashvili for his country's participation in
NATO-led international peace efforts in Afghanistan
and reaffirmed the United States' support of Georgia's
territorial integrity." [17] Saakashvili offered more troops for the war in
Afghanistan, pledged that his nation's contingent
would remain there as long as NATO does, confirmed
that Obama backed his country becoming a full NATO
member ("President Obama has supported Georgia's
course that will lead it to joining NATO") and said
that the NATO summit declaration cleared the way for
Georgia to join the military bloc without the
customary Membership Action Plan requirement. The Lisbon summit declaration affirms that NATO
will "continue and develop the partnerships with
Ukraine and Georgia within the NATO-Ukraine and
NATO-Georgia Commissions, based on the NATO decision
at the Bucharest summit 2008, and taking into account
the Euro-Atlantic orientation or aspiration of each of
the countries." On December 1, at the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Kazakhstan,
during which she met privately with Saakashvili,
Hillary Clinton advocated "a meaningful OSCE presence
in Georgia." In 1998 and until NATO's war against
Yugoslavia commenced in March of the following year
her husband's administration employed the OSCE's
Kosovo Verification Mission, under the control of the
notorious William Walker, to set the stage for the
78-day bombing of Yugoslavia and the wresting of
Kosovo from Serbia. [18] Also early last month, the NATO-Georgia Commission
met in Brussels and Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister
and Secretary of the National Security Council Giga
Bokeria, representing his country at the meeting,
stated: "The resolution of the summit says that NATO
continues to assist Georgia in carrying out reforms,
recognizes its territorial integrity and sovereignty,
and calls on Russia to abolish the decision in
connection with recognition of the independence of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia." Afterwards, "issues of cooperation between Georgia
and NATO were discussed at the headquarters of the
Alliance, at a meeting of the Georgian National
Security Council's Secretary Gigi Bokeria and the NATO
Deputy Secretary General. "The NATO Secretary General's Special
Representative for the South Caucasus James Appathurai
attended the meeting in his new status." [19] As a footnote, "In 2003, after a visit to Serbia to
study peaceful revolution techniques, Bokeria helped
bring Serb activists from the youth movement Otpor to
Georgia to train students in the same techniques. As a
result, the youth movement ‘Kmara' was established,
which played a leading role in the November 2003 Rose
Revolution." [20] On December 3 the U.S. ambassador to Georgia, John
Bass, was quoted as affirming: "The United States
remains firmly committed to Georgia's sovereignty and
territorial integrity. We enjoy a strong defense
relationship, defense cooperation, and we're currently
working closely with the Ministry of Defense and other
Ministries in Georgia to improve Georgia's ability to
defend itself." [21] Three days later Bass visited the Krtsanisi
National Training Center and "also took a tour of the
Simulation Center and attended model exercises on the
ground." [22] The American envoy is routinely present at send-off
and welcoming ceremonies for U.S. Marine Corps-trained
Georgian troops deployed to Afghanistan. In fact the Pentagon instituted the Georgia Train
and Equip Program in 2002, first under Green Beret,
then Marine, control in 2002 and later the Georgian
Sustainment and Stability Operations Program three
years later. While still commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps,
General James Conway visited Georgia in August of 2009
to inaugurate the latest Marine training of the host
country's armed forces. At the time Associated Press
reported that when asked if the preparation could be
applied "to the possibility of another war with
Russia," he answered, "In general, yes." Last September Saakashvili addressed cadets
graduating from a new training center at the Kutaisi
Military Base and stated: "[S]omeone may say: ‘we have so many problems, our
territories are occupied and there is no time now for
going somewhere else to fight.' But because of these
very same problems that we have, we need huge combat
experience…and that [Afghan mission] is a unique
combat and war school." [23] On December 9 Associated Press, reporting on an
interview with Georgian Vice Prime Minister Giorgi
Baramidze, stated he was "raising the issue [of a
"road map" to full NATO membership] in Washington this
week with the Obama administration." He further "said
Georgia already behaves as if it were a member of
NATO." On the same day a bill crafted and introduced by
Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Lindsey Graham, co-chairs
of the Atlantic Council Task Force on Georgia, called
"A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate with
respect to the territorial integrity of Georgia and
the situation within Georgia's internationally
recognized borders," was presented to the Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations. It refers to Abkhazia
and South Ossetia as Georgian territories "occupied by
the Russian Federation." The next day Shaheen's and Graham's colleague
Senator John McCain spoke at a conference titled
"Forging a Transatlantic Consensus on Russia" at the
Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies at which he demanded the
resumption and increase of arms sales to Georgia,
stating: "For two years, mostly out of deference to Russia,
defensive arms sales have not been authorized for
Georgia. This has to change. At a minimum we should
provide Georgia with early warning radars and other
basic capabilities to strengthen its defenses. "Our allies in central and eastern Europe view
Georgia as a test case of whether the United States
will stand by them or not. Russia views Georgia as a
test case, too – of how much it can get away with in
Georgia, and if there then elsewhere. It is the policy
of our government to support Georgia's aspiration to
join NATO." [24] Afterward, Robert Pszczel, the new director of the
NATO Information Office in Moscow and formerly acting
NATO Deputy Spokesman, confirmed that "NATO will
continue its Eastward enlargement policy" and that
"The NATO-Georgia Commission continues its work." [25] In mid-December U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary
Alexander Vershbow and Georgia's Vice Prime Minister
and State Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration
Giorgi Baramidze met in Washington to plan Georgia's
NATO accession. The Georgian official stated afterward
that "Meeting with Vershbow is very important, as he
is actively engaged in the issues of NATO enlargement,
as well as personally ensuring Georgia's accession
into the alliance." [26] Baramidze, who studied at Georgetown University and
was the country's defense minister in 2004, also met
with members of the U.S. Senate on the bill discussed
above. Never before have military forces from the world's
two major nuclear powers been on opposing sides of a
battle line during wartime. By increasing the provision of sophisticated
weaponry to Georgia, Washington is taunting Russia on
its southern border and running the risk of a military
conflict that may draw it into a direct confrontation
with its main nuclear rival. 1) Voice of Russia, January 11, 2011
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/georgia-simulating-war-or-provoking-it 11) U.S. Department of State, July 5, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/clinton-renews-u-s-claims-on-former-soviet-space 12) Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
And Georgian Prime Minister
http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2010/October/20101006155724su0.2815777.html# 13) Rustavi 2, November 11, 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giga_Bokeria 21) Civil Georgia, December 3, 2010 Comments 💬 التعليقات |