Perhaps if the US hadn't supplied Georgia with a huge arsenal of weapons and military training over the past few years Georgia wouldn't have felt emboldened enough to break the international agreements it had signed and attack the 100,000 civilians of South Ossetia and it's UN mandated peace keepers with their US supplied weaponry. So I'm not sure why you think Europe should step up to fix a problem largely of the US's making. Perhaps to avoid such problems in the future the US state department should send a memo to itself - stop selling arms to dangerous lunatics with a history of using violence to get what they want.
Oh and Borek - a nice theory about Stalin except you do of course know he was Georgian don't you as was his head of the KGB.
Russia has stated it has no territorial ambitions in Georgia and that it's current campaign is to restore peace to South Ossetia by ejecting the Georgian invasion troops and so return the parties to the status quo prior to Georgia's wholly illegal act of aggression. As part of this mission they are attacking military targets outside the conflict zone which are supporting the Georgian military adventure. Afterall if Georgian artillery is firing into South Ossetia from outside then the Russians are hardly going to ignore it. The same is true for Georgian aircraft and the supply lines bringing more US munitions into Georgia. One can also assume it will be the Russian's intention to degrade Georgia's military capability so they don't try the same thing again in the future.
It really takes an enormous stretch of the imagination to portray the Georgians as the victims in this episode after their murderous onslaught against the tiny population of South Ossetia though some elements of the Western media are doing their best.
*START OF QUOTE FROM WWW.WORLDPOLICY.ORG*[/URL]
[I]For a country that is slightly smaller than South Carolina, with only 4.6 million citizens, Georgia receives a staggering amount of military support from the United States.
In 1997 Georgia received its first FMF grant of $700,000. In 1998, Washington increased FMF more than 7 times over, granting $5.3 million in aid. Since those first years, Georgia has received a total of $107.7 million in FMF grants.[138] The Bush administration requested an additional $12 million in the 2006 budget.[139]
Additionally, Georgia has been a recipient of International Military Education and Training funds since 1994. Between 1996 and 2001, the IMET aid hovered around $300,000 to just over $400,000 per year. And then, in 2002 the funding almost doubled to $889,000.[140] In 2003, the funding increased another 33% to $1.2 million—similar amounts were granted in 2004 and 2005.[141] The Congressional request for $1.2 million in FY 2006 represents an almost 2,000% increase in IMET aid since 1996.[142]
Both Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Georgia in 2004, pledging continued U.S. support to the country.[143]
Georgia, an aggressive force in a number of border disputes and a state with a well-documented history of human rights violations, does not seem like an ideal candidate for U.S. military aid. Human Rights Watch says the country is, "one of the most corrupt in the world, is desperately short of money, and has a record of persistent and widespread human rights abuses."[144]
The State Department agrees, finding in its most recent Human Rights Report that "nongovernmental organizations blamed two deaths in custody on physical abuse. NGOs reported that police brutality continued, and in certain areas increased. Law enforcement officers continued to torture, beat, and otherwise abuse detainees
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is using U.S. weapons and know-how to strengthen his grip on power and rebuff Russia. Washington is taking advantage of Georgia’s strategic location just above the volatile Middle East, deploying U.S. troops and storing equipment and fuel. Georgia has granted U.S. warplanes access to its airspace and permitted joint training exercises with Georgian troops.[146]
The result has been a cozy relationship between President Bush and President Saakashvili. Georgia is one of the few European countries that have unreservedly embraced President Bush and contributed to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.[/I]
*END OF QUOTE FROM [PLAIN]WWW.WORLDPOLICY.ORG*[/URL]
From a 2005 report - http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/wawjune2005.html#2 It would seem the US are not the objective, disinterested observers of this dispute that some here seem to believe.[/QUOTE]
The statement "Georgia, an aggressive force in a number of border disputes and a state with a well-documented history of human rights violations, does not seem like an ideal candidate for U.S. military aid." is certainly quite relevant for this discussion. However, I never had a look at [url]www.worldpolicy.org[/url] before - could anybody comment on it, I mean, do you consider it a credible source ?
Now there is information war going on about how eagerly Georgia is trying to stop the fighting, and obviously neither side is trust worthy, because they both have their preferred truth which benefits them.
