The US's role in the crisis in Georgia

Georgia and Russia are careening towards war. And the U.S. isn't exactly a detached observer in the fight. The American military has been training and equipping Georgian troops for years.

The news thus far: Georgia, which has been mired in a internecine battle war over the separatist region of Abkhazia, has launched an offensive to reclaim another breakaway territory, South Ossetia. Latest reports indicate that Georgian forces are laying siege to Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. And Russia, which has backed the separatists, is sending in the tanks.

So why should a nation facing one of the greatest economic crises on record care one iota about a distant problem. I mean, most Americans hear war in Georgia and think that involves Mississippi. Perhaps it could be the prospect of a larger regional war that could drag in Russia – and involve the United States as well. Since early 2002, the U.S. government has given a healthy amount of military aid to Georgia.

The first U.S. aid came under the rubric of the Georgia Train and Equip Program (ostensibly to counter alleged Al Qaeda influence in the Pankisi Gorge); then, under the Sustainment and Stability Operations Program. Georgia returned the favor, committing thousands of troops to the multi-national coalition in Iraq. Last fall, the Georgians doubled their contingent, making them the third-largest contributor to the coalition. Not bad for a nation of 4.6 million people.

According to a Aurelian Rus, a political scientist and lecturer at Rutgers University, "Russia provoked Georgia through border attacks, Georgia got provoked and advanced in South Ossetia, Russia retaliated and went far into Georgia. The encouragement for Saakashvili came not only from Cheney (Condi Rice strongly discouraged him from attacking, while Bush was, well, "not into this issue"), but also from Zbigniew Brzezinski. Even more significantly, Soros money was key in propelling Saakashivili rather than some other type of leader in the forefront of the anti-Shevardnadze movement. The "put the blame on Bush" type arguments of Keith Olbermann et al., while not without some merit, and the attacks on Obama from some of his own supporters (in the tradition of their criticism of Obama for his endorsement of the faith-based programs) for being too tough on Russia are very scary for many Eastern-European Americans. "

["Russia provoked Georgia through border attacks"]

In short, the crisis in Georgia was the inevitable casualty in the post-soviet world, with the US and Russia now in a race to control the world’s untapped oil reserves. McCain's continued belligerence and bellicosity in response to the situation indicates that he isn't partial to war, whether cold or hot. It is a blatant effort by the McCain campaign to seize on the events overseas to appear presidential and in command on the world stage, from a guy who thinks the Czech Republic is Czechslovakia.

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