Georgia: Saakashvili — A Political Corpse?

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1. Ani 09.03.08 / 7pm

   Some rather blunt accusations of cowardice and incompetence contained in the front-page New York Times story today:
   http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/world/europe/03georgia.html?hp
   ….
   But interviews with Western military officers who have experience working with Georgian military forces, including officers in Georgia, Europe and the United States, suggested that Georgia’s military shortfalls were serious and too difficult to change merely by upgrading equipment.

   In the recent war, which was over in days, Georgia’s Army fled ahead of the Russian Army’s advance, turning its back and leaving Georgian civilians in an enemy’s path. Its planes did not fly after the first few hours of contact. Its navy was sunk in the harbor, and its patrol boats were hauled away by Russian trucks on trailers.

   The information to date suggests that from the beginning of the war to its end, Georgia, which wants to join NATO, fought the war in a manner that undermined its efforts at presenting itself as a potentially serious military partner or power.

   Mr. Saakashvili and his advisers also say that even though he has no tactical military experience, he was at one time personally directing important elements of the battle — giving orders over a cellphone and deciding when to move a brigade from western to central Georgia to face the advancing Russian columns.
   ……
   One senior Western military official said that one of the country’s senior generals had fled the battle in an ambulance, leaving soldiers and his duties behind. Georgia’s Defense Ministry strongly denies this.

   No one disputes that the army succumbed to chaos and fear, which reached such proportions that the army fled all the way to the capital, abandoning the city of Gori without preparing a serious defense, and before the Russians had reached it in strength. It littered its retreat with discarded ammunition.
2. Onnik 09.03.08 / 7pm

   Russia says Washington fanning Georgia instability

   BAKU/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia accused the United States of stirring up instability in Georgia on Wednesday, hours after U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney landed in the region to show support for Washington’s ex-Soviet allies.

   The United States has condemned Russia for sending troops and tanks into Georgia last month but Moscow has countered by alleging that Washington helped spark the conflict by failing to rein in its ally Georgia.

   Cheney flew into Azerbaijan, Georgia’s oil-producing neighbor which has close ties to the United States, on the first leg of a tour that will also include Georgia and Ukraine.

   “We need to wait until Mr Cheney is actually in Georgia to see how he assesses the situation,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told a news briefing.

   “But all these calls on Tbilisi (by the United States) about the need to restore all of its destroyed military capability and so on do not in any way promote the stabilization of the situation in the region,” he said.

   Underlining Washington’s backing for Georgia, the USS Mount Whitney, the sophisticated command warship of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, was “en route to Georgia” loaded with more than 17 tons of humanitarian aid, a navy spokesman said.

   President George W. Bush’s administration will announce on Wednesday a package of roughly $1 billion dollars in aid to help rebuild Georgia, an administration official said. The International Monetary Fund has approved a $750 million stand-by loan for Georgia, Economic Development Minister Eka Sharashidze said.

   […]

   Cheney’s visit is aimed at “sending a regional signal that American hasn’t walked away from the region,” said Janusz Bugajski, director of the New European Democracies Project at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

   […]

   http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080903/wl_nm/georgia_ossetia_dc
3. Onnik 09.03.08 / 7pm

   Ani, heard some stuff about the bungled deployment of reservists when I was there. Meanwhile, NYT also had this story which again really doesn’t paint a good picture of Georgia’s ability to engage militarily.

   Two Georgians Went to War but Never Got to Fight

   TBILISI, Georgia — Giorgi Monasalidze and Nika Kharadze wandered into war singing Georgian patriotic songs, their heads filled with visions of military heroics. They ended up prisoners, compelled to clean up the debris that the fighting had left behind.

   […]

   To their parents’ dismay, as The New York Times reported on Aug. 12, the two men rushed off for combat in the grip of a warrior tradition that is rooted in centuries of Georgian national myth. The last their parents had heard from them was a phone call from Mr. Kharadze on the night of Aug. 8.

   Within hours they were prisoners. As the two entered Tskhinvali about 1 a.m. on Aug. 9, they sang patriotic tunes to avoid being shot by the Georgian soldiers they expected to be lurking in the dark.

   “We thought that when we arrived at the front, they would have to give us weapons,” Mr. Monasalidze recalled, chain-smoking Lucky Strikes in the living room of the house of Mr. Kharadze’s parents in Tbilisi.

   Instead of Georgian troops, however, they attracted the attention of a group of South Ossetian soldiers.

   “They asked what we wanted,” Mr. Monasalidze said. “I said: ‘I’m Georgian and this is our land. We want Tskhinvali.’ ”

   Not the right answer, it seemed. They were thrown into a vehicle, taken to Tskhinvali’s police headquarters and dropped in a cell. Soon, Mr. Monasalidze and Mr. Kharadze were at labor, forced to clean up the shattered capital. When not at work, they shared a suffocating cell with 21 other prisoners.

   http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/world/europe/02warriors.html
4. Onnik 09.04.08 / 1am

   US gives $1bn to rebuild Georgia

   Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the aid would be used to rebuild houses and infrastructure - but not for military purposes.

   Georgia has requested $2bn in funding from the international community.

   […]

   “We are responding to what we consider to be urgent needs,” said Ms Rice, as she announced the aid package.

   “With our full support and the support of the entire free world, a democratic Georgia will survive, will rebuild and will thrive,” she said.

   […]

   On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also announced that Georgia was to receive a $750m (£422m) loan.

   The IMF agreed in principle to offer the help amid concerns that Georgia’s growth would be seriously hampered by the recent war.

   […]

   Early this week, European Union leaders agreed to suspend talks on a new partnership agreement with Moscow until Russian troops have withdrawn from Georgia. But they did not threaten sanctions.

   Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who stepped down as president earlier this year, praised the European Union’s “common sense”.

   But he warned that Moscow would respond to the growing presence of Nato warships in the Black Sea, where Russia’s navy has a huge presence.

   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7596862.stm

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