When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Georgia once again became a separate state. South Ossetia and Abkhazia are part of the Georgian state but want to secede. Although independence has not been diplomatically recognized by any member of the United Nations, they still consider themselves to be separate and independent nations. Georgia considers them as part of Georgia and this is the basis for the ongoing conflict there.
Georgia insists on attempting to bring the region under Georgian constitutional control against the will of the people of South Ossetia. And to this end Georgia brutally attacked South Ossetia on August 7, 2008. Why? Is it a matter of maintaining a certain tally of the total amount of land mass? Or of population count? Is it an ego thing, Georgia doesn’t like to lose any part of its nation to Russia so they will use military force to impose their rule over these people? Basically, it is a matter of Georgia using this conflict as leverage to gain NATO membership, even though NATO had warned the Georgian leader against using military means to press the issue.
Russia has been granting citizenship to any South Ossetian who requests it which further ticked off Georgian officials. And when Georgia rolled its military artillery and armor across the border into South Ossetia and bombed civilian targets, Russian citizens were killed. Russia went to the U.N. Security Council asking for an immediate ceasefire between Georgia and South Ossetia. They did not like the way the resolution was worded so Russia went to the media to say that any Russian citizen injured in this aggression by the Georgian’s will be met with defending the “life and honor of Russian citizens, wherever they may be.” This brought Russian armor and artillery in to South Ossetia, and its aircraft began bombing Georgian positions. Now, Georgia is blaming Russia for the aggression.
It seems to me Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili is playing a very dangerous game here with world powers. He would be the bad guy here except that this matter is an internal affair and neither the U.S. nor Russia has the legal right to enter into it.
Russia is in it to punish Georgia for seeking alliance with the Western world. The U.S. cannot do anything more than verbally threaten Russia with risking “significant” and enduring damage to its relationship with the United States, as if that threat holds any sting. Further, as if to underscore the impotence of such a threat, Russia has escalated their aggression by deploying a naval squadron off the coast of Abkhazia and its jets have bombed the outskirts of the Georgian capital, Tblisi.
The lack of diplomatic and military response from the U.S. shows the Georgian President that just because you suck up to the U.S. doesn’t automatically mean we will be your attack dog. The only reason we are siding with Georgia is because Georgia provided troops with us in Iraq. Oh yeah, plus there is a sizable oil shipment facility in the Black Sea port city of Poti as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline which carries Caspian crude to the West.
No, don’t think that poor little Georgia is the victim here. President Saakashvili is as corrupted a politician as you will find anywhere. He and his ex-blood brother defense minister Irakli Okruashvili had a falling out recently accusing each other of mafia connections and profiting from transporting and selling stolen goods. If both of them are accusing the other you know there has to be truth in it from both sides.
Georgia has devoted 70% of its budget to its military. Any regime that throws that sizable percentage of its entire budget at its military instead of its citizens has an agenda to fulfill. Disillusioned Georgian citizens rose up in mass demonstrations against Saakashvili over allegations of corruption, cronyism and election fraud last November. His ruthless security forces – trained, equipped and subsidized by the west – thrashed the protesters. Now, with this latest move to attack a small defenseless South Ossetia he has been able to get Georgian citizens to rally around him. His manipulative games are about to be the downfall of this very untrustworthy tyrant.
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