{"id":1104,"date":"2008-08-09T02:30:41","date_gmt":"2008-08-09T06:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2008-08-09T17:14:22","modified_gmt":"2008-08-09T21:14:22","slug":"russian-tanks-rolling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2008\/08\/09\/russian-tanks-rolling\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Tanks Rolling"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s a title I have to say that I didn’t expect to be writing about with any seriousness. Yet here we are, with Russia and Georgia facing off<\/a> over South Ossetia:<\/p>\n

The president of the separatist region, nestled in the Caucasus mountains, said 1,400 people had been killed. Moscow said its troops were responding to a Georgian assault to take back the region.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a big deal, and the US is rather involved with things there. US-Georgia relations are generally pretty good, and Georgia has been seeking NATO membership<\/a> for a while (something that – were it in place now – conceivably require a US military response to the Russian movements, today).\u00c2\u00a0 Not sure where the best news source for this is yet, but if I find one, I’ll post it here.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong> Understandably, Georgia’s taking 1,000 of its troops out of Iraq and bringing them home.\u00c2\u00a0 The discomfitting bit?\u00c2\u00a0 The US is the one doing the transportation<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Wired’s (excellent) Danger Room blog gives us some general background on the Georgia-US military relationship<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Since 2002, the U.S. military has been providing Georgia with a serious amount of military assistance, beginning with the Georgia Train and Equip Program<\/a> in 2002. I first visited Georgia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Krtsanisi training range in fall of 2002, when the Georgian military was still little more of a militia, with some of the troops wearing sneakers and surplus Soviet uniforms.<\/p>\n

[ . . . ]<\/p>\n

Officially, SSOP was supposed to prepare Georgians for service in Iraq. But Georgian trainees I spoke to in 2006 at the Krtsanisi training range saw things a bit differently. A female sergeant told me: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This training is incredibly important for us, because we want to take back Georgia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lost territories.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There are no innocent actors here, and the US public should keep its eye on this (even if its President is busy playing games<\/a> in China).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s a title I have to say that I didn’t expect to be writing about with any seriousness. Yet here we are, with Russia and Georgia facing off over South Ossetia: The president of the separatist region, nestled in the Caucasus mountains, said 1,400 people had been killed. Moscow said its troops were responding to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eu","category-society"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t