Word: georgia
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...Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force has just been used effectively - and not by the U.S., which tried to prevail on the cheap with its 2003 invasion of Iraq. This time around, it might as well be rechristened the Putin Doctrine, given what the Russian military has done to Georgia over the past two weeks. In the aftermath, assorted soldiers and graybeards in the Pentagon, the National Security Council and government warrens around the world are evaluating the military lessons of Moscow's move into the Caucasus. Just what does it mean for the way war is waged in the 21st...
Just as most of Saddam Hussein's troops melted away under U.S. firepower in 1991 and 2003, Georgia's forces crumpled under the Russian assault. While Georgians made up the third-largest allied contingent in Iraq, they were engaged in irregular warfare there, for which they had been trained by the U.S. But they were in no way prepared for Moscow's onslaught...
...passports - in South Ossetia. When his forces moved into the province on Aug. 7, the Russian bear pounced. By all accounts, the Georgians moved first militarily. By most accounts, the Russians were simply awaiting that provocation, biding their time, with massive columns of armor ready to roar south once Georgia crossed into South Ossetia. Now that their troops occupy both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, they seem intent on remaining there as purported peacekeepers. Pentagon officials this weekend acknowledged that there was nothing the U.S. could do to drive them...
...Moscow's favor in the long term remains to be seen. Moscow may not be able to halt expanding NATO, as former members of the Warsaw Pact do not seem less eager to join the Western Alliance. While Putin and his troops have succeeded in lashing out at Georgia, such action against former Warsaw Pact allies like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - all now NATO members - would be suicidal. But for the near term, the Putin Doctrine is now in play...
...Washington and in many former Soviet satellite states, the response to the Georgia debacle will be to continue NATO's eastward expansion and stiffen its resolve to contain a resurgent Russia. But in Western Europe, there will be growing doubts over the value of a security system built upon a structure designed to isolate and contain Russia. The problem, of course, is that NATO operates strictly by consensus, and in the absence of such consensus, paralysis may set in. Indeed, it may yet emerge that Putin's campaign in the Caucasus has succeeded not only in keeping Georgia...