Word: georgians
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...scale of the planned U.S. response suggests that the agenda includes more than grabbing a clutch of terrorists. Over the next six months, the U.S. intends to spend $64 million to train up to 1,600 Georgian soldiers in counterinsurgency. Between 100 and 200 U.S. soldiers and other specialists will start arriving this month. The program will also offer intelligence support and hardware, including combat helicopters and light weapons. "This is about beefing up Georgia's ability to do border security," says a U.S. official...
GEORGIA Front Line Moves The war against terrorism moved into the volatile Trans-caucasus region as five U.S. military advisers arrived in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The five are the advance guard of a unit that could number up to 200 to train Georgian troops to counter possible terrorist activity in the mountainous Pankisi Gorge area. Moscow reacted cautiously, with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov saying the Americans "could further aggravate the situation in the region...
...Russia sees the entire Chechen separatist guerrilla movement as indistinguishable from al-Qaida, and won't appreciate the distinction being drawn by the Georgians between the small al-Qaida element they intend to pursue and the bulk of the Chechen fighters who will, presumably, be left unmolested unless they challenge Georgian authorities. But Moscow's chagrin is ultimately fueled by the profound strategic consequences of the arrival of U.S. forces in what has traditionally been Russia's backyard...
...against the Taliban will buy Western endorsement of Moscow's often brutal military campaign in Chechnya. The U.S. military has made clear it has no intention of cooperating with Russian forces against Chechen fighters in the Pankisi. The objective of any mission, officials say, would be to help the Georgian government regain control of an area that had become a haven of criminality and a sanctuary for a small number of al-Qaida operatives...
...instead Shevardnadze appears to have outmaneuvered him by using the campaign against al-Qaida as a pretext to invite the Americans in. If the U.S. military sets up shop there, it will be read as the geopolitical equivalent of getting Russia evicted from its own backyard - and a crafty Georgian move to turn Russia's cooperative attitude towards with President Bush into an opportunity to decisively break free of Moscow's influence. The personal relations between Presidents Bush and Putin may be warm and fuzzy, but geopolitics is still geopolitics...