thedrifter
08-23-04, 06:31 AM
08-17-2004
Guest Column: Another Cauldron for U.S. Troops?
By Michael S. Woodson
The next crisis confronting the United States and its overstretched military could come in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Before American forces step yet again into the crossfire of ancient enmities, this time in an area of unrest on the eastern end of the Black Sea, our leaders should catch up to understand the dangers of precipitous involvement.
Recent border clashes with mortar and small arms fire between Georgian forces and South Ossetian secessionists have involved Russian and North Ossetian peacekeeping troops, according to the Christian Science Monitor. This could potentially draw U.S. forces into the fray, whether under European, NATO, U.N. or other auspices. Why?
Many elements that tempt American and European politicians are there: Interests in an oil pipeline passing through Georgia, opening soon; heavy American foreign aid investment in Georgia; U.S. Marines and soldiers training Georgian forces in border security and anti-terrorism; Afghan and Chechen militants’ use of Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge as a safe haven; a strong Islamic presence in the former southern Soviet Republics and in South Ossetia; and other U.S. military and economic interests in Georgia.
Last week, MosNews.com reported that Russia was sending emergency diplomatic officials to Tblisi, Georgia, and quoted Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Valeriy Loshchinin as saying, “The situation is becoming inflamed with every passing hour and could go out of control at any moment.” Loshchinin warned of “a disaster.”
The United States is party to a military and economic cooperation treaty with Georgia signed in the year 2000 according to www.NCSJ.org, a U.S. based advocacy organization for the safety and security of Jews in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Eduard Kokoity, South Ossetia’s current president, seeks closer ties with Russia as did another former Soviet republic nearby, secessionist Abkhazia. In the past two months, South Ossetian forces have held military exercises for independence sake, according to Civil Georgia, an online Georgian periodical. Civil Georgia also reported that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recently increased its military observers in South Ossetia from four to six, while Georgian, Russian and North Ossetian forces patrol selected areas of South Ossetia under a peacekeeping pact.
Georgia has otherwise warned Russia against sending vessels into its waters and breaching its airspace with counter-warnings by Russia that Georgian Navy interference on the Black Sea would be viewed as piracy. Russia claims its right to protect its citizens living in Georgia’s seceding provinces.
However, like much of the Caucasus, South Ossetia has a militant, fractious history. It’s people claim a mish-mash of backgrounds, including Iranian origins, and a proud, nomadic warrior heritage. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Ossetian separatists have fought for independence and do persist with stubborn resolve.
South Ossetian nationalists seek an independent state, or reunification with Russian Federation-controlled North Ossetia. Within the Georgian-Ossetian conflict are religious tensions between Georgian Orthodox Christians and Georgian Muslims, many of the latter who were exiled by Stalin into Central Asia when Georgia was a Soviet annex. The loyalties and ethnic conflicts become complicated and somewhat convoluted as ethnic Georgians who are Muslims reside in North and South Ossetia and do not share common ethnicity with Ossetians, yet differ in religious loyalty from most Georgians.
The specter of “ethnic cleansing” and its retributive, pre-emptive paranoia that drew the Clinton Administration into the NATO campaign against Serbian forces in Yugoslavia could rise again. The difference? The Georgian situation is more complicated by oil, and perhaps more Russian citizens are in danger.
Since the end of the Cold War, the presence of American oil interests reliably predicts its increased likelihood to use force in foreign civil war zones. Finally, American or European forces may be the only ones capable of securing the oil pipeline to the West in a land of frequent civil war, rising Islamic militancy, Russian covert supply, internal political corruption, and lucrative black markets. Indeed, in impoverished recovery states like Georgia, the tie between black markets and terror weapons concerns the United States.
Finally, Israel has close relations to Georgia, which could become an added concern for Islamic militant resentment and motives to sabotage Georgia’s political economy.
Considering the explosive elements surrounding Georgia, American forces could find themselves increasingly involved if U.S. political leaders become concerned at the rising tensions. As in Iraq, also a cauldron of conflicting ethnic and religious interests, American involvement in Georgia could quickly descend into a long, guerilla-terror epoch in a remote imperial outpost.
Guest Contributor Michael S. Woodson is a writer and lawyer who lives in Colorado. He can be reached at wood1lawsuit@earthlink.net.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=599&rnd=71.13788479849259
Ellie
Guest Column: Another Cauldron for U.S. Troops?
By Michael S. Woodson
The next crisis confronting the United States and its overstretched military could come in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Before American forces step yet again into the crossfire of ancient enmities, this time in an area of unrest on the eastern end of the Black Sea, our leaders should catch up to understand the dangers of precipitous involvement.
Recent border clashes with mortar and small arms fire between Georgian forces and South Ossetian secessionists have involved Russian and North Ossetian peacekeeping troops, according to the Christian Science Monitor. This could potentially draw U.S. forces into the fray, whether under European, NATO, U.N. or other auspices. Why?
Many elements that tempt American and European politicians are there: Interests in an oil pipeline passing through Georgia, opening soon; heavy American foreign aid investment in Georgia; U.S. Marines and soldiers training Georgian forces in border security and anti-terrorism; Afghan and Chechen militants’ use of Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge as a safe haven; a strong Islamic presence in the former southern Soviet Republics and in South Ossetia; and other U.S. military and economic interests in Georgia.
Last week, MosNews.com reported that Russia was sending emergency diplomatic officials to Tblisi, Georgia, and quoted Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Valeriy Loshchinin as saying, “The situation is becoming inflamed with every passing hour and could go out of control at any moment.” Loshchinin warned of “a disaster.”
The United States is party to a military and economic cooperation treaty with Georgia signed in the year 2000 according to www.NCSJ.org, a U.S. based advocacy organization for the safety and security of Jews in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Eduard Kokoity, South Ossetia’s current president, seeks closer ties with Russia as did another former Soviet republic nearby, secessionist Abkhazia. In the past two months, South Ossetian forces have held military exercises for independence sake, according to Civil Georgia, an online Georgian periodical. Civil Georgia also reported that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recently increased its military observers in South Ossetia from four to six, while Georgian, Russian and North Ossetian forces patrol selected areas of South Ossetia under a peacekeeping pact.
Georgia has otherwise warned Russia against sending vessels into its waters and breaching its airspace with counter-warnings by Russia that Georgian Navy interference on the Black Sea would be viewed as piracy. Russia claims its right to protect its citizens living in Georgia’s seceding provinces.
However, like much of the Caucasus, South Ossetia has a militant, fractious history. It’s people claim a mish-mash of backgrounds, including Iranian origins, and a proud, nomadic warrior heritage. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Ossetian separatists have fought for independence and do persist with stubborn resolve.
South Ossetian nationalists seek an independent state, or reunification with Russian Federation-controlled North Ossetia. Within the Georgian-Ossetian conflict are religious tensions between Georgian Orthodox Christians and Georgian Muslims, many of the latter who were exiled by Stalin into Central Asia when Georgia was a Soviet annex. The loyalties and ethnic conflicts become complicated and somewhat convoluted as ethnic Georgians who are Muslims reside in North and South Ossetia and do not share common ethnicity with Ossetians, yet differ in religious loyalty from most Georgians.
The specter of “ethnic cleansing” and its retributive, pre-emptive paranoia that drew the Clinton Administration into the NATO campaign against Serbian forces in Yugoslavia could rise again. The difference? The Georgian situation is more complicated by oil, and perhaps more Russian citizens are in danger.
Since the end of the Cold War, the presence of American oil interests reliably predicts its increased likelihood to use force in foreign civil war zones. Finally, American or European forces may be the only ones capable of securing the oil pipeline to the West in a land of frequent civil war, rising Islamic militancy, Russian covert supply, internal political corruption, and lucrative black markets. Indeed, in impoverished recovery states like Georgia, the tie between black markets and terror weapons concerns the United States.
Finally, Israel has close relations to Georgia, which could become an added concern for Islamic militant resentment and motives to sabotage Georgia’s political economy.
Considering the explosive elements surrounding Georgia, American forces could find themselves increasingly involved if U.S. political leaders become concerned at the rising tensions. As in Iraq, also a cauldron of conflicting ethnic and religious interests, American involvement in Georgia could quickly descend into a long, guerilla-terror epoch in a remote imperial outpost.
Guest Contributor Michael S. Woodson is a writer and lawyer who lives in Colorado. He can be reached at wood1lawsuit@earthlink.net.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=599&rnd=71.13788479849259
Ellie