Georgia on my mind again

Way back on November 23 - a lifetime in blog terms - I posted about the resignation of Eduard Shevardnadze as president of Georgia in the wake of massive protests over corruption and fraudulent elections. In the course of it, I noted that the US had urged the parties to avoid violence. I also pointed to the existence of a US military mission there. Quoting now,

The United States has had troops training counterterror forces for more than a year in Georgia.... The $64 million mission is scheduled to continue through next May.

U.S. troops, led by a contingent of Marines, are training Georgian forces in a variety of military tactics and providing the Georgians with equipment such as uniforms and communications gear. ...

No changes are planned in the mission. "We have an agreement with the government of Georgia and a commitment to them," said Maj. Jim Keefe, a spokesman for the Marine Corps command in Europe. "We foresee no changes to the program. Everything is as it was."

In other words, we were providing military training and supplies to a government in office only by virtue of what we ourselves called "fraudulent" elections, a government "despised for rampant corruption," we openly avowed an intention to keep doing so, and when the people got fed up enough to do something about that government, we wanted to come on like Martin Luther King, Jr. Terrific.

Well, guess what the BBC for January 18 told us.

US officials have said that their military presence in Georgia will now become permanent.

The American military has been training and equipping the Georgian army since the spring of 2002. ...

On Saturday the US ambassador to Georgia said they had decided to continue training the Georgian army in a full-time programme.

Why the change? I can think of one good reason.

Moscow's refusal to remove its military bases from Georgia has long fuelled tensions between the two countries.

Georgia's President-elect, Mikhail Saakashvili, says the removal of the Russian troops will be high on his government's priority list.

The US, whose own stakes in the Caucasus include a multi-billion dollar Caspian oil pipeline, backs this demand.

Any questions?