Georgia on my mind

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned Sunday as the opposition threatened to storm his residence. His fall sparked fireworks and dancing among tens of thousands of protesters, and ended a political crisis astonishing for its speed and lack of violence in a blood-washed region.

Shevardnadze's resignation caps a political career during which he won admiration in the West by helping guide the Cold War to an end as Soviet foreign minister under Mikhail Gorbachev. But during 10 years as president of Georgia, he became despised for rampant corruption.

Yes, friends, people power can and does work. For some other details, the BBC report is here.

There's an interesting sidebar to this, however. The day before Shevardnadze threw in the towel with the expected lame excuses that it was to avoid "spilled blood" (perhaps he was thinking of his own), CNN reported that the US "urged all parties 'to refrain from the use of force or violence,'" in the words of State Department media flack Richard Boucher. Further,

Boucher's statement avoided the sort of harsh criticism of Shevardnadze's government in previous department statements issued in the three weeks since supporters of the president were declared winners of parliamentary elections. Georgian opposition leaders, the United States and other foreign observers considered the elections fraudulent. ...

On Thursday, the administration said official results of the election "do not accurately reflect the will of the Georgian people" and said the polling was marred by "massive vote fraud."

The State Department urged Shevardnadze's government "to conduct an independent and transparent investigation immediately and to hold accountable those who violated the law."

Okay, except the article also says

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.

Alphonse and Gaston Dept.: I wonder what the response would have been if when the State Department called on Shevardnadze "to conduct an independent and transparent investigation immediately and to hold accountable those who violated the law" he had held up a map of Florida and said "You first."