My Cynical Read on the Georgia Conflagration

Israel has been selling armaments to the Georgia military ($500M) and training military personnel. Although they have ceased sales for the moment, Israel is home to 80,000 Georgian Jews (there must be that many in Buckhead). The United States has approximately 1000 military advisors in Georgia and has supplied a significant amount of military equipment to that country. The President of Georgia is a Harvard trained lawyer. The most noteworthy feature of Georgia is the oil pipeline that transects the country moving Central Asian oil to the west without crossing Russian territory. Do you think that matters?

In my view, the current conflagration could not have happened without the knowing acquiescence or prodding of the United States and Israel. Our military advisors on the ground are too smart and too sophisticated for the Georgian move into Ossetia to have occurred without a wink and nod from the West.

Why would we want a conflagration in breakaway Ossetia and a dust-up in Georgia with Russia? That is an easy one. We wanted the Russians focused on an internal problem while we escalate the intensity of our pressure on Iran. This is a cynics view, but I think we should all hold our breath and hope that the Neo-Cons have not orchestrated the Georgian mess as an element of their last hope to blast Iran before the Bush administration exits the White House.

Keep in the mind that this administration is well schooled in prevarication and duplicity. Nevertheless, I hope my cynic's view of the Georgian situation is wrong.