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| The Alliance |
| Russers react to US forces in Georgia |
| 2002-02-28 |
Is that the same as "coming down with the vapors"? Menagarishvili told parliament Georgia would allow no interference in its domestic affairs and was determined to restore order to the lawless Pankisi Gorge, where Islamic rebels and Chechen separatists are said to be entrenched. "What took place yesterday in the Russian mass media was an explosion of hysterical propaganda, including from Russia's political elite, which Georgia considers unacceptable," he said. Let me translate that from Parliamentarian: "Butt out, Russkis!" Washington's plans dominated Russian airwaves Wednesday and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said the arrival of U.S. military advisers could increase tensions in the region. Moscow has been pressing for a role for its own troops in ridding the zone of militants. They've an epidemic of rigor mortis -- and we're gonna increase tensions? What's really got the Russian drawers bunched is that the advisors are US and not Russian. And they do have a point. There isn't going to be any kind of effective operations without hot pursuiting back and forth across the border. The obvious solution is a hot pursuit agreement for both sides, but it's not real likely until there've been a few more high-casualty residential explosions to wake people up - Russers, Georgians and Americans. The Georgians can remember when they used to be Soviets, so they'd like to continue holding Moscow at arm's length. Ivanov's comments signaled Moscow was not ready to grant its former Cold War foe the same latitude in Georgia accorded Washington in Central Asia during the anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan. Which is precisely why the Islamocheeses (whether Binny himself, Zawahri or whoever) have chosen to locate there in the first place. This was not a real difficult call. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |