Heh. It could be about oil after all...


"But that still doesn't answer the larger question: Why would Saakashvili embark on such a pointless military adventure when he had no chance of winning? After all, Russia has 20 times the firepower and has been conducting military maneuvers anticipating this very scenario for months. Does Bush really want another war that bad or is the fighting in South Ossetia just a ruse for a larger war that is brewing in the Strait of Hormuz?

Mikheil Saakashvili is a Western educated lawyer and a favorite of the neocons. He rose to power on a platform of anti-corruption and economic reform which emphasized free market solutions and privatization. Instead of raising the standard of living for the Georgian people, Saakashvili has been running up massive deficits to expand the over-bloated military. Saakashvili has made huge purchases of Israeli and US-made (offensive) weapon systems and has devoted more than 4.2 percent of GDP (more than a quarter of all Georgian public income) to military hardware.

The chairman of Russia's State Duma Security Committee, Vladimir Vasiliyev, summed it up like this: "Georgia could have used the years of Saakashvili's presidency in different ways - to build up the economy, to develop the infrastructure, to solve social issues both in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and the whole state. Instead, the Georgian leadership with President Saakashvili undertook consistent steps to increase its military budget from US$30 million to $1 billion -- Georgia was preparing for a military action." Naturally, Russia is worried about these developments and has brought the matter up repeatedly at the United Nations but to no avail.

Israeli arms manufacturers have also been supplying Saakashvili with state-of-the-art weaponry.

According to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, "In addition to the spy drones, Israel has also been supplying Georgia with infantry weapons and electronics for artillery systems, and has helped upgrade Soviet-designed Su-25 ground attack jets assembled in Georgia, according to Koba Liklikadze, an independent military expert in Tbilisi. Former Israeli generals also serve as advisers to the Georgian military." ("Following Russian pressure, Israel freezes defense sales to Georgia," Associated Press)

The Israeli news source DebkaFile elaborates on the geopolitical implications of Israeli involvement in the Georgia's politics: "The conflict has been sparked by the race for control over the pipelines carrying oil and gas out of the Caspian region. . . . The Russians may just bear with the pro-US Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili's ambition to bring his country into NATO. But they draw a heavy line against his plans and those of Western oil companies, including Israeli firms, to route the oil routes from Azerbaijan and the gas lines from Turkmenistan, which transit Georgia, through Turkey instead of hooking them up to Russian pipelines.

"Jerusalem owns a strong interest in Caspian oil and gas pipelines reach the Turkish terminal port of Ceyhan, rather than the Russian network. Intense negotiations are afoot between Israel Turkey, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Azarbaijan for pipelines to reach Turkey and thence to Israel's oil terminal at Ashkelon and on to its Red Sea port of Eilat. From there, supertankers can carry the gas and oil to the Far East through the Indian Ocean." (Paul Joseph Watson, "US Attacks Russia Through Client State Georgia")

The United States and Israel are both neck-deep in the "Great Game," the ongoing war for vital petroleum and natural gas supplies in Central Asia and the Caspian Basin. So far, Putin appears to have the upper hand because of his alliances with his regional allies -- under the Commonwealth of Independent States -- and because most of the natural gas from Eurasia is pumped through Russian pipelines."

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3613.shtml


Personally, I think it's about both. My guess is that the US government played on Saakashvili's stated aim of getting back control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in order to persuade him to go along with their plan to use Georgia as a lever against Russia. I'm guessing the Georgians are beginning to see why it's not a good idea to allow the US to use their country as a pawn in its grand scheme.