U.S. side-stepping confrontation with Russia over Georgia?
Bush administration officials have said they are considering rearming Georgia after its military got battered in the uneven showdown with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia last month.
But in the $1-billion aid package that the administration announced Wednesday, there was nothing set aside for weapons. Rather, the money is generally for economic and humanitarian assistance.
"It is not yet time to look at the questions of assistance on the military side," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explained to reporters at the State Department.
That suggests, in a diplomatic manner, that the administration is reluctant to provoke Moscow at a time when the situation in the Caucasus region remains unstable.
"Thus far," Georgetown University's Charles Kupchan told the Los Angeles Times' Paul Richter, "it looks like the administration is going out of its way to avoid military assistance that would indeed be interpreted by Moscow as a serious provocation."
Besides, he said, while the United States may ultimately help rebuild Georgia's military, “with Russian troops still on Georgian territory I don’t think the U .S. wants to be in the business of sending lethal weaponry to the Georgians.”
He may have something there.
Countdown to Crawford can't help but recall the five U.S. Marine Corps Humvees that went AWOL in Georgia -- and presumably are now in Russian hands. They were about to be used to train Georgian military forces, but have been missing since Russians took control of the port where they had been parked.
In any case, Kupchan said, the United States and its European allies are pressuring Russia to get its troops out, Humvees or not. So, he added, "they are studiously avoiding steps that could fuel a major reaction."
Which brings us to the visit to Georgia Thursday by Vice President Dick Cheney....
-- James Gerstenzang
Photo: Vice President Dick Cheney with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan. Credit: Associated Press
