Using Georgia to Target Russia

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-- emboldened by its Checknya successes;

-- the Kremlin's loathing of President Saakashvili - personally and politically;

-- tensions over Washington's ties with him - providing political, economic and especially military support, including a total overhaul of its forces complete with large stockpiles state-of-the-art weapons and munitions as well as training to use them;

-- Saakashvili's alliance with the Bush administration in Iraq; and

-- President Putin granting citizenship and passports to most S. Ossetian and Abkhazian adults.

Unmentioned by The Times are:

-- reasons behind the growing tensions between Washington and Moscow;

-- the Bush administration's unilateral abandonment of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM);

-- its continued provocations around the world, including in areas sensitive to Russia;

-- its massive military buildup;

-- its advocacy for preventive, preemptive and "proactive" wars with first-strike nuclear weapons;

-- NATO's role in serving America's imperial interests;

-- enlarging it with new member states, including former Soviet republics;

-- encircling Russia with US military bases;

-- situating them in former Soviet republics and regional states;

-- the strategic importance of Georgia for the Anglo-American Caspian oil pipeline; its extension from Baku, Azerbaijan (on the Caspian) through Georgia (well south of S. Ossetia), bypassing Russia and Iran, and across Turkey to its port city of Ceyhan - the so-called BTC pipeline for around one million barrels of oil daily, adjacent to the South Causasus (gas) Pipeline with a capacity of about 16 billion cubic meters annually;

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