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NATO War Games In Georgia: Threat Of New Caucasus War

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When the war games ended - just a week before Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia and the war with Russia started -  not all the US troops and not all their military equipment were removed from the nation.

As Immediate Response wrapped up, "The U.S. European Command said on Monday that there were no plans at this time to withdraw the U.S. military trainers from the country. There are still 127 U.S. trainers in Georgia." [18]

Speaking about what occurred the very day after Immediate Response ended, South Ossetian envoy to Russia Dmitry Medoyev claimed that “Georgian troops that took part in NATO exercises in the region launched artillery fire on the South Ossetian capital on August 1, killing six people. There is a direct connection between the exercises of NATO troops and the latest attacks on us. And there can’t be two opinions about it.” [19]

One of those killed was a Russian peacekeeper from North Ossetia.

Six days after that, in the name of "restoring constitutional order," US- and NATO-trained Georgian forces would launch a devastating artillery barrage on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and begin an equally savage ground invasion.

As the war was still raging Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin, speaking at at an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council initiated by the United States and Georgia, pointed out that "Georgia unleashed its military campaign against South Ossetia on August 7, following the completion of a joint US-Georgian military exercise, in which 1,000 US military advisers took part."

Commenting on the name of the war games, Immediate Response, Churkin added, "Trained by their American colleagues, Georgian troops did just that, they responded immediately" [20]
 
A few days after the war began Deputy Chief of Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces, General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said, "The invasion plan was rehearsed and perfected during Georgian-American war games in Georgia.” [21]

At the very time the Pentagon and NATO were training their Georgian surrogates for the impending war in South Ossetia, 900 US troops were completing a series of war games across the Black Sea from Georgia in Romania.

"The month-long training at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, under Joint Task Force-East...included an airborne operation, live-fire exercises at
squad level, military operations in urban terrain, joint patrolling [and] situational training exercises...." [22]

And occurring simultaneously with Immediate Response in Georgia the US and NATO conducted Exercise Sea Breeze 2008 up the Black Sea coast in Ukraine, "incorporating 16 countries and more than 2,000 service members [in] a joint and combined maritime exercise held annually in the Black Sea and at various land-based Ukrainian training facilities.

"The air component, comprised of 17 aircraft from four countries, flew nearly 50 sorties. During the sorties, it completed 17 para drops of nearly 400 paratroopers, anti-submarine warfare operations and search and
rescue missions.

"The maritime component, comprised of 16 ships from six countries, conducted maritime interdiction operations, air warfare, search and rescue, anti-submarine warfare, amphibious operations and mine countermeasure operations.

"Nations participating in this 11th anniversary of Exercise Sea Breeze include host country Ukraine as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Macedonia, Norway, Romania, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States." [23]

After the war in the South Caucasus ended the US sent the flagship of its Sixth Fleet, the USS Mount Whitney, and the USS McFaul to deliver "humanitarian aid" to the Georgian port cities of Poti and Batumi, respectively.

Later in August NATO deployed a naval strike force to the Black Sea, eventually totaling as many as 19 ships, with the USS Mount Whitney coordinating the flotilla.

US warships in Batumi and Russian ones off the Abkhazian capital of Sukhumi were only 150 kilometers apart.

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Rick Rozoff has been involved in anti-war and anti-interventionist work in various capacities for forty years. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. Is the manager of the Stop NATO international email list at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/
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