In October of 2008 a team of Pentagon experts visited Georgia and were "looking into the reasons behind the defeat of the Georgian army in the armed conflict with South Ossetia. American consultants had provided the Georgian military with state-of-the-art weapons and excellent training."
"As they analyze the Georgian-American exercises and Tbilisi’s subsequent attack against South Ossetia experts argue that it was the success of those exercises that inspired the Georgian president with more confidence in his army and its military potential." [24]
As a general summary of what preceded the Pentagon's and NATO's last major exercise in Georgia, a US Navy news source last September said, "For the past three years, several hundred American military trainers have run the GSSOP (Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program), which has trained over 5,000 Georgian troops, many for eventual service in Iraq.
"The trainers were American soldiers and marines, who imparted their combat experience to the Georgians....The U.S. trainers, usually a team of 70 Americans taking a 600 man Georgian infantry battalion through a 17 week training program, concentrate on combat subjects."
"Georgia has a population of about 4.6 million, and an active duty military of about 28,000 troops....The U.S. has been helping Georgia train and equip an army reserve force of about 100,000." [25]
Washington and Brussels have invested far too much in their joint Georgian outpost and its ruthless and reckless leader to abandon them now. Just as the last NATO war games ignited a real war, so the current ones are reason for grave concern that the same may happen again and that a conflict may erupt between the world's two major nuclear powers that was narrowly averted last time.
1) Voice of Russia, May 8, 2009
2) Vedomosti [Russia], May 5, 2009
3) Ministry for Press and Mass Media of the Republic of South Ossetia, May 6, 2009
4) Voice of Russia, May 5, 2009
5) Itar-Tass, April 30, 2009
6) Press TV, May 7, 2009
7) Trend News Agency, May 6, 2009
8) Ibid
9) The Messenger [Georgia], May 7, 2009
10) Press TV, May 2, 2009
11) Rustavi 2 [Georgia], May 6, 2009
12) Rustavi 2, May 1, 2009
13) Rustavi 2, May 15, 2008
14) The Messenger, July 18, 2008
15) Ibid
16) Georgian Times, July 28, 2008
17) Russian Information Agency Novosti, July 16, 2008
18) Stars and Stripes, August 12, 2008
19) Interfax, August 6, 2008
20) RosBusinessConsulting, August 10, 2008
21) The Hindu, August 13, 2008
22) Army News Service, July 31, 2008
23) Navy NewsStand, July 29, 2008
24) Voice of Russia, October 18, 2008
25) Navy NewsStand, September 1, 2008
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