American Troops Training Equip Georgian Military **LET'S REMEMBER**Did the U.S. Prep Georgia for war

seemslikeadream

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Sun Aug-10-08 02:11 PM
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American Troops Training Equip Georgian Military **LET'S REMEMBER**Did the U.S. Prep Georgia for war

Edited on Sun Aug-10-08 02:27 PM by seemslikeadream

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=43997

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2002 � Improving the Georgian military will ultimately aid the American war on global terrorism, the Georgia Train and Equip Program commander said today in a telephone interview.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert Waltemeyer spoke to Pentagon reporters from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. He said 70 American service members, most of them noncommissioned officers, are in the former Soviet republic on a 21-month mission.

"We are here to help the Georgian armed forces improve their ability to maintain stability and sovereignty in this region, which would obviously deny safe haven to any of those types of terrorist organizations that would seek safe haven or transit through this region," he said.

Georgia has been the focus of international attention because of persistent reports of al Qaeda terrorists hiding in the country's Pankisi Gorge. Waltemeyer said his troops have no intention of going near the gorge themselves, but they're preparing the Georgian troops to operate in "Pankisi-like conditions."

The U.S. Defense Department is spending about $64 million to train and equip four specialized battalions, one company-sized team, and about 200 staff officers in Georgia. The training will be conducted in four phases that will target each unit's specific mission, including air- mobile commandos, and light, mountain and mechanized infantry, Waltemeyer said.

One challenge facing the Georgian armed forces has been common in the militaries of the former Soviet republics: They need to build a professional noncommissioned officer corps.

Waltemeyer explained that most American trainers on this mission are NCOs, specifically to expose the Georgians to their maturity, professionalism and expertise. He said he made it clear to Georgia's military leaders at the outset that American NCOs are "the backbone of our military force in the United States, and that's how they were going to be applied here."

The Georgians, he said, are also particularly interested in the American tradition of civilian control of the military and in how the U.S. defense establishment apportions the military budget among the services.

The American team is providing small arms and personal uniforms and equipment to the Georgian military, but only enough live ammunition to complete this training program. "Each and every bullet is matched to a firing table for each and every exercise that they'll be participating in," Waltemeyer said. "We're not leaving war stocks here."

He said he's impressed by the Georgian officers' commitment to this training program. "They've been active, engaged and enthusiastic, and rather demanding to learn this U.S. approach to developing, maintaining, training and sustaining a national force from the top down to the tactical level," he said.

The Georgian officers have even asked for extra classes, tutoring and focus-group discussions on the weekend. "Their interest, frankly, is inspirational to an instructor," Waltemeyer said.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/did-us-military.html

Georgia and Russia are careening towards war. And the U.S. isn't exactly a detached observer in the fight. The American military has been training and equipping Georgian troops for years.

The news thus far: Georgia, which has been locked in a drone war over the separatist enclave of Abkhazia, has launched an offensive to reclaim another breakaway territory, South Ossetia. Latest reports indicate that Georgian forces are laying siege to Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. And Russia, which has backed the separatists, is sending in the tanks.

So why should we care? Oh, just the prospect of a larger regional war that could drag in Russia � and involve the United States as well. Since early 2002, the U.S. government has given a healthy amount of military aid to Georgia. When I last visited South Ossetia, Georgian troops manned a checkpoint outside Tskhinvali -- decked out in surplus U.S. Army uniforms and new body armor.

The first U.S. aid came under the rubric of the Georgia Train and Equip Program (ostensibly to counter alleged Al Qaeda influence in the Pankisi Gorge); then, under the Sustainment and Stability Operations Program. Georgia returned the favor, committing thousands of troops to the multi-national coalition in Iraq. Last fall, the Georgians doubled their contingent, making them the third-largest contributor to the coalition. Not bad for a nation of 4.6 million people.

Leaving aside the question of Russian interference (see below), the larger concern has been that Georgia might be tempted to use its newfound military prowess to resolve domestic conflicts by force.

As Sergei Shamba, the foreign affairs minister of Abkhazia, told me in 2006: �The Georgians are euphoric because they have been equipped, trained, that they have gained military experience in Iraq. It feeds this revanchist mood� How can South Ossetia be demilitarized, when all of Georgia is bristling with weaponry, and it�s only an hour�s ride by tank from Tbilisi to Tskhinvali?�