There is so much to the Georgia situation I really don’t know where to start, so this entry will be a little disjointed.<\/p>\n
1. The country of<\/a> Georgia proclained its independence from the USSR on April 6, 1991. In 1992 Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet Unions’s foreign minister under Gorbachev, became president. Due to unemployment, corruption and other issues, he was an unpopular president who won reelection with 80% of the vote (in the true style of Russian elections). The international observers determined that the election was marred by irregularities. After the 2003 parliamentary elections, there were three weeks of protests resulting in the resignation of Shevardnadze. In January 2004, presidential elections were held and Mikhail Saakashvili won in a landslide. The pipeline from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey opened in July 2006. One statistic I saw stated that the pipeline carries 40 per cent of the oil the western world uses.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)<\/a> was formed in 1949. Its goal is stated as safeguarding the freedom and security of its members by way of political and military means. Although Georgia is not actually a member of NATO, since NATO was actually set up to curb Russian aggression, it seems that it would take an interest. The problem here is that Europe has never really spent any money on its defense–the majority of the budgets of European nations go to social welfare programs and with an aging population demographic, that is only going to get worse. America is the majority of military might in NATO, and we are busy.<\/p>\n 3. There is no easy solution to the invasion of Georgia. If we do nothing, we are giving Russia a green light and the Ukraine will be next. Meanwhile Russia’s population is aging and not replacing itself. There is rampant poverty and corruption in the country. The only reason they can even support an army is the current price of oil. Again we are back to the issue of American energy independence and the amount of money we are giving to people who do not like us very much.<\/p>\n Just a side note, I came across this in The Washington Times<\/a> ” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he considers Georgia’s leader a “puppet” of Washington and is backing Russia in its conflict with the former Soviet republic.<\/p>\n Chavez said Sunday on his weekly broadcast show that the Russians “did what they had to do” in response to what he called a military provocation in the Georgian province of South Ossetia.<\/p>\n Chavez accused Washington of sparking the conflict, saying Georgia’s troops were armed and trained by the United States. He did not elaborate, but added that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is “nothing but a puppet of the U.S. empire.”<\/p>\n U.S. President George W. Bush has demanded that Russia respect Georgian sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The world gets curioser and curioser<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is so much to the Georgia situation I really don’t know where to start, so this entry will be a little disjointed. 1. The country of Georgia proclained its independence from the USSR on April 6, 1991. In 1992 Eduard … Continue reading