Evolutsia.Net

Michael Cecire
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I’m trying to understand what the United States stands to gain from trying to assure Russia (and certain voices in the West) that the United States would not be imparting any ‘useful’ training to Georgian troops for territorial defense as part of the US Marines’ training program for Georgian forces taking part in ISAF Afghanistan.

[US Marines Commandant General James Conway] earlier told The AP that the training focuses on counterinsurgency tactics that would not be very useful against Russia’s large conventional army.

Phew! That’s a relief. After all, the last thing we want is for the Russians to think that we actually care about Georgia being able to maintain its own sovereignty (sarcasm intended).

I don’t really understand where the great controversy lies in helping Georgia obtain a military deterrent against Russian militarism. Matthew Yglesias, blogging at ThinkProgress, is of the opinion that we need Russia too much to provoke them by training Georgian forces. He also makes an apology for Russian disquiet over the training program.

Meanwhile, before condemning Russia’s anger over this sort of thing as representative of Russian evil and irrationality, people should give some consideration to how our government would likely react if China started training the Mexican military as part of preparation for Mexico to join a formal defensive alliance with China. I think you’d see a massive freakout.

There are several things wrong with this, but let’s start with the most obvious. However, Issac Chotiner at The Plank, The New Republic magazine’s blog, responds doubtfully. He points out that the real criticism would come from certain corners of the American right-wing political spectrum. They might make a lot of noice, but it would probably go no further.

A commenter on the same post takes it apart even more skillfully:

The parallels between Russia and Georgia and the US and Mexico aren’t very good. Georgia is a a tiny country that poses little threat to Russia in any measurable way. But while Mexico also poses no realistic  threat to the US, it is a large country that could, if it decided to, make real trouble for us. A better analogy would be China or Russia training troops in Guatemala or Cuba. We wouldn’t like it, but we probably wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it either.

Of course, Chinese and Russian military forces are absolutely involved in Latin America and do provide such training and there’s nary an alarm bell. Matthew Yglesias’ alarmism only underscores the strange apologism that some on the left have assumed for Russia, inexplicably, as Russia is one of the most reactionary countries on the planet today.

Particularly infuriating is the defense of the notion that Russia has certain rights over that part of the world simply because Georgia was forcibly incorporated into various iterations of the Russian empire for the past several centuries. And even if the logic is somehow supportable, that Russia’s anger is understandable, it’s even less clear to me why the United States (or any other great power) should feel the need to respect that point of view for its own sake. Often, Russia’s ‘sphere of interest’ is cynically cited as a reason why the West should not support Georgia – ‘so what?’ I ask. Since when did the United States become obligated to give a rat’s ass about the pride of a few madmen sitting atop the crumbling heap that is Russia?

Bring this full circle: the United States’ official policy is not to recognize spheres of interests. That means there is nothing to apologize for if we militarily assist Georgia, even if we did train and equip for territorial defense. Another US policy is to keep the door to NATO open to Georgia (and Ukraine). Of course, one of the most cynically cited reasons for Georgia’s non-invitation to NATO in April 2008 was the unsettled nature of its territory. But, by that logic, shouldn’t the United States be especially interested in ensuring the Georgian military is strong enough to repel attack?

Simply put: the United States missed an opportunity to do the right thing. The United States should have said: Although the planned training program is meant to impart counterinsurgency skills, which do not have many applications in territorial defense, the United States reserves the right to assist the Georgian military in its mission to preserve that country’s sovereignty and contribute to international peace.

Or something like that.