Georgia (theirs, not ours) appears headed towards a major
embarrassment with the expected publication next month of a
European Union report blaming the government of Mikhail
Saakashvili for triggering last year's war with Russia.
Reports Spiegel online:
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is preparing the
Georgian population for the planned publication in September of
the European Union's report into the five-day war between
Georgia and Russia in August 2008. The document is expected to
assign primary responsibility for the attack on the South
Ossetian capital Tskhinvali to Saakashvili -- with the
qualification that Moscow provoked him.
As a counter-measure, the government in Tbilisi has already
published a separate 190-page report concluding that it was
Russia which "launched a large-scale assault on Georgia" last
year. "Now the West can have no doubt who started the war, and
why," commented Georgia's state minister on reintegration,
Temur Yakobashvili.
However, NATO and EU experts have so far found no evidence to
support Georgian claims that a Russian column of 150 tanks and
armored vehicles had advanced into South Ossetia before the
Georgian attack on Tskhinvali.
Georgian media has prominently reported on statements by
Western politicians which support the Georgian position.
However criticism of Georgia is suppressed or presented as the
product of a conspiracy. After SPIEGEL in June reported on the
provisional internal results of the EU investigative
commission, the pro-government weekly newspaper Georgia
Today explained the report's uncomfortable conclusion to
its readers by falsely claiming that SPIEGEL had obtained its
information from Russian intelligence. In addition, the
newspaper made the completely untrue assertion that the German
magazine is owned by a subsidiary of the Russian energy company
Gazprom -- and is therefore a "mouthpiece for Putin."
Obviously, the Georgian government claims otherwise, and it has
its supporters. But from the start of the war last year a
diverse group of critics pointed the finger at Tbilisi. It
is hard to believe that the European Union, Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe observers, British military
officers, and journalists all have been conspiring together
at the behest of Vladimir Putin against Georgia. It
also is worth noting that the Saakashvili government's human
rights record is not good.
Freedom House rates Georgia as "partly free," better than
Russia, but not good for a NATO wannabe. Especially since
Tbilisi's rating has been trending downward.
All of this confirms the wisdom of not expanding NATO any
further. Georgia is a security black hole for the U.S.,
offering potential political instability and international
conflicts with no comparable military benefits. And if
Tbilisi was reckless when it was merely hoping to join the
trans-Atlantic alliance, imagine how it likely would act as a
member.
