From: Tim Fenton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The situation in South Ossetia makes me nervous... It seems that
Georgia may have done its version of Operation Storm rather sooner than
Uncle Sam was reckoning on. There will no doubt be some angry American
voices in Tbilisi (and not just the Georgian President's!). It could be
that the Georgian troops will be withdrawn with their tails between
their legs and everything returns to the previous position but the
policy wonks are not going to change the goal of having Georgia in NATO
- with the opportunity to secure advance positions against their only
real military threat i.e. Russia.
It seems unlikely that the US would get directly involved in Georgia
considering the Iraq, Afghanistan and possibly Iranian commitments.
However the talking heads are mentioning Kosovo as a major factor in
the Russian response and this could also be the US way to "reply" to
Russian action: a green light for Albanians to "assert their
sovereignty" and take control by force of the last Serbian areas. There
is even the possibility that they will make a move on Republika Srpska.
I really hope I'm wrong but it does seem like a way to respond against
Russian interests without getting into a real gunfight...
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
